Walk in the Light from God
“LOOK! darkness itself will cover the earth, and thick gloom the national groups.” These words of the prophet Isaiah well describe this world in which the national groups are enshrouded in thick gloom. Despite innumerable religions, spiritual darkness afflicts most of mankind. In such a bedarkened world we need a light in our life, a light from the proper source, a light that will give us true spiritual illumination. That light is God’s Word, the Holy Bible: “Your word is a lamp to my foot, and a light to my roadway.”—Isa. 60:2; Ps. 119:105.
True Christians make the sacred Scriptures the light in their life, letting them serve as a burning lamp lighting up the way for their feet to go. To walk without stumbling spiritually in this world of thick gloom we must walk in the light that comes from God. We need this light that the Holy Bible provides all the time. It is not just a part-time light. It must be the Christian’s constant light. And how does the Bible serve as a light?
God’s Word is a light in respect to morals. It shows what is right morally and what is wrong morally. For example, Galatians 5:19-21 shows what is morally wrong: “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, and they are fornication, uncleanness, loose conduct, idolatry, practice of spiritism, hatreds, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, contentions, divisions, sects, envies, drunken bouts, revelries, and things like these. As to these things I am forewarning you, the same way as I did forewarn you, that those who practice such things will not inherit God’s kingdom.”
So the Holy Scriptures enable true Christians to avoid the sins that are so common to this world, sins that have become so prevalent that they hardly cause a ripple of indignation. Discussing the moral condition in Christendom, Pageant magazine of August, 1957, asked: “Have We Repealed the 7th Commandment?” It answered: “Probably one of the most widely discussed of the sins we commit is adultery. . . . It was prohibited in the commandments given to Moses over 3,000 years ago. And yet adultery seems to be as widely practiced as it must have been in the orgiastic days before the Flood. Certainly, in America today it is an open secret that adultery is prevalent. . . . Yet the church cannot curb it, the law seldom seeks to prevent it.”
Christendom, though claiming to be guided by the light of the Bible, has in reality preferred to stumble along in the darkness. Those who walk in the light from God have their roadway illuminated so they may avoid the sins so rampant in this ungodly world. By walking in the light from God Christians are able to avoid falling into the sink of corruption into which this world has plunged.
God’s Word is really a prophetic light. Said the apostle Peter: “We have the prophetic word made more firm, and you are doing well in paying attention to it as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until day dawns and a daystar rises, in your hearts.” We do well to pay attention to this prophetic light shining in this dark world. We do well to walk in its light because it shows us where we are on the stream of time. It lights up the brilliant fact that we are in the “time of the end” of this old, wicked world. It shows that the universal war of Armageddon will break out within this generation. It lights up the only way to escape God’s coming wrath upon an ungodly world: “Seek ye Jehovah, all ye meek of the earth, that have kept his ordinances; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye will be hid in the day of Jehovah’s anger.”—2 Pet. 1:19; Zeph. 2:3, AS.
In lighting up the fact that we are living in the “last days,” God’s Word shows the Christian how to view the distressing happenings in the world. War, crime, juvenile delinquency, food shortages, pestilences and similar woes make many persons despondent, but those walking in the light from God have the positive mental attitude that the Lord Jesus Christ said we should have: “As these things start to occur, raise yourselves erect and lift your heads up, because your deliverance is getting near.” (Luke 21:28) Despite the woes that have come upon our generation, those who walk in the light from God can be happy. Deliverance is at hand.
Those who walk in the light from God are also able to know what stand Christians should take regarding all kinds of theories, philosophies, traditions and doctrines. Much falsehood masquerades as truth today. “The learned fool,” once said Benjamin Franklin, “writes his nonsense in better language than the unlearned; but still ’tis nonsense.” God’s Word is a light because it helps us recognize nonsense for what it is, despite its being clothed in the wraps of respectability and popularity. Warns the Bible: “Look out: perhaps there may be some man that will carry you off as his prey through the philosophy and empty deception according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary things of the world and not according to Christ.” The illuminating principles contained in the Bible enable even inexperienced ones to detect false wisdom. The psalmist said of Jehovah’s words: “The very disclosure of your words gives light, making the inexperienced ones understand.”—Col. 2:8; Ps. 119:130.
What good reason there is, then, for walking in the light from God! Without the light from God no person can gain everlasting life. So walk by this light that God has provided. Let it be your light constantly. Then help others in this dark world light up the way for their feet to go. Help others walk in the light from God and get on the right roadway to reach the destination of everlasting life in God’s new world.