What does the Bible mean when it says, “The light shines in the darkness?”

On the larger scale, I think it means that Jesus ultimately came to bring the light of God’s life into a spiritually dark and dying world, and that He is in all things, and nothing happens independent of Him.

Here’s the way John 1:1-5 puts it, “In the beginning [before all time] was the Word (Christ), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made and came into existence through Him; and without Him not even one thing was made that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines on in the darkness, and the darkness did not understand it or overpower it or appropriate it or absorb it.

According to scripture, light and darkness are commonly symbolic of good and evil. Darkness represents the absence of light, meaning God is not there. It represents the power of evil, sin, and unbelief in this world that continues to reject Christ. For those who don’t accept Jesus as the light who came to pay the price for their sins, it means their future will be eternal separation from Him in darkness and torment.

In John 3:18-21 Jesus says, “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.”

The common theme throughout the Bible is found here in 1 Timothy 2:3-4, “This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

The decision is ours to either stay in the darkness and face an eternity apart from Him, or to repent of our sins, and accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. By doing the later, we will experience what He says here in John 8:12, “Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.”

The main focus of Mighty Wind Ministries is to encourage everyone to consider making the Bible their baseline for identifying truth. It truly changes everything once we put our faith in Jesus and recognize He has provided us with a trustworthy and reliable guidebook to help make sense of the world we all live in.

Finally, please take to heart the sense of urgency from our Lord here in John 12:35-36, “Jesus replied, “My light will shine for you just a little longer. Walk in the light while you can, so the darkness will not overtake you. Those who walk in the darkness cannot see where they are going. Put your trust in the light while there is still time; then you will become children of the light.”