Shining Lights or Saber Light Swords

I don’t know how to explain it, but often when I get together with fellow-believers who are empty-nesters, the conversation turns to how wicked and horrible our world is becoming. I often go away very discouraged. It seems that people of faith easily fall into the trap of what we are against in our world rather than what we are for in Christ. Recent “outrages” about the Olympic opening ceremony and gender identity wars often evoke strongly worded condemnations on social media platforms and sadly in church foyers.

As followers of Jesus we know that we are called to be the light of the world, but far too often we are Star Wars light sabers rather than torches of light that invite people out of the darkness that is destroying them. Maybe we need to look in the mirror and ask ourselves whether we are truly shining lights or saber light swords. God’s Word is our spiritual mirror!

You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.—Jesus (Mathew 5:14-16, NIV).

Do you see what Jesus says? We can hide our lights or shine our lights. However, the clear outcome of shining our lights is that people see the Christlike life that we live (good works empowered by the Holy Spirit) and that shining life brings good attention (glorify) to our Father. Shining for the Lord is about pointing people to pay attention to our God through our good actions. Shining for Jesus should be an invitational not divisional!

Paul said it this way in his letter about joy that he wrote from prison (house arrest in Rome).

Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world (Philippians 2:14-15, NKJV).

Two-thousand years ago, the Apostle Paul described his generation as a crooked and perverse one that believers in his day had the privilege to shine as lights! Not too long after Paul penned these words, Christians were used as human torches in Nero’s gardens. Herod was reported as having a harem of boys for his perverted pleasures. The next time you are tempted to bemoan how wicked our culture is, remember that every culture since the beginning time has been crooked and perverse and the people of God have always been called to shine as a light rather than whine in complaint and condemnation. One of my fellow preachers recently said, “if you think it’s bad now, you haven’t read your Bible!” Life without our Lord is and has always been crooked and perverse from the fall of mankind recorded for us in Genesis 3. I do not say this to minimize the wickedness of our world, but I do say it to remind all of us who follow Jesus to shine all the more rather than whine all the more. Shining is His will for our lives as believers. Whining is not!

Dr. David Ley is the President of Alaska Bible College and Pastor of Family Care, ChangePoint Mat-Su.