Matthew 5:14-15 - Light

Part one of "salt" so that talks of how we should do, and how we should behave as Christians, by being set apart, by making a difference, and going into the world. Part two is all about us showing Jesus in the way we act and telling the world about him. 


Matthew 5:14-15 Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand. Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand - shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.


How do we show light through how we live? Well, we show the way of salvation. By being set apart Christians, by being like "salt" we are effectively showing the world Jesus! We do this by our actions, by being a witness to people, by acting like Jesus. We know how to act like Jesus, from looking at the beatitudes and the fruits of the spirit. However chances are, we're not like all of them, all the time. Chances are that we're human and sometimes intentionally and unintentionally we are going to mess up. But, if it can be helped, try not to sin in front of non believers, because although you are not trying to be fake, or try to portray that life as Christian is in any way easy, people look at us as Christians, and we do get judged. 
I've had numerous conversations with people, going along the lines of:
"she doesn't give money to charity, but she's meant to be a Christian?"
"are they a Christian? they swear a lot"
and etc, you can understand the picture. we don't want to be portraying Jesus in a negative light, we want to be bringing people to him, and not displaying ourselves as hypocrites either.


How do we show light through telling people about Jesus? but as well as showing Jesus through us, we need to be talking about Jesus to everyone, we need to "sing it til the whole world hears" (Casting Crowns). In some situations, bringing up Jesus may be easy, but in others it can be extremely difficult. It's great when it's an easier situation to talk about Jesus, but in honesty, we're going to come across more situations where it's harder.  Jesus never said that everyone would love and accept us, he said blessed are those who are persecuted, because they are the ones trying hard enough to spread Jesus around. 


Is there a medium? there's either light, or darkness. there's no inbetween. there may be a little light, or lots of light, but there's no grey area, it's one or the other. so we're either showing Jesus, or we're not! a Christian who is not showing light, is effectively useless. so as a Christian, if we're not showing Jesus and we're not talking about Jesus . .well are we really Christians? We have to be all or nothing Christians, there's no medium. In the same way, we can't be Christians but hide our faith, we're lights, it's obvious we're Christians!