{"id":344,"date":"2016-10-18T17:20:26","date_gmt":"2016-10-18T17:20:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/?p=344"},"modified":"2016-10-18T17:20:26","modified_gmt":"2016-10-18T17:20:26","slug":"being-the-light-of-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2016\/10\/being-the-light-of-the-world.html","title":{"rendered":"Being the Light of the World"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid.\u00a0 No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.\u00a0 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.\u201d\u00a0 Matthew 5:14-16<\/p>\n

What does it mean when Jesus says, \u201clet your light shine before others\u201d? Well, I think the answer is found in the rest of the sentence.\u00a0 Jesus says that we should shine our light, so that others may see our \u201cgood works.\u201d\u00a0 Notice that Jesus doesn’t tell us to talk.\u00a0 Talk is cheap.\u00a0 He calls us to do.\u00a0 <\/em>Jesus tells us to show our faith through our good works – by what we do and how we act.<\/p>\n

My daughter goes to school with a young lady whose father is a pastor. Out of the blue one day, this young lady said, \u201cI really love Jesus.\u201d\u00a0 Now on the face of it, that sounds very sweet.\u00a0 Except this young lady isn\u2019t very nice sometimes.\u00a0 So my daughter, rightfully, assesses this young lady based on her actions, and not her words.\u00a0 This young lady may very well love Jesus, but so what?\u00a0 Unless that love is evidenced in her actions, her words ring hollow to those who hear them.<\/p>\n

This issue is exactly why people get annoyed when Christians put fish bumper stickers on their cars and ask everyone to have a \u201cblessed day.\u201d That is all well and good, but no one cares about your words.\u00a0 What matters are our actions.<\/p>\n

We as Christians could take a lesson from my Iranian Muslim neighbors. They could not be more generous.\u00a0 They often offer us herbs from their garden.\u00a0 In the summertime, if I or my husband are working in the yard, they always stop to admire our efforts.\u00a0 If we stop by their house, they automatically offer us tea and cookies \u2013 and you can\u2019t say no!\u00a0 They are such kind and good people.\u00a0 They are living their faith.\u00a0 Not just talking about it.<\/p>\n

If we want to follow Jesus\u2019 calling to be the light of the world, then we have to shine in how we treat others. We have to be the type of people who are kind to other people, animals and the planet.\u00a0 We have to be the type of people who are always willing to lend a helping hand.<\/p>\n

I work with a gentleman who is a light in the world. He always is available to answer any questions I might have.\u00a0 On occasion he sends me an email to check in on me and see how I\u2019m doing.\u00a0 Recently, he told me that he went into semi-retirement.\u00a0 He now works 3 days per week, and then works for his church the other two days of the week.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t in the least bit surprised.\u00a0 His actions already had made clear to me that he is a Christian. \u00a0His good works shine very brightly.<\/p>\n

As Christians, we are called to be a light in the world. That doesn\u2019t mean running around telling other people that their religions are wrong.\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t mean telling everyone within earshot how much you love Jesus.\u00a0 That mean showing your faith by what you do. <\/em>If your light shines by your good works, then you will attract others by your goodness.\u00a0 They will want to know more about you.\u00a0 They will be curious<\/em> as to why you are different.\u00a0 And if they ask, then by all means tell them, \u201cJesus called me to be a light to the world.\u00a0 I hope I have been a light for you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid.\u00a0 No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.\u00a0 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":593,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3],"class_list":["post-344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-light-of-the-world"],"yoast_head":"\nBeing the Light of the World - Your Morning Cup of Inspiration<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2016\/10\/being-the-light-of-the-world.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Being the Light of the World - Your Morning Cup of Inspiration\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cYou are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid.\u00a0 No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.\u00a0 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2016\/10\/being-the-light-of-the-world.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Your Morning Cup of Inspiration\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-10-18T17:20:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Meerabelle Dey\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Being the Light of the World - Your Morning Cup of Inspiration","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2016\/10\/being-the-light-of-the-world.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Being the Light of the World - Your Morning Cup of Inspiration","og_description":"\u201cYou are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid.\u00a0 No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.\u00a0 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2016\/10\/being-the-light-of-the-world.html","og_site_name":"Your Morning Cup of Inspiration","article_published_time":"2016-10-18T17:20:26+00:00","author":"Meerabelle Dey","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2016\/10\/being-the-light-of-the-world.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2016\/10\/being-the-light-of-the-world.html","name":"Being the Light of the World - Your Morning Cup of Inspiration","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-10-18T17:20:26+00:00","dateModified":"2016-10-18T17:20:26+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/#\/schema\/person\/7250ab2fc75dd2e7e923fbec0fbb375c"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2016\/10\/being-the-light-of-the-world.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2016\/10\/being-the-light-of-the-world.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2016\/10\/being-the-light-of-the-world.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Being the Light of the World"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/","name":"Your Morning Cup of Inspiration","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Meerabelle Dey","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/#\/schema\/person\/7250ab2fc75dd2e7e923fbec0fbb375c","name":"Meerabelle Dey","description":"Meerabelle Dey has a B.A. in History and Religious Studies from the University of Toronto and a J.D. from Fordham University School of Law. Much of her legal career has been spent dealing with issues affecting women, children and the poor. She has lived in the United States, Canada and the Middle East. Meerabelle now devotes her time to writing. Her mission is to use her writing to inspire others to achieve God\u2019s unique purpose for their life.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/author\/mdey"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/593"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":345,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344\/revisions\/345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}