Teachings of Jesus

The Light of the World (John 8:12)

     “I am the light of the world.” Jesus was not referring to his human personality, but to the Principle inherent in generic man. They who follow this inner Principle shall have the light of life; for this Principle is life.
     “I am” has a dual meaning. It is both individual and universal. God was revealed to Moses as the great “I AM,” the Universal Cause, the Causeless of Self-existent One, Moses taught that “I AM” is the First Principle of all life, and the Law of cause and effect running through everything. The whole teaching of Moses is based upon the perception of this “First Principle.”
     Jesus said that he came, not to destroy the law of Moses, but to fulfill it. How could he fulfill it except by teaching the relationship of the universal “I am” to the individual “I”? In all the sayings of Jesus, we find this thought brought out: that God is Universal Spirit and man is his image and likeness…. And individualization of His eternity. Therefore, when we understand our own “I” we shall walk in that light which lights the world unto the perfect “I AM.”
     We can consider this from another viewpoint. Man is the only self-knowing mind of which we are conscious. A self-knowing mind, of course, is one that is conscious of what it knows. Man, the only self-conscious being in this world, must be the light of the world. To know this and to understand why it is so, is to know that Truth which alone can make free. Truth is eternal and eternity is timeless, hence, if one knows the Truth, he will never see death. Death has nothing to do with life everlasting, and is but an inpatient gesture of the soul, wishing to rid itself of a body no longer useful.
Science of Mind