The Lamp and the Flame
Imagine straining your eyes, staring into darkness. Squinting and widening your eyes, searching for the faintest hint of any light. Ten small lamp lights reveal ten maidens waiting. The light is little and barely enough for them to see themselves. At first they seem to be the same, each with a lamp burning and shining light. Although underneath they were not all ready, they were not the same.
We read in Matthew 25 that half of them were wise, being ready with extra oil, and the other half foolish, having no extra oil. The dancing flame upon the wick draws up oil. It slowly consumes what feeds it and will disappear like mist unless the oil is refilled. With the darkness as a backdrop, these flaming lamps exist on the edge, hanging on the brink of their end, all weighing on the preparedness of the maiden that holds it.
In Exodus 27:20 we see that Israel had to use pure olive oil for the lamp within the tabernacle. Considering this, what does it all mean? These ten maidens with their lamps holding onto a wisp of fire in the darkness.
The Spirit Given by God
Such a fragile flame fueled by oil. How can we have any chance without it? Where can this oil be found?
We see a promise made to the disciples and then fulfilled. Christ told them that they would be baptised with the Holy Spirit, and in Acts 2 we see that promise come to pass. Jesus Christ is faithful and reliable. What He promises, He fulfills.
The Holy Spirit is not something produced by human strength or obtained through striving. He is given by God. He fills us, sustains us, and gives life to the flame. Ask the Father and He will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him (Luke 11:13). Acts calls us to repent and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38). He is given freely by God.
Without Him we remain in darkness. He is the only hope we have of carrying a living flame.
Walking in the Spirit
In Exodus 31 we see that Bezalel and Oholiab were filled with the Spirit of God in order to construct the tabernacle. They were not merely called, but empowered to bring forth the dwelling place where God would abide among Israel.
In the same way, God fills His church so that we may become a place where He dwells (1 John 4:13). Jesus calls us to abide in Him (John 15:5). The Spirit empowers us as He lives within us. Our part is to respond faithfully by remaining in Christ, spending time with Him, and being continually filled.
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22–23). These fruits spring forth from those connected to the vine. In them we begin to see a reflection of the divine nature of God.
Display God and make Him known by the light that shines through a life abiding in Him. The fruit is not manufactured by human effort, but produced by the life of God within His church.
He does not require us. Yet in His mercy He chose to work through His church for the revealing of His glory.
Filled Lamps Shine
If oil continues to be poured into a lamp, eventually it begins to overflow. In the same way, a lamp continually filled within a dark room cannot remain hidden forever. It must shine.
A life continually filled by the Spirit will reveal light. The fruits of the Spirit become visible naturally. It almost becomes more effort to remain unseen when the light is shining brightly. When a person truly loves the Lord, obedience and witness begin flowing from that life.
We are called to become partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). When the character of God is reflected through His people, something of Him becomes visible. Christ told His disciples that whoever had seen Him had seen the Father. In the same way, people should increasingly perceive Christ in those who belong to Him.
The Sermon on the Mount reveals this progression beautifully. The Beatitudes begin with humility and poverty of spirit, then move progressively toward mercy, purity, peace, righteousness and faithful endurance. Immediately afterward Christ speaks of His people as light shining before men.
The sermon itself ends with the contrast between the wise and the foolish: those who hear His words and obey, and those who hear yet remain unchanged.
Peter presents a similar progression in 2 Peter 1. We are called to diligently grow, adding to faith moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. Through this growth believers increasingly know Christ and reveal Him more clearly.
Faithful Endurance
A light that shines reveals what surrounds it. When truth shines into darkness, darkness is exposed. Because of this, those who remain in darkness may become hostile toward the light, for their deeds are revealed when light shines among them.
Yet light does not merely rescue people from darkness. It brings them into something else. Warmth. Clarity. Life. Nearness.
The light shining from believers should bring peace, joy, and rest as others begin to perceive Christ through them. Fruit exists not only for the tree itself, but for the nourishment of others.
Conclusion
Return again to the image of the night and the flickering lamp. A small flame trembling against overwhelming darkness.
It is the Holy Spirit that enables the lamp to continue burning. He provides the oil. He sustains the flame. Christ Himself is the light of the world, and those abiding in Him begin reflecting that same light into the darkness around them.
The witness of believers reveals truth wherever they go. Not through manufactured displays, but through lives slowly shaped into the likeness of Christ. The fruit of the Spirit reveals the character of the Lord through His people by His power and according to His will.
What a mercy it would be if others were able to look upon our lives and say that they saw something of Jesus Christ in us.
And greater still, to one day enter into His rest and behold the smile of the One whose light we carried through the darkness.