You Are the Light of the World
By Jonathan Mitchell
This startling proclamation by Jesus is found in Mat. 5:14. We will begin with the verse just prior to this statement, and then continue on through to Jesus' expansion on this thought, in the following verses:
13. "You people, yourselves, exist being (are) the salt of the Land (or: territory; earth). Now if the salt should ever be made dull or tasteless (literally: foolish; nonsensical), in what way will it continue being salted (or: made salty)? It still continues giving strength into nothing (= it still cannot provide seasoning), except being thrown outside, to be repeatedly (or: continuously) trampled down by people (or: tread down under the humans). [cf Lu. 8:5]
14. "You folks, yourselves, exist being (are) the Light of the ordered System (the world of culture, religion, politics, government, and secular society; = the human sociological realm; or: the aggregate of humanity). A city located up on a mountain (or: situated on top of a mountain range) continues unable to be hidden or concealed.
15. "Likewise, people are not normally lighting a lamp and then placing it under the measuring bowl (or: a one-peck grain-measuring basket), but rather upon the lampstand - and it continues shining and giving light for all those within the house.
16. "In this way, let the Light, which you folks possess (or: which has a source in you folks; or: which you people are), shine in front of the People (before the humans), so that people can see your fine works (or: the beautiful works that you are; the ideal acts which come from you folks) and they can give glory to (or: and [these deeds; or: these works of beauty] will bring a good reputation to, and a manifestation which incites praise for) your Father - the One in union with the atmospheres [that surround you folks] (or: within the midst of the heavens)!
Verses 13 and 14 are Hebrew parallelism. Verse 14a explains vs. 13a. His listeners had been
"those sheep having been destroyed, the ones that belong to [the] house of Israel" (Mat. 15:24),
but were now connected to the Vine (Jn. 15:1ff). And what had God said, concerning Israel?
"You see, thus has the Lord [= Christ or Yahweh] inwardly directed to (set a goal for) us: 'I have placed (or: set) you unto [being] a light of nations (ethnic multitudes; non-Jews), [in order for] you to be [placed] into the midst of a deliverance (a rescue and a return to health and wholeness; a restoring to the original state of being and condition) as far as [the] last [point] of the earth!'" (Acts 13:47; [Isa. 49:6]; cf Isa. 60:1-3)
They were joined to Jesus, who is
"the Light of this ordered world (or: of the aggregate of humanity; for the System of domination; of the cultural, political, and religious arrangements; from the cosmos)" - Jn. 8:12.
We find this "city" located on Mt. Zion, in Heb. 12:22ff,
"You folks have approached so that you are now at Mount Zion - even in a City of a continuously living God; in 'Jerusalem upon heaven' [cf Heb. 11:16]."
This is where they were, and where we now are, with Jesus (Heb. 12:24), and this was shown in visionary symbology to John, in Rev. 21:10,
"Next he carried (or: carries) me away, in spirit (or: in the midst of a Breath-effect), upon a great and HIGH MOUNTAIN, and showed (points out to) me the set-apart (or: holy; sacred) CITY, Jerusalem, progressively (or: habitually; or: presently) descending out of the atmosphere (or: heaven), from God."
Now just before this (Rev. 21:9b) the agent told John that he would show him "the Bride, the Wife of the little Lamb" - i.e., people - figuratively portrayed as a city. In this same chapter we find the names of the twelve tribes of Israel inscribed on the city's gates (vs. 12) and in vs. 14 we read:
"Also, the wall of the City continues having twelve foundations, and upon them twelve names of the twelve emissaries (sent-forth folks; representatives) of, and from, the little Lamb."
So this city, the New Jerusalem, is a symbol for the combined People of God, made up of those from the old covenant and those from the new covenant - combined into One (cf Eph. 2:15, the results from the Peacemaker). Now in regard to the City's walls, Dan Kaplan has pointed us to Isa. 26:1,
"Behold, we have a strong city, and our salvation shall He set for walls and rampart." (CVOT)
This was repeated, in Isa. 60:18,
"You will call your walls, Salvation."
Then Dan connected this to Isa. 12:2,
"God is my Salvation..."
It is God's presence within us (Rev. 21:22) that is our Defense and keeps us Safe. Then this city is tied to Mat. 5:14, above, in its further description, in Rev. 21:23-26,
These combined pictures reveal aspects of who we are, as Christ's anointed body, and what we do. Rev. 21:23, above, explains that God's
"glory and assumed appearance"
illuminates the City, and this corresponds to Mat. 5:15-16, above, where the metaphor is a lamp illuminating a house. The oil of the Anointing burns within us and the Light which is produced by this burning shines out into the atmosphere which surrounds us. The Fire of this burning is the essence (Heb. 12:29) and presence of God radiating out from within, and upon, us. We find this same symbolic picture in Acts 2:3, and explained by our risen Lord, in Rev. 1:20b.
Now in our present context, Mat. 5:16 presents the purpose for our being the Light of the aggregate of humanity:
"so that people can see your fine works (or: the beautiful works that you are; the ideal acts which come from you folks)."
The result will be that those who see will give the glory to God, and not to us. For that to happen (for this is not the normal result, seeing that people usually are not enlightened to discern that work which people do are manifestations of God in their lives, and rather, they usually credit fine works to the people that they observed doing them - and this is a common source of idolatry) the Light that shines from us contains information about God. The Light is the Logos,
"And this (or: the) Life was continuing being, and began progressively existing as, the Light of the humans" (Jn. 1:4),
and
folks must be GIVEN the ability to understand that our works are works of God (Mat. 13:11, 16),
or else,
"the darkness does not grasp [i.e., understand], nor receive and accept, or embrace, it on the same level" (Jn. 1:5).
The facts that we are both Salt and Light instruct us that we have an impact on the society around us. But the purpose given for this (vs. 16, above) shows us that the Light within us will produce
"fine works (or: the beautiful works that [we] are; the ideal acts which come from [us])."
Jesus referred to these things as being His fruit, in Jn. 15:1ff, and then Paul instructs us that:
"the fact is, we are (continually exist being) the effect of what He did (or: His creation; the thing He has constructed; the result of His work; His achievement; His opus; the effect of His Deed): people being founded from a state of disorder and wildness (being framed, built, settled and created; being changed from chaos to order), within, and in union with, Christ Jesus, based upon (or: founded and built on) Good Works (virtuous actions; excellent deeds) which God made ready in advance (prepared beforehand), to the end that we could, should and would walk about (= live our lives; order our behavior) centered within, in union with, and in the sphere of, Them" (Eph. 2:10).
Jonathan
We now offer a beautiful explanation for the seeming paradox of the relationship between faith and works. This was an article by Harry Robert Fox, which was edited and posted by Jan Antonsson:
You ARE the Light of the World
by Harry Robert Fox
"This statement was made by Jesus to a group of disciples on whom He had just bestowed His 'beatitude' as recorded in Matthew 5:1-12. Notice, He did not say, 'You OUGHT to be the light of the world,' but rather, 'you ARE its light.' Yet most preachers on this subject have treated Jesus' statement as an 'imperative' (authoritative command), rather than as an 'indicative' (statement of fact). So, we must ask why was Jesus able to speak thus to His disciples?
"The answer must be found in the beatitudes-context which preceded the statement in question. Those beatitudes were spoken in the indicative mood rather than in the imperative. That is, instead of telling His hearers what they ought to be, Jesus, in His beatitudes, spoke and related to His hearers so lovingly and graciously that they were transformed into radiant lights, 'all lit up' with joyful gratitude for what Jesus had just said and done for them!
"It was to these radiant, lit-up hearers that Jesus proceeded to deliver the remainder of His 'Sermon on the Mount' in the imperative mood. Only after He had richly bestowed on them His indicative beatitudes did He then tell them what God required of them, even to loving their enemies! Thus someone has observed that all of God's imperatives are based on His indicatives. This applies even to the Ten Commandments as recorded in Exodus 20. In the first verse of that chapter, God reminds His people of all He had done for them in delivering them from Egypt before commanding them to obey His commandments. Thus God consistently bestows His Grace-gifts on us BEFORE He commands our Faith-obedience.
"Notice how this order operates in the Epistles of Romans, Galatians, Ephesians and Hebrews, each of which is divided into two sections: the first section is devoted to an articulation of God's Gospel of Grace while the second section is devoted to the Faith-response which is elicited by that Gospel. In this connection we are reminded of the Apostle Paul's question in I Corinthians 4:7, where He asks, 'What do you have that you did not receive? If, then, you received it why do you boast as if it were not a gift?'
"The most impressive of God's gifts is the astonishing truth that long before any of us had adequately believed in God or repented of our sins or asked for forgiveness God forgave us at the precise moment in which we crucified His Son on the Cross! In other words, per Romans 5:10, 'While we were (His) ENEMIES we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son' (not when we were His obedient friends but were His disobedient enemies)! Could there possibly be any other information that would light us up more than this? And transform us into His obedient children? Such lit-up people are indeed the Light of the World, so sorely needed in today's world!" - Harry Robert Fox
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