“In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” – Matthew 5:16
“Oh, you’re a good person. You deserve what you have right now.” – (1)
“You’re a good person. Praise God for your life. He deserves all glory and honor for what you are right now.” – (2)
Out of the two statements above, we humans always prefer the first one. We are selfish and proud. Our nature always seeks the gratification of our pride. We love it so much when we are regarded as good, righteous, and even humble. It’s very ironic how our proud selves seek to be called humble. Now, as we always crave appreciation like the first statement above, our verse today teaches us a different approach. Matthew recorded in his book specifically that as Christians, we are the light of the world, and we are the salt of the world.
Although the only light of the world in Christ, as His disciples, we are called to become the extension of Christ’s light. We are called to share the world and to manifest the love and the salvation that we found in Christ. So, as we focus on our verse today after we are called the light and the salt of the world, we are also called to let our light shine before others so they will see our good deeds. Now, the point is that the people should not see our good deeds to praise us, but to praise and glorify our Father in heaven.
With this, statement number two should be our goal. We already know that we are the light of the world, we are a city on a hill that cannot be hidden. Let us shine our light towards others, and together with the difficult part of remaining salty, we are also to keep ourselves in check. We must ponder our motives and weigh if our motives are still to glorify God, not ourselves. It is easy to have a goal, but it isn’t easy to keep having the same goal throughout our lives. Therefore, it is very important for us to always check ourselves and remain in the path of humbleness and humility.
Again, our main goal should be that through our actions, people who don’t know God will glorify Him and praise Him through us. The credits should not go to us, but they should always go to God. We must not just become the light of the world and share the Gospel for our own selfish agenda. If we will have the agenda of making ourselves to be the best preacher, then we will really fail. Our actions, our love, our good deeds, and our forgiveness should reflect Christ always so that people will only see God. After all, as Christians and people who really understand the real meaning of salvation, it’s always our goal to let the people see Christ instead of us.
Now, if we are still having the selfish mindset and the desire to feed our pride, it’s time to reassess ourselves and start aligning our desires to the Will of God. We must always remember to do everything for the glory of God and for the people to know Christ. Let us become effective and efficient in sharing the Word of God through reflecting Christ in our lives and extending His love towards others.
