Light of the World

At the outset of his public ministry,
our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ laid a foundation for Christian
behavior. And I’d like you to turn there
to begin this morning to Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5,
and you’ll recall almost immediately here that in Matthew 5, Matthew
is capturing Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. And the immediate
context of this is that the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry
in Galilee, calling sinners to repentance, calling the likes
of mere fishermen to become disciples and fishers of men, teaching
the people and proclaiming the gospel, healing those with diseases
and sicknesses. That’s the backdrop of these
words in Matthew 5. It’s no surprise that because
of all the healings, Jesus’ popularity grew very quickly, producing
an overwhelming throng of followers. And it was actually because of
those crowds that Jesus withdrew to a mountain with only his closest
disciples to instruct them. Jesus gives here in Matthew 5,
the Sermon on the Mount, the longest recorded of any of his
sermons or addresses. And I only want to zero in on
three verses this morning, verses 14 through 16. Matthew 5, verses
14 through 16, where Jesus tells his disciples, you are the light
of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be
hidden, nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket,
but on the lampstand. And it gives light to all who
are in the house. Let your light shine before men
in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your
Father who is in heaven. Now, of course, in and of themselves,
even Christians have no light of their own to shine. Jesus claimed repeatedly for
himself, I am the light of the world. And just as our own moon
reflects the sun’s light, Christians also merely reflect the light
of Christ. since he himself is the light
of the world. And only believers in Christ
can reflect that light. And that’s important to note
because when he says you are the light of the world, he says
something there that he would not say to a mixed crowd of people. An unbeliever cannot be a light
to the world. But a Christian can and should
and must be a light. As I mentioned a moment ago,
Jesus is addressing his disciples, his followers, not the general
crowds, some of whom were merely curious about Jesus. These are
the ones who are professing faith in him and they are to reflect
the light of Christ. Jesus first reminds them in verse
14, glance there if you would, he reminds them of who they are.
That if God has done the work of salvation in them, he says,
you are the light of the world. And he subsequently reasons with
them that the very purpose of light is to shine. Whether it’s
that glimmering city on a hill or an illuminating lamp in a
home, a light is to shine. Light is given in order to illuminate
the darkness so that others may see. So Jesus issues a fitting command
there, let your light shine. Don’t hide it. Christianity should
be visible. The effects of the gospel on
sinful humanity must be perceived by others. Redemption should
be shown and known. Transformation ought to be observed. So it’s important to see here
that even reflecting the light of Christ is not the end goal. Do you realize that? Ultimately, it is that God would
be glorified that we shine as so many lights. And as Christians,
we should desire what God desires, that unbelievers would be drawn
to Christ, ultimately drawn to God through Christ. in order
to glorify Him in their salvation. Paul knew and believed this truth. From Matthew 5, writing to the
Ephesians, he reminded them of the same exact thing. Listen
to the way he says it in Ephesians 5, 8. You were formerly darkness,
but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. I want you to note there that
Paul doesn’t suggest that in our sinful condition, we were
merely in the darkness. He says we were darkness. In
our wretched condition outside of Christ, we were part of the
problem. But now he says, having come
to Christ, For forgiveness, you are light in the Lord. If you
have placed your faith in Christ, you are reflecting the very light
of the Savior. Paul issues almost the same exact
command that Jesus does in the Sermon on the Mount when he says,
walk as children of light. Or as Jesus said it, let your
light shine. The whole purpose of light is
to shine. Paul made the same conclusion in Philippians chapter
two, didn’t he? He says there in Philippians
2.15 that against the dark backdrop of a crooked and perverse generation,
the Christian who shows herself or himself to be blameless and
innocent children of God above reproach will appear as lights
in the world. They let their light shine. Paul issues the same exhortation
here for us in Colossians 4, 5, and 6. If you would begin
turning there. Colossians chapter 4, verses
5 and 6. And we’ll note that this is the
last, Paul’s 10th, doctrinal applications. And they’re related
to a wide variety of aspects of Christian living. And we’ve
gone through these before, so I’ll make it very brief this
morning. But he started with heaven-oriented
living. and then addressed sin-mortifying
living, putting sin to death in our life, truth-grounded living,
Christ-like living, love-focused living, Bible-centered living,
glory-driven living, Relation-building living, dealing with all the
relationships of the home, and then as we saw just last Lord’s
Day, chapter 4, verses 2 and 4, prayer-guided living. Well,
this is Paul’s tenth and final application of the doctrine of
chapters 1 and 2 to our lives, to living. And this one I would
just briefly label as opportunity-minded living, although we have a perhaps
a better sermon title for it. But this is the 10th of these
series of 10 things. Paul would have believers to
whom he writes, including us, to have our lives transformed,
changed by God’s grace. To be so changed by God’s gracious
salvation in Christ that our very lives, the way we live,
is different. He would have us to lay hold
of the glorious opportunity that stands before us as believers. So if you would, follow along
as I read Colossians 4, verses 5 and 6. Conduct yourselves with wisdom
toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let
your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt,
so that you will know how you should respond to each person. Paul, the Apostle Paul, this
caring, beloved shepherd, is writing to a church, again, that
he’s never visited. And so this foundational truth
that he communicates should not surprise us. As rudimentary as
it seems to us, he wants the same thing for these believers
that Jesus wanted of his own early disciples. that they would
shine their light into this dark world. It’s a very simple paragraph. We want to look at the light
of the world, and essentially what Paul does here is begin
to define the Christians’ call to illumination. We are called
to shine our light, we are called to illumination, and he’s going
to tell us exactly what that looks like. Look, if you would,
first at just this foundational sentence in verse 5, conduct
yourselves with wisdom. Paul’s mindset here in this final
exhortation to this church is not survival. that the Colossian believers
would merely get by, live through whatever challenges they were
facing. He’s not interested in just their
survival in the world, getting by. He wants them to flourish. He wants them to thrive. He desires
that they would greatly impact the unbelieving culture all around
them. And he hopes that they would
emit the transforming illumination of the gospel to those who so
desperately need to hear it. Well, in order to communicate
his hopes for them, he breaks out one of his favorite metaphors,
that of the Christian walk. And it’s translated here a little
more straightforwardly as conduct. Conduct yourselves, he says.
But that word is translated so many times in Paul’s epistle
as walk. In its most basic sense, the
word indeed refers to a person’s conduct, how they carry themselves
in the world. And so when Paul uses this word,
he’s not using it to speak of the physical process of walking. He’s employing it metaphorically
to refer to the whole course of the Christian’s life, everything
that we do, everything that we say. Paul uses this illustration
very effectively many times throughout his letters, more than 30 times
in nine different epistles. And we’ve heard Paul use this
illustration before even in Colossians. In Colossians 1.10, he says,
walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. In Colossians 2.6, he says,
as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him. In Colossians 3.7, he says, you
also once walked, this is your old life, in immorality, impurity,
passion, evil desire, and greed. In none of those verses was he
talking about an actual physical walk. And so Paul uses the metaphor
negatively and positively. He uses it of the ways that we
should not walk as Christians. 1 Corinthians 3. Are you walking like mere men?
Are you walking like people that have not been touched and transformed
by the grace of God? 1 Corinthians 4.2, walking in
craftiness. 2 Corinthians 10.3, walking according
to the flesh, walking just as it comes to us naturally as sinners. Are you walking according to
the course of this world? Are you walking just like they
do? Ephesians 2.2, Are you walking
just as also the Gentiles walk? So he uses it negatively, but
the greater number of times that Paul uses this metaphor, he uses
it positively. Listen to this. That we, in Romans
6, we are called to walk in newness of life. In Romans 8, 4, we are
to walk according to the Spirit. How does the Spirit direct us
to live? Romans 14, 15, we are to walk
according to love. That’s supposed to drive everything
that we do. We are to walk by faith, 2 Corinthians
5, 7. And there’s so many more. And here Paul says that as believers
who are transformed by the grace of God, we are to walk or to
conduct ourselves, he adds, with wisdom. We know that wisdom speaks
generally of that cultivated ability to choose the best goal
and apply the best means to achieving that goal. And so here, if our
goal is appropriate conduct, a Christian walk, then discernment
must be applied based on all the various contexts in which
we might find ourselves so that at any given moment we are walking,
conducting ourselves appropriately. What might be appropriate in
one setting will be wholly out of place in another. Wisdom is
what determines the appropriateness of our conduct. In other words, these believers
must carefully consider their circumstances, consider who is
around them, always remembering that lost souls are watching
them, and that they therefore must carry themselves prudently
and graciously, tactfully, Paul issued a similar caution to Titus. Laboring there on the island
of Crete to these new believers, Paul urged the servants to adorn
the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect. That is an
amazing statement. that we can adorn, decorate the
doctrine of God just by our upright lives. How, he says, he tells
them, by being well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering,
stealing, but showing all good faith. Those things will enhance
our testimony. There are sinful attitudes, speech,
behaviors that will undermine and even destroy any attempt
to bear witness to Christ with our friends and neighbors. Instead,
our lives are to show that we have been touched and transformed
by God himself through the power of the gospel. We are indeed
new creatures. We are peaceable people. We are
kind people. We are amiable people, just,
righteous, decent, gracious, generous, forgiving, and sincere
people. Instead of undermining our evangelistic
efforts, such living supports and lends credibility to our
testimonies. So the question arises, what
was the particular context that the Colossians faced. That’s
the same context that any Christian of any age faces. It’s the unbelieving
world around them, peering in, observing, scrutinizing everything
we say, everything we do. What does a wise Christian look
like? That’s what Paul begins. As this verse unfolds, he’s defining
the call to illumination. And the first thing that he says
is that a wise Christian considers unbelievers. A wise Christian
is careful how he carries himself, how he conducts himself, how
he walks. Look at verse five, once again,
conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders. Paul’s point
here is very subtle. But even on the face of it, we
know what Paul means when he refers to those outside. The
word is translated very straightforwardly here, outside, and it’s translated
the same way in Matthew 12, 47 to refer to Jesus’ family, remember,
who were standing outside a very crowded synagogue while he was
teaching. they were outside, they couldn’t
get in. The same word is used in that
same general sense to speak of Peter. After Jesus’ arrest, Matthew
26, 69, he was sitting outside in the courtyard. But Paul cannot
mean here, outside of a building, or just outside in general, in
the great outdoors We get a massive clue how Paul
is using the word here by the way that he uses the word elsewhere.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 5, there Paul is distinguishing between
judging, the judging of believers, and the judging of unbelievers. He’s admonishing them, you might
remember, about their own responsibility to deal with the notoriously
sinful man. You remember this? They had a
notoriously sinful man in their midst doing a wretched deed that
everybody knew about and nobody wanted to confront. He’s a professing believer. But he’s engaging in this vulgar
and despicable sin. Here, Paul insists, he must be
confronted and dealt with. Clean out the old leaven, Paul
even tells them. We cannot deal with believers,
unbelievers rather, in the same way. We have to associate with
unbelievers. Otherwise, Paul says, we’d have
to leave this world. And in this context, Paul says,
what do I have to do with judging outsiders? And then he adds,
those who are outside God judges. God will take care of them. God
is the judge of all the world. Nobody escapes. But that’s not
the task of the church, to judge outsiders. And plainly, there,
outsiders in that passage refers to unbelievers. Those who do
not know and love the Lord Jesus, they are outside. Paul uses this
same word a little more positively in 1 Thessalonians 4. He’s appealing to his church
to love one another by working hard. We want to show one another
how much we care for them by working hard. Why? Get this, so that you will behave
properly toward outsiders and not be in any need. Paul’s point
there is that the Christian is supposed to be self-supporting,
not a burden on the church or the society, not lazy, not a
beggar, so that those outside the church will not look scornfully
on Christians. The outsiders are those outside
the church, unbelievers. And that’s the same way that
Paul is using the word here in Colossians 4-5. Conduct yourselves
with wisdom towards outsiders, those of the unbelieving world,
in view of those who are not Christians. We need to live carefully
because of that. Paul’s insisting that the Colossian
believers be exceedingly sensitive and to walk wisely and appropriately
before a watching world. In weeks past, we’ve made much
use of the parallel passages in Ephesians, and the connection
is not quite so strong here, but just listen. I won’t even
have you turn. In Ephesians 5.15, Paul does
say, be careful how you walk. not as unwise men, but as wise.”
That’s a clear echo of what Paul is saying here. Paul’s point,
of course, is that neither God nor believers should want these
people to remain outside We desire that they would come
to know the truth and come to see their sin for what it is
and come to understand their need of a savior and come to
repentance for that sin and faith in Christ for salvation. We don’t
want them to remain outside. That’s the whole point. We don’t want them to stay outside. And this is what calls believers
to conduct themselves wisely in view of them. Peter echoes
this same point, doesn’t he? Somewhat different terminology,
but listen to 1 Peter 2.12. Keep your behavior excellent
among the Gentiles. Why? So that the thing in which
they slander you as evildoers, they may, because of your good
deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of salvation. You know what he says there?
You keep living righteously for Christ, and in time, they will
see you for who you are. And they will glorify God. They
will say, this was truly a Christian. Rather than taking a cold and
heartless approach that resents and closes out those who are
outside, the true Christian will carry himself in a gracious and
winsome manner, praying for a softening of their unbelieving friend’s
heart, that greater opportunity to share Christ would be opened
to them in time. I love, I tell you from time
to time, I used to quote all the time, quote some of these
godly Puritan writers. I don’t quote so much anymore,
but I couldn’t leave this one on the cutting room. John Eadie,
godly Scottish pastor, he characterized it this way. Those outside should
be surrounded by every inducement to come in. I mean, let’s just
pause right there. Did you do everything that you
could in your power this week to bring your unbelieving friends
to Christ? No barriers should be thrown
in their way, but the attractive nature of Christianity should
be wisely exhibited to them. This is how a Christian is to
live. And as life and practice of those
within the church is what they especially look at and learn
from, so the apostle says, walk in wisdom. Did you hear what
he says? The outside world is looking and watching, observing,
taking note at the way that you live. You say you go to church?
Great, let me watch. Listen to John Eady as he concludes.
The world’s Bible is the daily life of the church. Every page
of which its quick eye minutely scans and every blot on which
it detects with gleeful and malicious exactness. In other words, don’t
give them something to criticize Christ and his church for in
your living. Edie says, the world is watching.
Paul says, by God’s enabling grace, let’s give them something
to watch. There’s a second. defining elements
of Christ’s, the Christian’s call to elimination here. Not
only does a wise Christian consider unbelievers, think about them
in their life and behavior, but a wise Christian seizes opportunities. Would you look again at verse
five, conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making
the most of the opportunity. And considering what it is to
shine as lights in this world, Paul is defining it. And he says
that a wise Christian considers unbelievers, but he also seizes
the opportunities put before him, making the most of the opportunity.
In the somewhat parallel verse in Ephesians, Paul makes the
same point. There he says, making the most
of your time. He uses the same verb in both
places, and translated in both places, making the most. And really, Paul owns this word. He’s the only New Testament writer
that uses it. And the other two uses are both
in Galatians, and it’s translated there both times as redeemed,
cashing in. In Galatians 3.13, you probably
know this verse, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law.
He bought us out of the bondage that we were in under the law.
Galatians 4.5, similarly, God sent forth his son that he might
redeem us by us. Those who are under the law.
In both places, redemption is the idea that is communicated
by this word to buy out from beneath another power. Just like
paying a ransom to someone. That’s what God did for our lives. He redeemed us from the curse
of the law. I love the way one translator
paraphrased it here. Buying up the opportunity. Redeeming the time. Making sure
that we’re maximizing whatever opportunity God brings across
our paths. the conversations that may never
come around again. Haven’t you had those? And even
in the course of the conversation, you realize God has providentially
arranged this moment, and I may never get this opportunity again.
It pictures the opportunity as rare and fleeting, perhaps even
a one-time occasion. I remember when I was a little
kid, there was a retail establishment near our house. And I recall
that occasionally when you were in the store, a manager would
get on the PA system and call attention to a flashing blue
light special. You remember this? Some of you
have that store by you. It was literally a large flashing
blue light on top of a pole. You couldn’t miss it. You could
see it from anywhere in the store. And these must have been really
good deals because they were time sensitive. They
were kind of a, you must act now kind of a thing. And you
would see people, no matter where they were, wheel their cart around
and head immediately for the flashing blue light. Well, in a much less garish sense,
that’s what Paul is urging here. You have an opportunity. You
have a beautiful God-given opportunity. Make the most of it. Buy it up. We have a time and a window of
opportunity that we may never get back. What Paul is urging
the believers then is to seize hold of the opportunities as
God presents them, to proclaim the gospel of Christ. Paul presents
the scenario well in 2 Corinthians 6. There he says, behold, now
is the acceptable time. Now is the day of salvation.
Don’t let somebody push the conversation off to another day that may not
come. The time to act is now. There’s
an urgency. And with believers, there is
to be a sense of urgency. I can’t even tell you. This is
not in my notes. I can’t even tell me how many
times I’ve greeted people here that I never saw again. Because God took them. There’s an urgency in our conversations. There’s an urgency in our opportunities. Whatever time we have to act,
the time is to make the most of the opportunity that God has
placed in front of us. There’s a third defining characteristic
of the Christian’s call to illumination. We’re called to be the light
of the world, and a wise Christian considers unbelievers as he or
she sees as opportunities. And thirdly, a wise Christian
regulates conversations. Verse six, if you would glance
there, let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned
with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each
person. A wise and godly Christian, if
he’s to shine as a light in a dark world, not only has to consider
unbelievers around them, maintaining a good example in front of them,
they also must seize whatever fleeting opportunities are there
And lastly, they regulate their conversations according to God’s
standard. This is what Paul addressed in
verse 6. Paul is referring to unbelieving
individuals, outsiders in his first point, and to our various
opportunities in our second point with those same unbelievers.
And here in his third point, he zeroes in on the Christian’s
speech, his or her words. This is a very beautiful and
meaningful point. In his third and final point,
Paul effectively brings together everything that he’s said so
far. Wise conduct, a genuine concern for outsiders, seizing
these opportunities, because here he ties it all together
under the heading of what I would call gospel-centered speech.
Gospel-centered speech. There may be times where a more
abrupt and defensive or sharp response would be completely
and entirely inappropriate. There will still be other times
where a bold but gentle reply is precisely what’s warranted,
and it takes wisdom to know what is required. Paul begins with
an almost obvious statement here, that our speech is always to
be with grace. That only makes sense. Because
if we’re proposing here to do the Lord’s work and sharing the
gospel, it’s only reasonable that this can be done in the
spiritual power of God’s grace. Just as God saves sinners only
and purely by his grace, so also those proclaiming it must be
guided and infused by that same grace. I love the image. presented here in the second
clause. It describes the grace that Paul insists must attend
the Christian’s speech. Would you look at verse six,
let your speech always be with grace as though seasoned with
salt. It presents speech in a sense
of a kind of a meal, something to be eaten and enjoyed. And
yet like many dishes, Without some kind of seasoning, it would
be dull and bland. There’s nothing improper about
seasoning our food. We can certainly overdo it though.
Slathering a perfectly good steak with A1, pouring ketchup on your
eggs, putting your favorite hot sauce on everything you eat,
But God has designed food with flavor to be enjoyed. That’s
the illustration here. And so Paul’s image here of a
pinch of salt here and there that brings out or enhances the
flavor is the whole point of his illustration. So it is with
our speech. It’s to be seasoned with grace.
At minimum, our speech must be gracious, but I believe it goes
well beyond this point. Our conversations ought to be
infused with spiritual language, even quotes from Scripture. This
grace, while it’s bestowed on the one speaking, ultimately
it blesses the hearer as well. Paul makes a very similar thought.
I wasn’t going to have you turn there, but I will now. Ephesians
4.29. One of my favorite verses. Ephesians
chapter four, two books to the left, chapter four and to verse
29. This is such a great verse. This is so good, look at this.
Verse 429, let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth. Wow, that doesn’t end to a lot
of our conversation, doesn’t it? But only such a word is as
good for edification according to the need of the moment so
that it will give grace to those who hear. Some of you know I’ve
preached this before, and that first word, it just means putrid,
something that is utterly inedible, gross. But Paul presents the
alternative here immediately. There are only two alternatives.
There are only two kinds of words that will ever proceed from your
mouth. Garbage or grace, it’s that simple. Garbage or grace,
speech that is unwholesome or speech that is beneficial even
to the hearer. Garbage or grace. Back please
to Colossians 4 as we close. He says the grace that Paul is
referring to here is not just pleasant sounding words, but
it’s words of truth. It’s the news of the gospel.
It’s something that is spiritually wholesome and edifying. There’s a purpose to this seasoning
with grace. Paul closes with the explanation. It is so that you will know how
to respond to each person. There’s a fascinating connection
with the words immediately preceding these. Remember last week, verse
three, where Paul asked for prayer that God might open up a door
for Paul and his team, a door for the word, that he would know how he ought
to speak. A door for which he prayed would
open up to the outside world, right? The countless souls who
desperately need to hear about the Savior. And in like manner,
Paul turns around here and tells his readers the exact same thing. Paul didn’t use the same approach
with every individual or every group, and neither should we. His point there was that his
approach varied depending on the context. And just as his
response to the opportunities varied, depending on the context,
so must ours. And for that, we need wisdom.
Likewise, he says that we need to season our speech for the
same purpose Paul is calling to mind the varieties of ways
in which they might be called upon to speak to various parties. With some it might be a gentle
discussion. Right? You’ve had these. Sometimes
they get pretty hostile pretty quick. Sometimes it’s a Q&A. With others it might be a lively
and even passionate discussion. That will happen. Some will need
really nothing more than what we tend to call apologetics,
positive arguments for the truth of Christianity. And for some
people, that’s all it takes. Oh, I didn’t know that. Some people will require big
explanations to longstanding questions, still others, They
don’t even want the answers to the questions that they’re posing.
They only want to argue. We need wisdom to know the difference. Some will require great patience.
Some may even need an equally strong response. For all of this,
we need wisdom. The very thing that Paul urged
at the outset. We need the Lord’s wisdom and
grace to navigate the wide variety of challenging conversations
that may take place. The Apostle Peter provided a
sound principle in this regard, 1 Peter 3.15. Sanctify Christ,
set apart Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to
make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for
the hope that is in you. yet with gentleness and reverence
would you humble yourself before him. Lord God, we thank you for these
rich lessons that Paul has provided, these 10 applications to our
living Father, we thank you for your grace toward us in providing
these. We thank you for your servant,
the Apostle Paul, who obeyed and wrote under the direction of
the Holy Spirit that we might have these timeless truths for
our own day. Lord God, we do pray that you
would give us opportunities much like what Paul prayed for, and
that you would make us aware of the moment, that you would
make us aware that this is a God-given opportunity that you have provided. God, grant us the grace to be
sensitive to those who are outside of the church, those who do not
know the Savior, Help us, Lord, to recognize these opportunities
and to seize hold of them with gracious conversation about the
gospel. Father, just by way of taking
in the fullness of our service today, if there are any here
in our midst who do not know the Lord Jesus, they have heard
the gospel. through our reading in Luke 15,
the prodigal son, which really describes every person ever born
on the face of the earth. We’re all wayward. All we like
sheep have gone astray. Lord, we thank you that even
in that story, there is the gospel that calls sinners to repentance
and faith, Father, we do pray that you would bestow on any
here who do not know Christ the privilege of hearing and interfacing
with the Lord Jesus himself. Lord, we thank you for our own
call to salvation. We pray, what a privilege it
is to be called to shine our lights in the course of our living
here on earth. We thank you, we praise you,
we pray all of these things in Jesus’ name, amen.