Matthew 5:14-16

Matthew 5:14-16

You are the light of the world.  A city is not powerful enough to hide while being located upon a mountain.  Neither do they light a lamp and set it under a basket.  Rather, they set it upon a lamp stand and it shines everyone in the house.  In this way, let your light shine before mankind that they may see your good works and they should glorify your Father who is in heaven.

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

Today we get another analogy that Jesus makes regarding His disciples.  But before we get to this, let’s look at a potential critique that is buried within this opening verse.  We know that God called Abraham to be the father of His people.  Those people were chosen to take God to the world.  They were chosen to carry the greatness of being in a relationship with God to the rest of the world!  But what did they do?  They took God’s favor and hid it.  They continued to live life as though life was all about them and the things of the world.  So why are we talking about this today?  Remember that Jerusalem was build upon a mountain – or at least a very large hill.  The Greek can mean both of these things.  Jerusalem is God’s Holy City, and as such they should not have been able to hide God from the world.  But the Jews did hide!  They were not that city on the mountain that could not be hidden.  Jesus is telling His disciples bluntly that following Him does not look like the religion with which they grew up.  Following Jesus is not about hiding in the crowds and going on with life as though God changes nothing.

Have you ever considered this open analogy as a critique of the religious system around Jesus?  Do you think that Jesus would say the same thing about us today?  Why or why not?

Second Thought:

So what should life be about?  Jesus tells us that we are to let our light shine.  We are to be open about our faith.  We are to find ways to intentionally put our faith on display.  Now, this doesn’t mean that we go around beating people over the head with our Bibles, either.  We are simply to live our life as though God is the center that He should be.  We are to put relationship with God on display for people to see.  What people do with what they see is up to them.  But we are called to not keep our relationship with God a private matter!  Faith and relationship with God is something to be seen, experienced, and shared!

Where do you put your relationship with God on display?  What do you do when someone sees your relationship with God and takes notice?

Third Thought:

Finally, look at what Jesus says is the result of letting our light shine before mankind.  The Father receives glory!  Jesus doesn’t say a single word about us receiving any glory.  God gets all the glory.  We put God on display so people will notice God, not us!

Are you happy to let God get the glory?  Are you ever guilty of trying to live righteously so you get praise and credit?

Passage for Tomorrow: Matthew 5:17-20