SONS OF LIGHT
[p. 178] SONS OF LIGHT
I have it before me to speak about light. The subject is one of the most extensive that Scripture affords, and so I have no thought at all of compassing it. My desire is to call attention to it as it appeared in Christ in His path and service in this world, so that it became, as it says in chapter 1, “the light of men”. You will observe that it is said the life was the light of men, and in the passage I read in chapter 12 the Lord refers to the light as amongst them. I want to call special attention to that. John says later in chapter 1, “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us”. One refers to such a scripture with a measure of feeling, because it speaks of our Lord in His everyday life. One would dwell on the fact that He of whom it is said, “All things were made by him”, should be found here, dwelling amongst men; He “dwelt among us”, the evangelist says. John has no thought of a visit; he presents the Lord as having come and as dwelling among men; He “dwelt among us”, and he adds, “We have contemplated his glory”.
I would invite attention to that word — “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us”; it is written for us. This gospel deals with a Person, the Son of God, and He is not to be known or understood by a passing or accidental look; He is to be understood by contemplation, for that is the word employed. “We have contemplated his glory”, it says, and it was “a glory as of an only-begotten with a father”. It is such an one as this, one who contemplated the glory of Christ as here among men, who writes this gospel. It is the one who knew what it was to be in His bosom; Mary sat at His feet, but John leaned on His breast.
[p. 179] We have been dwelling this afternoon on the Thessalonian saints; they were said to be “in God the Father”. The apostle further says that they were “beloved by God”. The secret of that is that they were lovers of God. Let us not rest in the thought of the supremacy of love as it is in God; let us be concerned about being lovers of God. Paul speaks of “those who love God”. And so John is said to be, and speaks of himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved”. Can we doubt that Jesus loved Peter, or James, or Matthew? No; He loved them all. Why then is John singled out as one loved? Because he was lovable. He was in the bosom of Jesus; he had access to His heart, and the Lord loved him; he had contemplated the glory of the One on whose breast he leaned. John would be detained as he observed the movements of this One — movements such as no other could exhibit. He was cast upon God from the beginning. John does not say, “The Word became man”, he says, “The Word became flesh”. He refers to the incarnation. The infancy, boyhood, and manhood of Christ — all these are included in the thought of “flesh”, and in all these relations He was to be contemplated.
So John takes note of things; he would observe what occurred before his eyes, and in observing, he discovered that the relations of this One, an outcast here, were as of an only one with a father. He was the object of the supreme love of heaven; the Father cared for Him as an only One. He had a glory that belonged to Him as Son, but a glory that could be and was contemplated, so that John, in a special way, became a son of light. The light was available; it appeared in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not, but he apprehended it, and contemplated the glory of the Person, and says of Him. He was “full of grace and truth”.
That is what this gospel presents to us. One would [p. 180] love to convey to you by the Spirit what that life was here that is said to have been the “light of men”. But I will confine myself to the effect of it on those who came under its beams, and so my thought is to trace out as briefly as possible how we become sons of light in the varied relationships in which we are found in this world; for it is obvious that if God has caused light to shine it must affect us in every relationship in which we are placed legitimately as down here.
If you look at chapter 1, you will see that what God has in His mind to reach is stated almost at the outset, namely, that there should be a family of children here in this world: “As many as received him, to them gave he the right to be children of God”, as if to intimate the honour conferred on such; they should be given a title to take the place of children of God. Then again, “who have been born, not of blood nor of flesh’s will nor of man’s will, but of God”. That is the object of the gospel, one may say, set out from the very beginning, that there should be in this world a people who received Christ; it is not here who believe the gospel; the point with John is the Person, the reception of the Person, “as many as received him”.
Now I want to show you how the light affected those who came under its influence in every relationship in which they were set in this world. First of all I would refer to chapter 4, where I think we see how we become sons of light in regard to our bodies.
The Lord says in the passage I read in chapter 12, “While ye have the light, believe in the light, that ye may become sons of light”. His thought was that His people should be in this world, not exactly sons of God, but “sons of light” — that is, formed intelligently by the light, for that is what I apprehend by a son of light. So the first relation in which I am set is in respect of my body; I am in a body here; I have [p. 181] got that from God. I take the woman in chapter 4 to illustrate a son of light in regard to his body. I am touching on a matter that is intensely practical, because if I am not right in regard to my body, I shall not be right in any other relation.
The epistle to the Corinthians teaches us that the body is the Lord’s. Think of having a vessel here in which a divine treasure is set, as the apostle says, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels”. How important, therefore, that I should be right in regard to this. In Romans 8 we are told that “If Christ be in you, the body is dead on account of sin”; that is, it is wholly indifferent, unaffected by what is of time; my body is dead; “but the Spirit life on account of righteousness”, and in the power of that Spirit I present my body a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God.
I refer to the woman of Samaria, who came out of the city to draw water with her water-pot. Jesus sat just as He was on the well, and He was weary. The Lord knew weariness, but He was not too weary to cause the light to shine. He spoke to the woman about the living water; the water which “I shall give him shall become in him [He refers to the body] a fountain of water, springing up into eternal life”. What a body! Think of the transformation of that sin-worn body, now to become a body marked by living water. So it says she left her water-pot; she caught the Lord’s thought. Have we? She might have filled her water-pot, but the Spirit of God says she left it. There is a spiritual thought in that; her body was now to be the vessel, so she went into the town and said to the men, “Come, see a man which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?” The Christ is the One who can use our bodies, for it is not only that He tells us all things, but He does all things for God, and He is pleased to use our bodies for God, and that woman enters at [p. 182] once on the service of God in her body. With her mouth she told the men about the Christ.
The next thought that one may refer to in regard to the light has reference to a man in his house. If I have learnt to offer my body to God as a living sacrifice, then that should be immediately manifest in my house. Those in my house will take notice of it first; so in the same chapter you have the case of the nobleman. You will remember how that his son was at the point of death, so he goes to Jesus and says to Him, “Come down ere my child die”; the Lord immediately says, “Go, thy son lives”. The Lord uses the word ‘son’, He would have that man and his house in a new way; he would be henceforth a believer, and thus he would belong to the true nobility of God. Therefore the Lord uses another word from that of ‘child’; He says, “thy son”. The man went down to Capernaum to be met by his servants with the good news that his child lived. The nobleman was occupied with his own generation, but it is not to be his; it is to be God’s generation, and God’s generation is truly noble. So the word ‘son’ is used — a son made to live by Christ. The Lord made no mistake in calling him son. Those of us who are parents, who have children truly affected by Christ, know that they are no longer merely our children; they have taken on a new nobility; no longer a child, but a brother truly. And so it says the man “inquired therefore from them the hour at which he got better. And they said to him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him. The father therefore knew that it was in that hour in which Jesus said to him, Thy son lives; and he believed, himself and his whole house”.
The nobleman himself is a true son now — a son of light in regard of his house; not only is he a believer of the word that Jesus said, but he is a characteristic believer and as such he would bring all the light of [p. 183] God into his house. The Scriptures should have a great place in our houses. The law indeed enjoined that; it enjoined that the Scriptures should have a most prominent place with the head of a household and in his house. In Luke 24 the Lord said to the two who were going to Emmaus — going the wrong way — “O senseless and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!” What is all? Let us never assume that anything in Scripture is non-essential. The more you read it and understand it, the more you value not only every book, chapter, and verse, but every word in it. This man had become a believer; he had already believed the word that concerned himself, but now he is a believer. (See verses 50, 53.) John aims at making us believers. Hence this man would bring in all the light for his house; they would share it with him. Next to the assembly, I do not know anything more delightful in this world than a believer’s household, where parents and children are united as believers — sons of light in regard to our houses.
Now in chapter 6 you have the thought of light developed in regard to the testimony. If I am a son of the light in my house, then I am qualified for the testimony, and so the Lord says to the twelve, “Will ye also go away?” It was a critical time. I know of no time since I have been a believer that has not been critical; indeed, one may say that the whole period of Christianity is a crisis, and the more you face it, the more you will be conscious that every moment is critical. There is no time to go to sleep. “Watch therefore”, the Lord says, “But what I say to you, I say to all, Watch”. Jesus had spoken words which were spirit and were life, and it says from that time many of His disciples went away back and walked no more with Him.
There is a tremendous drift of apostasy in the world, a regular current, flowing fast, and there is no [p. 184] hope of recovery. They walked no more with Him. The thing was definite, and the Lord says to the twelve, “Will ye also go away?” The twelve include those who were specially for the testimony; He speaks to every one of us, but He spoke to them as especially in it; and if any one say that he is not exercised about the testimony of God, I doubt his Christianity.
So the Lord says to the twelve, “Will ye also go away?” and Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go?”Not to what, it is the question of a Person. Then he says, “Thou hast words of life eternal; and we have believed and known that thou art the holy one of God”. It was not an instantaneous light shining in his soul, as the Father’s revelation to him in Matthew 16 was, it was a past and continued experience he referred to; he says, “We have believed and known”. I believe it has reference to the building up of a constitution, taking note of everything so that it fits in with the soul’s growth, and when a supreme crisis comes what you have learned stands by you. Paul says, “I have learned in those circumstances in which I am, to be satisfied in myself”. If you have learnt a thing, however sudden the crisis, the thing you have learned stands by you. I would ask you to look into your history and see how much you have believed and how much you have known. John will have people who know.
Now the Lord does not let the twelve pass without bringing them under review. He says, “Have not I chosen you the twelve? and of you one is a devil”. Solemn word! Judas was numbered with the other eleven, but possessed of a devil! The Lord knew that and He would not let him pass under Peter’s confession. You may be sure that the Lord knows our hearts, and He will not let us pass if we seek to shelter ourselves behind others who are true; He will expose us. But the true sons of light are made manifest in Peter’s confession to Christ; they are sons of the light in relation to the testimony of God, and no man can undertake to serve who has not “believed and known”. It is a question of a constitution being built up by what you see and hear, so that when the crisis comes and you are tested, it becomes manifest that you have believed and known.
The next case is the man in chapter 9. You will remember that he was one in whom the works of God were to be manifested. Think of yourself — let me think of myself — as one in whom the works of God are to be manifested. Think of the universe: it is not said to be that in which the works of God are manifested, although it is wonderful beyond our comprehension. Think of the Spirit of God taking a poor blind man and saying that he was not blind because he or his parents had sinned, but because the works of God were to be manifested in him. So in the end of the chapter he comes out as a son of light in regard of a new order of things, for the works of God cannot be connected with this present world system; even the very heavens and the earth themselves are reserved to be burned up; but in regard of the spiritual world — the new order which God will bring in — it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel in that day, “What hath God wrought”! The works of God in me have reference to another world altogether, where all things are of Him.
Now without going into details we find in the end that the man is cast out. He was like a stone that the builders could not use, in correspondence with the Lord Himself, “cast away indeed as worthless by men”; so when the Lord heard that they had cast him out, it says He found him. The man had the experience of being cast out as unusable in this world. We have to come to that, “the stone which the builders rejected”. When the Lord finds him He says to him, “Dost thou believe on the Son of God?”A new order of things is in view, and the man answered and said, “And who is he. Lord, that I may believe on him?” He is ready for it. Wonderful moment for him! John presents us with one just cast out, and the other already out; the Son of God was outside; He is rejected from the beginning in John. And now He finds an outcast, and the Lord says, “Dost thou believe on the Son of God?” What a question! May we all answer it as he did: “And who is he, Lord, that I may believe on him? And Jesus said to him, Thou hast both seen him, and he that speaks with thee is he”. Think of that; He was by him! Now one can understand, I am sure, the delight it would afford to the Lord to find him, as indeed it affords delight to Him today to find any one who is outside — rejected — an outcast, unfit for society, for man’s world. Then the man said, “I believe, Lord: and he did him homage”. What a moment in his soul’s history! It says in the Psalms, “God setteth the solitary in families”; that is what God does. In this instance he is set in a new system, as part of the flock — put into the great system that the Son of God is forming at the present time. He is fit material for it, and so, as I remarked, he is a son of the light in relation to a new order of things. He is intelligent as to that.
Now we get the final thought in chapter 12, where all this culminates, for John builds up a structure from the very outset, and thus if we are sons of light in these varied relations, we get them all put together in chapter 12 in the family. You will recall how the family at Bethany had no head. It was a family of two sisters and one brother — a headless family — and the Lord comes in. The Lord knows what the end is to be. At the beginning of chapter 11 it says Bethany was the town of Mary and her sister Martha, and it was that Mary which anointed the Lord’s feet whose brother Lazarus was sick. All that happened was in [p. 187] view of the company that is to be seen in chapter 12; they are all to be sons of the light; there is to be a group of them. This makes for the assembly, dear brethren; the Lord would have us as sons of light in assembly: I would plead for this, that we might realise what it is to assemble. If I have the light of the assembly, then I know how to assemble with my brethren, I know how to be with them in the assembly and how to move about outwardly as of the assembly. Directly you are a son of light in regard to it, you are the object of satanic opposition; we see this verified in the Acts. The assembly became the object of Satan’s bitterest hatred. Paul persecuted it, and in Acts 12 Herod laid hold of certain of the assembly, we read, and slew James with the sword. If we belong to the assembly as sons of light, we are sure to come into conflict.
Well, the Lord walked with Mary to the grave. “Did I not say to thee”, He says to Martha, “that if thou shouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?” And they did see it, and Lazarus was raised.
In chapter 12 we read the Lord came to Bethany, where was the dead man Lazarus, whom He raised from among the dead, and there they made Him a supper. Mary took a pound of ointment of great price and anointed His feet. Martha served and Lazarus sat at the table with Him. Now look at that group of “sons of light”. The Lord does not give any directions. The passage brings to our attention the sons of light acting in their intelligence. God would bring us into assembly functions in intelligence. The incident is not a type of the assembly exactly, it is principally Jewish, but it serves to bring out how the sons of light act; they know what to do. The Lord says, “If two of you shall agree on the earth concerning any matter whatsoever it may be that they shall ask, it shall come to them from my Father”.
[p. 188] Do you think the Lord would do anything less for the sons of light? He has confidence in them. He knows that what they do is right; it shall be done for them. The Lord would lead us on to know what it is to be in the assembly intelligently as sons of light. There is not a word said at Bethany as to what they should do; “there therefore they made him a supper”. There is a moral state of things now among them in which Christ is supreme. What an end reached! — a group of sons of light, acting in the intelligence of sons of light.
I would only add one word as to walking. “Walk while ye have the light, that darkness may not overtake you”. John would have movement. There are many Christians in a stagnant state of things; there is no movement, or idea of walking, whereas the light has in view that there should be movement. “Looking upon Jesus as he walked”. That was the light. It was light to the two who heard John speak of Him, and they followed Jesus. “I am the light of the world; he that followeth me”. In chapter 1 it says He is the light of every man, but that does not mean that every man follows. The one who has the light is the one who follows, so it says, “While ye have the light, believe in the light, that ye may become sons of light”. If there are any here who are in a stagnant state of things, the word to you is, Walk in the light. It is not moving aimlessly, but moving in the way a man walks who knows where he is going. If you walk in the light, you will find fellowship, and “the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin”.
Pages 189 to 272 — “Life in an Individual and in a Company”, London and elsewhere. May, 1923 (Volume 59).