Shining In and Shining Out (2 Cor. 4:6-7)

Anonymous

‘For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels’ (2 Cor. 4:6–7).

Since man turned from God, who is light, this has been a dark world, so dark that men have ceased to know there ever was a light. The only light now is that which the people of God themselves supply: ‘ye are the light of the world’ (Matt. 5:14). Recognising this, the children of God are to let their light shine (v. 16). There is one thing to remember, however, if we are to shine aright: all our light is reflected light. We are not suns with light in ourselves, but, like the moon, we are reflectors. The verse quoted above gives us the source, order and means of shining.

As to the source, it is God: ‘God … hath shined in our hearts’. He who ‘spake, and it was done’ (Gen. 1; Ps. 33:9) has done the same in our dark hearts. It is well to pause and dwell upon this. Do we realise that such a work has been done in us? Something every whit as wonderful as — and in one sense far more important than — that pouring forth of light over this world. How a sense of this subdues the soul, fills it with a holy joy: God has been near, He has sent the light into my heart. Light is given not to dazzle, far less to fill with pride. Further, it has shined into the heart. It is not merely that the mind has become enlightened, but the whole man, from the centre of his being, has been visited.

We have next the character of this light: ‘the light of the knowledge of the glory of God’. This shows us, first, as it did Isaiah, that we have come short of it (Isa. 6:1–5). Man never gets a true estimate of himself till he is thus seen by the light of the glory of God. Like Job, he now abhors himself (Job. 42:6). But, blessed be God, the light that has shined in our hearts has done more than show us our sin. It is the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That glory which we failed to exhibit, which could be found nowhere in all this world until in ‘God … manifested in flesh’ (1 Tim. 3:16) — that glory of God shines in the face of Jesus Christ. Here He finds one who has manifested Him. It is as risen and ascended that this glory shines in His face. The glory into which He has entered is the witness not merely of the personal acceptance in which He ever was, but the acceptance of the work of redemption which He accomplished and, as a result, of our acceptance in Him by virtue of that work. But what thoughts are here: God’s glory, Christ’s person and work and our acceptance linked together! This is the light that has shined in our hearts.

This brings us to the order of shining. First, God has shined in. We all admit that. But there is to be a constant shining in. The light may be obstructed by things of the earth. If there is to be an out-shining, there must be the constant in-shining. So the first business of the saint is to keep in communion. It is not our first business to lead others to Christ — that and all else follows if the light shines unhinderedly in. But what care this means, what jealous guarding of the heart lest anything shall come between us and that face. When the light thus fills the heart, like Moses, who knew not that his face shone (Ex. 34:29), the saint is unconscious of any special excellence. Indeed, the sense is that the earthen vessel needs to be broken, to be kept out of sight. 

This brings us to the means of the out-shining. We have seen the order to be, first, the light shining in and, as a result, the sense that we are but earthen vessels. Now we are to shine in the midst of a dark world by ‘holding forth the word of life’ (Phil. 2:16). The Word of God is what brought the light to us; it is also that which will bring it to others. The Word as known and operating in our own hearts and lives will make the light for those who sit in darkness. How simple, then, is the path for the Christian: first drinking in the light for his own soul, he reflects that light by means of the Word, both by lip and by life.

Author unknown[1]

[1] From Help and Food for the Household of Faith (1891) vol. 9 p. 229.

From: Truth and Testimony, 2023