But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.
John 3:21
“But whoever does what is true…” As Christians, truth is not just an object, rather it is an object and an action. In America’s “Declaration of Independence,” we find the words, “all men are created equal.” Certainly, this is a great truth, but there is little value in it unless our actions demonstrate this truth.
If we are believers then the Spirit of Truth lives in us (John 16:13). He helps us to have thoughts and actions that are true, and therefore righteous. And righteousness compels us to bring our thoughts and actions into the Light so that they will be judged.
We’re like a kid in art class. The whole class is given clay or play dough and we’re all focused upon our task at hand. We first make a snake, but we know we can do better, so we start making a sauropod dinosaur. The moment it vaguely has the shape of an animal we call our teacher over to survey our masterpiece.
A Good Teacher
A good teacher would congratulate us on choosing a more challenging model, and we would be told that we have a good start, but there is more that we could do. Then the teacher would get his/her hands dirty by taking some clay and demonstrating possible things we could do to improve our sauropod.
Our relationship with Jesus is like that Good Teacher. We bring our thoughts and actions in the Light because we want direction and correction. We want truth and righteousness in everything we say and do. Being “transparent” allows God’s Light to shine through us and expose all that is within us. This is how we want to live. As we read in John 3:21, “But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
Prayer
Jesus, I pray today for each of us that belong to you, that we will strive for transparency. I pray that Your Light will shine through us so people will clearly see in each of us that all the things we do we do in the Light; in Truth and righteousness. If there is anything that we’ve kept in darkness, help us to drag it into Your Light so we may deal with it. In Your Name, I pray. Amen.
Photo by Samantha Sophia on Unsplash
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