Mar 14 The Shining Light

Mar 14

The Shining Light

Mt 5:16 Let your light so shine before men…

If you are regular reader of this blog you may wonder how I select the portions of scripture for each day. Sometimes it is from my reading and study, but most often I wake up around 5 AM and while I try to go back to sleep a verse pops into my head, related verses come together and before my feet hit the floor the topic and outline are already developed. Then I fill in the spaces with my blatherings and hope I don’t confuse people. I can’t take credit for the good but must accept blame for the bad. I believe the Holy Spirit speaks, or in my case, shouts to get my attention, and brings to mind what I should write about. Such is the case this morning. I had not planned to write this blog until later today but felt compelled to lay aside what I had planned to do. Maybe you don’t care where my ideas come from, in which case please skip reading the above paragraph!

The portion for us to meditate on this morning is part of Christ’s Sermon on the Mount. In verse 13 we read “ye are the salt of the earth….” In verse 14 “Ye are the light of the world…”. The next few verses relate to Christians being the light of the world.

    Mt 5:15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

Verse 15 states the obvious. Why light a lamp or candle and then hide the light it creates. That thought leads into verse 16. Why hide the light that God has given us through Christ?

Mt 5:16 Let your light so shine before men,

that they may see your good works,

and glorify your Father which is in heaven.  

There is a lot of truth in the chorus This little Light of Mine. There is even more in this verse. The very first thing we see is that when we accept Christ our understanding is opened to the things of God. We have moved from darkness to light.

Eph 5:8 For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:  

We no longer need to stumble in the world of sin’s darkness, but now we can walk in the light of the Glorious Gospel of Christ. We have been changed from a source of darkness to a source of light

Mt 5:14 Ye are the light of the world.

The illustration is about people putting a light under something so no one can see the light. Does the world see our light? Do they know we no longer walk the paths of sin? Or do we exist in a world of darkness and hide the light so no one knows we are the light of the world? In plain words, do our friends, relatives and people we meet know we are born again, saved, Christians? Or is there a reason we keep our light hidden?

Gentle reader, please do not think I am trying to “send us all to the woodshed for a good whuppin”, rather I am just trying to focus our thoughts on what Christ said.

Not only should our light shine before men, but Christ tells us how it should shine.

Mt 5:16 Let your light so shine before men,

that they may see your good works, …  

The Pharisees were really good at this. When they prayed they did not do it in their closet. In Matt 6:6 Christ says when you pray you should do it in a closet. And you should shut the door. Now you can do that if you do not understand he was saying our prayers should be private. That does not exclude public prayer. In Matt 6:5 he cautions against people he calls hypocrites. They prayed in public, out on the street in front of the temple, so people would see their good works and glorify them. In fact they were not content for people on one street to see them, so they went to a corner to pray so people on two streets would see them.

We are not to do our good works for the praise of men. When you do that your reward is only the praise of men. You have not impressed God. Instead He stamps it “Hypocrite prayer”  or “hypocrite works”

When men see our light shine and then see our good works to prove we are the real thing, the result should be they do not praise you, but praise God. Glorify means to praise God. That is to give to God the praise for what one has seen.   

Mt 5:16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

There is a lot in that verse. Unfortunately many today are very successful at the first two parts. They are good at letting their light shine before men. They also do lots of good works that men see. But they fail on the third step when they want the glory from men that should be given to God.

This verse is not a test. A score of 66% (2 correct out of 3) is not given. It is a pass fail test. The Pharisees failed this test although they got the first two parts right. They desired the praise of men for their show of great holiness. They prayed on street corners! God called them hypocrites.

Here is a very difficult standard to meet. The flesh craves recognition for good works, and our pride wants to hide our light from men who might think we are some kind of weird religious nut. To put this verse into practice requires us to think more like Christ.  Let this mind be in you...(Phlp 2:5)

An encouraging reminder for us is God wants obedience, willingness, and sincerity. He does not require success.    

Ga 5:24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.