You Are the Light: Hope for Believers in a Dark World
Nearly 2,000 years ago, Paul wrote to believers in a city steeped in idol worship and the occult. His words in Ephesians 5:8 still give hope to anyone overwhelmed by the darkness of this world.
By Danielle Salters // EEW Magazine Online
A single flame in a dark room draws every eye. The light of Christ in you shines the same way.
Turn on the news or scroll through your phone for a few minutes, and the heaviness of the world is hard to miss. Violence fills the headlines while immorality is celebrated in the open, and right and wrong seem to trade places by the week.
Believers feel the weight of it. We grieve over what we see and pray for change, yet the darkness appears to spread faster than anyone can push it back. Look at it long enough, and it begins to feel as if it has closed in on every side, leaving us small and helpless in the middle of it.
Darkness existed long before we were born. Nearly 2,000 years ago, around A.D. 60, when Paul wrote to them, the believers in Ephesus lived surrounded by it. Their city was home to the temple of the goddess Artemis, called Diana in the King James Version, and the temple was one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. Worship of the goddess drove much of the city’s commerce, and when Paul’s preaching threatened the silversmiths who made her shrines, Ephesus erupted in a riot (Acts 19:23-29 KJV).
Occult practice ran deep there too. When people came to Christ, they gathered their books of sorcery and burned them in public, books valued at fifty thousand pieces of silver (Acts 19:19 KJV). Luke records the result: “So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed” (v. 20 KJV).
The Greek word translated “grew” is auxanō, the same word Jesus used when He told His followers to consider how the lilies of the field grow (Matthew 6:28 KJV). It describes the growth of living things, like a seed slowly becoming a plant. Luke wrote it in the imperfect tense, which points to action that keeps going. The Word of God kept on growing in Ephesus, spreading from one heart to the next until a city devoted to Diana could no longer ignore it.
Paul later wrote to the believers there, reminding them of who they are in Christ and encouraging them to live from that identity. “For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light” (Ephesians 5:8 KJV).
Darkness had once lived in the Ephesians and defined them. Now they were light in the Lord, called to walk as children of light, proof that transformation happens one flicker of light at a time.
That reminder still speaks to us today. We were once darkness too, lost in sin and in need of a Savior, and before Christ we added to the very darkness that now feels so overwhelming. When we see it all around us, we can forget what God has done in us and go looking for light, hoping someone or something will come along and push back the gloom. Scripture points us to the light we already possess. Christ lives in every believer, and wherever we go, His light goes with us.
Jesus said it this way in the Sermon on the Mount: “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid” (Matthew 5:14 KJV). Imagine someone striking a single match in a pitch-black room. The darkness has no power to resist it, and every eye is drawn to that small flame. John wrote of Jesus, “And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not” (John 1:5 KJV). Darkness has never been able to overpower the light of Christ, and that same light shines in you.
That light has a purpose. Jesus said, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16 KJV). When you shine, people catch a glimpse of Jesus. Someone who has lost hope sees that hope is still possible, and someone wandering in darkness finds a path toward the One who can lead them out.
So take heart. The darkness is all around you, yet the light of Christ lives within you. Light dispels darkness, and that is what God has anointed and equipped you to do.
Paul closed this section of his letter with words many scholars believe came from an early Christian hymn, sung by believers who lived in a world much like ours: “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light” (Ephesians 5:14 KJV).
Rise up and walk in who God says you are. You are light in the Lord, and the world needs your shine.
Let’s pray.
God, thank You for Your equipping power that lives inside of me. In this dark and fallen world, help me stay encouraged, and teach me to let the light of Christ shine through me and point others to the Savior. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
