Let Your Light Shine
Matthew 5:14-16: [Jesus said] “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.”
It’s a fact of life: lights shine. A light can do nothing other than shine; it’s simply what lights do. Jesus uses this truth to teach us about the Christian life. Jesus wants to teach us that believers naturally make their faith (their light) known through their words and actions. As it is with regular lights, so it is with a Christian’s light. It can do nothing other than shine.
Yet have we always been the light of the world that Jesus says we are now? Absolutely not! Actually, we were the very opposite of light. We were darkness. There was a time when we were not able to please God with our actions, because by nature we were lost in the spiritual darkness of sin. Therefore, we were unable to shine in any way. But God in his mercy did something about our state of spiritual darkness. He sent his Son to save us from our sins, and because of this we no longer live in spiritual darkness. No, in fact now we live in the light of Christ because of what Christ has done for us. God put this light into us when he brought us to faith in Jesus, and now our light cannot help but shine so that everyone can see it.
How do we let our light shine? This is simple. A light does not need to allow itself to shine; it simply does so. To make this point, Jesus says that a light on a stand gives light to the whole house without even trying. In the same way, Christians show their faith by their words and actions without even trying. Now of course, we should not think that we are able to let our light shine perfectly. That would be impossible, because we still possess a sinful nature and therefore there are times when our light doesn’t shine as brightly as we would want. But nevertheless, true faith will show itself often in a Christian’s words and actions. This could be as simple as helping our neighbor with a simple task, or speaking a kind or consoling word to a person who needs it. Doing simple things like this as well as the more difficult things for our neighbor is how we let our light shine.
Jesus also teaches us the reason why we do these kinds of things. We do not do these things to win glory or honor for ourselves. No, we do all of this to the glory of God. Our desire is that the unbelievers around us might see our actions as a reflection of the God who loves all people, and that as a result they praise God. When we let our light shine and demonstrate our faith in our words and actions, we are witnessing our faith to our neighbors. Who knows? God could be using one of our kind deeds to bring another person to faith. What a privilege it is to be an instrument in God’s master plan! So let’s let our faith be evident in our words and actions…it’s what Christians do!
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This article also appears in Jan/Feb 2008 edition of the WELS Spanish language publication El Mensajero Luterano
