I spoke on Sunday afternoon about “Societies Perception of God”. My preposition, while perhaps Philosophically incomplete, was that the light/word of God shines through people, that is from God through Christians, into the world, and society perceives God by what the people who the light/word is shining through, allow to pass out into society.
Consider light. Pure white light. Now make that white light analogous to Gods Light/Word. That light shines through Christians from God into the world. This is a slightly different slant on the concept that Christians literally are the light.
Most people are probably aware light can be refracted, for example a rainbow. Also, you can probably deduce what will happen to white light if shone through a red stained glass window. Yep, it turns red. So light refracts through mediums such as water and glass, and the light spectrum is filtered through a colour stained semi-transparent material.
So, if someone is professing to be shining Gods Light/Word, then they must:
- Be completely transparent. To avoid tainting the colour of the light.
- Properly align themselves with the incident light, incoming message, to avoid refracting the message.
I would encourage anyone:
- Don’t be a stained glass window. A pretty picture, but still just man-kinds, often inaccurate, impression.
- Take all scripture in context, and consider all scriptures when making decisions. You can not hang salvation beliefs on John 3:16 alone. There is no contradiction in the Word of God.