You Are the 💡 of the 🌎

Matthew 5:14-16

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Our Bible reading today is from Matthew chapter 5 beginning with verse 14. Jesus says to Christians:

You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:14-16)

When I was a little boy when we’d be riding home to our city I remember if we were out in the country you could actually see the glow of the city lights up on the clouds above. And that was comforting to me to know that we were getting ready to be closer to home. There are some cities in Greece and Italy that are very high up on mountains and people out in the Mediterranean Sea could see that at night. And Jesus uses that imagery to depict something for us about our spiritual lives.

The Bible sometimes uses the imagery of darkness as a way to depict unbelief and the condition of this world in our fallen world. How people don’t know the way to God and the way to heaven but by his word God the Holy Spirit has come and taught us about our wonderful Savior who went to the cross to pay for our sins. And by faith in Him we have the hope of going to heaven. And God is now saved us by His grace.

So the Bible regularly refers to that wonderful truth in our hearts as this light that is now in the world. And as Christians we provide that very same light to the world of unbelief that we live in all around us. God has given us this gift of faith in order to provide this same wonderful light that has enlightened our hearts for other people to see and know. And sometimes that comes out just in very simple ways.

Many years ago one of my Christian friends offered me a job at a company that he was going to be leaving. His boss, who was an unbeliever, had said to him, because he had been such a wonderful worker and very honest and everything, he said I want you to go and find one of your Christian friends to take your job because you’ve been such a good employee for me.

And I think of how Jesus says here in our text:

Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:16)

Jesus wants us to remember that as his children, as his believers, people are watching us and observing how we live our lives. And just like somebody in the middle of a very dark cave could just light one single candle that light can give so much light into the darkness so it can be even with our little humble ways of confessing Jesus and even the good works that we perform as a way to show people this wonderful Savior that we have. Amen.