TODAY’S BLENDED, BLINDING, CHRISTIANITY

“Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”—Matt. 5:14-16

Nearly a century ago, Dr. John Monro Gibson wrote: “The cause of Christ suffers sorely, because of professed Christians who have little or nothing distinctively Christian about them.” It also suffers sorely when genuine believers repress impulses to let their light shine before men; instead keeping their light “under a bushel” because they don’t want to offend unbelievers, but want to blend in with and be accepted by them. Individual lifestyles and the worship services of churches have been so adapted to and blended with the world that there is scarcely anything, if anything at all, distinctly Christian about them.

Christians shouldn’t make a carnal, pharisaical-like, display of themselves, but should simply and naturally let their light shine before men to the end that unbelievers will come to the place where they will glorify our Father which is in heaven. “That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; Holding forth the word of life” (Phil. 2:15, 16). Blended Christianity blinds people to their need of having Christ as their Savior.