Sunday Sermonette

Children of Light
April 1, 2012

"For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light." (Ephesians 5:8)

There are a number of beautiful metaphors used in the Bible describing those who have become true "children of God" (1 John 3:10) by the new birth. As children tend to take on the characteristics of their parents as they grow, so God's spiritual children should be growing in the grace of God and the knowledge of God (2 Peter 3:18).

Similarly, Christians are called "children of light, and the children of the day" (1 Thessalonians 5:5). Therefore, as in our text, we should "walk as children of light."

The Lord Jesus spoke of us as "children of the kingdom" in Matthew 13:38. We should, therefore, live and speak as those born into the kingdom of God, and as faithful subjects of the King of kings.

Christ also called us "children of wisdom" (Matthew 11:19), and this surely implies that we should, in our understanding and in our decisions, have "the mind of Christ" who "is made unto us wisdom" (1 Corinthians 2:16; 1:30).

In contrast, note the metaphors applied in the Bible to those who have not (at least not yet) become children of God by being "born again" through faith in the triune God. We ourselves once "were by nature the children of wrath, even as others" (Ephesians 2:3). We--and they--were also called "children of disobedience" (Ephesians 2:2; also in Ephesians 5:6 and Colossians 3:6).

Unbelievers are also called "children of this world" (Luke 16:8), and even "children of the wicked one" (Matthew 13:38) and "children of the devil" (1 John 3:10).

Returning to the metaphor of our text, "if we walk in the light, as he is in the light" (1 John 1:7), then we can no longer "walk in darkness," for we have "the light of life" (John 8:12). HMM

h/t: HENRY M MORRIS, INSTITUTE FOR CREATION RESEARCH