Let Your Light Shine

“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 NIV).

   This is a very familiar Scripture, and it has many important things to say.  The most obvious is that we are to let our light shine everywhere so everyone can see it.  It is our mission, our duty, to do that.  We are told to do that in the Great Commissions given in Matthew 28:19,20.   If we don’t do that, how will others get to know Jesus? Someone did that for you, so now it is time to pass it on.    It is our privilege, our duty, to help increase the population of heaven. 

    Sometimes we tend to skip over the importance of the first sentence of these verses, “You are the light of the world.”  Jesus has told us that we are the “light of the world.”  The reason that we are is that we have come to know Jesus as Lord and Savior.  We are enjoying great blessings because of that, and don’t we want our friends to experience the same?  Each of us has a unique voice and a unique way of saying things.  There may well be someone who will not “hear” the message of salvation unless he hears it from you.  That’s a big responsibility—one that we all share.  

   The middle part of these three verses tells us that a lit light is not hidden but is put on a place where it can be seen by all, where it can provide illumination to everyone.  You and I do not have the same set of friends or of acquaintances, so you can reach people that I cannot, and I can reach people that you cannot.   

   So how do we fulfill this responsibility?  The obvious answer is to speak to someone about Jesus, and that finally is the answer, but that is not always, or maybe not usually, the way that a person is introduced to our Lord.  Oftentimes the first step is to do something thoughtful or kind to someone, and maybe we need to do that several times.  When we do that often enough, the person will ask why we are different or why we treat them kindly.  That’s the opening to begin the discussion of Jesus.  It may be rejected the first time we mention His name, but we need to persist and mention Him again at a later date.  Perhaps the person will never allow the name of Jesus in a conversation.   That is a sad moment, but that may not mean that all is lost.  If we pray for the person, someone else may be able to speak to them about Jesus.  It is hard to accept the fact that some people will never be willing to hear about Jesus.  Each person has been given free will, and each one must decide for himself whether to accept Jesus or not.