Jesus introduced his sermon on the mount by saying, “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.” Mathew 5:13-16.
The world we live in is filled with darkness. We are surrounded by nefarious and shady characters with dark purposes and shadowy agendas. While most of us go on with our daily lives, there is a war going on for control of the earth. Spiritual battles spill over into the physical realm and manifest themselves as cupidity, carnality, materialism and a denial of the existence of God. Society seems satisfied to live a temporal existence, complacent and oblivious to what is truly at stake, comforted by ignorance.
As this present darkness continues to grow and civilization calls good evil and evil good, conducts over 73 million abortions annually worldwide, believes gender is a social construct and morality is subjective, society will continue to descend to the path of least resistance. Jesus said, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Mathew 7:13-14.
In the developed world, Christianity is waning and atheism is gaining ground. This was predicted by the apostle Paul when he warned there would be a great falling away or apostasy in the last days, just before the world hits rock bottom during the reign of the antichrist (2 Thessalonians 2:3). Today there are more Christians being persecuted than at any other time in history, including during the Roman empire.
Cultural norms no longer reflect the Christian values that led to the most prosperous period in human history and moral relativism has taken over as evolutionary thinking suggests there can be no right or wrong since we are all simply animals competing for food, space and the right to reproduce and propagate our own branch of the monkey tree.
Secular philosophy uses the premise that humanity has done a good job of improving human rights to a standard that exceeds anything else historically. It assumes that people everywhere essentially agree about what is right or wrong, and that our values have blindly evolved through trial and error, based on what enables us to leave more descendants.
If the principles of moral relativism were credible, they could be used to defend the actions of Hitler, Stalin or Mao who are responsible for the deaths of over 100 million of their own citizens in the last century alone. If right and wrong are simply matters of opinion, and our evolutionary derived default setting has been set to “good” then why do we need home security systems? Why do we need police forces? Why do we need prisons? If there is no moral standard, then every criminal could continually appeal their convictions, and every judge would be handcuffed, unable to apply laws that are fluid in their meaning depending upon who is interpreting them. Society would become unstable and the result would be worse than a totalitarian state.
Today people do not want to be judged by others for what they believe. Without judgement there are no penalties, so who pays the price? The absolute tragedy of the way our sense of morality has changed is that innocent children are paying the price. While society demands acceptance of liberal sexual values, expressed through LGBTQ agendas, the movie industry and the fashion industry’s sexualization of little girls, pornography, child trafficking and the tolerance of child abuse within religion itself, it has created an epidemic where the value placed on human life takes a back seat to corporate profits.
If truth is an individual’s opinion or perception of reality, then there are no lies. If an individual can decide what morality looks like for them then they are accountable to no one and assume to be gods. Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3:1-5, “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God – having a form of Godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.:
Humanity has proven incapable of solving its own moral dilemma and the longer civilization goes on, the more immoral it becomes. In contrast, God’s moral code is absolute. It never changes. Jesus lived a life that is the template for all people to pattern good living after. He shone God’s light upon his moral standard and summed it up by saying, ”Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Mathew 22:37-40.
As Christians we must let God’s light shine through us into the darkness all around us. We are called to preach the gospel of repentance and grace in the darkest corners, in the coldest missionary fields, in the stench of the cities and the depths of the downtrodden. We must never shrink back at the obstacles before us. We will be ridiculed and mocked. We will be chastised and persecuted. But every soul we win for the kingdom of heaven is one less for the jaws of hell. There will be great joy in heaven when Christians stand up and defend the faith, run the race and bring multitudes home with them when they are called.
We must bear fruit. We are called to bear fruit. In Mathew 21:43, Jesus warned Israel about their unbelief and said, “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.” After the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in AD 70, the Jews were scattered throughout the nations and the Gentile peoples received the Gospel and spread it to the far corners of the earth.
As Christians we must never stop bearing fruit, shining God’s light as a beacon for the lost. Picture yourself in a life raft on the open ocean. As you scan the horizon there is nothing but water and waves as far as you can see in every direction. With no point of reference, you are oblivious to speed, direction of travel, whether you are getting closer or further away from where you desire to be. As civilization struggles to find truth, sifting through countless opinions, philosophies and theories, the time clock of reality continues to move ahead on a pre-ordained course towards destiny. Unable to stop time, humanity must either get a grip on reality, locating the lighthouse in the distance, or become forever lost in an ocean of uncertainty.
Christ is the light and it is up to Christians to stand up and be that lighthouse. It is up to us to shine that light!
