![[Photo of a Scripture verse]](https://www.deankwilson.com/Blog_images/Matthew_5_14_v02.jpg)
| “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.” |
| —Matthew 5:16 |
If you are a follower of Jesus and truly belong to Him, you cannot hide the fact that the Holy Spirit lives within you. No matter what you do or say, the Presence of Christ within you, by the power of the Holy Spirit, will always make your allegiance known.
The classic example of this reality is found in Luke 22:54-62:
Then seizing him (Jesus), they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance. And when some there had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them. A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, “This man was with him.”
But he (Peter) denied it. “Woman, I don’t know him,” he said.
A little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.”
“Man, I am not!” Peter replied.
About an hour later another asserted, “Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean.”
Peter replied, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.” And he (Peter) went outside and wept bitterly.
This proven principle, that our belonging to Jesus will always reveal itself, is a very, very good thing. Since we are Christ’s ambassadors to this troubled and needy world, it’s important for us to recognize that we will never actually fit into the mold of the secular society. We will always be on the outside. We carry the bloodstains of Jesus. His righteousness casts such a beam of holy light on us that we cannot hide our citizenship in His eternal kingdom from the world.
Jesus Himself made this very clear in Matthew 5, the passage of Scripture that Bible students call “The Sermon on the Mount.” Notice these words of Jesus found in Matthew 5:16:
You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.
As we begin a new day, we should rejoice that we simply cannot hide our light from the very people to whom we are to bring God’s illumination. And, we should recognize that we cannot successfully fit into the world’s mold. We are unique children of God’s choice. And that, dear ones, marks us in a way that we can never, ever hide.
