John 11:9 – Walk In the Day

Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” (John 11:9-10)

Do you want to walk and not stumble?  Walk in the day!  What is it about walking in daylight?  We can see!  Why is walking at night a problem?  It’s dark and we can’t see!

There are many today who reject the salvation found in Christ alone.  They think they don’t need Him for a variety of reasons.  Sadly, all who come to such a conclusion walk in the dark; in fact, they’ve always walked in the dark.

Just as we say that there are two types of people in the world: saved and unsaved; believers and non-believers; so it is with how we walk.  We either walk in the day or we walk in the night.  Those of us who walk in the day have not just the light of the physical sun, we have the light of the Son, the Son of God.  Those who walk at night think they see but their vision is faulty; the darkness obscures it.

An interesting phenomenon is the light of darkness.  Jesus expanded upon this in Matthew 6:22-24 when He said:

“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

How can darkness be light?  What does Jesus mean when He says that?

It’s obvious from His description that this kind of darkness is quite bad.  It fills and consumes the body of the person who sees with the light of that darkness.  As Jesus says in John, this causes him to stumble.  When we stumble, we fall.  If we fall far and deep enough we may not get up.

We’ve all heard about someone falling into a well or a deep pit.  The darkness for him is overwhelming and oppressive.  The sides of the hole are straight and slick.  It’s impossible to climb out and reach the top.  A thin sliver of daylight may show above, but it’s distant and elusive.  One cannot rescue himself in this situation.  He must have help.  The only way to safety is through a savior.

Many in the world from the very beginning have fallen into this pit and experienced the darkness of the soul.  Some cry out for redemption; others embrace the consuming blackness.  They see a false light with which the prince of this world entices them.  That prince is Lucifer, and his name signifies the false pretenses under which he operates: Bearer of light.  But what kind of light?  The light of darkness.

It is this which Jesus speaks of when He says that no one can serve two masters.  Money is in view, but it’s only one of the visible manifestations of the darkness that lures many.

We can only serve one Master and serve Him well.  If we attempt to follow any other master, he or it is not of God.  In fact, that person or thing is of the devil, i.e. of Lucifer, the bearer of false light.  When we attempt to straddle the fence of serving two masters – God or other – we effectively castrate ourselves.  We become ineffectual and cannot spread the Seed of the Gospel because we’ve become eunuchs.

It all begins with the Word of God.  In order to walk in the day, we must read the manual that instructs us how to do so.  Without Scripture as our guidebook, we wander into darkness because we don’t even know what light looks like.  All too many in the church follow this aberrant path and shipwreck their faith, just as Paul warned in 1 Timothy 1:18-19:

This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith,

How do we walk in the light and reject the darkness?  By reading God’s Word we learn about the importance of obeying what it says.  We see the consequences of disobedience which brings darkness.  It gives us the ability to walk by day.

Let us surrender to the mercy of God and His way, and we will say along with the psalmist in Psalm 119:105:

Your word is a lamp to my feet

    and a light to my path.

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