I Am The Light Of The World

I Am the Light of the World

One of the characteristics of the Gospel of John is how he contrasts things like good vs. bad and order vs. chaos. Along those lines, he promotes the ideas of darkness and light as spiritual concepts. It is John who tells us that Jesus called Himself Light:

John 8:12

“Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, ‘I Am the Light of the World; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.’”

Before any of the New Testament was written, there was a Greek philosopher by the name of Plato. Plato’s ideas about light and dark are amazingly similar to John’s.

Plato once told a story about a group of people who lived in a cave. There was no light in the cave except for that provided by a small fire. Everything that they ever saw was illuminated only by the dim, flickering light of that fire. Faces were only half-seen, objects were contorted and misshapen. Everything they knew was based on how they saw things in the darkness of the cave.

One day, the cave was opened and the cave people walked out, into the sunlight. For the first time, they were able to see things for the way they really were! They could finally see the world in the true light!

Hopefully, you can see the connection with what Jesus said. Jesus came to teach us that we live in darkness and we don’t see the world for what it really is. It is when we allow Christ to live in us that we begin to see what the world is really like.

Becoming a Christian is like having our eyes opened for the first time. Jesus is the Light of the World, and until we look at the world with that Light shining - showing us how it really looks - we just stumble along in darkness. More importantly, we have no idea that we aren’t seeing the real picture. We don’t know that we are in the dark because we don’t know what Light is like.

This is our mission in life - to give Light to the world. He is that Light and the world—which is lost in darkness—desperately needs Him.

Isaiah 60:1

“Arise, shine; for your Light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.”