Matthew 5:14-16
"You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they slight a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, tthat they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." (NKJV)
My garden’s looking pretty pathetic about now. It’s late November. The nights are cold. My annuals (the flowers that only grow for the year) have pretty much died and the perennials (the plants that will reemerge in the spring) are going into hibernation. What’s left are the metal and wood garden decorations I bought at the dollar store . . . and the chrysanthemums. The chrysanthemums are riotous, regardless of the fact that the nights are cold and the days aren’t much better. Regardless of the fact that the soil is predominantly sand. Regardless of the frequent winds.
The chrysanthemums are blooming like crazy!
In fact, what’s amazing is that when they were planted in a pot with all "good" soil, when the sun was constantly shining and the nights were warmer, when the conditions were "perfect" for good gardening, the chrysanthemums didn’t do very well. They were just kind of . . . well . . . there. They were part of the garden, but the blooms were few and the leaves were rather insignificant. In my earlier summer garden pictures, you don’t even really notice the chrysanthemum plant. In fact, there was a tendency to think that it didn’t even belong in the garden. But now that the circumstances are much more adverse, it’s blooming spectacularly.
There’s a message in this for the Church, a message that we need to take to heart.
In the past 200 years, America has fostered a cultural climate that embraced the middle class, white Christian church. (Many of us don’t even realize how our country created a culture that seemed to imitate Christian values.) Many grew up in communities where "everyone" went to church, outwardly embrace Judeo-Christian values, and seemingly supported the idea of God and country (both becoming rather synonymous). And now that we are facing rather large cultural shifts, we are frantically trying to maintain the comfortable status quo rather than realizing that this new culture may be exactly what the Lord wants in order to teach us how to become the light on the hill.
The reality is that the Church is like my chrysanthemums. When the circumstances were perfect for growing a Judeo-Christian culture, the real Church was slowly disappearing. It was there in a bleak, limp imitation of itself, but, in truth, the spiritual growth that is produced by an intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit has been missing. The real Church has all but disappeared as many have attempted to replace it with an imitation, the idea that we can have a "Christian culture" that is devoid of a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
We need to become "the light in the world," but the light isn’t needed if we don’t first realize that we are living in great darkness. We need desperately to first understand that our world—our nation—lives in this great darkness and needs us to become the Light that is Jesus. And, according to what our Savior said in Matthew, that Light is real only when we are recognized by our "good works" that glorify God.
That phrase "good works" is an interesting one. The word works is, in the Greek, ergon, and can mean "toil" as in an occupation. Our works are those things which occupy us, which occupy our thoughts, our efforts, our time, and our resources. The word good is, in the Greek, kalos, which means "good, excellent in its nature and characteristics, and therefore well adapted to its ends." And that end is what? Bringing glory to God. But how do we do that?
The Lord Jesus, Mark 12, says something very interesting. He first begins with: "And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’" (v. 30-31a). These are very familiar to most Christian and certainly fit the definition of "works". These are the things that need to occupy our thoughts, efforts, time and resources. We need to love the Lord with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength.
Then Jesus goes on to say that we need to love those around us. He outlines these two statements as two commandments. The first is that we need to love God and the second is that we need to love our neighbors. Certainly both of these fit the definition of good works. What we need to know is that these two commandments are linked. We cannot love others without loving God with all of our efforts and we cannot love God without demonstrating sacrificial love to others.
This is similar what He said in Matthew about doing being a light and doing good works. The two are inextricably connected. We cannot be a light without doing good works and we cannot do good works unless they are done as the light of the world. And what are those "good works"? They are loving our neighbor as ourselves! Good works aren’t good works that don’t demonstrate love to those around us. Good works are those works which are "well adapted to its ends" which is to love our neighbor.
The one comment that I continue to hear over and over again, across the Internet, (and so, cross-culturally) is that Christians aren’t very loving. We say we’re loving, but what we appear to be is demanding, self-centered and, frankly, mean. We generally have a rather "us four and no more" attitude that demands that the world suits itself to our desires, needs, and culture before we will presume to come down off our self-created pedestals and fellowship with those we consider "sinners." While all that seems harsh, that is indeed what unbelievers are saying about us. Instead of seeing our good works, the world is seeing our self-interest. Instead of acknowledging us as the light, we have become the irritating rock-in-the-shoe that they simply want to get rid of. We aren’t attracting people to the Lord; we are repelling them by our unloving actions.
To be honest, I welcome the adverse cultural conditions that are growing in America. Like the chrysanthemums in my garden, I truly believe that the American Church has the opportunity to return to its true nature and true calling in these times. While others may be afraid of altered foods, scary vaccines, faltering economics, and threats of war, we can stand firm in the knowledge that God loves every person; He died for all of us and His hand is firmly in control. We can walk through the fires, be attacked by snakes and scorpions, and come out victorious because the Lord Jesus has already won the battle!
We need to live as if we always have enough to share with anyone in need, because we do! We need to live as if Christ died for every lost soul, because He did! We need to love as if every person is precious to the Father, because they are! We need to become the chrysanthemum that blooms in adverse conditions, the light on the hill, because that’s what we’re called to do, and we can do all things through Christ Who strengthens us (Phil. 4:13).
© 2015 Robin L. O’Hare. All rights reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.
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