Walking in the Light

“Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.” 1 Thessalonians 5:5–7

The word of God is very clear that only those who walk in the light by the power of the Holy Spirit are His true disciples—the true and faithful. Those who are in the Laodicean condition do not know that they are wretched, miserable, poor, and spiritually blind.

“So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of My mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see” (Revelation 3:16–18).

The disciples of Christ are called out of darkness into the marvelous light—developing a Christlike character through righteousness by faith and victory over all temptation and sin by the power of the Holy Spirit.

“But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous light” (1 Peter 2:9).

God has chosen us to be peculiar people, walking continually in the light of God’s salvation and His requirements—His sacred law.

What makes us His peculiar people?

It is perfect obedience to all truth without a single compromise with self.

It is seeking for all truth daily in the word of God. “And ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).

“Walk continually in the light of God. Meditate day and night upon His character. Then you will see His beauty and rejoice in His goodness. Your heart will glow with a sense of His love. You will be uplifted as if borne by everlasting arms. With the power and light that God imparts, you can comprehend more and accomplish more than you ever before deemed possible.” The Ministry of Healing, 514.

It is striving to imitate the character of Christ; not by what we can do, but by what God can do in us by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit working in us that brings justification and sanctification.

“I was shown that God’s people dwell too much under a cloud. It is not His will that they should live in unbelief. Jesus is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. His children are the children of light. They are renewed in His image, and called out of darkness into His marvelous light. He is the light of the world, and so also are they that follow Him. They shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. The more closely the people of God strive to imitate Christ, the more perseveringly will they be pursued by the enemy; but their nearness to Christ strengthens them to resist the efforts of our wily foe to draw them from Christ.” Testimonies, vol. 1, 405, 406.

All who are now in the state of Laodicea are in spiritual darkness. They believe they are walking in the light, but they are calling their darkness light, and they are lost.

“The message of the True Witness finds the people of God in a sad deception, yet honest in that deception. They know not that their condition is deplorable in the sight of God. While those addressed are flattering themselves that they are in an exalted spiritual condition, the message of the True Witness breaks their security by the startling denunciation of their true condition of spiritual blindness, poverty, and wretchedness.” Ibid., vol. 3, 253.

They are not seeking with heart and soul to know the truth by the power of the Holy Spirit. All who retain the Laodicean spiritual blindness will be spewed out of the mouth of God, and lost for eternity. What a tragedy!

What does it mean to be spewed out—rejected?

“To those who are indifferent at this time Christ’s warning is: ‘Because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth’ (Revelation 3:16). The figure of spewing out of His mouth means that He cannot offer up your prayers or your expressions of love to God. He cannot endorse your teaching of His word or your spiritual work in anywise. He cannot present your religious exercises with the request that grace be given you.” Ibid., vol. 6, 408.

Let us seek God with our whole heart and repent of our Laodicean condition while probation lingers a moment longer.

Our Firm Foundation, vol. 19, Number 5, May 2004, 2.