To Encourage You

2 Peter 1:19 “And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place.”

Light vs darkness: it’s a theme about a great contrast that is given to us throughout the Scriptures.  Darkness is used to describe a condition of obscurity, i.e., a condition of ignorance and a lack of understanding.  It’s the condition of a person as they walk through life but can’t “see” and don’t really know where they are going, spiritually, that is.  They don’t know how to make decisions that are wise decisions because they have no light to give clarity to make those decisions. Darkness is a word to describe the condition of the human heart that is bound in sin, and a word to describe the condition of the entire world in its natural condition. 

And then an even more foreboding term, “outer darkness” is a word given to describe hell.  It’s a word to describe abject misery where there is eternal weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 22:13).  To sum it up, all people, in their natural condition, walk in darkness in a world of darkness with an ultimate destiny of outer darkness. Yet the human heart is so dark that it thinks that it’s living in the opposite condition.   It’s a truly woeful condition, as the Bible states in the following words: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” And when the Bible uses that word “woe” it is making its most serious warning of the destruction that awaits any person in such a condition. 

So, what’s the answer? In a world with so many voices purporting to show us “the way,” is there any true source of spiritual light?  To this the Bible tells us the answer is most assuredly “Yes!”  One such place we are told this is in the verse above from 2 Peter 1. Here Peter tells us that the “prophetic word” is to us like a light shining in a dark place.  By this term he is referring to the Word of God. Elsewhere we are told that God’s Word “is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105).  It’s the one and only place we can go to find out, spiritually speaking,  where we are, where we are headed, and how to find “the narrow way that leads to life” (Matthew 7:14).  It’s a light to our path because of its source, who is Jesus, Who told us “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).  The light He shines on us doesn’t just “enlighten us,” however. No, it fills us and transforms us so that we reflect His very glory in such a way that we, too, become “the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14).

The Bible tells us that before we are saved, it’s as if there’s a veil over our faces that blocks the light of the glory of God from shining on our hearts. We don’t see Jesus for Who He really is, and we don’t see His Word for what it is.  However, “when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.”  It is then and only then that “we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another (and this all) comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (1 Corinthians 3:16-18).

In Peter’s words above, He tells us that he knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that God’s Word is the true light, because he saw the prophecies of that Word fulfilled with his very own eyes.  He tells us “we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,’ we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with Him on the holy mountain” (2 Peter 1:16-18).  

So, if you are not a Christian, do you want to know where you are going?  Do you want to know how things really are rather than how they seem to be, but really are not?  Do you want to continue to have a veil over your eyes regarding all things spiritual?  Then just continue as you are, for that’s every person’s natural condition before they turn to Christ and believe.  But if you want to know how things really are, if you want to walk in the light rather than in the darkness that only leads to complete and utter “outer darkness” in the end, then turn to Christ, and turn to the light of His Word, for that’s the only place you’ll ever find any spiritual light in the midst of this very dark world.