Darkness and light
are metaphors for evil and good. If anyone sees an angel of light, it will automatically seem to be a good being, for the correlation of evil with darkness, and of good with light, is a powerful archetype in human history. In the Bible, light is a spiritual metaphor for truth and God’s unchanging nature (James 1:17).
It is repeatedly used in the Bible to help us understand that God is wholly good and truthful (1 John 1:5). When we are “in the light,” we are with Him (1 Peter 2:9). He exhorts us to join Him in the light (1 John 1:7), for giving us light was His purpose (John 12:46). Light is the place where love dwells and is comfortable (1 John 2:9-10). God has created light (Genesis 1:3), dwells in the light (1 Timothy 6:16) and puts the light in human hearts so that we can see and know Him and understand truth (2 Corinthians 4:6).
So, when 2 Corinthians 11:14 tells us that
“Satan disguises
himself as an angel of light,”
it means that Satan capitalizes on our love of the light in order to deceive. He wants us to think that he is good, truthful, loving, and powerful – all the things that God is. To portray himself as a dark, devilish being with horns would not be very appealing to the majority of people. Most people are not drawn to darkness, but to light. Therefore, Satan appears as a creature of light to draw us to himself and his lies.
How can we discern which light is of God and which light is of Satan? Our minds and hearts are easily confused by conflicting messages. How can we make sure we are on the right path? Psalm 119 says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (verse 105) and “The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple” (verse 130). The words of God have power. Just as God’s voice spoke physical light into existence, it can speak spiritual light into our hearts. Exposure to His voice – in His Word – will help us recognize the difference between the good light of God and that which is counterfeit.
Satan presents sin to us as something pleasing and beautiful to be desired, and he presents false teaching as enlightening and life-changing. Millions follow his deceptions simply because they do not know God’s truth. Isaiah 8:20-22 describes the darkness that results from ignoring the Word. The people of Israel have been seeking truth by consulting mediums, deceived by Satan’s lie. Isaiah says, “To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn. They will pass through the land, greatly distressed and hungry. And when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will speak contemptuously against their king and their God, and turn their faces upward. And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness.”
Darkness is a result of attempting to find truth without the Word of God. Sadly, as Isaiah says, when people do not have the “dawn,” they wander in darkness and often become angry at God, refusing to come to Him for help. This is why Satan’s masquerade as an angel of light is so effective. It turns white to black and black to white and gets us believing that God is the liar, that God is the source of darkness. Then, in our distress, we focus our hatred towards the only One who can save us.
Jesus stated plainly that the mark of a true disciple of Christ is that he remains faithful to His teachings. He told the Jews who believed in Him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31–32, ESV).
The word know in John 8:32 is translated from a Greek verb that means “to know experientially.” Understanding something with the mind or intellect, often called “head knowledge,” is different than knowing something experientially. We can know that something is bad for us yet still do it. But when we take Jesus at His word and practice “the truth that comes from him,” then we will “throw off [our] old sinful nature and [our] former way of life” and “let the Spirit renew [our] thoughts and attitudes” so that the truth we live by sets us free “to be like God—truly righteous and holy” (Ephesians 4:20–24).
We shall know the truth in a way that sets us free from our old sinful way of life when we know Jesus experientially, in word, deed, and truth (see Colossians 3:17; 1 John 3:18). “Our actions will show that we belong to the truth” (1 John 3:19, NLT).
Knowing the truth means experiencing Jesus Christ by accepting His teachings as absolute truth and then living in faithful obedience to them. We receive the message of the gospel and the teachings of Christ, and then we abide by them. The apostle John often framed the concept of true discipleship as knowing the truth of Christ experientially: “And we can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments” (1 John 2:3, NLT; see also 1 John 2:29; 3:16, 24).
Knowing the truth is a rock-steady way of life. John 8:32 upholds the biblical concept that truth is the only dependable foundation for constructing one’s life (see also Psalm 26:3). Jesus taught, “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash” (Matthew 7:24–27, NLT). If we plant our feet firmly on Christ’s truth and follow the path of His teachings, nothing can shake, derail, or destroy us.
Jesus is the personification of truth (John 14:6). Only He embodies the truth that sets us free (Galatians 5:1; Romans 6:18; John 8:36). Those who know the truth are born-again believers who live in fellowship with God through a relationship with Jesus Christ: “And we know that the Son of God has come, and he has given us understanding so that we can know the true God. And now we live in fellowship with the true God because we live in fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the only true God, and he is eternal life” (1 John 5:20, NLT).
You will know the truth also expresses the moral commitment of genuine disciples to do the will of God (John 7:17; 14:21, 23; James 1:25). We know the truth in the person of Jesus Christ, who prayed to the Father for us to be “made holy” by His truth and gave His own life as the sacrifice that made it possible for us to live out that truth (see John 17:14–19). Moreover, Jesus asked the Father to send us “the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth” (John 14:16–17, NLT; see also Ephesians 1:13).
When Jesus said, “You will know the truth, and the truth shall make you free,” He was telling His followers that obedience to God is the only way to experience true liberation—spiritual freedom from sin. The freedom Jesus offers is restored fellowship with the Father, who is the source of all true life. And the mark of one who has received this life is to remain faithful to His teachings.
In Galatians 5:1–15, the apostle Paul discusses the nature of Christian freedom, beginning with an admonition to “stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage” (Galatians 5:1, NKJV). Paul contends that Jesus Christ came to set believers free from a burdensome, legalistic existence as slaves to the law. Therefore, Christians must ensure that they stay free and not get bound up again under a yoke of bondage to the law.
A yoke is a curved bar made from wood or metal that harnesses together two or more draft animals so they can more effectively work as a team. Yokes were also placed around the necks of people like shackles to secure prisoners in place. Thus, wearing a yoke often speaks of slavery and hardship in the Bible (Deuteronomy 28:48; 1 Kings 12:4; Jeremiah 27:8; 1 Timothy 6:1), and removing or breaking a yoke represents freedom (Leviticus 26:13; Isaiah 58:6). The references to being “entangled again” (NKJV) or “burdened again” (NIV) suggest being weighed down again under a heavy load.
When Paul said, “Do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage” (NKJV) or “Do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (NIV), he was rebuking Christians for their tendency to turn back to legalism, which is the opposite of Christian freedom. One commentator elaborates, “The Christian freedom he [Paul] describes is freedom of conscience, freedom from the tyranny of the law, the dreadful struggle to keep the law, with a view to winning the favour of God. It is the freedom of acceptance with God and of access to God through Christ. . . . In other words, we are to enjoy the glorious freedom of conscience which Christ has brought us by His forgiveness. We must not lapse into the idea that we have to win our acceptance with God by our own obedience” (Stott, J., The Message of Galatians: Only One Way, InterVarsity Press, 1986, p. 132).
Paul depicts our former way of life before salvation as slavery to the law. Wearing a yoke of bondage is a fitting metaphor for this slavery because an animal (or person) bound by a yoke must obey its master. Under the Old Testament covenant, the Jews labored under the law in an attempt to be justified or made right before God (Romans 2:13). But under the New Covenant, God’s grace confirmed by the blood of Jesus gives us freedom from slavery to the law and release from sin and death (Galatians 4:24–31).
Jewish false teachers had infiltrated the Galatian churches, demanding that Gentiles be circumcised (Galatians 2:3–5). The same thing had happened in Antioch of Syria, where Judiazers taught, “Unless you are circumcised as required by the law of Moses, you cannot be saved” (Acts 15:1, NLT). These legalistic Jews were trying to make Christians return to a yoke of bondage by requiring them to observe the Old Testament rules, laws, and ceremonies, especially circumcision.
Paul stood unyielding against these false teachers because the truth of the gospel of grace was at stake: “Listen! I, Paul, tell you this: If you are counting on circumcision to make you right with God, then Christ will be of no benefit to you. I’ll say it again. If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey every regulation in the whole law of Moses. For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace. But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us. For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love” (Galatians 5:2–6, NLT).
Paul contended that under the New Covenant both Jews and Gentiles are accepted into God’s family by faith alone in Jesus Christ (Romans 3:21–22; Ephesians 2:8). Before salvation, we lived under a yoke of bondage to the law (Galatians 4:3), burdened by a guilty conscience (Titus 1:15), imprisoned by demands we could not keep (Acts 15:10), and held captive by the fear of punishment because of our disobedience (1 John 4:18).
Paul said in Galatians 3:24, “The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith” (NLT). When Christ came, He set us free from the yoke of bondage by meeting the demands of the law for us: “Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace” (Romans 6:14, NLT).
There is no longer condemnation for those of us who belong to Jesus (Romans 8:1–2) because He took the guilty sentence in our place: “God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us” (Romans 8:3–4, NLT).
The Christian life is characterized by a joyous freedom to follow Christ out of love and not a dreadful life of slavery to following rules. Jesus Christ has lifted the yoke of bondage from our shoulders and placed on them His own yoke, one that describes obedience and discipleship: “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:29–30).
The apostle Paul wrote a warning for the church: “The time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear” (2 Timothy 4:3).
The Greek word translated “itching” literally means “to itch, rub, scratch, or tickle.” To want one’s ears “tickled” is to desire massages rather than messages—sermons that charm rather than challenge, entertain rather than edify, and please rather than preach. The people Paul warns about will have, as one commentator put it, “ears which have to be continually titillated with novelties.”
“Itching ears” is a figure of speech that refers to people’s desires, felt needs, or wants. It is these desires that impel a person to believe whatever he wants to believe rather than the actual truth itself. When people have “itching ears,” they decide for themselves what is right or wrong, and they seek out others to support their notions. “Itching ears” are concerned with what feels good or comfortable, not with the truth—after all, truth is often uncomfortable. Paul’s warning is that the church would one day contain those who only opened their ears to those who would scratch their “itch.”
Those with “itching ears” only want teachers who will assure them that all is well, teachers who say, “Peace, peace . . . when there is no peace” (Jeremiah 6:14). Where there is a demand for something, the suppliers are not far away. Paul says that not only will there be great demand for watered-down, personalized messages, but there will be “a great number of teachers” willing to provide such pap and steer people away from “sound doctrine.”
Evidence today of people having “itching ears” includes the popularity of messages that people are not required to change, as if repentance were outmoded; that people are basically good; that God is too loving to judge anyone; that the cross, with all its blood, is not really necessary; and that God wants His children to be healthy, wealthy, and content in this world. As people turn their backs on the truth about sin and condemnation, they disregard their need for repentance and forgiveness. And a craving for “new” and “fresher” ideas grows—even though there is “nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9–10)—accompanied by a longing to feel good about who they are and where they’re going. Messages that tickle ears can fill a lot of churches, sell a lot of books, and buy a lot of time on cable tv.
Some of the early followers of Jesus complained about some of the Lord’s words: “Many of his disciples said, ʻThis is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?’ . . . From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him” (John 6:60, 66). Walking away from hard truth is easy to do.
In today’s postmodern church, we see many walking away from the hard truth. Some churches that once preached sound doctrine now teach as acceptable the very evils the Bible condemns. Some pastors are afraid to preach on certain passages of the Bible. “Christian feminists” deny God as a heavenly Father, calling Him a “she.” “Gay Christians” are not only welcomed without repentance into church fellowship but into the pulpit, as well.
The church’s remedy for those who have “itching ears” is found in the same passage of 2 Timothy: “Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction” (2 Timothy 4:2). It is a solemn charge, made “in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom” (verse 1). And it contains all the elements needed to combat the temptation to tickle ears: preach, correct, rebuke, and encourage. The content of preaching must be the written Word of God, and it must be preached when convenient and when inconvenient. This takes “great patience and careful instruction,” but sound doctrine is worth it.
The church’s quest to manage the comfort level of its audience must never take priority over preaching the Word. The fear of offending people’s sensibilities can never supersede the fear of offending God. Rather, the church should follow the example of the apostles: “We have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God” (2 Corinthians 4:2).
The church today, more than ever, needs to re-examine the teachings it endorses. We need to ask ourselves the following questions:
• Are our teachings truly from God or simply itches we want to scratch?
• Are we standing on solid biblical grounds, or have we allowed the world to influence our thinking?
• Have we guarded ourselves from the schemes of Satan (Ephesians 6:11)?
• Are we keeping ourselves “blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:23)?
The truth is,
God is not concerned with
scratching our itches but in
transforming us into the image of
His Son
(Romans 12:2; 2 Corinthians 4:4).
Here are the links to the Fighting for the Fighting Faith
videos mentioned: Hearing the Voice of God:
• F4F | Hearing the Voice of God Part 1 Hearing the Voice of God Part 2 • F4F | Hearing the Voice of God Part 2 Hearing the Voice of God- The Loose Ends • F4F | Hearing the Voice of God - The ... Here is the full video discussed in this episode • Video
https://youtu.be/9K79TEE6vKs?si=al9HzbOzn3ur9BTO
https://julieroys.com/?s=church+of+highlands