“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do men light a lamp, and put it under the peck-measure, but on the lampstand; and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. … The lamp of the body is the eye; if therefore your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” (Matthew 5:14-16; 6:22,23)

George Washington’s “Heavy” Light Bill People crave light. Darkness was once crippling. It filled half a person’s life and brought it to a standstill. Jesus confirmed this with the observation, “… Night is coming, when no man can work” (Jn. 9:4b). Furthermore, darkness is the arena where unseen terrors suddenly pounce and overwhelm and rob their victims of property and life (1 Thess. 5:2). The night represented everything malignant (Eph. 6:12). Yet, not long ago, people lived in a world enshrouded by darkness with the descent of each day’s sun. All that stood between them and the dangers of the night was the dim flicker of light from a fireplace or candle. Nighttime confined people to their homes, from which they ventured forth only at some hazard to their safety. People today are so accustomed to getting a flood of cheap electric light with the mere flip of a switch that they can hardly appreciate it as a “luxury” which people have enjoyed only in the last century or so. Before then, people relied on candles made from animal fat to provide small, smoky, and smelly light. In the 1700’s, it was found that the sperm whale’s head yielded a white, oily substance which, when converted into candles, burned with a clean, white, strong light. Cost was their only drawback. Yet, their superior light was so highly regarded that those who could afford them were willing to pay huge sums. “George Washington estimated that he spent $15,000 a year in today’s currency burning spermaceti candles” ( How    We    Got    to    Now , pg. 202). How wonderful it would be if people so valued spiritual light that they, likewise, would be willing to “pay any price” to have it. Yet, as odd as it might seem, they prefer to walk in the darkness of sin, hoping to stumble across whatever pleasures it might afford them. As John said, “… Men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed” (Jn. 3:19, 20). Too late do they find that the darkness they enjoyed eventually terrorizes them and ultimately leads to “the black darkness” which is forever unrelieved by light (Jude 13). The pleasures of sin are only for a “season” (Heb. 11:25, KJV). Yet, Jesus proclaimed Himself to be “the light of the world” (Jn. 8:12; 9:12). His followers do not walk in the darkness of ignorance and depravity. Scripture often uses the metaphor of light and darkness to describe the contrast between sin and righteousness but perhaps nowhere more elaborately than Paul does when he writes: “The night is almost gone, and the day is at hand. Let us therefore lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy” (Rim. 13:12,13). Yes, Jesus offers a clear, bright light to which there is no superior, and which never burns out. To the soul who is fearful and wearied of the darkness which has filled his life, Jesus says, “Come to the light.” Whatever one has to give up to get this light, it is all worth it!