Friday, February 10, 2023

Living in Light

Friday, February 10, 2023

If anyone claims, “I am living in the light,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is still living in darkness.  Anyone who loves a fellow believer is living in the light and does not cause others to stumble.  But anyone who hates a fellow believer is still living and walking in darkness.  Such a person does not know the way to go, having been blinded by the darkness.   

1 John 2:9-11

John, the beloved apostle wrote about loving others…a lot!

But John wasn’t always so compassionate; at one point in time, he and his brother James were nicknamed the sons of thunder[1] by Jesus.  This was because the brothers were prone to anger and knee-jerk reactions. 

On the road to Jerusalem some of the crowds rejected Jesus.  James and John asked for permission to call down fire from heaven to burn up the unbelievers.  Jesus rebuked them and they had to recheck their theology of crowd control.[2]

Question?

How does a man go from wanting to incinerate a whole crowd for simply disagreeing with your position…to one who says that kind of hate means you don’t know the first thing about God?

Pretty simple, actually; John was not so set in his dark ways that he couldn’t entertain the possibility that he was wrong.  That’s called “being teachable.” 

And when that’s possible, then light coming into your life is also possible.  And the kind of light Jesus brings will dispel a multitude of darkness!

Paul said to be transformed by the renewing of your mind.[3]  This is what had happened to John, a thunderous, judgmental, hard-headed reactionary; He entertained the truth of Jesus’ kind of love and it changed everything.

John went from that kind of mindset where you’re absolutely certain you could straighten out anybody, because you’ve got a corner on the truth market, and everyone should do things your way…..to living in the light of God’s truth, that loving others is the only way to keep from stumbling around in life.

John learned the humility of love; he learned how to live in the light.

For You Today  

How’s the light in your world today?

If it needs turning up a little, do a love-check on your relationships; entertain the possibility that loving others is better than convincing others you’re right.

Better to be beloved, than a son of thunder!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

Where Love and Truth Meet  and  Against the Tide 

This is an updated version of “Living in LIght published on Rocky Road Devotions August 13, 2013

Images:  Title via Wikimedia Commons   Images without citation are either personal property of the author, or in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©  



[1] Mark 3:17

[2] Luke 9:53-55

[3] Romans 12:2

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