Filii Lucis | Children of the Light

“For you are all children of the light and of the day; we don’t belong to darkness and night.” – 1 Thessalonians 5: 5 (NLT)

 

This passage talks about the day when our Lord Jesus Christ returns. It is said that He will come like a thief. Unexpected and will cause a sudden disaster for those who live in the darkness. It also gives an analogy as when a pregnant woman labor pains start. Even when the doctor has predicted the labor time, we would never know the exact time. We could only do some preparations but the pain comes surprisingly, inevitably, and it surely increases to the max. Briefly, that day must be something terrifying.

But verse 4 and 5 say that it would not be a surprise for Children of light and day, but on the contrary for those who belong to the darkness and night. Who are these children of light who are not afraid of the Lord ’s day – when Jesus comes? We might think that they have to be people who have a perfect life, not much struggle against sin and considered good in general.  John Gill’s commentary on this explains that they are “enlightened persons, whose understandings were enlightened by the spirit of God, to see their lost state by nature, the exceeding sinfulness of sin, the insufficiency of their righteousness to justify them before God, the fullness, suitableness, and excellency of Christ's righteousness, the way of salvation by Christ, and that it is all of grace from first to last”.

God loves the humble ones. People who love God, try hard to please him, but soon understand that it is so easy for them to fall into sin and break the heart of God. They grieve, mourn and weep over their hopeless state. They consider themselves unworthy. These are the people who will be exalted by God (James 4: 6-10). 

So Apostle Paul said that we must be on guard, not asleep, stay alert and be clearheaded. We are protected by the armor of faith and love, and wearing the confidence of our salvation as our helmet (verses 6-8). That means, we do our job – to have faith in God and have love to share as we have received from him; while God does his. He holds us up with his salvation which is forever and never fails for those who believe in Jesus Christ.

Be careful when we think that we are good enough - when we are self-sufficient and feel that we are not like other people who are sinful and weak. We could easily be deceived with our self-righteousness. We block the light of God to enter and shine over our true self. Come under his light as we don’t want to be considered as the children of darkness and night.

Let’s encourage and build one another up, as we are already doing. For God saves us through the Lord Jesus Christ not to pour his anger on us, but so that we can live with him forever (verses 9-11). Rejoice my brothers and sisters! May God help us all. Amen.

 

Reflection on 1Thessalonians 5: 1-11 by Desire Litaay