CHRISTIANS THE
LIGHT OF THE WORLD
The Oberlin Evangelist Lecture XVI.
August 12, 1840
by the Rev. Charles G.
Finney
Completely Rewritten and
Updated by Cliff Collins
“You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be
hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and
put it under a basket, but on a lamp stand, and it gives light to all who are
in the house. Let your light so shine
before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matt. 5:14-16)
I will show,
I. The world is in great spiritual darkness.
II. Christians, under God, are called to enlighten the world.
III. How they enlighten the world.
IV. If the world is not enlightened, it is the fault of Christians.
I. The world is in great spiritual darkness.
1. Unrepentant sinners are ignorant of the one true God. Many have some correct ideas about God. But,
basically, they do not know God. To
know God and Jesus Christ is to have eternal life. And while they continue in their sins, they have no correct
understanding of the true God.
2. Unrepentant sinners are in great darkness concerning the spirituality
of His law. If they understood the
spirituality of His law, they would understand something about His character
and about their own. The truth is, they have no concept of the true spirit and
meaning of God’s law.
And here let me say that when we speak of the spirituality of God's law,
there are many who think that we are speaking very mystically. “What?”
They ask. “Law is law. We can understand what God’s law says as
well as you can, and we can understand it as well as you can. So why should you mystify it and speak of
its spirituality as if it had some occult meaning which no one but the
initiated can understand?” To this I
reply:
(1.) It is true that law is law.
(2.) It is also true that every law has its letter and its spirit. In other words, the general statement of the
law itself in words is the letter of the law.
The true intended meaning of the law, in its real application to our
lives, is its spirit. Now the world is
in total darkness concerning the true meaning of the law of God. For example, the first commandment says,
“You shall have no other gods before me.” Just like every commandment of God,
this command has both its letter and its spirit. Its letter prohibits all idolatrous worship. Its spirit requires supreme, unselfish, universal,
and perpetual love to God, with every holy affection carried out in every holy
action.
As another illustration, let’s look at the commandment, “You shall not
steal.” The letter of this commandment
prohibits the secret taking of another's property and using it as if it were
our own without any intention of returning it.
However, the spirit of this commandment forbids all covetousness and
requires us to love our neighbor as ourselves.
It prohibits our using our neighbor’s goods selfishly, whether it is
with or without his consent. It
prohibits every form of fraud, speculation, and taking any advantages in
business that is inconsistent with the royal rule, “You shall love your
neighbor as yourself.” Now who does not
know that unconverted sinners are in the dark concerning the spirituality of
these and every other command of God?
What horrible conviction and dismay would fill the world if sinners
thoroughly understood the spirituality of God's law?
3. Sinners are ignorant about themselves. They know very little of their own constitution, and in most
situations, they know even less about their own character. They are ignorant of their own character
because they are ignorant of the law of God.
Because they are ignorant of the true intention and meaning of the standard
that they need to compare their selves with, they are completely unable to
judge their true character. Judging
themselves only by the letter of the law, and overlooking the breadth of the
spirit of the law, they form an idea of their character that is completely
different from their true character.
4. Sinners are completely ignorant of whether they deserve to go to
heaven or to hell. Since they are
ignorant of the spirituality of the law, they have no idea of how many sins
they have committed or how bad they are.
5. Sinners don’t know how helpless they truly are, nor do they understand
the remedy that God has provided for healing their souls. They don’t care about, nor know much about
God’s remedy, because they are ignorant of their disease.
6. Sinners really don’t know what’s good for them or what is the best for
their own well-being, both here on earth and in eternity.
7. As a result, sinners are blindly walking down that broad road that
eventually will result in their everlasting destruction from the presence of
the Lord and the glory of His power.
II. Christians, under God, are called to enlighten
the world.
1. Christians, under God, are called to enlighten the world because
Christians have the true light. They
know God. They understand the
spirituality of His law. They know the
character of man. They know man’s
guilt, desert, helplessness, and needs.
They have seen their own ignorance, and know that the world is in
darkness and lies in wickedness. They
are keenly aware of this. They have an
accurate knowledge of their own experience.
They also know the remedy for sinners.
The true light of God has enlightened them. All true Christians are taught of God. They know God and Jesus Christ.
To know Christ is life eternal.
They are aware of knowing Him so well that they know that they have
eternal life abiding within them. They
can truly say with all their heart, “Once I was blind, but now I see.” And so, true Christians are the only people
in the whole world that are capable of enlightening the world. It is worthless for unconverted philosophers
or public officials, or any unconverted people whatever to talk about enlightening
the world. The light that is in them is
great darkness. And when they talk
about enlightening the world, they don’t know what they are talking about. They
don’t even know what is true. They
speak randomly and unreasonably and they deceive their followers. They are
blind leading the blind, and they all stumble on together on the dark mountains
until both teachers and disciples fall into the pit of destruction together.
2. The world must be enlightened through human instrumentality. God created us in such a way that we must
receive the truth through our senses.
As a result, it is necessary for God to unite Himself with human nature
in order to enlighten us. Taking upon
Himself human nature, Christ lived, conversed, ate and drank, and walked and
talked with those around Him through the medium of His human nature. By doing this, Jesus presented to their
minds the true idea of who and what He is.
He exhibited in His own life, and in everything He did, the spirit of
His own law. By His teachings, but even
more important, by His life, Jesus called the attention of those around Him
away from the letter to the spirit of God’s law, and when He gave them
precepts, He used His own life to demonstrate what they meant, so they could
understand the nature of true religion and what it meant to love their neighbor
as themselves.
3. The only people who have the true light are those who have received it
through the instrumentality of the saints of God. From the earliest days of man’s existence, God has caused the
light to shine on the world through human beings. Sometimes He has had only a few representatives on earth. And great darkness had covered the whole
face of the earth, except here and there where little spots of light appeared pointing
out the presence of another saint of God.
Noah was a light to the old world when it was in its darkest time. Daniel was a light in the idolatrous court
of Nebuchadnezzar. Enough prophets and
holy men have been scattered here and there around the earth to preserve the
true knowledge of God through these representatives. The Lord Jesus Christ, first in His forerunner John, next in His
own person, afterwards in His apostles, and now in all His saints, is still
enlightening the world today. His people
are now the medium through which God reveals Himself to the whole human
race. His spirit dwells in them
“working in them to will and to do all His good pleasure.” (Phil 2:13) They are His disciples who teach
His doctrines and exhibit His spirit, thus at once both rebuking and
enlightening the darkness of the world.
III. How can Christians enlighten the world?
What constitutes the Christian’s light? What makes the Christian a light to others?
1. It is not just his beliefs.
2. It is not just his profession of faith.
3. Nor is it his profession of faith and his beliefs together.
4. It is not based on whether he faithfully attends church on Sunday.
5. Nor is it his partaking of communion.
6. Nor does his light consist in all these things put together. But,
7. The Christian’s light consists in his emotional state and his spirit.
8. His light consists in his good works, which have a strict concern for
the universal law of love. As Christ
did, so does the Christian. The
Christians’ life is a commentary on the law of God. He is constantly giving illustrations, using his own emotional
state, spirit, and life, of the spirituality, the true intention, and the true
meaning of God’s law.
9. His light consists in his practical and firm opposition to all that is
unholy or harmful to our bodies and souls.
His light is also manifested in his undying attachment to whatever is
holy, lovely and of good report.
How can Christians enlighten the world?
1. Christians cannot enlighten the world by conforming to whatever is
wrong in the emotions, views, or practices of the people of the world. They cannot do it by directly or indirectly
making light of their sins, their worldly mindedness, or whatever is the result
of their darkness.
2. Christians cannot enlighten the world by compromising their principles
or by trying to gain their favor by keeping out of view the points of
difference between themselves and sinners. Some professing Christians try to
avoid all controversy with the unrepentant to lessen, as much as possible,
differences of opinion, views, and practices between themselves and
sinners. They seem to think that the
true way to enlighten the lost is by walking with them as far as possible and
by conforming, in a great measure, to their customs, views, business practices,
and almost everything else. Now this is
as far as possible from the true philosophy of enlightening the world. It is as if you tried to clear the sight of
your neighbor by plucking out your own eyes.
It is like trying to get the speck out of your neighbor's eye, not by
removing the beam from your own eye, but by filling your own eye with specks
and beams. If you want to convince
someone that he is in the dark, you must hold up your own light in contrast to
his darkness. If he can see your light,
he will discover his own darkness.
3. Christians can never enlighten the world by anything that will imply
that they rarely mention the differences between them and sinners. It is worthless to try to enlighten the
world by doing anything that makes the impression that the real difference
between saints and sinners lies merely or mostly in opinion, especially if
everything that the Christian does only demonstrates that their opinions have
very little to do with what they practice.
4. But Christians can enlighten the world by holding up the light of
their own example on all subjects in strong and constant contrast with the
example of the ungodly.
5. Christians can enlighten the world by a patient and firm perseverance
in good works in spite of all the opposition of earth and hell. How the Apostles and early Christians
succeeded in enlightening the world was wonderful and amazing. Their lives were a perpetual light,
dissipating the moral darkness around them.
They did not hold forth a flickering, waving, and uncertain light. That light was clear, steady, and pure as
they went forward pushing back the tide of darkness from the regions and provinces
wherever they were sent. In today’s
passage Christ says, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see
your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” Shine? How? By continually exhibiting our good works in
contrast with their evil works
6. We can enlighten the world by continually exhibiting our self-denial
in contrast with their self-indulgence.
7. We can enlighten the world by exhibiting our heavenly mindedness, in
contrast with their worldly mindedness.
8. We can enlighten the world by showing that our fellowship is in
heaven, in contrast with their showing that their fellowship is on earth.
9. We can enlighten the world by showing that our treasure is in heaven,
in contrast with their showing that their treasure is on earth.
10. We can enlighten the world by showing that we conform to correct
principles, in contrast with their disregard of those correct principles.
11. We can enlighten the world by showing we conform to the laws of our
existence, in contrast with their shameless violations of those basic laws.
12. We can enlighten the world by manifesting our faith in Christ, in
contrast with their unbelief.
13. We can enlighten the world by manifesting our sweet submission to all
the providential dealings of God, in contrast with their restlessness and
rebellion against His providence.
14. We can enlighten the world by holding up the light of truth on every
subject and in every way, both by precept and example, to oppose their
darkness. It is in ways like these that
Christians can light up the world.
But if you hide your light by making any kind of compromise, by
frittering away the points of difference, or by straying even one hair’s
breadth aside from the love of truth for the sake of courting their favor, you
will not, and never will enlighten them.
IV. If the world is not enlightened, it is the fault
of Christians.
1. It is the fault of Christians because Christians today have the means
of enlightening the world. They have
the Gospel and the means of spreading the gospel throughout the world. They have the true light in their own
hearts, and they have the means of revealing it to the whole human race.
2. Christians today have abundant opportunities to enlighten the
world. God has stationed them in different
parts of the world for the very purpose of enlightening the world. He has commanded them to go, and given them
the means of going and holding up their light in every dark corner of the
world. When the early Christians clung
together in Jerusalem, He scattered them throughout the region by the force of
persecution. And they “went everywhere
preaching the gospel”. (Acts 8:4) And
once they were scattered, they learned the true philosophy of enlightening and
converting the world.
3. The world is expecting and looking to Christians to enlighten
them. The eyes of ungodly men are
turned to the Church, and watching everything they do, carefully observing
their lives, spirit, and ways, and wherever among professing Christians there
is a true Christian, they see that his light rebukes the darkness around him.
4. If the world is not enlightened, it is the fault of Christians,
because if the truth is properly and fully exhibited, it will dispel their
darkness. The human mind is created in
such a way that truth “commends itself to every man's conscience in the sight
of God.” (I Cor. 4:2) There is no
mistake about this. The human mind is
true to its own laws. And when truth is
clearly, strongly, and constantly demonstrated, it will and must rebuke the
darkness of any human mind.
5. The principal business that Christians have in this world is to
enlighten the world. Christ has gone to
heaven. He has left Christians as His
representatives to carry out the revelation of God and shine as lights in the
world. If He should take all Christians
immediately from this world, it would leave the world in impenetrable and
hopeless darkness, no matter how much has been done to enlighten it. We must be living illustrations of religious
truth. The minds of men are so
dark. They are prone to view religious
truth so much in the abstract and as so purely a matter of opinion that without
living illustrations, truth seldom, if ever, gains possession of their minds.
6. Christians are responsible if the world is not
enlightened because they can have all the spiritual illumination they need to
carry forward and complete the enlightening of the world. Christ has promised you the Holy Spirit and
has told you that God is more willing to give it than earthly parents are to
give good gifts to their children. (See
Matt 7:11; Luke 11:13) Everything that
you need is abundantly guaranteed by the same promise of God to Christians. And, in full view of these exceeding great
and precious promises, Christ has said to you, “You are the light of the
world.” And now, “let your light so
shine before men that they, seeing your good works, [not merely hearing your
good doctrines, but seeing your good works, may glorify your Father who is in
heaven.”
7. The only thing that can prevent you from enlightening the world is if
you refuse to do good works. If you
perform good works, people around you will see them. If they see them, they will be constrained to glorify your Father
who is in heaven. If people are not
enlightened, it is because you do not perform good works. In other words, it is because you are not
Christians. Notice Christ does not say,
“You need to be the light of the world,” but Christ says, “You are the light of
the world.” As the mind of Christ is
true, real Christians are the light of the world. This is a matter of fact.
True Christians have the spirit of Christ, for possessing the spirit of
Christ is what makes them Christians.
The spirit of Christ will always manifest itself in performing the works
of Christ. Therefore, if people do not
see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven, it is only
because you have the form and not the spirit of Christianity. And “if the light that is in you be
darkness, how great is that darkness.” (Matt 6:23)
REMARKS.
1. A lot of evil is done by compromising and keeping hidden the great and
numberless points of difference between the spirit of Christianity and the
spirit of the world, as if we could show ungodly men the need for a great and
radical change in themselves, by trying to conform our lives and emotions to
theirs as much as possible. It is only
by demonstrating a strong and constant contrast that we will drive home the
conviction that many around us need a radical change in their lives. The more striking and constant this contrast
is, the better. The more universal and
perfect this contrast is, the quicker and more irresistible their conviction of
the need for a great and radical change in themselves will be.
2. We see from this subject how severely damaging it is to hide the true
light on any great subject of reform whenever a favorable opportunity to hold
it up presents itself. Some ministers
and professing Christians like to wait to have the people discover the truth
themselves, or wait for public opinion concerning particular doctrines to
change thus making it popular to defend doctrines that were unpopular. Such a minister has no intention to go ahead
and rebuke the darkness of the public mind by holding up the true light. This minister seems to dread the loss of his
own popularity, and fears damaging his usefulness by calling things by their
right names, by declaring his own experience of the power of the gospel of the
blessed God, by immediately preaching and bringing out the whole truth before
the world. In order to make himself
popular with everybody, he will present certain unpopular truths in such a way,
that those who are already Christians will see that he believes them and
correctly teaches them: but he presents these truths with so many provisions,
explanations and qualifications that nobody else will suspect that he believes
or teaches any such thing. If the whole
Church and congregation were to get their act together without his help, if
public opinion could be formed that would agree with him and would make it
easer for him to speak out in plain language, he would then become a bold
champion for the truth. But he is
waiting for the Churches to learn the truth before he shares it with them. And when it becomes popular to tell the
whole truth, he will be the first one to preach it.
3. The same is true of the lives of many of professing Christians
today. Because of their
worldly-mindedness, and all the ways they conform to the world, they point out
how powerful public opinion is, that it is worthless to be different from
everybody else, and that the situation the world is in demands a high degree of
conformity to the world in order to become influential over them. However, is this the way to enlighten the
world? Instead of setting yourself up
to correct public opinion, do you allow yourself to become the object of
it? Instead of opposing what is wrong
in the views and practices of the human race on every subject, do you join
them, and thus strengthen their opinions and confirm them in their darkness. Do you do this, expecting that, somewhere
down the line, public opinion will change so that you can do your duty without
losing your influence? Are you waiting
for public opinion to change, so that you can tell everybody what God has done
in your life, relate your experience of the power of His grace, and hold up
your light to the acclamations of the crowd?
What a deluded dream is this!
4. Christians should remember that silence on any great subject of moral
reform, that hiding their light either in precept or example when a suitable
opportunity occurs for demonstrating that example, implies that they either
don’t believe it, or that what they believe is nothing more than their opinion
so it is not very important for them.
Or, maybe they are simply ashamed of it.
5. How cruel it is to let people remain in darkness because you are
afraid of losing our own popularity. On
how many countless topics are people harming both their bodies and their souls
because they lack correct information?
How shameful and cruel is it, for those who have the true light to hide
it?
6. We see from this subject, how important it is for those who believe in
the doctrine of entire sanctification in this life, to lift up this infinitely
important doctrine, both by principle and example, whenever they have the
opportunity. They should be living
epistles known and read by all men. (II Cor. 3:2)
7. Unless Christians hold up the true light in contrast with the world’s
darkness, they are the greatest curses that are in the world. They are like a false light that draws
unwary sailors onto the rocks and the reefs.
The world knows that you claim to be Christians, that you are placed in
this world as a moral lighthouse.
Therefore, they think that it is safe to steer in the direction that
your light indicates. If therefore the
light that is in you is really darkness, you are a tremendous curse to your
family, your neighborhood, and the world around you. They will look at you.
They will listen to your words.
They will think about your emotions, your spirit, and your
lifestyle. They will feel safe in
following your example, in drinking in of your spirit, and in steering their
course to eternity by your light. And
what a cruel monster you are if you mislead them.
What would you say if pirates erected a false light on some shoal to cause unwary vessels to crash on it for the sake of plunder? Or, how do you feel about terrorists who come in peace, then kill innocent women and children for their own selfish gain? Does not your blood curdle in your veins? Don’t cold chills run over you? Doesn’t your soul shudder when you read of the abominable selfishness of those who shine false lights to mislead ships at sea and people on land, destroying many innocent lives and a lot of property for the sake of satisfying their greed and selfishness? But, professing Christian, you are the light of the world! Do you hold up a false light in the midst of the world’s darkness? And when thousands of sinners are hovering round about on your coast, tossed and floundering from the storms of sin and Satan, and looking to you for light; are you engaged in your selfish projects, exhibiting a carnal, earthly, and devilish spirit, while they are running on the rocks and shoals, ruining their souls and going to hell by the scores around you? Hear the wail of that lost soul, as it dashes on the rocks and sinks down to hell. He lifts his eyes and cries out, “Oh, I did not dream that evil was near. I had my eye upon that professing Christian. I based my life on those same principles that he followed in his life. I watched him carefully and steered my boat by his light. And oh! Unutterable horror! I am in the depths of an eternal hell!”