Do you understand what it is to shine your light?

Matthew 5:16 "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven."

Have we begun to misunderstand the meaning of shining our light before men?

People have come to interpret this command as living a life of good works and happy smiles, as if this make themselves a 'better Christian' and somehow points others towards God, but this is a grave misinterpretation.

Many cowardly Christians, the most cowardly of all, use this verse as an excuse not to confess Christ before men. They state that actions speak louder than words and therefore devote their lives to actions and charitable deeds whilst staying quiet; not because of any sincere belief that they hold to, but rather because it is convenient for them to hide away from their duty to preach the Gospel of Christ behind their good works.

By shining their light, these types of people are are not showing the glory of God any more than the unsaved charitable person.

What we must understand is we are not called to show our light but rather we are called to show His light through our lives. We are not called to become an independent source of light, but rather to reflect the light of Christ. Just as the moon does not shine of its own accord but instead reflects the light of the sun, we must not shine in our own strength (for indeed we cannot) but instead reflect the light of Christ Jesus and what He has done for us.

Psalm 14 tells us that "there is none that are good, no not one." No matter how hard we try to shine our light, we will always fail because our nature is fallen. We may shine brightly for a moment but we will soon fade and become dim as our natural desires are too strong to contest on our own. To be required to shine our own light would be an undue pressure put upon us by God. No, this He would not do. For He knows that "with men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. " (Matthew ). Instead we are called to reflect the light of Him whom we love and Him who has forgiven us much, Christ Jesus our Lord. We can live in freedom of guilt and shame and pressure for we know that we are not called to act in our own strength, but rather live in a way that allows Christ who is within us shine forth. Shining our light is not an attempt to please God, it is simply allowing Him to manifest Himself within us. Focus upon Him and his glory and naturally you will begin to shine His light before all.

It is the light and hope of Christ that we must show before men, as His witnesses, in both word and deed together in whatever form it may takes, not mere random niceties and happy faces. Only then, through reflecting the light of Christ will those around us see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven.


2 Corinthians 4:3-6
³ But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, ⁴ whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. ⁵ For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. ⁶ For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 3:18
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Philippians 2:14-16
¹⁴ Do all things without complaining and disputing, ¹⁵ that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, ¹⁶ holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain.

-BACChristian