Light Bearers

This world without Christ is darkness. It is the sphere where Satan, the prince and god of this world and the prince of the power of the air, holds sway, together with his hosts of wicked spirits in the heavenlies (Eph. 2:2), "the rulers of the darkness of this world." Eph. 6:12.
We who, through the power and grace of our God and Father, have been delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of His dear Son, are made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. And not only so, but we are seated in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. We are not of this world, but we are in it (John 17). And though a long-suffering God is still lingering over this scene of increasing corruption, violence, and enmity against Him, He waits to be gracious. Though the light of His gospel still shines, yet darkness is daily thickening around us, darkness that may be felt.
It may be solemnly asked, What about the light in our houses amidst the growing darkness around us? Have we, like those Israelites in Goshen, light in our dwellings? And is that light shining brightly, giving "light unto all that are in the house," and is it seen by them that come into the house? It is true, we are light in the Lord, blessed be God! But what comes next? "Walk as children of light." The light has not been given us to be hidden under the bushel of commerce and worldliness, or under the bed of idleness and self-indulgence, but to give light to every inmate of the house, and to those that come in.
Thanks be to God, we know that "the night is far spent, the day is at hand," but for this poor world it is otherwise. The day (of salvation) is far spent, and the night is at hand. As in the natural, so in the spiritual world: the last hour before daybreak is the darkest and coldest. And that hour is now, but it only proves that for us the change is at hand. The star is in the sky; He who is the bright and the morning star, our Savior, is coming to take us up to Himself.
But how will He find us in whose hearts He has made the corresponding daystar arise? Will He find that blessed hope shining upon our hearts and feet in the light of it? Will He find the light of that hope shining in our houses, and turning them into tents like that of the Patriarch of Mamre from whom the Lord could not hide that thing which He did? He knew that Abraham would command his children and his household after him (318 servants at the time), so that they should keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment, that the Lord might bring upon Abraham that which He had spoken of him.
Let us remember that we are not only to be light bearers, as to the glorious gospel of God and His truth, but that we are to "walk in the light, as He is in the light," "who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." This light, it is true, is to shine in the walk of every individual Christian. He is called, not only to announce, but to adorn by his walk, the gospel of God and the doctrine of the Lord Jesus Christ. "The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." J.V.P.
Questions and Answers
QUESTION: In 1 Peter 4:5-6, is "quick [living]" and "dead" moral or physical? Is it the same in each verse?
ANSWER: In both verses it refers to physical life and death. In verse 5 it is those currently alive and in verse 6 those now dead, who had had the glad tidings preached to them when they were living. As glad tidings were preached, though not in the same way or fullness, in times past to men then living though now dead, as well as to men living now, it was so that they might be judged as men in the flesh if they refused the message, but live (as regards God) in the Spirit if they accepted it. The Jews were apt to slight the judgment of the dead, through their preoccupation with the judgment of the living at the appearing of the Messiah. Hence the Apostle is the more careful to show the believers from among them, not merely, as in chapter 3 the judgment which awaits those formerly disobedient who are kept in prison awaiting their final doom, but the twofold end of the good news in the promises proclaimed to men in the past. It was either judgment as men in the flesh responsible for their works, or living according to God in the Spirit because the word was mixed with faith and issued in righteousness and holiness of truth.