We have started to look at how we know we are the light of the world and I want to use a couple of my blogs to suggest ways we can know we’re shining (Phil 2:15).  

In my previous post  I suggested the first sign is that we know we are not our own. This month we are going to look at a second sign that confirms we are representing Jesus well. I think it is the way we love.

We understand that how we love matters
Jesus was asked which commandment of the Law was the greatest. He said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:30–32; Matthew 22:37–39).

Which tells us what God really wants. And what God really wants is very simple: first and foremost, He wants our love.

You see God knows everything we do flows from our hearts (Proverbs 4:23) so once he has our hearts, everything else follows: our words, our actions, our time, our worship, our confession, our service …

If he has our hearts he can start to transform us, so we look more like Jesus. And, of course Jesus is the light of the world - which makes us the light of the world. Luminous!

Jesus says if we love him, we will obey him (John 14:15). And that’s not said in an authoritarian way. He says it so we understand that our obedience is a natural outcome of loving him. We love him, so we want to please him.

Ephesians 4:3 tells us we have the power we need to live Godly lives though the Holy Spirit. We just need to release that power - and increase our luminosity - by falling more in love with Jesus.

,It’s a great clip but I do have to correct the philosophy… We not one with the trees, we one with Christ, and we don’t get power from the universe, we get our power from God.

But – dodgy thinking aside – do you find it easy to relate to Luke?

Like many of us, Luke doesn’t understand who he is and the resources available to him. And when Yoda tells him he is a luminous being, doesn’t that remind us that Jesus says we are the light of the world, a city on a hill (Matt 5:14).

Does that challenge you? It really challenges me. Because I know people aren’t necessarily going to church to find answers any more. But if they know I go to church and I follow Jesus – well, they’re probably going to be watching me. Looking to see if I have the answers. 

So, I need to be a luminous being. I need to be the light of the world.

Over the next few months, I’m going to suggest a few ways we can know that we’re shining bright – lights to the world – luminous beings. So, how do we know we are luminous beings? I think it starts with understanding we are not our own.

We understand we are not our own
When we think of what Jesus did for us we think in terms of an exchange – his righteousness for our sin. And that's right. But there’s more to it than that. In fact, when we became Christians we entered into a blood covenant with him.

Blood covenants were an ancient practice.  Two individuals would enter into a blood covenant by shedding and sharing their blood.  Once in the covenant, all they possess is available to each other on demand.

So, imagine my great friend Bolaji and I have entered into a blood covenant with each other.  What belongs to Bolaji now also belongs to me and what belongs to me belongs to Bolaji.  If Bolaji has a debt she can’t pay, I am obliged, by the blood covenant between us, to meet Bolaji’s debt.  If there is a battle she needs to wage she can call on my resources and I am obliged, by the blood covenant between us, to supply them. If I refuse, I can be lawfully killed. There is no escape from a blood covenant – it is a binding agreement to death.

Back in Genesis 15 God enters into a blood covenant with Abraham.  God promises significance to Abraham including that the nations of the world will be blessed through his physical line. A reference to Jesus who is descended from Abraham.

God seals this covenant with blood. He can’t shed his own blood – God is spirit – so he walks through sacrificed animals and their blood.

Scroll forward to Jesus who introduces a new covenant. This time it’s God’s blood that is shed on the cross because Jesus is fully man and fully God. It is that blood that redeems us (Eph 1:7) and brings us into a blood covenant with Jesus.

Remember, in a blood covenant relationship everything you have or possess is freely available to your covenant partner and everything he or she has or possesses is now available to you. 

So when our covenant partner – Jesus – says “Ask anything in my name and I will do it” (John 14:14) it means anything we need for Kingdom purposes that Jesus has is ours for the asking!  All the power, all the authority, all the insight, all the wisdom, all the healing, ll the ability to cast out demons, all the love, all the mercy… Even His name is ours!

Conversely, anything He asks of us we are covenant bound to give Him. Our jobs, marriage, church, ministry, family, degree… We’ve been crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20) and it is no longer I who lives but Christ who lives in me. We are not our own. 

I believe the best way we can be luminous beings – lights to the world – is to live full-on for Jesus. Holding nothing back, walking in his power, exercising authority and carrying him wherever we go. Because we understand He is ours... and we are not our own.

How do you think we can best represent Jesus to the world? Do share your thoughts in the comments below.

Watch out for the next in this series which will be published in the first week of May.