Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. John Chapters I to XIVMaclaren, Alexander
Religion
Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. John Chapters I to XIV
Maclaren, Alexander
Bible. John -- Commentaries
But we have not merely the promise that we shall be led by the light
and brought into the light. A yet deeper and grander gift is offered
here: 'He shall have the light of life.' I suppose that means, not, as
it is often carelessly taken to mean, a light which illuminates the
life, but, like the similar phrases of this Gospel, 'bread of life,'
'water of life,'—light which is life. 'In Him was life, and the life
was the light of men.' These two are one in their source, which is
Jesus, the Word of God. Of Him we have to say, 'With Thee is the
fountain of life, in Thy light shall we see light.' They are one in
their deepest nature; the life is the light, and the light the life.
And this one gift is bestowed upon every soul that follows Christ. Not
only will our outward lives be illumined or guided from without, but
our inward being will be filled with the brightness. 'Ye were sometimes
darkness, now are ye light in the Lord.'
That pillar of fire remained apart and without. But this true and
better Guide of our souls enters in and dwells in us, in all the
fulness of His triple gift of life, and light, and love. Within us He
will chiefly prove Himself the Guide of our spirits, and will not
merely cast His beams on the path of our feet, but will fill and flood
us with His own brightness. All light of knowledge, of goodness, of
gladness will be ours, if Christ be ours; and ours He surely will be if
we follow Him. Let us take heed, lest turning away from Him we follow
the will-o'-the-wisps of our own fancies, or the dancing lights, born
of putrescence, that flicker above the swamps, for they will lead us
into doleful lands where evil things haunt, and into outer darkness.
Let us take heed how we use that light of God; for Christ, like His
symbol of old, has a double aspect according to the eye which looks.
'It came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel, and
it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to
these.' He is either a Stone of stumbling or a sure Foundation, a
savour of life or of death, and which He is depends on ourselves.
Trusted, loved, followed, He is light. Neglected, turned from, He is
darkness. Though He be the Light of the world, it is only the man who
follows Him to whom He can give the light of life. Therefore, man's
awful prerogative of perverting the best into the worst forced Him, who
came to be the light of men, to that sad and solemn utterance: 'For
judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see,
and that they which see might be made blind.'
THREE ASPECTS OF FAITH
'Many believed on Him. Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on
Him….'—JOHN viii. 30,31.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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