Don’t Stop Here

One of my favorite passages in the Bible is Matthew 5:16.

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

I have written before about the effect of a small light in total darkness. (January 16, 2018) Without going back into that material, let’s just note that the universal truth is simply this: light dispels darkness.

The passage in Matthew is generally referring to our light as our influence and our works.  The Christian is to live so that his actions will influence the world around him.  Influence in a positive way.  It is true that the only Bible many people ever read or see is by observing those followers of Christ in their midst.

We should note this is not a forced issue.  The Bible says “Let your light shine”.  It should be our normal way of life.  It doesn’t say “make your light shine.”  Each of us have a light.  We are made in the image of GOD.  GOD is the Father of lights (Ja 1:17).  We are to let our light shine.

Related to this influence, Philippians 2:15 notes that as children of GOD, we are in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.  And to the Christian it says “among whom you shine”.  The phrase “among whom you shine” is Present tense, which means it is continuous. It is on-going.  It is a way of life.  Furthermore the phrase is in the Imperative mood which means it is a command.  We are commanded to walk and shine as lights in the world.  That is to be how our lives are to be defined.

Returning to the Matthew 5 text, we ask how?  How do we let our light shine?  The text says, “that they may see your good works.”  First let us note the idea of ‘works’ is not a bad word when it comes to religion.  We are letting our lights shine when we do good works.  Galatians 6:10 encourages us to be looking for opportunities to do good to all.

But here is the thought for the day.  What is our motive for doing good?  What is our motive for letting our lights shine?  Are we shining our lights in order to bring attention to ourselves?  GOD forbid!

The title to our blog today is in reference to the passage found in Matthew 5:16.  And we are encouraged not to put the period after the phrase, that they may see your good works.  No, don’t stop here!  Don’t leave the remaining part of the passage off!  The ultimate reason for our good works is found in the rest of the passage.  We shine and we work to glorify GOD in heaven!  May we ever remember our life’s function is to bring honor and glory to the ONE who created us.

The word glorify in the original language is found over 50 times in the New Testament.  The reader is encouraged to make a study of the word glorify and it’s close relative, glory, in the New Testament.

In the majority of those cases, the context is similar to that found in Luke 5:25.  Here Jesus heals a paralytic man and the text reads:

Immediately he rose up before them, took up what he had been lying on, and departed to his own house, glorifying GOD.

Mission accomplished!  The LORD performed a good work and it resulted in GOD being glorified.

May our life’s mission be to perform good works for the sole purpose of glorifying our GOD.  Help me O GOD to that end.