I read this recently from a Ravi Zacharias writing – that for the Greeks, it was knowledge.  For the Romans, it was glory.  But for the Hebrews, it was light.  He used several verses including, “The people that sat in darkness have seen a great light.”  (Matthew 4:16), “There was the true light which coming into the world, enlightens every man.”  (John 1:9), and “For God Who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness’, is the One Who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”  (II Corinthians 4:6)

A few years ago, I was getting ready for church one Sunday morning and decided that I would wear a gray skirt with a black velour top.  (Black and gray?  I AM a New Englander, after all!  ????   And, it WAS a chilly, late October Sunday.)    Always having been ‘in the front’ at church involved in different music ministries, missions, etc., I wanted to look my best.  I knew that with a dog and a cat in the house, though, that that black top probably would not look as nicely as I would want it to.

I knew that I couldn’t trust the dimmer lighting in my bedroom in making sure that I got every single hair from Bachie and Ta-ta completely removed.  So, I took the top into the bathroom with seemingly sufficient light to get it cleaned and look presentable before leaving for church.  Surprise!  When I stepped out of my house into that crisp, bright sunny morning, I was horrified at what was showing up on my black top!  Lint! that didn’t show up even under the bright bathroom lighting.  Ultimately, I had to ‘go with it’ and leave for church as I had just time to get there.

But on the way to church, it made me think that if we just dabble in the Word and in our relationship with Jesus Christ, like the dim lighting in my bedroom, we think we’re fine – that our relationship with the Lord is good enough.  However, the closer we walk with Him, the more we can see the unwanted hairs (stains) of sin on our lives – just like the brighter light in the bathroom revealed what I didn’t want to see on my velour top.  And then, like stepping outside my house onto the deck revealing the lint on my top, when we are immersed in the life of Christ, the Light – when we are sold-out to Him – when we walk daily with Him seeking His will for our lives desiring only to please Him, then He brightly shines on us everything in our lives that should not be there.  The closer we walk with Him, the more we should want to walk a ‘clean’ life with Him – to be like Him – to rid ourselves of all that does not belong in our lives.

“The Lord is my light and my salvation.”   – Psalm 27.1

The pursuit of the Hebrews was idealized and symbolized by light.  “The Lord is my light and my salvation.”  “The people that sat in darkness have seen a great light.”  “This is the light that lighteth every man that comes into the world.”  The pursuit of the Greeks was symbolized by knowledge.  That’s why the Biblical writers say, “These things are written that you might know that you have eternal life.”  For the Hebrews, it was light.  For the Greeks, it was knowledge.  For the Romans, it was glory.  For the Romans, it was glory, the glory of the city of Rome, the glory of the city that wasn’t built in a day.  And here we have it.  The apostle Paul, a Hebrew by birth, a citizen of Rome, living in a Greek city, had to give to them the ideal of his ethic.  And he says this: “God, who caused the light to shine out of darkness, has caused His light to shine in our hearts, to give to us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus our Lord.”