The Way of The Wicked

They know not at what they stumble. That, of course, is part of the deception. Second Corinthians 4.4 says, the God of this age has blinded the minds of them that believe not. You’re blinded by Satan. You’re blinded by the darkness of sin. The darkness is a system. It is a realm. It is a kingdom. It is a domain of unbelievers. But the darkness is not separate from those unbelievers. You are the darkness. You, if you’re a believer, you were the darkness. You were part of the darkness. You made the darkness dark. It’s not that you were a victim of it.

You were the darkness. You were the darkness. And verse 3, if you go back in chapter 5 to verse 3, your life was marked by immorality, impurity, greed. Verse 4, filthiness, silly talk. Verse 5, immorality, impurity, covetousness. You were the darkness. You were not a victim. You were the darkness. Your works were unrighteous, your thoughts were godless, and you were under divine judgment. You were under the control of Satan, who in Luke 22.53 is called, Satan’s title is the power of darkness. You were the darkness empowered by Satan, and you were headed in your depravity and your deception toward death, already spiritually dead.

You were headed toward death and then destruction. And Jude describes that destruction as black darkness forever, which doesn’t mean that hell isn’t going to have any lights. What it means is the darkness has come to hell in the form of the people who came to hell. You are the darkness. You carry the darkness to hell. The darkness of hell is the composite of all the dark people who make up that place where there are chains of darkness, black darkness forever. We were once all darkness. But, back to verse 8, the contrast, now you are light in the Lord.

But now everything has changed. Now you are light in the Lord through the Lord Jesus Christ. Because of him we have been transferred from the darkness. We have been transferred from darkness to light. Matthew 514, you are the light of the world. What an incredible transformation. Again, the extreme between darkness and light shows the extreme transformation of salvation. So there is a contrast. And then there are characteristics. So he says, you are now light in the Lord. You are light. You are a light in the world. You are the lights that light the darkness of corruption, as Philippians 2 says.

You are the light. You are not just in the light, but you are the light. Therefore walk as children of light. Walk again, consistently. Walk worthy of your calling to borrow the language of chapter 4 verse 1. So, what would that mean? What does it mean to walk as children of light? Well, verse 9 gives us the characteristics. So we go from a contrast to characteristics. The fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth. So those are the things that mark the light, goodness, righteousness and truth. And that parallels chapter 4 verse 24, that when you put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness and truth, righteousness, holiness and truth, or goodness, righteousness and truth, same thing.

So if you are a child of the light, your life will be marked by all goodness, all righteousness and all truth. What is goodness? Agathos, that’s the name of your great grandma, maybe, Agatha. Agathos, there is kalos, that’s a word for Greek, and it means good to look at and free from defects. There’s krestos, which means it’s something useful. But this is agathos, which means morally good from the divine perspective. So how do you know when a person is a believer? Because they are people of light, and the light shows up in their goodness, in their goodness.

1 Thessalonians 5.15 gives you an illustration. See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people. That’s the same word. It’s just general goodness. There’s an opposite, an antonym, back in verse 31 of chapter 4. Malice. Malice is kakia, that is general evil. Agathos is general good. So if you’ve become a child of the light, you’re marked by goodness. Secondly, by righteousness, that is, you walk a path that doesn’t deviate from purity. You’re also marked by truth. No longer are you deceived, no longer are you marked by all the expressions of depravity, you walk in integrity, you walk in honesty, you walk in reliability, you walk in trustworthiness, in contrast to the shallow hypocrisy and falseness of those in the dark.

Colossians 1.10 elucidates that a bit. Listen to these words, so that you walk in a manner worthy of the Lord to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work. So it’s all goodness or righteousness and all truth. That’s the fruit of the light. Romans 13. I can’t resist a few verses there. Starting in verse 12, the night is almost gone and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armour of light. Arm yourself with light and don’t do the deeds of the darkness.

You are the light. You’re in the light. You are the light. Don’t do the deeds of the darkness. What does that mean? Verse 13. Let us behave properly as in the day. In other words, in the day simply means with the light full on, with everything exposed, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts. You make no provision for the flesh. Obviously, that’s what the philosophers of the Middle Ages wanted to overturn.

We make no provision for the flesh. All we want to know is the will of God. And that’s what it says in verse 10, trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. A Christian walks as a child of light, producing the fruit of light, which is goodness, righteousness, and truth, and is a living example of someone learning what is pleasing to the Lord. That’s what it means to walk in light. Look, you are in the light. You can’t hide anything. You can’t. The Lord knows. He sees. Your determination should be very simple. My life is an open book.

I have nothing to hide because I’m governed by determination to find out what is pleasing to the Lord and do it. Thank you for joining us in this exploration of the way of the wicked. Until next time, remember to keep the faith, stay strong, and continue to shine your light in the world. To hear these daily devotions of your daily bread, please log on to goddessgovernment.com. Goodbye, and may your faith always lead the way. [tr:trw].