The revered church leader was heading off to an important counsel of leaders to discuss together how to live the Christian life in a compromised world. He picked up his briefcase and hurried to the meeting. At the meeting, he opened up his briefcase in front of the other men to retrieve his notes but was instantly horrified when they gazed down to see not his religious writings, but a briefcase full of pornography. You see, he had two briefcases that looked just the same on the outside, one that he kept hidden in his private office and one for his speaking notes. In his hurry, he grabbed the wrong one and everything that was in the dark was suddenly brought into the light.

 

Maybe you can imagine his horror and dismay to have what was hidden suddenly made known. Maybe you can imagine also the shock and hurt his friends experienced at the revelation. But it’s not only celebrities, politicians, and pastors who get caught up in hiding things in the darkness. None of us get it perfectly right. If we don’t consistently expose our lives, thoughts, and ambitions to the light of God’s Word, we too find ourselves in the darkness of hypocrisy too. What if everything you did and thought was captured on video and then displayed for all to see? What if before we entered into wrongful thinking or behaving we asked ourselves, “How comfortable am I having this played out publicly?” Without a doubt, it would dramatically change the way we think and act!

 

Jesus said to his followers: “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.” Luke 12:1-3

 

It was both a warning and an encouragement. It was a warning against living a “religious” life that looks good on the outside but is dark and sinister on the inside. It was an encouragement that their heartfelt prayers and praises, even when whispered in the inner rooms, would be proclaimed boldly from the rooftops.

 

There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. Paul writes that when we appear before the judgment seat of Christ that all we did, good or bad, will be revealed. (2 Corinthians 5:10) We read in 1 Corinthians 5:12-13, “If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work.” He reminds us that we are God’s temple, not that brick building with the cross. We’re warned to not deceive ourselves. (V18)

 

But we do deceive ourselves by thinking that our secret envy, greed, and lust doesn’t matter, that things done in the dark are forever secret even as they completely contradict our public character.

 

“This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.” John 3:19-20

 

Light dispels darkness. Darkness flees from the presence of light. Light overcomes darkness. Let’s not live in the deception of darkness that will one day be revealed. Let’s repeatedly expose the darkness to the light and live our one life in the freedom and power of that light who is Jesus.