You are the light of the world. A city 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. Mathew 5:14

Every one of us is responsible for lighting the world with our deeds. This is more so for those that profess a change in themselves after having received Christ in their lives. Light comes in by our knowledge of the kind of truth that sets us free from sin such that we cannot afford to be in darkness. Christ is the light of the world but we are the ones who bear responsibility for the extent to which it lights. A bulb cannot light on its own; it has to be correctly connected to give light. Our families or our testimonies cannot give us light no matter how much we might wish this to be so; we must first be directly connected to Christ. There remain three requirements for this light that we radiate; that it must never be hidden, that it exists solely for the benefit of others and thirdly that it exist solely to glorify God’s name through Jesus Christ.

A story is told of a young man who went to see a pastor in his office and on inquiring from the secretary of his whereabouts; she sarcastically laughed and wondered out aloud which pastor was being talked about.

If we do not come out clearly as believable Christians such that when people hear we are born again they sneer away, then we are not being the kind of light that shines from the hill. In Mathew 7:18 we are told that a good tree cannot bear bad fruit just like a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. It pays to remember that people constantly assess and observe us. We can only be proper role models for others if we are impressive and virtuous. There are those that observe us in order to have something to criticize us about. Either way, we should be concerned with what God thinks of us. If we remain integral, whole, complete, righteous and blameless, then we keep the light burning by living as required by our Creator. Light does not operate in a vacuum and just like the candle needs the wicks and wax, so too the light needs a stand to be seen.

Light is usually for the benefit of others. In Mathew 5:14 we are told that light is put on a stand to benefit all. Our salvation does not benefit anyone else if we do not share it with others. It is through the efforts of sacrifice of the early Christians that we came to hear about Christ. We too have an onus to spread the Gospel and bring in more disciples. Let us show others what Kingdom is talked about in the Lord’s Prayer and what it will look like.

There has been an introduction into our cultures of all manner of loose talking, indecent dressing and questionable morals which innocently masquerade as normal everyday life events yet we know we are chosen to be different. We have been called upon to let the Kingdom manifest in our living. We should not be like centipedes such that people do not know where we begin or end or what we really stand for. When we meet with Christ we do not remain the same. 2Cor5:17 tells us that the old is gone, the new has come. We need not conceal our faith, it should shine out and glorify God’s name.

The salt and light are images that show our uniqueness and peculiarity. Christianity is more than religion. Action or works should accompany our faith. Everyone should see our light and taste our saltiness.