When His Light Is Considered Darkness

Matthew 5:14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

I hope you pause in astonishment when you read our Lord’s statement, "Ye are the light of the world" (Matthew 5:14). The fact that He has chosen to use us to reach the world with His truth and love must always lead us to humility and action. It leads us to humility as we confess, Lord, I cannot do this on my own. The Holy Spirit will need to empower me! And it leads us to action as we say, I must go forth! I cannot expect the world to be reached in another way.

We understand that we are not the source of light, but only its means of distribution. We are only a reflection of His radiance, as the moon is to the sun. So the fallen world never sees His light of truth and love perfectly through us, and even when it sees that truth and love clearly, the world does not rejoice. As if Christ’s call for us to be the light of the world were not sobering enough, we also learn that His light shining through us in the darkness of the fallen world will be misunderstood, slandered and opposed.

When the prophet Isaiah says, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness,” (Isaiah 5:20), he is addressing a situation that is not only common but normal. In our fallen state, the unsaved are “having the understanding darkened” (Ephesians 4:18) by the ultimate persecutor, our spiritual enemy, identifying the goodness of God’s light as something that must be attacked and destroyed.

The normal response of the fallen world is to oppose the light of Christ as if it were dark wickedness. As you read the true testimonies of faith in April's magazine, please consider how nearly 1 000 Buddhists thought they were doing good as they violently stormed a church, beat the congregants and installed an idolatrous Buddhist shrine. Darkened in their understanding through the hardness of their hearts, they considered the light and truth of Christ to be something so shameful and harmful that it required elimination.

We cannot serve God well if we imagine that the fallen world will value us as His followers, celebrate us, or cheer us on. Too many Christians genuinely think, “If we show forth the love of Christ, we will be admired and they will want what we have.” As Christ’s witnesses — collectively “the light of the world” — we must understand that the radiance of His glory shining through us will be opposed and rejected. But we can praise God because He uses such opposition and the result of our suffering to accomplish His purposes. Christ suffered to show us His love, and we are called to be Christlike, to take up our cross to show His love to others. As we do so in faith, we can identify the violent opposition as “a great opportunity.”

From our CEO,

Ashley.