“You are the light of the world. A town built 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 others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

Matthew 5: 14-16

One of the most noticeable things lately has been to see how common it is for us to want to shine light on other people instead of ourselves. I call that flashlight Christianity. It is as if we are all sitting in the dark with our flashlights pointed at other people.

“Whatever happened to WWJD?” the page asks. So many people answer that with, “Yea, what is wrong with the world? Everyone is forgetting that!” But, whatever happened to us answering, “Yea, what is wrong with me? I have forgotten that!” Well, we all have this tendency to point out what others are doing wrong, but let’s set that aside and instead focus on how we can become light in the darkness. His light in the darkness.

In the above verse Jesus says that it is in our good deeds that our light will shine out and glorify God. What are our “good deeds”? They are the deeds that Jesus would do. In the verses, He says that the way others will see His light will be because we are the city on a hill, going about our good deeds (or aka, His deeds) as a part of our everyday life which shine out for others to see. In other words, as we are living out our lives as Christ-followers, living out the WWJD life in our everyday situations, then people around us will be able to see Him alive in us. People in the dark will find that light and be attracted to it, to Him.

Are our deeds, His deeds? Is the light we shine coming from within, born of the work of the Holy Spirit changing us to be like Christ, who is alive in us? Are His words our words?

Of course God will have us speak to others about Him, but if all we do is talk and we really don’t “shine” out from our lives, people will see that and our words lose meaning. Perhaps having your light under a bowl is not just an unwillingness to tell others about what Jesus has done on the cross, perhaps it also is that person who becomes a Christian (or says they are one) but never allows Jesus to work His light and life out in their life. Perhaps for those people, their little light never has the chance to grow. One thing I do know about candles is that if you light one and put a bowl over it completely, it will soon burn out because it won’t have any oxygen to keep it going. Could that be part of what is being said here?

We need to grow and feed our walk with Christ. We need to know and apply His word. We need to commune with Him in prayer and relationship so that we are walking on the earth in a way that shines His light around us. Is there something dark and wrong with the world? Of course. But if we are the city on the hill, we need to each be shining His light.

We often use this verse to say that we need to not be afraid to tell others about the wonderful thing that Jesus has done in buying our salvation from sin, death, and hell. Let our light shine in that context means, “Tell others.” I don’t dispute that. However, we see everyday (if we have eyes to see, that is) how lots of Christians are talk, talk, talking, but not really live, live, living like Christ-followers. Let us most importantly be letting the Holy Spirit shine His flashlight on our own hearts and lives so that we can be made more like Him to shine His light more clearly into the darkness that is around us.