Bible Studies in the Gospel of Matthew

Bible Studies in the Gospel of Matthew
XVI

Matthew 5:14-16; Micah 6:8; 2 Peter 1:5: show forth. The disciples of Jesus Christ are the light of the world to such a noticeable degree that they are compared to a city that is set on a hill, and in the evening its light is visible all around the horizon.

It is their life that shines like this in this world’s darkness. It is no small thing to shine like this in this evil, unbelieving, and self-confident world. Worshipers from heathen religions can achieve many things, even more than most average “Christians.”

In order to shine so that unbelievers are convinced, we must go on the exact opposite way that people usually go, so that we gladly serve others instead of preferring to be served, we would rather give than receive, we rejoice to pay bills instead of complain, and descend rather than the opposite, i.e., we go from riches to poverty.

Unbelievers reason that one person is no better than another, that Christians are no better than worldly people, that you can certainly speak about it but that nothing will come of it, or in other words, that there is no real power in Christianity. It is therefore our task to disprove this most emphatically!

Everything is two-fold, as Sirach says. The one hand shall not know what the other hand is doing; we must not trumpet our good deeds, but rather hide them. And yet we must be diligent to show forth virtue so that people everywhere can see our good works and thus be convinced of Christianity’s tremendous power—the power that enables us to go against the current.

We are to hide our good works in order to receive the least amount of honor from people, and yet we shall let them shine so that they shine as far as possible—not to receive honor from people, but to accomplish the compelling and necessary work of convincing (religious as well as non-religious) unbelievers of Christianity’s tremendous, transforming power.