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14 You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. ~ Matthew 5:14-16
Today, we return to our study of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7 which is about the inculcation of the culture of God into the believer's life. This is also known in the Bible as sanctification. In our last study, the Lord Jesus Christ noted that His disciples were the salt of the earth. In today's passage, He makes another comparison, He said that His followers are like "the light of the world." It is through our brokenness that the Light of the world shines best. And, it is most difficult to dim the light that shines from within.
In v.14-15 of today's passage we read, "14 You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house."
In Israel many cities are built on the tops of hills. In the evening these cities are seen from very far distances. So is the believer in Christ who is learning to give his heart to the Lord and the Lord is granting him His heart. The goal of our sanctification is that God be glorified and He is best glorified when those who once were in the darkness enter into the light through a personal relationship with Himself through His Son the Lord Jesus Christ.
On the heels of His teaching on the process of sanctification or the process of the change of the human heart toward God, the Lord Jesus used two metaphors to reveal the result of that process: salt and light. Having considered the first metaphor in our last study, today we consider the second, light. Believing the gospel is only the beginning of being a light in this fallen world. The fuel to make that light effective is found in our daily walk with the Lord whereby we are talking with Him and receiving from Him His instructions about life through the Bible.
Here, the Lord Jesus also used another metaphor to get His point across, the lampstand. These little terracotta lamps provided an incredible amount of light in a house. It made absolutely no sense to hide such a useful tool while in the darkness. These lamps had a spout on one end, a little handle on the other end, and a little floating wick in the middle. They were filled up with oil, and they did what was expected, they burned throughout the night. These lamps were about three to four inches wide, two inches high, six inches long, and they lit everything up.
The phrase "You are the light" is written in the emphatic plural meaning believers in Christ alone are the light of this world. No one else in this world has what the believer in Christ has. And, if people can't see Christ through our lives, guess what, they won't see Christ. God has so designed it that we are His living ambassadors in this dark world. And, God rarely blesses us with only us in mind. As is illustrated by the two bodies of water in Israel, the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea, it is more blessed to give than it is to receive. If we make ourselves the center of our world we are in danger of becoming lifeless as the Dead Sea.
In Ephesians 5:8-11 we read, "8 In the past you were full of darkness, but now you are full of light in the Lord. So live like children who belong to the light. 9 Light brings every kind of goodness, right living, and truth. 10 Try to learn what pleases the Lord. 11 Have nothing to do with the things done in darkness, which are not worth anything. But show that they are wrong."
Once we have departed from the domain of darkness and have entered into the light of a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus, we will naturally desire to see others leave the domain of Satan. Throughout the Bible God equates the light with the truth and the darkness with sin. Only in coming into a personal relationship with God do we become light. And, even though we have come into a personal relationship with God, we must work hard to walk in His light so that others benefit from our Spirit-filled existence.
In v.16 of today's passage we read, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven."
In this verse the Lord Jesus personalized His teaching. The usage of the word "your" highlights the goal. The Greek word used here and translated "good" means good in terms of beauty being manifested. This beauty is to communicate an attractiveness, a winsomeness. In other words, we are to let people see the attraction of the application of the gospel to our lives. The Lord Jesus wasn’t just speaking of their good deeds, He was speaking of the beauty of God that is manifested through the broken and yielded life of the believer. The beauty is seen in the authentic nature of the believer's heart for God and for the lost. The believer in Christ never produces the light. It is the Lord Jesus who is the true light and as we allow Him to have His way in and through our lives, He will shine. We have just got to let Him shine through our broken and yielded lives.
Living out of this new place where God defines us is what it means for us to be the light now. To daily be seen as we are in the light we must turn to the Lord in the midst of our trials and hearing His voice in that context. The problem comes when we try to avoid pain, pressure and problems. In so doing, we miss the opportunity to grow in faith or our heart's ability to see God. We rob ourselves of a deeper intimacy with the Lord. Darkness is the absence of light, it really doesn't exist. It is useful, though, because it magnifies the light. The light is the Lord Himself. Without the darkness, we do not know the Lord, we do not know His presence, we do not know His life. It is in the context of relationship with the Lord that we discover His expression to and through us because He is the only true Light.
