LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE

Jesus said, "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." (John 9:5).

But he was leaving the world and would take his place on the throne of his glory. So we read of the multitude that followed him as he went up on the mountain. From out of the multitude that were certain ones who are called his "disciples." This number probably contained the twelve but was not confined to the twelve. Disciples are sincere students of a master teacher and so it was at this time. We read in Matthew 5:1-2: "And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him: And he opened his mouth, and taught them ..."

We know it was the sincere ones he was addressing specifically for me hear him in vs 11 saying, "Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake." So he tells this group of sincere disciples, "Ye are the light of the world ... Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." (vss 14-16). They would not be the light that he was but would reflect his light into a world of darkness. They would be the only light the world would have or, as he pts it at another time,. "... Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light" (John 12:35-36).

Just as it was then, even so it is today. We see a world of wickedness, darkness, all around us. Light is the only medium that can dispel darkness. If the light of his disciples goes out, then the world will lie in utter darkness as in the beginning when "darkness was upon the face of the deep." But God said, "let there be light" and there was light. So he says in this present day, "let there be light." And that light is dependent upon people who will open their hearts to a hearing of the master teacher and apply the lessons of the Book in their lives without fear of what the world may think or say or do. "That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world" (Philippians 2:15).

Return to the Daily Devotionals