LIVE IN THE LIGHT

I Thess. 5:8 But let us who live in the light think clearly, protected by the body armor of faith and love, and wearing as our helmet the confidence of our salvation.

The Lord is not the Lord of confusion. He clearly gives us understanding on the things we need to know. He clearly reveals to His children the truths of the Gospel so that we can grow in faith and be more effective witnesses for Him. He protects us from false teachings by making His Word known to us. We, who are children of God, must always protect the light that we have been given so that we can think clearly. Sin darkens the light and that is when we begin to get cloudy in our thinking and confused.

Our protection from darkness is our body armor of faith and love. Faith compels us to stay rooted in Christ. It compels us to seek out truth through Him. It compels us to listen to the Holy Spirit as we read the Word. It compels us to filter all that we hear through the Word. It compels us to get it right so that we don’t get led astray and sin against God. Faith is evident in our desire to accurately know the truth of God’s Word and then live it.

Love is our love for God. If we love God, we will want to get things right. We will want to know what He says and not necessarily what others say He says. Our love for God protects us because we don’t want to misinterpret or misapply what God says. We want to get it right because He is the lover of our souls and we want to please Him.

We think clearly when we we are confident in our minds about our salvation. We know we are saved by how we think about Christ and His role in our lives. Children of God have a desire to let Christ rule their hearts. They have a desire to honor and please the Lord. They want to put into practice the pure life of Christ. They want to honor Him by becoming like Him. They are not content with the status quo but always want to improve the quality of their spiritual lives. The mindset of the redeemed is clearly set on becoming more and more like Christ.