14. "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15. 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. 16. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
In a Peanuts cartoon, Peppermint Patty was talking to Charlie Brown. "Guess what, Chuck. The first day of school, and I got sent to the principal’s office. It was your fault, Chuck."
He said, "My fault? How could it be my fault? Why do you say everything is my fault?"
She said, "You’re my friend, aren’t you, Chuck? You should have been a better influence on me."
While Peppermint Patty was seeking to pass the buck, she was in a very real sense right. We should be a good influence on our friends. We certainly do have an influence, for good or for bad.
Last week we reflected on being the salt of the earth. We saw the influence salt has on society. The Christian is called also to be a light to the world. Light is contrasted with darkness.
Making decisions in the dark can lead to some regrettable consequences. Back in the days before electricity, a tightfisted old farmer was taking his hired man to task for carrying a lighted lantern when he went to call on his best girl. “Why,” he exclaimed, “when I went a-courtin’ I never carried one of them things, I always went in the dark.”
“Yes,” the hired man said wryly,” and look at what you got!”
Jesus said, “Men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil.”
Darkness is expelled as soon as you hit the lights. People are not aware of the darkness they live in if they don’t see the light. “The people who were sitting in darkness saw a great light.” (Matthew 4:16)
To be the light of the world is to take a stand against darkness and expose the lies and the sin that keep people in “blindness”. It is darkness. The old hymn declares, "Send the light, the blessed gospel light. Let it shine from shore to shore." It is a song we often sang at missions’ time. The concept of the call to missions is to leave the areas which are well lit to go to parts of the world where the light and truth of Jesus is not yet known. When we see the world in disarray, we can't help but realize the vast difference of people living in squalor with false beliefs that keep them bound. When people come to faith in Jesus they see as never before and lives are changed for the better not only here, but forever.
There is so much around us that is filled with lies from Satan. He desires that we focus on the here and now and be ignorant of the eternal. He keeps us attracted to the trinkets of this world so we fail to see the value of the riches in glory with Christ Jesus.
We don’t like to see our imperfection, but being a light helps people see more clearly and understand more fully what we can become in Christ and to focus on things differently than those who do not see.
Application: The question is “Does your life help people see Jesus more clearly?”
Prayer: Lord, hide my flesh in you so that when others see me, they see you.
