Luminous beings are we (How do we know We Are lightS TO the world?)

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.