Luke 11:33-36
We are Christ’s lamps. He is our light and He has enlightened us. He is our sanctification, first to last. He sanctifies all of us. There is no part of us dark. Our whole body is full of light.
In the ancient world you set a lamp in a prominent place, high, so that it could cast as much light as possible. There was no light switch to hit, no study lamp. The point of a lamp was to give light.
Christ is our light. We are His lamps. Christ who dwells in us shines through us. We are not called to summon some light in ourselves. There is no dark place in us precisely because Christ fills it with light. He casts out all sin. He kills and makes alive, buries and raises. And so we shine, with His light.
Our eye is to be healthy, set on the right thing. In Christ, we have single vision, not double vision or distracted vision. Our eye is set upon Christ, and with our eye so set, we are free. By His light, we see our neighbor, not as a means to an end, not as a way for us to score some sanctification points, as a tool for our religious striving, but as our neighbor, even as Christ Himself. And so our light, Christ, shines through us and for others. We are set high, given perspective, liberated from the schemes of human religion.
When the eye is bad, the body is bad. We know that well. Sin often starts with the eye. We set it on the wrong thing. As with Eve in Eden, evil begins to look good and good evil. The forbidden fruit, whatever it might be, starts to appear pleasing to the eye, good for food. And so we need Christ. We always needs Christ. He casts out that darkness and fills us with light, all of us.
You have that Christ. As we sing, He is the world’s light. He is our light. And He enlightens all of us. He forgives all of us. He sets all of us apart. Shines through all of us. Each day anew. Each day in Him.
“If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.” In Christ our whole body is full of light. Apart from Him is darkness.
Christ, give us single vision, eyes aright, full of light.
Wade Johnston
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