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WALKING IN LIGHT

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 5, 1900

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 77, No. 23.

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WALKING IN LIGHT.

By W. S. Chapman

W. S. CHAPMAN.
In the Scriptures there are many references to light as being a blessing to man, and in the New Testament several admonitions to walk in the light. What then is light, and what is meant by “walking” in light?
Many of the statements of the Lord and of the apostles, found in their writings, on the surface seem to contain only the milk of the word. If we remain satisfied with the thought that comes to the mind naturally, on reading such a statement, we are apt to receive but a slight refreshing, and a religion based upon such a reading, and blessing, is necessarily dwarfed and weak—a surface religion. It is only as we dig down deep below the surface, that the precious nuggets of truth, fairly sparkling with meaning, are discovered, and that we feed upon the meat of the word that will develop us into strong men and women in Christ Jesus.
“Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you. . . . While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light.” John 12: 35, 36.
The natural thought and inference here is that the Lord is speaking of the truth and counseling his disciples to walk in it. This is true in an abstract, or general, sense; but there is far more contained in these simple words than appears on the surface.
The light that was to remain in the world but “a little while,” was Jesus. Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, “I am the light of the world; he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” John 8 : 12. “No other light ever has shone, or ever will shine, upon fallen man, save that which emanates from Christ. Jesus, the Saviour, is the only light that can illuminate the darkness of a world lying in sin.”
In John 8 : 12 you notice that the light is called “the light of life,” and so in John 1 : 4 we read, “In him was life; and the life was the light of men.” Then it was the life that Jesus led here upon the earth that was the light which was to remain but “a little while” in the world, as the light of the world; for Jesus said, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world,” and his disciples were warned to believe in the light, and to walk in the light, as long as it remained with them.
Did Jesus mean that when he went to the Father darkness would again cover the earth,—that it would have no light?—No; for he said to his followers, “Ye are the light of the world. . . . Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” Matt. 5 : 14–16. The conclusion then is that so long as the Lord remained in the world, he was its light, and that after his death his followers were ever to be the light of men in his place.
So then, as the life of Jesus (John 1 : 4) was then the light of the world, the life of his followers is now the light, and the only light, the world now has. This is a startling statement, but reflection will convince of its truth, and it will be proved shortly.
But what does it mean to walk in the light—life—of Jesus?—Why, to live just such a life as he lived, that it may take the place to the world, of his life in it, and so continue to lighten the world. In only one way can this be possible, and that is by having Christ enthroned in the mind, guiding and directing, he living his life over again here upon the earth, through the Spirit. Phil. 3 : 10; Col. 1 : 24.
“Humanity has, in itself, no light. Apart from Christ, we are like an unkindled taper, like the moon when her face is turned away from the sun; we have not a single ray of brightness to shed into the darkness of the world.” “Of Christ it is written, ‘In him was life; and the life was the light of men.’ It was by receiving of his life that his disciples could become light bearers. The life of Christ in the soul, his love revealed in the character, would make them the light of the world.”
“As Christ is the channel for the revelation of the Father, so are we to be the channel for the revelation of Christ. While our Saviour is the great source of illumination, forget not, O Christian, that he is revealed through humanity.
. . . Every individual disciple of the Master is heaven’s appointed channel for the revelation of God to men. . . . The disciples of Christ are set as light bearers on the way to heaven; through them the Father’s mercy and goodness are made manifest to a world enshrouded in the darkness of misapprehension of God. . . . It is thus that men are led to believe ‘the love that God hath to us.’”