Do not keep company with those who have not faith: for what is there in common between righteousness and evil, or between light and dark? (2Co 6:14 BBE)
Chiaroscuro is a technique used by Rennaisance painters like the 17th-century Italian painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio who took chiaroscuro to the extreme, often blacking out large portions of the background and brightly illuminating large foreground subjects. This combination of using high contrast, light and dark, with a single focused light source had an incredibly dramatic effect.
| While in some cases, contrast can add variety, emphasis and drama in our life, contrast like the ones enumerated is what creates confusion, inconsistency and loss of credibility. |
It's not difficult to imagine that life is pretty much like a chiaroscuro. We have already invented a lot of expressions and sayings in recognition of the reality of these extreme contrasts. Among these are, bad hair day, thorns and roses, ups and downs, etc. Is it not true that there are times when everything just seems to go well and then BAM!, we are rolling on the ground wounded? We pick ourselves up and hope things will be well again, and they do, until of course the next blunder, the next heartache, etc. Notice further that there are life contrasts of light and dark that we have little to no control of. But there are also those which come as a result of our own faulty decision making process.
The thing is, what's good for art may not be that good for our souls. The careless mixture of light and dark, the good and the bad just don't cut it. At one time, Apostle James chided his readers for their penchant for careless speech and cursing words. He says, "From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water" (Jas 3:10-12 ESV). In our passage today, Apostle Paul tells us that there should never be partnership between light and darkness (2 Cor 6:14). It's like putting together in one mix good and evil, kindness and cruelty, love and hate, etc. While in some cases, contrast can add variety, emphasis and drama in our life, contrast like the ones enumerated is what creates confusion, inconsistency and loss of credibility. It confuses others in assessing what motivates us and it also confuses us, not knowing who we really are.
But God creates unity in our spirit so that these unholy mix in our life can be minimized or better still, eliminated.
As we get closer to the Lord, we develop a better sense of His Spirit dwelling in us (2 Cor 6:16). As this happens, the goodness and the badness in our life are also highlighted for us, the same way the contrast of light and shadow in a chiaroscuro highlights certain elements of the subject of the painting. But with the infusion of light into us by the Spirit of God, the darkness that used to dwell in our souls is chased away by God's light.
Now this may all sound like an abstraction, something that doesn't have any practical value but it's not. The challenge however is in this: How does one become close enough to God so that these chiaroscuro of our life can be highlighted and we can be empowered to minimize and eventually eliminate the darkness and leave only light? It starts with reconciliation with God (2 Cor 5:). Reconciliation in turn requires that we first recognize a conflict exists as a result of a sinful life and forgiveness must be sought. As we reconcile with our Creator, the Spirit of God begins to dwell in us and brings the needed light. If we already have enough of that light, making choices not to mix in darkness in what we do or say becomes a bit easier and more natural.
