Jesus Bids Us Shine

I’m sure you may remember singing this little song in Sunday School perhaps many years ago. It was written by Susan Bogert Warner, an American Presbyterian writer of religious fiction (1819-1885).

I little while ago I was woken during the night with the words “Let your light shine” (Matthew 5.16) on my mind. The next day I opened the devotional I had been using and those very same words were there before my eyes!!

What does “let your light shine" mean? Let me take you back to the Old Testament book of Genesis where we read that the first words that God spoke at creation was “Let there be light” (Genesis 1.3). What was that light? It wasn’t the sun because the creation of the sun is recorded in verse 16. The first thing that God did to bring order to chaos was to bring light which is also the way God works in our lives.

So this light was not sunlight, it was something deeper; we find a clue to this in 1 John 1.5 where we read “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.” There are other verses that describe the light of God and of course Jesus himself said “I am the light of the world” (John 8.12). Therefore we can see that in that act God was releasing his own nature (light) into the world.

How does this fit with “Let your light shine?” Well, does not the bible also say that we were created in God’s image? (Genesis 1.7). Because of the fall of man recorded in Genesis 3, that image was marred, however, when we come to receive Jesus as our Saviour, that image is restored, (see 2 Corinthians 4.6).

In his letter to the church in Philippi, the apostle Paul says this: “Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labour in vain.” (Philippians 2.14-16).

So to let your light shine means to reflect goodness, kindness and truth in your life, living in a way that is different, bringing clarity out of darkness and drawing others to the hope we have found in Jesus.

As Christians (which means one who is like Christ), converted, forgiven sinners, we have the light of life to reflect the light of Christ to the world so that “they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” We do this by allowing Jesus to work in us and through us so that others see him in us in all that we do.

“Jesus bids us shine.”