Matthew 5:16 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Matthew 5:16

Comments

In context, ‘men’ here are unbelieving men and women, members of an unbelieving world which is in darkness and opposed to God. It is the will of God that they see the light that God has sent into the world. Just as some saw Christ during his time on earth, so many see Christ’s disciples and if they take note of that light and learn from it, God will also bring them into the light. God uses his people to gather in the elect.Interestingly, it is by good works that Christ says our light will be seen. Of course, it is also by witness to the gospel, but our good works prove to the world in language that they can understand the genuineness of our words. Good works cannot be faked. Yes, there is hypocrisy, but the world is given credit for being able to see through that and to discern true good works, and it knows these are evidence of religion that has power. Even the world knows that love in deed is worth more than love in word only.These are not works done in order to boast, for the effect of what men see is to make them glorify God, not us. They have sufficient discernment to know when we are seeking our own glory, but when the saints are indifferent to their own glory and do good works in innocence without a devious motive which seeks praise from men, then the world sees that we desire nothing but the glory of our God. As they ponder these good works, they look within themselves and see that they are not capable of the same disinterested concern to do good. They know that there is something real in believers that they do not have. They may scrutinise our good works carefully, hoping to find a flaw in them which will relieve them from having to take them seriously, but eventually they will be forced to admit their reality and know that there is a God in heaven who has revealed himself to us. It is our Father that they will glorify, not their Father, for God is not yet their Father. This will compel them to admit there is a Day of Judgment when their own good works will be tested, and will urge them to take seriously the message of salvation. When Christ says that they will glorify our Father which is in heaven, he summaries their response which by the grace of God will not only include glorifying the Father, but seeking salvation in the Son.

Application

For our part, we are to focus on the love we have for the Father and the obedience that flows from it. We are to be careful to forget about any praise that we may receive and give all credit, even for our own good works, to God. It is he that has pardoned our sins and released us from the consequences of them. It is he that has taught us what is good. It is he that has created a new nature within us that desires to please him, and it is he that has given us opportunity to do good. We cast our crowns before him. But this does not mean that we hide our good works from the sight of an onlooking world. We do not cover over the fact that we are Christians, for we would be covering over, not something that we have made but which God has made, and who are we to cover over his workmanship? It is the will of the Father that his children are seen, and that their good works are the means of bringing others into the kingdom. They are not to hide their good works, either from fear of persecution, or from false modesty, but they are to be what God has made them: lights in a world that is away from God.

How can the disciples who are addressed here by the Lord fail to notice this reference to God: your Father which is in heaven? This language can only be used of true believers who have entered into the kingdom and now belong to God. In such few words Christ describes such immense privileges. To have God as our Father is to have all power on our side, to have all things working for our good, to have the certainty that we can never be lost. How can the perfect Father lose one of his children? If God is our Father, he has a father’s heart of love. He leads us into life everlasting. To have a father on earth is to have a mortal father, but to have a Father in heaven is to have an immortal Father, a Father forever.

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Matthew 5:16 Commentary and Bible Study