“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

John 8:12

Light is often used as a metaphor for truth in the Bible, certainly it is used in this way by John in his Gospel.  Light, the truth of God is what followers of Jesus Christ are to follow through life, and the result of this will be eternal life…

Yes indeed, there is a strong connection between light and life:

In him was life, and that life was the light of men.

John 1:4

So many people find themselves confused on this point, thinking that following Jesus is some sort of burden.  Back in the 80’s I had a friend who believed that life must be “lived” and so he “lived” life.  I spent some time with him “living” in fact.  “Living” life really meant hanging out in bars getting drunk seven days a week.  He was a route salesman for a large food purveyor, and one time in October of ’84 I spent a day with him on his route.  It was a beautiful trip through resort towns on the Sierra Nevada mountains in a beautiful time of year.  It always took him from very early in the morning until late at night to make this circuit of customers, but I must tell you that it only took that long because of the number of bars that we had to stop at along the way to “live.”

Needless to say, in due course this gentleman came to considerable grief because of all of his “living.”  He told me at one point that he could never be a Christian because Christians must be miserable because they didn’t know how to enjoy life.  This poor guy had confused drinking to excess with enjoying life.  He was able to fool himself all the way until he went to prison for getting too frisky with a 14-year-old while drunk.  Imagine how that affected his wife and children!

Was there any truth to this guy’s belief in what life was?  No, it was a complete lie.

For those of us who follow Jesus Christ, there is life indeed.  Sharing it with others is the greatest calling of all, for it is the only calling that has an eternal effect.  We may or may not change the world, but we will change eternity for many who are willing to see the light that is right before them; the light of truth and of life.