Love is light

Have you ever heard anyone say that love is light? Well, I am telling you, love is light. When you do something nice for somebody that is a sign of love. If there were some people who saw what you did, you probably seemed like a light because you were doing something good. Its never about who sees the good things you're doing, but usually when you see a good deed done, a desire to do a good deed to someone else churns in your heart. 

My mom was just telling me a story today about her and a small group of people from our church back home did some hometown ministry things earlier in the week. She said that they gave the cashier $20 and told her to just use that for as many people as possible who came through the line. My mom sat and watched and enjoyed the reactions of the people who realized that their meals had been pain for. She said after a couple of people went through, there was an older man who wanted to pay for the people behind him. She was overjoyed by seeing how a random acts of kindness lead to even more random acts of kindness. 

Loving people like Jesus did is contagious! 

Paul writes in Ephesians chapter 5 that we need to be imitators of God, as his beloved children, and to walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Do you ever think about doing that? Being an imitator of Christ and walking in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us?

Christ gave himself for us as a way to love us. I think that there are things that we can give up in order to walk in love and to be that light. 

I am going to list some verses here and I want you to really dig into these. 

But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as in proper among saints. (Ephesians 5:3)

This verse is pretty intense. Paul is saying that things these must not even be named. I think we have a belief that we shouldn't do these things, but that it's okay to name them and talk about them here and there. That is not true. We shouldn't even talk about these things. Imagine a world where sexual immortality and all impurity isn't even talked about...

Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. (Ephesians 5:4) 

Wow. Picture a world like that! As living breathing humans on this earth it is way to easy to get caught up in these things. Filthiness, foolish talk and crude joking are everywhere. There isn't really anything we can do about it besides be the best witnesses that we can be. I have really struggled being around that type of environment the past couple of days and I was encouraged with this verse. Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. (1 Timothy 4:12) Maybe that verse was just what you needed to hear. Makes me wonder, what if we replaced all of that foolish talk with thankfulness. That might be the next step for you. Next time you want to joke about something, try giving thanks for something else! Or for whatever you were about to make a joke about. 

Later on Paul writes about those who are sexually immoral or impure, and how they have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 

When we are put into these situations when we are around those people, or maybe we are those people, remember to not become partners with them; for at one time you were in darkness, but now we are light in the Lord. Paul instructs us to walk as children of the light. For the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true. We are to try and discern what is pleasing. That means that we need to try and figure out what is pleasing to the Lord and then that is how we need to live. When we figure out how to live in the light, everything changes. We figure out what is pure, noble, and trustworthy. We begin to figure things out because we are thinking about God more often and we are feeling God's presence more often as well. 

Paul also instructs us by telling us to take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. He writes, But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." When we see people living a life that doesn't produce fruit we need to tell them. We can't just let them keep living the lives that they are living. As a Christian we need to love our neighbors as ourselves and if we are not correcting someone when they are wrong are we really loving on them? For when we expose them, God's light shines. It shines through us showing that we care about them. It's so simple! Do you understand that God's light shines when we confront, someone about the actions that they are making and the way they are living. When God's light shine, everything becomes visible. Christ will shine on them! 

Maybe there is somebody right now you can think of. Someone that needs to be exposed to the light. The light and the love of Christ is fiery and contagious. There is a lot of it to go around! Love, love, love. When we love, we are light.