You Are Made of Light – Part Deux

God is light.

But what exactly does that mean?

For most of my life, I’ve just taken this to be a metaphor about God’s character, since light is often used to represent brightness, holiness, revelation, purity and the like. But then I read verses like this one:

“Watch out that the light in you is not darkness” (Luke 11:33).

Wait a minute now…

Literal light is the absence of darkness. Spiritual light is revelation or even Christ-likeness. So what can it mean to say that the light in me could possibly be darkness? Light cannot be darkness. It’s impossible. But if light is a metaphor for what is good, right or pure, then the idea of light as a metaphor is also not accurate. How can I metaphorically state that light (goodness or purity) might be darkness (evil or sin)? So if it’s not literal light and it’s not metaphorical light then what can this stuff possibly mean?

Paul says in Ephesians 5:8 that “You were formerly darkness but now you are light in the Lord.” It’s interesting to me that this verse does not say that you are full of the light of the Lord, or that you are in the light of the Lord. It says very plainly that you ARE light in the Lord. You ARE light.

God lives in unapproachable light (1 Timothy 6:16). He is the Father of lights and does not change (James 1:17). He is clothed in light (Psalm 104:2). Jesus said of Himself that He is light (John 8:12). So, God is light. And when we come into relationship with Him, we are renewed at our spirit level and become one with Christ. The Bible tells us that as Jesus is (right now) so are we in this world (1 John 4:17), so in the very essence of our spirit, we also are light. But if my light can be darkness, then it can’t be a metaphorical goodness/purity kind of light. So what is this light?

Light is energy. When God spoke the universe into being, He arranged particles of matter – which we now know are little packets of energy and not hard little balls of stuff – into all the things we see and feel in the universe. That same energy is what makes up the particles in your body and brain, the vehicle that carries your spirit to and fro throughout the earth. I am beginning to believe that this light (energy) is the same stuff of which God is made, or at least it is somehow intimately tied to the nature of His being. God is light. You are light. The universe is made of light (photons or little packets – or “quanta” – of energy). So this energy upon which all of the known universe is built can be either good or bad. The light can be light, or the light can be darkness.

Which brings us back to Luke 11:33: “Watch out that the light in you is not darkness..” If the light in you is darkness, that means it’s bad energy. The mean or critical words you speak have within them an inherent bad energy that has power to hurt and kill. Dan McCollum says that grumbling and complaining is the praise and worship language of hell. The light (energy) in you can be good (“Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones” (Proverbs 16:24) or evil (see James 3:6). The energy (light) that comprises your body, brain, soul and spirit can be good energy or bad energy. It’s up to you which you’ll emphasize.

God is light (pure energy). You are good light at the depth of your spirit being. But this light can be flavored by your own decisions. When it is good light, then it’s very good because it is infused with the very power and essence of God Almighty. But when it’s bad, it’s bad: “The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” (Matthew 6:22-23).

When the light in you is darkness, then there are all kinds of spiritual and even physical repercussions. Psychosomatic illnesses are real. That twinge you feel in your gut when someone insults you or says something hateful to you or about you, is felt and experienced physically. But when the light in you is good, God’s very Spirit accompanies it and it does not come back void. Lets focus on generating GOOD light so that we may be good representatives of Jesus on this earth.

“Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear” (Ephesians 4:29).