Living in the Light: Follow Your Inner Guidance to Create a New Life and a New World

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Money, sex and power are the three towering gods of our age, and the greatest temptations for those both inside and outside the church. In this short, pithy and powerful book, John Piper brings biblical wisdom, practical insight and a pastor's passion to the subject, and shows how living in the light will eclipse all the idols this world has to offer—and put money, sex and power in their rightful, God-glorifying place. If you adopt these practices, you won’t be leading a saintly life. You will have succeeded in right living, however, which, at this stage is a huge step in your evolution. The next thing believers must do to live in the light is to not partake in darkness, but to expose it instead. “The verb translated here as “expose” (from elegchō) can also carry the idea of reproof, correction, punishment, or discipline.” 8

The Word of God, every word is “inspired by God and is profitable for doctrine, for correction, for reproof.” We need to reprove. That means to expose the evil. You know, you can’t just say, “Well, I don’t like to say anything about what they’re doing.” You’d better say something – that’s your commission – by your life and your words. You know, sometimes just the way you live can expose people. Have you ever walked into a conversation that was really filthy, and they know you’re a Christian, and all of a sudden it gets real nice and clean, and “how’s church going? I know you go to church a lot. How’s church?” Yeah. I mean I remember playing golf with people, and about the fifth hole, they’d find out I’m a minister, and it changes their whole game. They can’t cuss, they can’t hit, you know. It’s amazing. The penalty of wrath – that’s a third characteristic of one who is darkness; God’s penalty of wrath comes upon them. In Romans, chapter 1: “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness.” In other words, the wrath of God is going to come on sin. And it talks about, verse 21, the people it’s going to fall on are those whose foolish heart was darkened. Those who are the fools, you see. Those who exchange the truth for a lie; those who didn’t want to retain God in their knowledge and went over to ignorance, and who did all kinds of evil things. Those are the ones. If we are going to walk in the light, we must not only seek the salvation of unbelievers, but also that of the church—for not all who profess Christ are living for him, or even saved (cf. Matt 7:21-23). There are many foolish virgins without oil who will be shut out of the wedding banquet—they have a form of godliness but not the inward reality (cf. Matt 25:1-13, 2 Tim 3:5). They must be warned in love (Eph 4:15).

We see this in many places. Psalm 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path,” In this reference, “light” refers to intellectual truth as found in God’s Word. In Romans 13:12-14, “light” refers to moral deeds and “darkness” to immoral deeds. This fresh, refreshing book will wake you up to the blazing glory of Christ, and inspire you to make him the gravitational center of your life. So be very careful how you live. Do not live like those who are not wise, but live wisely. 16 Use every chance you have for doing good, because these are evil times. 17 So do not be foolish but learn what the Lord wants you to do. 18 Do not be drunk with wine, which will ruin you, but be filled with the Spirit. 19 Speak to each other with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music in your hearts to the Lord. 20 Always give thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wives and Husbands

Number one: you did the work of Satan. It is true of people in the darkness that they do the deeds of darkness. You did the works of Satan. Verse 11 talks about the unfruitful works of darkness. A person in darkness, a person who is darkness, does deeds that are darkness. That is, they are ignorant, and they are unholy. They show no knowledge of God, and they show no life of God in the heart and the soul. So first of all, they do the works of Satan. And by the way, if you read John8:44, that’s exactly what Jesus says; you do what you do because your father is who your father is, you are of your father the devil. So if you’re in the darkness, you do the deeds of the one whom Luke22:53 calls “the power of the darkness.” If we are going to walk in the light, we must find out what is pleasing to God. We do this by bringing every thought and decision before the Lord so he can shine his light on it. He clarifies his will through his Word, other believers, our hearts, and his sovereignty, among other things. For the commandment is a lamp and the law is light.” Now, here it is truth that he’s talking about; he’s not talking about deeds, he’s talking about truth. God’s truth, God’s Word is light, intellectual truth, knowledge. In Psalm119:105, it says: “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” And that’s the same idea. There you see light as truth, light from the intellectual side. Now, you see it also in 2 Corinthians, chapter 4, and the apostle Paul again is talking here about light and darkness. He says he’s talking about lost people in verse 3, and then lost being the antecedent, he goes to verse 4: “In whom”– that is the lost people –“In whom the God of this age has blinded the minds to the light of the glorious gospel.”Now, this has many facets. If we are to walk worthy and imitate God, if we’re to be like Jesus Christ, it is a humble walk. We saw that in chapter 4, didn’t we? It is a unity walk. We saw that in chapter 4. It is a different walk. We saw that in chapter 4. We don’t walk as a Gentile walks. It is a love walk. Chapter 5, verse 2, that was our study last time. And today we find it is a light walk – a light walk. Next week we’ll see it is a wisdom walk. But for now, it is a light walk. If we are to imitate God, pattern our lives after Christ, and walk worthy, then it says, in verse 8, we must “walk as children of light.” We must walk as children of light. One must realize that living a holy life is both rare and strange in this world. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were thrown into the fire for not bowing down to Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 3). Daniel was cast into the lions’ den simply because he prayed three times a day to the true God instead of false gods (Dan 6). Jesus was crucified. We must welcome the cross our own Savior bore. He was the Light and the world hated him; we will often receive that same displeasure.

Are you willing to be different even if it means being considered strange or hated? 2. Believers expose darkness directly by words of correction.This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. We need to be ethical light when we are in the office, in the classroom, in the shop, and in the Church. We must be willing to risk being called “negative,” “narrow,” “judgmental,” “puritanical,” or “bigoted.” If God’s Spirit is calling us to stand up against wrong, it is up to us to be faithful. 9