That is saying a great deal more, thank God; for if
he had said, whatsoever is light makes things clear, we should have
been puzzled to know what was light; we should have been tempted to
settle for ourselves what was light. And, God knows, people in all
ages, and people of all religions, Christians as well as heathens,
have been tempted to say so, and to misread this text, till they
said: "Whatsoever agrees with our doctrine is light, of course, but
all other teaching is darkness, and comes from the devil;" and so
they oftentimes blasphemed against God's Holy Spirit by calling good
actions bad ones, just because they were done by people who did not
agree with them, and fell into the same sin as the Pharisees of old,
who said that the Lord cast out devils by Beelzebub the prince of the
devils.
But St. Paul says, whatsoever makes anything clearer to you, is
light. There is the gospel, and there is the good news of salvation
again, coming out, as it does all through St. Paul's epistles, at
every turn, just where poor, sinful, dark man least expects it. For,
what does St. Paul say in the very next verse? "Wherefore," he says,
"arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." "Christ
shall give thee light!" Oh blessed news! CHRIST gives us the light,
and therefore we need not be afraid of it, but trust it, and welcome
it.
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