For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil.
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed.
But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God. (John 3:16-21 NABRE)
Remember the question Pontius Pilate asks Jesus at his trial: What is truth? Perhaps the answer lies in John's description of our sinful nature. If so, perhaps truth has to do with anything we are not ashamed of, anything we do that is "in God" and not evil.
That said, what a grace it is that Jesus offers us--salvation from our own nature so that we might have eternal life! All we are asked to do is believe. That's it. Everything after that falls into place. We believe and our hearts begin to change. We keep believing and our lives change as well. Our thoughts and our actions begin to conform to God's will as we spend time in his Word and in prayer.
Today, on this Wednesday of the Second Week of Easter, I will seek to think, speak, and act only in ways worthy of the light.
Saint William of Eskilsoe, twelfth-century monastic reformer, pray for us.
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