The Light of the World

As a pastor there are usually only a few Sundays per year that I get to hear a sermon.  I love it when on one of those rare occasions, the sermon you hear is a good one!  This week we had our missionary Tim Blazer give the message and he called our attention to Matthew 5:14-16 and reminded us that we are the light of the world. 

One of the things I appreciated most about the sermon was the point about us being illuminated bodies.  He pointed out that we are not luminescent bodies - we do not shine on our own.  Christ was this.  He was the Light of the World.  He shone in darkness and darkness did not comprehend it.  We instead, are like the moon.  We have no light on our own.  We shine a reflected light.  What a glorious truth.  It is so important that we do not draw attention to ourselves, but instead choose to shine the light of Jesus and allow Him to do the glowing through us!

When you think about your shine, are you shining the light of Jesus or some other light?  It is tempting to shine our own lights.  To make our lives about ourselves.  To make the world see us.  This is a wrong course of action for the Christian.  However, there are other ways we can fail to shine properly.  When we draw more attention to our church than to Christ, we have failed in our role as illuminated bodies.  When we draw more attention to our denomination than to Christ we have failed in our role as illuminated bodies.  In fact, if anything is the center of our lives other than Christ Jesus, than we have failed to shine His light and are shining a non-light.  This is perhaps why we have lost our impact, because we are shining the wrong light!

When we sing, "This little light of mine, I am going to let it shine. . . " we are in fact teaching bad theology.   First of all the light is not mine, it is the light of Christ shining through me.  And secondly, the light is not in any way little.  It is the light of Christ, the light that in the end will eliminate the need for sun or moon or stars.  This light is a powerful light.  It is true however that we have to make the choice to let it shine.  We have to dim and hide all the other things in our lives that would obscure the true light and let Christ shine through us.