Jesus further stated "A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house" (v. 14b-15). Do you give light to all who are around you?
Just as there was a difference about the Lord Jesus and His life, that those around Him knew that He was a "teacher come from God"
(Jn. 3:2) so men should be able to tell by our lives and actions that we are "born of God" (1 Jn.5. 5:1).
The admonition now is to "let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven" (Mt. 5:16). Every child of God has a light, a testimony, which he is to allow to shine. To hide it by putting it under a "bushel" is abnormal. The light shines through his good works, done not to attain salvation, but because he is saved. He must be sure his works done "before men" (Mt. 6:1) are not done for the praise of men, else he would then have his reward; they should be done to glorify God. His motives must be pure, for Christ knows them and they shall be revealed at His judgment seat (1 Cor. 3:13); 4:5).
As a group of believers in a local church you, too, have a testimony or a lampstand. If this testimony is not burning brightly, or if you let the "lamp of God" go out (1 Sam. 3:3) in your assembly because of sin, God "will remove thy candlestick our of his place" (Rev. 2:5). Too many individuals have no testimony for Christ and, sadly, many churches where once the fires of revival burned and the light of God shined, now have "Ichabod" which means "the glory is departed", written over them. We need old-fashioned heart-searching to see if we have not left our "first love" and we must "repent and do the first works" (Rev. 2:4-5). If a church can go for weeks on end with no one brought "out of darkness into His marvelous light: (1 Pet. 2:9), there should be some real soul-searching "The way of the wicked is as darkness; they know not at what they stumble" (Pr. 4:19). But praise God, we do know, and we must show them in love and compassion. "In the midst of a crooked and perverse nation...ye shine as lights in the world; holding forth the word of life"(Phi. 2:15).
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