“Nor is it that a lamp is lit and placed under a peck basket, but it is put on a candlestand and it shines for all those who are in the house.”

(Matthew 5:15)

As Jesus often does, he uses an analogy that is common to most people to make a profound point. The analogy is simple, if you light a lamp, it is counterproductive to hide the light of the lamp under a basket — in this case, a peck-sized basket (roughly about 2 gallons of dry goods). Instead, the very purpose of a light is to illuminate the house. Commonly, this is applied to the Christian life in a personal way: don’t be timid about sharing the Truth of the Gospel with those you meet. In fact, the application found here is that of a light in a house, so it is a reminder that those very personal interactions with others should be ones we use to advance the Kingdom as God so permits.

All that is said above is quite true and very applicable to the Christian life. Your neighbors should know that you are a Christian by the way you live and act. Further, you should use your homes as a tool to that end. Invite your neighbors over for a meal and encourage them to remain for your family worship or devotional time. Too often, Christians live lives that are essentially indistinguishable from those of our non-believing neighbors. Yes and amen.

Nevertheless, if our tendency is to leave this text with a personal application, we miss what can arguably be said is the more significant point. Jesus is speaking with individuals but these individuals are in a group. So, how do these same words apply to the Church as a whole? Is not the church being built up as a spiritual house and a holy priesthood where we make spiritual sacrifices to God through Christ Jesus (1 Peter 2:5)? Is not our corporate worship meant to be a sacrifice of praise to our God — the very fruit of the lips of those who acknowledge His name (Hebrews 13:15)? Is Christ not the Great High Priest by which we can enter into the house of God (Hebrews 10:21)? And if all of this is true, shall not our spiritual house (the church) be lit by the Truth of Christ?

And therein is the rub. For many churches in our age, the Truth of God’s word is considered a byword. It is apologized for, redacted, reinterpreted, or otherwise ignored. People love to cry out “Jesus saves” but neglect the language that presents Jesus as the eternal judge over mankind. People love to cry out that “God is love,” but neglect to point out that God is just and holy and that he hates the wicked. People love to call themselves “followers” of Jesus but neglect to insist that those who follow, if they are going to be called “Christians,” must also be disciples, striving to obey all that Jesus has commanded. The lamp of God’s word must be presented untarnished and unadulterated by the preferences and traditions of man, and it must be put on a lampstand so that all may see.

To the Jewish reader of Jesus’ day, this language would be particularly striking, for as one would enter the Holy Place of the Temple, there was a lampstand. That lampstand, with its seven lamps, served more than the practical purpose of providing light at night. It was also symbolic of the notion that God provides light to the world and that when you are in God’s presence, there is never darkness (think about the Apostle’s words in 1 John 1:5). There are many things that seem dark in this life, and we will only ever come to see them rightly in the light of God’s Word. Sometimes people look with disdain at the prominence of the sermon as part of the church service. People think it can be overly long or sometimes too “heady,” but in many ways, that is exactly the point. How are we going to understand the Truth of God if we are not taught and reminded of God’s ways from His Word and then exhorted to put these things into action in our lives?

When is a church not a church? It is not a church when it lacks the Biblical marks of a church: the faithful preaching of the Gospel, the right use of the sacraments, and the use of church discipline for the chastizing of sin — in other words, the church is not the church if Christ is not King of the church. It is not a church if it has no light lifted up within it to provide light. God’s house should never be a place of darkness, but should be full of light within.