Matthew 5:13-16 - The Goal of the Kingdom Witness

© Eric Schumacher - July 10, 2005

Some time ago, I read an article about an art exhibit featuring paintings by famous master painters. This exhibit was different from most though in one way–the paintings were all hung backward. Visitors to the museum would only see the back of the canvases.

I’m sure they had some sophisticated philosophical purpose to the exhibit, though I’m not certain what that would be. One thing I can say for certain is that such a display is contradictory and useless.

I think that we can say with certainty that these great artists did not paint their paintings to be hidden. They painted them to be displayed and seen and appreciated. Hidden paintings contradict the purpose of the artist.

We can also say such paintings are useless. They do not increase your appreciation for the artist or his work.

Those who claim to be Christians but willfully refuse to live out the character of the kingdom that Jesus has described in the Beatitudes are much like these paintings hung backward.

A hidden Christian, like a painting hung backward, is contradictory and useless.
In the passage that we have been studying these past few weeks, Jesus has been talking about salt and light. In particular, he has shown how salt that is not salty is not good for anything–it is useless.

Here in verse 15, Jesus talks about a lamp that is lit and then hidden under a basket so that its light cannot be seen. What is such a lamp good for? Nothing! It is useless.

In the same way, such a lamp is contradictory. Lamps are lit for the purpose of giving light in darkness. But, when the light is hidden, it contradicts its purpose.

Christians are not born-again to new life and brought into the light of the Gospel so that they can act like dead people and live in darkness. 1 Peter 2:9 says, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” In other words, God has chosen you to be his people so that you can so that you can proclaim his excellencies. We are called out of darkness into his light so that we can proclaim the excellence of that light, not so that we can hide it and look like the darkness.

One further thing that we can say about paintings hung backward is that we cannot be certain that they are what they claim to be. One can claim that the painting is DaVinci’s Mona Lisa, but since we cannot see the painting, we cannot make that claim with any certainty. For all we know, it could be a finger painting done by a bunch of rabid monkeys!

We can say the same thing about someone who claims to be a Christian but hides their light under a basket. They can claim there is a lamp under there, but unless we can see the light, we have no biblical reason to believe it to be so.

In his sermon on this verse, Martyn Lloyd-Jones (150-151) gave this insightful summary:

“The essential characteristic of light is that it is light, and gives light, and it really has no other function whatsoever. In other words, the moment is ceases to act as light it has no value. Its essential quality is its only quality, and once it loses that, it becomes entirely useless.

According to our Lord’s argument that is the truth concerning the Christian. As I understand it, and it seems to me to be an inevitable piece of logic and interpretation, there is nothing in God’s universe that is so utterly useless as a merely formal Christian. I mean by that, one who has the name but not the quality of a Christian. The apostle Paul describes this when he speaks of certain people ‘having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof’. They appear to be Christian but they are not. They want to appear as Christians, but they are not functioning as Christians. They are salt without savour, light without light, if you can imagine such a thing.”

Paintings are not painted to be hung backward. Lamps are not lit to be hidden. Jesus states the obvious: Lamps are placed on a lamp stand so that the light can effectively shine where it is needed.

To keep us from fooling ourselves and others by succumbing to the temptation to hide our lights, Jesus commands us to let our lights shine. This is the second command that Jesus gives in the Sermon on the Mount. The first was at the conclusion of the Beatitudes–“rejoice and be glad!”

So far, in the verses on salt and light, Jesus has only given descriptions and made observations. “You are the salt of the earth.” “You are the light of the world.” Now, he gives a command, “let your light shine.” Letting our light shine means that we:

Do not conceal what we know and are.
We should boldly and lovingly proclaim the truth of God’s Word to those who are living in the error of sin and the bondage of death. We should be unashamed of the truth, even if it means we will be reviled, persecuted and lied about as Jesus predicted in verses 11-12.

We should strive to be like John the Baptist, who Jesus described as (John 5:35) “a burning and shining lamp.” John was unafraid to call sin “sin.” John was unafraid to point out that someone’s conduct was not in-line with the will of God–even though it got him beheaded. The world mocked him, but Jesus praised him.

Do not withdraw from the world.
We should resist the temptation to withdraw into our little Christian clichés and avoid the world. It is easy now to find churches with their own coffee shops, restaurants, bookstores, recreation facilities, fitness rooms, etc. Then, you can pick up your copy of the Christian Business Guide and make sure that you only frequent Christian business. You can arrange it so that all your interaction is light shining on other light, free from the burdensome task of engaging the darkness.

Give attention to the life you live.
Notice how being salt and light relates to moral character. In this passage, Jesus is certainly talking the witness of the Kingdom. Jesus is talking about the witness and the influence that Kingdom Citizens (believers) have in the world. When Jesus speaks of our witness to the world, we don’t find any mention tracts and alter calls. We find him focusing on the character of the person.

Immediately before this passage, what do we find? We find Jesus describing what His citizens look like. They are people who realize their spiritual poverty before God. They mourn their sinfulness. They are meek in their dealings with God and man. Realizing their sinfulness and hating it, they hunger and thirst for righteousness–it is their greatest desire to be godly. They are merciful in their dealings with others. They are pure in heart and strive for peace with God and man. They rejoice when they are persecuted for shining in the darkness. All that comes just before this passage. It is people of this moral character who witness to the world.

Notice what comes just after this passage in verses 17-48. Just after Jesus commands his disciple to let their light shine, he expands on what that will look like. He explains it in terms of moral character–what being a kingdom citizen means in how you act in regards to anger (21-26), lust (27-30), divorce (31-32), oaths (33-37), retaliation (38-42), and loving your enemies (43-48). Letting your light shine means striving to be people of this sort of moral character by the grace of God.

We are to shine so that the world can see our good works.
Jesus says, “In the same way, let your light shine before others.” The reason he gives begin “so that they may see your good works.”

In other words, we should strive to live the sort of life that shows the world that we are different. This is not done with any sort of self-righteousness, because the kingdom citizen is “meek” and “poor in spirit”–he fully realizes that he is a sinner in the need of God’s grace. This is not done with the false idea that we are perfectly sinless, for the kingdom citizen mourns his sin and “hungers and thirst for righteousness”–he continually realizes his sin, hates it, and genuinely wants and strives to be different.

The world should see our good works. The world should see Christians who strive to make peace with their enemies, instead of pouting and backbiting. The world should see Christians who respond to insults with love and self-control, instead of outbursts of anger and revengeful tactics. The world should see Christians, who when they have sinned, confess it and seek forgiveness, instead of making excuses and defending themselves. The world should see Christians taking care of those who have no one to care for them, instead of Christians piling up wealth to comfort themselves. What does the world see when it looks at you? When it looks at this church?

What these good works are showing the world is that we who were once in darkness have now been brought into life. We who were once dead are now, by God’s grace, alive. The world expects Christians to be different. They are watching to see if there is any marked difference between us who claim to be “saved” and them.

We live in an age where Christians have a remarkable opportunity to be light in the darkness. Again, Martyn Lloyd-Jones (154-155) offers some commentary that is too insightful to pass by:

“The world is becoming more and more rude; rougher, uglier, louder. I think all will agree with that. As the Christian influence is diminishing in this country the whole tone of society is becoming more gross; the decencies, yes, even the little politenesses, are less and less in evidence. The Christian is not to live in that way. We are far too prone these days just to say, ‘I am a Christian’, or ‘Isn’t it wonderful to be a Christian?’ and then sometimes to be rude and inconsiderate. Let us remember that these are things which proclaim what we are–‘the manner doth proclaim the man’. We are to be humble, peaceable, peacemaking in all our talk and behaviour, and especially in our reactions to the behaviours of other persons. I believe that the individual Christian is having a greater opportunity today than he has had for many a century, owing to the whole state of the world and of society. I believe that people are watching us very closely because we claim to be Christian; and they are watching our reactions to people and to the things they say and do to us. Do we flare up? The
non-Christian does; the Christian should not. He is like the man in the Beatitudes, so he reacts differently. And when confronted with world events, with wars and rumours of wars, with calamities, pestilences and all these other things, he is not overanxious, troubled and irritable. The world is; the Christian is not. He is essentially different.”

Why do we want them to see us?
Of course, all this talk of having the world “see our good works” (which is what Christ commands) might lead to a question: Why does Jesus command us here to shine so that the world sees our good works, but in chapter 6 he warns against it? Chapter 6 begins, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them.” So in chapter 5 Jesus says to shine so that others see your good works. But in the same sermon, a few verses later, Jesus says that if you practice righteousness in order to be seen, then you have no reward in heaven. In fact, he goes on to tell us to do our righteous works in secret, where only the Father sees. So which is it? Do we avoid being seen or do we seek to be seen?

What Jesus is getting at is our ultimate motivation in being seen. Jesus is aiming at the desire of our hearts. In chapter 6, all that Jesus says is “beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them.” In other words, there is a danger is visible good works–that danger being we make our ultimate goal to be seen and praised by others (6:2).

In our passage this morning, Jesus draws our attention to the ultimate goal of letting your light shine. Jesus does not just say, “Let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works.” He adds something very important.

Jesus says, “Let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” We do not live lives of kingdom witness and influence for the sake of our own praise. We give witness about the kingdom so that people will become worshipers of God.

Our ultimate goal in being a witness is the Glory of God.
This is a point of theology worth dwelling on. If you were to ask most people the question, “Why do we witness to non-believers?” They would probably answer, “So that they may be saved and escape hell!” That is a correct and biblical answer. But, it is not correct enough. Seeing sinners get saved is not the ultimate reason we witness because sinful human beings are not of ultimate importance. Only God is of ultimate value and importance. We witness so that other people might give God the glory he deserves. As John Piper puts it: “Missions exists because worship does not.” One day all missions work will cease, but worship (giving God glory and praise) will not.

This motivation–the glory of God–is the ultimate goal in all parts of salvation:

• The display of His glory is God’s ultimate goal in saving us.
  God saved us so that we could give light to his glory:
  2 Corinthians 4:6 For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
• Displaying God’s glory is the ultimate goal of all Christian conduct.
  We should live all of life in a way that will point lost people to Christ and will cause them to glorify God.
  1 Peter 2:12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
  1 Corinthians 10:31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
• Displaying God’s glory is the goal of church relationships.
  Peter says that the way Christians love each other, fellowship with each other, and whole-heartedly use their gifts to serve in the church are to be done so that God is glorified.
  1 Peter 4:8-11 Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies- in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
  Is the way that you love and fellowship with others in the Christian family (or refuse to do so) glorifying God? Is the way that you are wholeheartedly using your gifts to serve in the church (or choosing not to serve) motivated by seeing God receive glory?

We should examine our actions and attitudes to see if they glorify God.
We should examine every area of our life–our thoughts, words and deeds–to see whether they are glorifying to God. We should ask, “Is the way I’m acting, is what I’m doing (or leaving undone) showing the light of the kingdom in a way that will help sinners come to be worshipers?”

We should also examine our motives. Is the reason we do all that we do that God might receive glory? Or, are we acting out of selfish ambition, pursuing our own praise and comfort above the glory of the Father?