Matthew 5: 16
Let Your Light So Shine

I. FIRST, THINK ABOUT WHAT IS THE "LIGHT'' HERE?

1. Metaphors don't always mean the same thing when they are used in different places and at different times. It is a mistake that is often made to assume that they do. Some teachers have turned it into a wonderful method of Bible study. Here the believer's lifestyle is light. In John's Gospel the light is Jesus (-- presumably the truth about Jesus) and believers are witnesses to the light. In 1 John 1 the triune God is light. The letters of the N.T. often agree with our Lord's meaning here in referring the light to the believer's lifestyle. Paul speaks of ``shining forth as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation'' and John (in his first letter) speaks of "walking in the light."

2. Here the idea is that our lives are light in the sense that they show forth the standards and character of God. It is a sobering and oft-mentioned truth.

3. It has always been so that where there have been many Christians their light bearing has had an influence on society. Sometimes it has not been consistent -- all across the board -- but only in specific areas. The reformation was this way; English Christianity -- with all of its failings -- probably had a great deal to do with the basic uprightness of English culture; Certainly in America the light bearing quality of Christians -- imperfect though is was and is -- has had a great deal to do with the fact that this is the most ideal specimen of a large society and government and the most prosperous economy for the most people that has ever existed in a whole nation of people of any great size. And a great deal of that blessing probably is the result of the large number of God's light-bearing people here. Even a watered-down and theologically imperfect form of Christianity has had an effect, even though a better form of Christianity might have had even more effect.

II. NOW, HOW IS IT THAT WE SHED THIS LIGHT?

1. Remember, the Lord's intention in this case is not so much preaching the gospel as living it. The metaphor as Christ used it here is not just about handing out tracts in the parking lot of Georgia Square Mall. It is not about preaching from the curb at College Square or carrying signs with gospel messages in front of the 40 Watt Club. It has to do with the quality of your life -- the light bearing quality of your life.

2. I believe we do this in part by the church we associate with. It is a testimony to the "your-Father-in-heaven'' aspect of the passage -- that we belong to God and we define him as the gracious God of the evangelical Christian.

3. We also do this light-bearing by deeds of mercy, helpfulness and kindness. These deeds are certainly a long standing quality of God's people deep into history.

4. We do this light-bearing in how we treat individuals -- especially strangers, social underlings and people who work for us in one way or another. How easy it is to be curt and rude toward those who serve us because we are having a bad day and we pay them back for all that is going wrong.

I'll tell you some people I have a hard time being light towards. Rude clerks and gas station attendants and especially people who are essentially on my payroll because they work for a government agency which I bankroll. The light-bearing quality of the Christian is to ignore their crankiness and rudeness and curtness and to give an example of how they should be.

Do you get irritated with telephone salesmen as I do (and especially telephone salesmen who can't read the plain English on their cue cards)? One person said in print that he always responded with: "I'm eating dinner right now but if you'll give me your home phone number I'll call you back just as you're sitting down to dinner.'' I try to get rid of them but to do so kindly and politely. Can you imagine what frame of mind these people must be in after having suffered rudeness, curses and rejection for a whole workday?

Do you suppose that the Lord Jesus was rude with food venders and the servants of his friends and women and children? There is strong evidence that he was exceptionally kind to these people who were the underlings of society.

1. (v.14-16) "A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." 

2. Now this is a counterbalance to passages (such as the one at the beginning of chapter 6) that seem to tell us to do our good works in secret where only God can see them. I suppose that the harmony between them is that we should not be boastful and haughty and self righteous and self advertising but that we should feel free to do good works publicly -- not primarily to be seen but because much of this light bearing activity is a public activity.

Find someone in need and help them. You don't need to do it through a social agency which often encumbers the process. Just do it. Help a neighbor who is in difficult straits; help a person stranded in need. Some of you do very well in this and your efforts redown unto the glory of God.

Become politically and socially involved. Everyone here ought to vote as a basic commitment to the society into which God has put us. It is mostly symbolic but it is important if you are going to be light. Christians should be socially involved. They should do this separately from the church and not necessarily involve the church but involve themselves in social issues. I'm afraid I am not very good at this partially through temperament but also because I have been a minister for 4/5ths of my life and we should be careful not to mix church and state.

Furthermore, you might go into a helping profession -- if you know that you have the fortitude to not become bored or disillusioned or cynical. It is a wonderful place for Christians to bear light.

Turn your business into light bearing. Find ways to show the love of Christ on the job. Whether you deal regularly with the public or rarely do so, show Christian kindness, friendliness, generosity, willingness to help. Can you imagine the effect of our light bearing if it became widely known that if you got a Christian cashier at the store or attendant at the gas station or a Christian plumber or clerk at the complaints and adjustment desk, you would surely get a person who was kind, polite, friendly and who would go out of his way to help you? Can you imagine people writing books and articles trying to explain the phenomenon in such a way to avoid giving any credit to God while the uninitiated were all convinced that it was a testimony to God's grace?

IV. FINALLY, NOTICE THE REASON WHY WE SHOULD BE LIGHT.

1. It is not so that people will like and admire us. We should have no vested interest in doing this for our own benefit. We do it out of obedience and for God's benefit.

2. "That men may glorify your Father who is in heaven," Jesus said would be the result. It might be the grudging: "He does this because he thinks there is a God," or the clear admission that "God is certainly good to give me a friend like this person."

How often have I as a child of God given thanks for some specific individual whose life has been an inspiration to me -- a light shining into my life! It may have been their prayer, their concern for other people, their service to the Lord, their kindness to people outside of the faith. There have been many such people! And I have often thanked and praised God for them.

3. Furthermore, in many cases the consistent Christian life of a believer has been used by the Holy Spirit to bring people to the Lord and thus glorify God.

How many people here came to know the Lord ostensibly because of the deeds of some Christian believer. I know many instances where it has been so -- where some kind of deed or deeds, or a whole lifetime of deeds, has led persons to listen to the gospel and then came to know the Lord.

I think we would do well to ask God to show us by the Holy Spirit how we might better be lights to the world, cities set upon hills, lamps on lampstands, shining lights who cause mankind to give glory to our dear Father who is in heaven.