City on a hill

“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." Matthew 5:14-16 

Now I want you to notice something very specific about this passage. It says, "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill  cannot be hidden." If there's a city on a mountain, there's no way you're gonna be able to hide it. What are you gonna do? Cover it with a blanket? You can't hide it. There's either a city on the hill or there's not. Period. 

Can you imagine how crazy you would sound if you said, "Oh there's this city on that mountain over there. Yeah, see it? Well, I mean, sometimes it's there. Sometimes you can't really see it. How? Oh, I don't know. It's just not there sometimes."

Yeah. Right. Next stop: insane asylum. But you know, I think Jesus put that bit about the city on a hill in there because sometimes we're like that in our walk with God. We think that we can only shine the light of the salvation of the Gospel when we choose to. Like we can turn it on and off. Mission field? On. Workplace? Off. Church? On. School? Off. 

And so Jesus says, "A city on a hill cannot be hidden." If you are saved, you can't just hide it. If you are truly experiencing the power of The Gospel of God's grace, it will show. If people can't see it, (stepping on toes here...,,,) you need to step back and look at how you're living your life. 

We're the light of the world. We are the only hope for a world that is dying eternally and spiritually, and we cannot sit down, shut up, and act like everything is okay.