(Ver 1.3)  We are studying an advanced spiritual Bible lesson of “How to Become a Light to an Unsaved Dark World”.  This is the second lesson in the series and we have already covered many new ways of thinking about this very important subject.  If you have not read the first lesson, I would highly recommend that you go and start with “Part 1” since I cannot repeat everything in every lesson or I would never be able to teach anything new.   What we have learned so far is that there are two dimensions of spiritual condition.  These were called Light and Darkness or Night and Day by God we were introduced to this concept in Genesis 1:16.  In this same verse we learned that these realms also had rulers that controlled each.  The Sun ruled the Day and the moon ruled the night.   I then taught you clear verses that Jesus was the Sun that rules the day and gives us spititual light.  We have also uncovered a new Bible definition for what “Light” is in the eyes of God.  According to Bible examples, to give light is the method of teaching people the truth.   We also learned of the Bible existence of the “True Light” which was just another title for Jesus Christ.  However, the existence of any “True Light” reveals the implied presence of “false light” that must also exist in the world by the law of antithesis.   We have reviewed approximately 10 verses that confrimed Jesus Christ’s identity as the symbolic Sun that rules the symbolic spiritual realm of the Day, giving you more than enough references to Him in this capacity.  Today I want to continue the lesson with information about other lights that exist in the world besides Jesus the true light called the Sun of Righteousness.  In knowing this truth, you will suddenly realize that you have a cmpetition to teaching the truth.

Understanding There is More than One Source of Light!

Getting the correct Bible interpretation of the Truth of God is highly dependent us upon getting God’s definitions of the words spoken in the verses being studied.   Given our new definition of what light is (teaching others God’s knowledge and giving them true understanding), only God had all light until He started sharing it for others to learn by Jesus teaching them.  Now, whoever, hears the truth and understands it also has the same light from God in them in a very limited capacity.  So at one time God had all of the light in Him, but each of us who has heard and believed now has a little bit of His light in us right now.  I believe I have just introduced you to how to become a light to the world.  There is a concept given to us by God in this lesson that if you do not know anything or understand anything in the Bible then you would be classified as someone who is in the darkness (lacking and true light) and I will give you several verses in the Bible to confirm this later.  But, when you believe in Christ and have made Him the Lord of your life, you now have heard the Gospel and let that light shine inside of you.

If you look at the night sky, you might realize that most of those star lights in the sky are far greater in size and intensity than our Sun?  The only reason they appear so small and insignificant to us, is because of the distance from our planet.   There exists well over a billion suns in our universe and most of them are many millions of light years away from the earth.   So obviously God did not create a universe with only One True Light source as an example to get us to think differently.  This however, does not mean there are many ways to God or many religions that can give you the true light.   We just have to learn there are many sources of light in the world, at least one of them is called the True Light, but yet the others still exist and some of these might qualify as even being a false light.  If you understand the Bible, the “stars” in some verses can be a symbolic term used to describe “angels” (for example stars in Rev 1:20 , Rev 12:4).  These little lights in the sky can be symbolic of angels and guess who Satan was?  Satan of course was one of the chief angels.  Oh, well maybe we’ll get into that more later.  What I want you to start to see, is that Satan can be called a light producing spiritual being.  It is very much like the old saying that goes “God taught Satan everything that he knows, but God didn’t teach him everything that He knew”.  If Satan holds some knowledge and understanding of spiritual things, then he is by definition a light carrier or spreader.  We will talk more about that later.

What I will now attempt to do is show you scriptures that will inform us of the existence of other stated lights in the world.  By establishing the existence of other types of lights in the world other than Jesus Christ, we can begin to see how we can become one of the true lights to a dark world that can counter those that are false lights.  I will start  this part of the lesson with a description that Jesus gives us when speaking about John the Baptist:

Joh 5:35  He was a burning and a shining light: and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light.

Jesus was speaking about John the Baptist using the terms that he was a witness to the truth.   Notice that John the Baptist was not an apostle of Jesus.  John was not even a member of the church, since the church does not exist yet.  Still, John the Baptist is spoken of in terms that were rarely seen to describe anyone in the Bible up until this point.   If you study the Bible closely you should discover that John the Baptist was in the ministery category of a “prophet” of God, but yet he was still just a man like you and me.  Jesus calls John a burning and a shining light!   That sounds a lot like a description for a sun, but it could also represent a torch type of fire light, or maybe even a description for a candle.  We know John is not the Jesus the Sun of Righteousness, but yet he is described using similar terminology.  What we can clearly see is that he is never described using any of the characteristics of the moon.  The moon shines, but it does not burn.  I find that very interesting don’t you?  So what made John the Baptist a burning light?   I believe it was because he went about teaching people to “Repent and be baptized” ?  John is said to be the one that was to prepare the way for the Christ.  When John was born, his father was filled with the Holy Spirit and began to prophesy about John and Jesus.  In this discourse in Luke 1, you can read that John is called a Prophet of God.  Then you can see this statement and it tells us why Jesus called John a light:

Luk 1:77  To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins,

John’s father prophesied that John would “Give the Knowledge of Salvation” unto the people of Israel concerning “the remission of their sins”.   Wow that is some strong information being given to us.  John was a light, because he taught people about the coming works of the Messiah.   Jesus came to Save His People from their sins and this was very good news for everyone to hear.  What we have just learned, is that John was a light, before Jesus Christ was a light to the same dark world.  Interesting, isn’t it?  You can obviously see that Jesus is not speaking physically or naturally, so Jesus was definitely speaking figuratively and symbolically about the forerunner and this witness of Christ.  John brought the knowledge and understanding to the people that the Messiah was coming, so Jesus called him a bright light to the people.  John brought the truth and taught the people and Jesus said it was very good.

Mat 5:14  Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

Jesus also confirms, that we the church are now the light of the world.   Here we have Jesus speaking to the apostles, the founders of the church of Jesus Christ, calling them lights, before they were even born again.  I find that very interesting to study.  This verse in Mat 5:14, is an exact duplication of the same Greek words and phrasing that Jesus used to describe Himself in John 8:12.   Jesus said “I am the light of the world”, then in Matthew 5:14 Jesus says “You are the light of the world”.   So is Jesus trying to teach us something new?  Both of these verses describes us in the same terms of being “Light” as He is the “Light”.  This Greek word means to “shine” as with “rays”.  It also has an inferred meaning of “fire”.  All of this sounds like the sun light and not the reflective moonlight.

Rom 2:19  And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness,

We can clearly see that we are the light to them that are in darkness.  I guess you could wrongly conclude that means we represent the moon.  The moon is in the night sky being illuminated by the sun and that makes good logical sense.  However, this verse does not say we reflect the light of Christ, it says we are the light of Christ.  Do you understand the difference?  This is almost exactly what Jesus said in Matthew 5:14 that we read right before this verse.    Have you ever thought or seen where the Bible says “We are the Body of Christ”?  Have you ever given that much thought?   To be the body of Christ would indicate that we have the same Spirit in us that Jesus Christ had in Him.   If that is true, then we are the True Light and we are not just a reflection of the True Light.    Maybe you should go and read, Romans 12:5, 1 Cor 12:12-27, and Ephesians 5, where it describes the Church to be the actual body of Christ.   That is actually a very important truth to know.  Where you go, Christ goes, because the Spirit of Christ is in you.    Here is another very relevant scripture that Jesus describes Christians in terms that we need to understand:

Mat 13:43  Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.

The church is called those who are righteous(Rom 10:10).  Therefore the church is spoken of in terms of being the true light from the sun and not just a reflection of that light.  If the church is the moon, this would have been a good opportunity for God to tell us that.  Instead of saying the church will shine like the moon, we are described in terminologies of the direct sun.  I find that very relevant to our understanding of who we are and what we do.

So what does it mean to be called a light of the world?  To be a shining light of the world means to be a deliverer of the knowledge of God and a teacher of the Gospel of Christ.   The word of God is the Light of God.  If you understand it, you can teach it to others.   So far in the Bible, I have not discovered any scriptures that describes the church or believers in terms of just being reflections of the light of Christ as the moon does.  What you actually see in the Bible is more terms that describe us to be like the sun, than the moon.

Where is the Location of the Light and the Darkness?

Now let’s describe where this light and darkness is located.  By understanding the location of the light and darkness, we can better understand what they really are.  We of course know that the sky above us is the domain of natural light and natural darkness.  But, since I am talking about spiritual things instead of natural things, where is this spiritual light and spiritual darkness?  You see if Jesus says we are the light of the world, that could imply that we just glow in the dark in the night, but clearly that is not what the Bible is talking about.   Given my earlier definition of light as being “knowledge” and “understanding” where does this exist?   You could say in your brain, or in your mind or within your intellect and that would be very closely related to the truth.   Your mind is not your spirit and your spirit is not your mind.  However, your mind is in contact with your spirit.  I have not given a direct lesson on the human makeup, but I have alluded to it in other blogs.  People are spirit beings, that have a soul, who live in a body.  That just so happens to be a triune being, made in the image and likeness of God.  The soul of man is comprised of your mind, your will and your emotions.  Your mind/soul exists between your body and your spirit.    Sound waves of spoken words enter your physical ears, and are transferred into your mind by your inner ear, which can allow these words to enter into your spirit, if you choose to believe what you hear.   These are just basic Bible truths that I hope that you understand already.  So let’s continue to locate the spiritual light using the Bible:

Joh 11:10  But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.

Jesus tells us something very profound here, Jesus says a man that walks at night without the light “IN HIM” stumbles.   Where is the Light suppose to be?   The light is said to be internal, inside your body, this is the location of the spirit of the man.   So where is the Night?   It is also inside a man in their spirit?   How do you stumble in your spirit?   That again is a question that you should ask yourself.  Obviously this is not a physical light source, if you cut open a Christian’s body you do not see light rays shooting outward.   So what is this internal light a symbol of?   The internal light is simply a symbolic representation of spiritual knowledge and understanding that we possess.   In actuality there are two types of spiritual light that are related, the light that is in us, is the light we possess internally, because we see and understand parts of the Bible.  Being a light to the world is taking this light that is in us and sharing it with those who live in the darkness so that they might also know and understand.

So do Christians have this Light IN them always and forever?  Jesus gives us very explicitly the location of the light, to be in our spirits.  We can see that a man who has no light in him is in darkness and said to be in the Night and he stumbles.  Why does he stumble?  Because of his mind and his thinking and his lack of knowledge and understanding.  What Jesus is talking about are the differences between those that understand the Bible and those who do not understand the Bible.  If I understand the Bible, or at least a part of it, I have some light inside of me.   This light came from God, and from His Word.  There are tons of people in the world who do not have a clue what the Bible says or means and these people all live in the darkness of the night, because of their ignorance and lack of understanding.  Here is a very valuable scripture to see in our discussion:

2Co 4:4  In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

What is darkness and how is it related to Blindness?   Both of these are the absence of light or the inability to spiritually see the light.   No Light, then you have No Sight!   Satan has blinded the minds of ALL of them that believe NOT, this verse says.   Because of this blindness in their SOULS/MINDS, they are unable to see the light of the gospel of Christ in THEM (their spirits).   Did you notice that the Gospel of Christ is called the LIGHT of GOD?  What is the Gospel?  It is the good news of what Jesus Christ has freely given to every man, woman and child.  So we can conclude that those who do not believe in Christ, do not understand the Gospel, because Satan has deceived them into believing something else and therefore they do not see the light of the Truth in their spirits.  The Light is again spoken of in terms of being spiritual knowledge and understanding of God’s Word.   Knowing and understanding God’s word would be the ability to see the True Light.  Jesus is said to be the giver of the Light, but Satan is at work diligently to block the light.  How does Satan do this?   He presents false teachings, false religions, false gods, false prophets, and false apostles to deceive you into a lie.  Also, Satan can place thoughts, ideas and suggestions in your mind to cause you to be distracted from the truth.

So I have given you two major scriptures that inform us where the light is suppose to be.  This location is said to be in the spirit of man.  Also, keep in mind where the darkness is located, it is in the spirits of men and women.  So to be a light to them that are in darkness is a practice to tell people the truth of the Word of God and pray that they believe it and understand it.   If they choose to believe the truth, the spiritual Sun can rise inside of them also, then they will be born of the Day and no longer live in darkness.

Defining Spiritual Night and Day!

We have been talking about the subjects of darkness and light and I have mentioned that these are clearly synonymous terms for night and day.  Correctly understanding the Bible means, finding and understanding God’s definitions of the Bible terms and symbols presented.  God many times uses these types of natural symbols to teach hidden things that men think they already understand.  But, because we do not get God’s definition for the subject, we are usually confused and live with what we think the Bible says.  But, if we can get God’s definition for the words, then we can have greater assurance of a more accurate interpretation for what God wanted us to know in the first place.  We have already read many scriptures in this lesson so far on this subject, but let’s go find new scriptures that help us to define what Night and Day is to God using His Word.

1Jn 2:8  Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.

As you can read again, Jesus is referred to as the “True Light”.  But, it also says that to those who have accepted Him, the darkness has passed.   Meaning Christians no longer live in the realm of darkness or in the spiritual night.   Therefore if the light is present in us, the spiritual sun (Jesus) has not set, He has only risen internally in our spirits.  Day and light and night and darkness are synonymous symbolic terms.  Therefore from this verse we can see by implied antithesis that the day has appeared in us.  The term “True Light” infers the existence of “False Light” as we have already discussed.   People can of course dispute this or explain it away by their human reasoning and their definition of the word “True”.    However, in my way of thinking if something is said to be true it would have to be something that was the opposite of a lie, or the opposite of that which is false.  Any cleaver lie can appear very real on the surface and be taken by many to be true.  It is very much like watching a Hollywood, movie.   Everything in the movie is usually based upon lies, but they are presented in a format that appears to us to be so absolutely real.  This is exactly how deception is presented in the world by Satan.

What you need to do is see what the Bible says.  In this verse in 1 John 2:8, there is a direct connection to the Word of God and the light that shines in us.  John writes a new commandment to us, yet this new commandment is more directly called the Word of God which gives us the light.  These words are said to be True in Christ and now also in us!   All of these words are in direct relationship to the spiritual light that is now shinning in us, because we have heard and accepted it.  We have already seen the location of the light as being “In Us”.   So we can conclude that the reason for the light that is now shinning in us, was given to us from us hearing, knowing and understanding the Word of God.

2Pe 1:19  We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:

Reading this verse carefully, it describes a spiritual process that has occurred within every believer.   Our hearts use to be called a” dark place” without Christ, that would indicate that we were of the night and did not understand the Word of God.  However, now it says that the “Day Star” has arisen in our hearts and the Day has Dawned within us.   Do you understand that the sun rises every day and that begins the daylight hours?   Jesus is called the “Day Star” and this is representative of our closest star that we observe during the daylight hours.  So does the spiritual Day Star ever set in Christian hearts?   I have not found any verses that say that occurs, in fact we just read a verse that said the darkness had passed.  So the light is always present, when it arises in us, it is there for good.  This is just another reason to see that we are not the moon who goes completely dark.  The Christians are now described as being of the spiritual Day, because of the “Day Star” that has arisen within us.   That would indicate that wherever we go Christ the Day Star goes also.  It would also mean that we now have understanding of the Word of God in our sprits that it is permanently resident there.

1Th 5:5  Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.

As you can see in this verse we (the Church) are again confirmed to be of the Day and not of the night.  The moon only shines at night and not normally during the day so we have to fit what we believe to what we read in the Bible.  I hope that you are seeing and understanding these verses.  This verse says that we are the children of the Light, which infers there are also children of the night, but  these are not Christians.   You can clearly see that there is an established division being stated.  This separation between Day and Night is very explicitly defined.  The day is a 12 hour period of light, the night a 12 hour period of darkness.  These are two separate and distinct spiritual conditions.  I believe that the earth symbolically represents both those who are saved and those who are lost.   You can understand how I got to this conclusion by studying the parable of the Sower in Mark 4.  Jesus tells us that the earth or the soil represents the hearts of people.  Now think in terms of the earth and the earth’s counter clockwise rotation.  Those on the dark side of the earth that have turned away from the Sun, represents those who are lost.  Those who have turned to the Light they are the ones that are saved.   Those in the night are ruled by the moon who they can occasionally see at night.   The moon appears to be a reflection of the True Light, but yet it has a dark side that is not revealed to people.  However, the Sun represents God and His light radiates in every direction lighting the good, the bad, the pretty and the ugly at the same time.  The Sun rules the Day and those who are in the light and they do not see the moon, only the Sun.   The Sun shines during the day and the moon is seen mostly in the night.  It is just so obvious to me, that I can see it so very clearly.  I guess I can understand how difficult it is to see for others who are new to these Bible verses.

Rom 15:21  But as it is written, To whom he was not spoken of, they shall see: and they that have not heard shall understand.

Here in this verse we can see that it is prophesied about a people who will begin to see.  That would be the opposite of blindness and those in darkness.   But, it also declares that they will hear with their ears and understand what is said.  So we have a people spoken of that were spiritually blind, but now understand and know the truth.  Those that see because of the Light of God and those who do not see because they live in darkness.

Eph 1:18  The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

Here is another witness to what the light is representing symbolically.   In this verse the “eyes of your understanding” is spoken of as being something that is spiritually able to see or perceive the knowledge of God.  Just as your body has natural eyes that observe physical light rays, the spiritual eyes have ability to perceive the truth or lies presented to it.  All I am trying to do is to get you to see why I described what light and darkness meant in the symbolic usage that we have clearly observed in the Bible.

Eph 3:4  Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ

What we observe in the N.T. is a repeated pattern, that the Bible contains mysteries and things which are difficult or impossible for the natural man to see and understand.  This information is concealed from them that do not believe for a purpose.  But, to them that are open, God grants light to see and understand these hidden mysteries.

Eph 4:18  Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:

There are just so many verses in the Bible that speak of this spiritual situation of darkness and the inability to understand, that I cannot give you them all.   I hope and pray that I have given you enough to see them for what they are.  Spiritual blindness is a condition of the heart/spirit whereby men are incapable of understanding anything that is spiritual.  In this verse in Ephesians, knowledge is spoken of in terms of a beneficial  way to the life of God.  It is also reported that ignorance or the lack of knowledge is a determining factor that keeps people from the life of God.   All of this is spoken of in terms of the ability of the spirit of man to see and to understand.   I’ll just do one more scripture and I’ll quit trying to get you to see the definition of light and darkness, day and night.

Col 1:9  For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;

God’s Word and His Spirit are again implied to be the Light that is rising within the hearts of these people to bring them wisdom and all spiritual understanding.  That is an awesome prayer to pray for yourself and those that God sends you to.  What you must realize is that if there is “spiritual understanding” that it must be different than “natural understanding”.   People want to look at natural things and use human logic to determine the meaning of life.  However, God says these people are just blind and they do not know where they are going or why they stumble and fall.

So we have seen a number of verses that inform us that there exists two spiritual dimensions.  One is called the Day and one is called the Night.   These two dimensions of light and darkness represents two groups of children.   Those that are children of the day are the children of God.  Those who are children of the night are children of Satan.   You can theoretically pass from either state  or dimension to the other simply by choosing to believe or disbelieve.   I hope this is has been an informative lesson and that you have learned a lot.  In the next lesson on this subject I will specifically talk about the symbolic identity of the moon.  God Bless!

If you like to continue reading this series, you can go to “Part 3” now.