The Second Day after the Festival of the Epiphany of our Lord
Posted on January 8, 2026 by under
Scripture: St. John 1:9-13 (NKJV)
1:9 That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.
10 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. 11 He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.
12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Devotion
The true Light, Jesus Christ, gives light—the true teaching concerning God’s salvation to man. He comes into the world to suffer, die, and take away our sins through His atonement. His salvific act shines out the Father’s great love for sinners with the promise of the forgiveness of sins. God the Holy Spirit uses the preaching of the Word to create faith in that very promise and to enlighten us with His gifts.
Abundant gifts come to those who receive Him in true faith, to those who believe in His name. “The proclamation of the Gospel of our Lord Christ will once more comfort and strengthen them with the assurance that if they believe the Gospel God forgives them all their sins through Christ, accepts them for his sake as God’s children, and out of pure grace, without any merit of their own, justifies and saves them” (Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration V). Believers are given a “new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Pet. 1:3). Christ secures their status as children of God and “heirs” (Rom. 8:17).
The context of John 1:9 makes it clear that every man who is enlightened unto eternal life has been enlightened by Jesus Christ, the true Light! Sad to say, there are those who are determined to remain in darkness. Jesus Christ is the Light of the world, but they did not receive Him, and thus they are those who “did not know Him.”
Collect: O God, Who by the leading of a star didst manifest Thine Only-Begotten Son to the Gentiles: Mercifully grant, that we, who know Thee now by faith, may after this life have the fruition of Thy glorious Godhead; through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
