“No one lights a lamp and then hides it or puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where its light can be seen by all who enter the house.” Luke 11:33
“In light of,” is a phrase we hear from time-to-time and may even say on occasion. The definition of this phrase is to “consider something.” It is typically used in reference to some new revelation, fact, or piece of information that affects some circumstance, situation or outcome.
Luke, in his Gospel account, sights a conversation Jesus had with a group of listeners where He talks about the importance of “the light” which you allow in. Let’s look at these verses found in Luke 11:33-36; “No one lights a lamp and then hides it or puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where its light can be seen by all who enter the house. Your eye is like a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is filled with light. But when it is unhealthy, your body is filled with darkness. Make sure that the light you think you have is not actually darkness. If you are filled with light, with no dark corners, then your whole life will be radiant, as though a floodlight were filling you with light.”
When reading these verses recently, something I’d never seen before jumped out at me. The “light” Luke is refering to here must be the “light” of God’s love. When “in light of the fact,” that 1 John 1:5 tells us that “God is Light,” and 1 John 4:16 tells us that “God is love,” it’s easy to see that God’s light here is His love. Not just any kind of “light” can bring about the radiance in one’s life that Luke speaks of in verse 36. And, what seems abundantly clear, as we allow Bible to interpret Bible, is that Jesus is teaching us that we must be filled with the light of God’s love. It is essential for us to live life “in light of” the fact we are loved by our Heavenly Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit with an everlasting love that will never fade.
Today, “in light of the fact” that He loves you so much, let that love light shine in you and through to others.