Shining The Truth

DEVOTION 1 JOHN SHINING THE TRUTH 1 John 2:7-8 7 Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. 8 Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining. NIV From the very beginning all this was already planned by God as he was revealing what he was going to do to this people. He has been telling them the redemption story from the very start of their disobedience, this is the old one spoken of here. It is not the law in essence, although it was the law which points us to Jesus. If we try to live by the law, by the rules and regulations set forth by God, or by men, we will surely fail, for it is impossible to keep the whole law, and if we break just one itty bitty portion of it, we are guilty of breaking the whole law. There is just no way around that. But the darkness of that fact, of never being good enough to re-enter the paradise of God, has been put aside, because of the true light. What can we do that is good enough not to be guilty of the whole law? We can accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and thus in him we have been proclaimed innocent by God. He has rendered us, considered us innocent and thus the darkness in our lives has passed and now the new light of Christ is not only in us, but shining forth from us. At least that is the way it is supposed to be. But the question which has to be asked is in fact the true light shining in our lives. Do we walk around burdened with the cares of this world? Do we walk with a slump in our step because of the heaviness in our heart? Do we walk with one eye on material things, one eye on our own agenda, and one eye on gaining as much of this world as we can? Should we not turn our eyes, both of them, on Jesus and look full in his wonderful face? Then the things of earth will grow strangely dim, In the light of his glory and grace. Yes we should be so filled with his glory and grace that his light shines brightly through us into the darkness which others are still walking. If we now the truth, how can we keep it to ourselves? Do we just let those who are still in the darkness of living under the law, under the rules and regulations of man stay there and perish? We need to let the truth shine. We need to be shining the truth.