Colossians 1:12-14 Giving thanks to the Father, which has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Light! The shadows of a temporary dispensation shall have passed away, and the whole plan of the Creator's dealings be spread before the admiring saints, one blaze of beauty. Light! The discrepancies of Providence, the seeming contradictions in God's government of the universe, the obscurities which are caused by knowing only in part — all this shall have been removed, and no dark spot be left behind. Light! It shall not be the brilliancy of the material sun which makes the future landscape indescribably radiant: "the city hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it, for the glory of the Lord doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof." Light! The saints themselves purged from all that is corruptible, the purified soul in the imperishable body, shall be wondrously luminous. Even here, as St. Paul expresses it, they "shine as lights in the world," but hereafter, perfectly conformed to the image of Christ, of whom we are told that at His transfiguration, which exhibited what glorified humanity shall be, "His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light," they shall be conspicuous among all orders of intelligence transformed into glowing, beaming likenesses of Him whose irradiations occupy the universe. "Light," said the Psalmist, "is sown for the righteous;" and the seeds, we may add, of the glorious harvest are deposited in our souls whilst working out our own salvation. Holiness is the moral light, and the germ of heavenly purity is the element of heavenly splendour. Be it now, then, our endeavour to walk as children of light, having no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. There must be — we press this again and again on your attention — there must be a correspondence between the scene and the creature. The inheritance is one of light; therefore the heir also, in the words of St. Paul, must be "light in the Lord." We will aim, then, God being our help, so to improve the state of discipline, that casting off the ignorance and corruption in which we are naturally enveloped, we may at length be placed with those righteous men of whom Christ said, "They shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." (H. Melvill, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: |
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