Your light must shine before people in such a way
that they may see your good works and
glorify your Father who is in heaven.
Matthew 5:16 (NASB)
Do you know why the text above is in red?
Of course you do.
Jesus said that.
Think about this statement:
We should care that Jesus cares about our devotion to Him every day. That is—our relationship with Him and our response to it.
It isn’t that true believers are not sinless, but rather we are forgiven and walk in a new lifestyle. We live according to God’s moral law and according to the new commands of Jesus to love Him with all of our hearts and to love others.
We are committed to sharing the Gospel.
Those goals sound simple.
Don’t they?
Jesus died in obedience to His Father and to glorify Him. That was not easy.
He wants us to live in obedience to Him in the same way, to bring glory to God. That is what the verse in red tells us.
Our redemption is part of it, of course. But this verse tells us so much that we easily ignore, doesn’t it?
But maybe it’s not so simple. Jesus warns us that it won’t be easy. John 16:33
We love the mantra, “Once saved, always saved!” We love to remind people that ours is not a works-based faith.
Both of those tenets are true.
When we settle on that and refuse to live holy lives for Jesus, then we are missing a big part of our responsibility as devoted believers. When we settle for those mantras then we are taking the easy way out. And that is sin.
Our responsibility is to live wholly committed lives to the Savior, like some friends from the New Testament: the Bereans. These people were extraordinary models of faith.
Take a look with me. See what you think about your devotion to your walk with Jesus.
There was a group of people in Paul’s day called the Bereans. They were from a region of the world known as Macedonia, or the present-day Balkans. They were in a place where persecution was a threat. Not much has changed for believers, there.
These early believers were filled with joy in their newfound faith.
They were known for their 1) nobility in receiving the Gospel, 2) devoted study and sharing of the Gospel even with their enemies, 3) zealously defending and protecting Paul, 4) continued growth in the faith.
Then Paul mentioned this beautiful body of believers in 2 Corinthians 8: 1-5
- I want you to know… what God in his kindness has done through the churches in Macedonia…
- they are being tested by many troubles, and they are very poor.
- they are also filled with abundant joy, which has overflowed in rich generosity
- they gave not only what they could afford, but far…of their own free will
- they begged us…for the privilege of sharing in the gift for the believers in Jerusalem
- their first action was to give themselves to the Lord.
You see, the primary focus of the Berean believers was God. They wanted the world to look at them and see Jesus, because they believed the world looked at Jesus and could see the Father.
See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are!
But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children
because they don’t know him.
1 John 3:1
The Bereans wanted to know Jesus more.
I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done.
Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him.
Philippians 3:7-9
They wanted His Word to be planted in their hearts.
I have hidden your word in my heart,
that I might not sin against you.
Psalm 119:11
They wanted to know how to share the Gospel with Jews and Gentiles.
“…Here I am. Send me.”
Isaiah 6:8
They were not cowards.
For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.
2 Timothy 1:7
They were not consumed with materialism.
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Matthew 6:33
They had generous hearts. They were hospitable, and noble. They loved to love God and man.
And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing.
Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable.
Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.
Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—
everything you heard from me and saw me doing.
Then the God of peace will be with you.
Philippians 4:8-9
And that should describe you and me.
“If you love me, obey my commandments”
John 14:15
While passing through this world of sin,
And others your life shall view,
Be clean and pure without, within,
Let others see Jesus in you.
Let others see Jesus in you, Let others see Jesus in you; Keep telling the story, be faithful and true, Let others see Jesus in you.
Your life’s a book before their eyes,
They’re reading it through and through;
Say, does it point them to the skies,
Do others see Jesus in you
What joy will be at set of sun,
In mansions beyond the blue,
To find some souls that you have won;
Let others see Jesus in you.1
- Let Others See Jesus in You
B.B. McKinney
Ca 1924 ↩︎
New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Getting the Seed out of the basket and into hungry hearts. Matthew 13 