"Let your light so shine before men that they may see your moral excellence and your praiseworthy, noble, and good deeds and recognize and honor and praise and glorify your Father Who is in heaven" (Matthew 5:16, Amplified).
The call of God upon our lives is to shine the light through the agency of His life that is in us - the life of God in Christ Jesus.
But it seems to me that today's church has chosen for itself another assignment, namely to multiply torches, produce more lanterns and manufacture more candles. However, good and necessary as that may be, carrying about a huge torch or lantern or advertising the biggest or tallest candle can never be the same thing as shining the light.
All the huge cathedrals, massive educational institutions and other symbols of physical advances of the church today are no more than huge lanterns. The titles that have so filled our church system will not shine the light. Only the life of God within us can shine the light we are talking about. For it is written of Jesus Christ, our perfect example, that "In Him was life, and that life was the light of men" (John 1:4). If it was so with Jesus Christ, that He had no other light to shine to affect His world, it cannot be otherwise with us who have been called to carry on His works.
Friends, if we will not become a sorry disappointment to the cause and cross of Christ, this Christianity of 'things' that has become the hallmark of today's church must stop immediately. The gospel of 'things' cannot save the world, neither will it change its manners from unrighteousness to righteousness. Similarly, the gospel of
'morality' that does not take its cue from the life of God, the gospel of 'success' that makes light of the will of God, and the other kinds of 'gospels' available on the stable of the modern church cannot save the world. It is only the Gospel of life, the life of God in Christ Jesus that can give hope to humanity.
Jesus came to give us life - eternal life, abundant life (John 10:10).
Whereas we will have the good things of life to follow us as we pursue the kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33), the purpose of Jesus' coming was not to give us things. The life that Jesus came to give is what we must also primarily offer to this dying world.
Every facility God makes available to the church must only be seen as tools to advance the life of God in the hearts of men. Similarly, every resource God has given us as individuals must always be seen as tools to share with others the life of God. May the Lord help us all in Jesus' name.
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