Joel M Bradshaw

16In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven…

…20For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.–Matthew 5

Here’s a moment in the famous Sermon on the Mount that grabbed ahold of me this morning. Verse 16 commands followers of Jesus to live a life of good works that are noticeable to all. The scribes and Pharisees were known by the common people as holy and righteous. They were the ones that did good works and made sure that everyone saw their good works.

I see two tensions here. With verse 16, you are letting your light shine for others to focus on God. This is counter-cultural even today. People virtue signal and post on social media many of the good things they do or accomplish. I am guilty of this as well. My point is that often times, we let our light shine to glorify ourselves. These good works exclusively cause others to glorify God. To use Jesus’ analogy, you would be letting your light shine, but not further shining the light on you letting your light shine. Does that make sense? You are living in a way that God is noticed, not you, even though it is your good deeds that are seen.

The second tension is with the Pharisees. Notice Jesus doesn’t say they weren’t righteous. He would have lost his audience then. Jesus simply said that your righteousness has to EXCEED theirs. So we wonder if Jesus was getting to the inside rather than just focusing on the outside. Much of this sermon focused on the heart. Outward restraint, but inward hate is still counted as murder in the heart. Outward self-control, but inward lust is still counted as adultery in the heart. So if the Pharisees were the masters of the outward, could it be that Jesus was calling for his followers to pursue the inward?

The only way to glorify God with your good works is if you ultimately get no credit. The only way to be more righteous than the outwardly righteous is to be inwardly righteous. The outer can exist hypocritically without the inner. But the inner will always flow to the outer. So pursue that which is not seen by man to glorify God. As you are transformed from the inside out by God, your life will do the outer good, but only for God’s glory. These are tensions that we must embrace and live.–JMB