Luk 8:16 | KingComments | STEP | Fruit is there for God, light is there for the neighborhood. Hence the Lord after the fruit now speaks of the light. The light is a public testimony. Every true conversion as fruit of the sown Word is the lighting of a new lamp in this dark world. But just as worries and riches choke out the seed of the Word, the light will not shine when it is covered. This happens when we give our body, presented in a “container”, excessive attention or when we seek our convenience, presented in a “bed”. The ‘container’ can also speak of the daily activities. We can be so absorbed by them that nothing of our testimony is seen. That someone receives a new nature through the working of the Word of God is not enough. God establishes a testimony for Himself. Where a lampstand is lit, it is not intended to be covered. It must give light “so that those who come in may see the light”. God wants the light to shine clearly. After all, it is there to be able to see. The Word also reveals everything. Anything we want to keep hidden or secret will one day be revealed and made know. If we do not reveal the light, the Lord will do it in His time. Therefore, a fruit of the Word is that we not only shine for others, but we ourselves are in the light as well. “How” we listen has to do with our mind. “What” we listen to ( ) has to do with the content of what we listen to, for there is much mixture of truth and error. Luke looks at the heart of man. It is not only important what I hear from someone else, but also how I hear myself. Because of my own condition I may be in danger of accepting an error and rejecting the truth. The mistake is not always in what I hear, but can also be within myself. If we don’t listen carefully because we are in a bad mind, we will lose what we already thought we had. Then we are not good soil and there is no fruit. For example, one hears a speech about the truth of Christ’s coming for the church and he sees that he is part of the bride of Christ. If he does not take this into his heart and speak about it with God, he will not look forward to the coming of Christ. He will forget that he does not belong to the world, and the truth that Christ is coming soon will lose its power to him. The consequence is that he will merge into the world because he does not keep that truth in his heart in fellowship with God.

‏ Luke 8:16

The Light Must Be Able to Shine Freely

Fruit is there for God, light is there for the neighborhood. Hence the Lord after the fruit now speaks of the light. The light is a public testimony. Every true conversion as fruit of the sown Word is the lighting of a new lamp in this dark world. But just as worries and riches choke out the seed of the Word, the light will not shine when it is covered. This happens when we give our body, presented in a “container”, excessive attention or when we seek our convenience, presented in a “bed”. The ‘container’ can also speak of the daily activities. We can be so absorbed by them that nothing of our testimony is seen.

That someone receives a new nature through the working of the Word of God is not enough. God establishes a testimony for Himself. Where a lampstand is lit, it is not intended to be covered. It must give light “so that those who come in may see the light”. God wants the light to shine clearly. After all, it is there to be able to see.

The Word also reveals everything. Anything we want to keep hidden or secret will one day be revealed and made know. If we do not reveal the light, the Lord will do it in His time. Therefore, a fruit of the Word is that we not only shine for others, but we ourselves are in the light as well.

“How” we listen has to do with our mind. “What” we listen to (Mk 4:24) has to do with the content of what we listen to, for there is much mixture of truth and error. Luke looks at the heart of man. It is not only important what I hear from someone else, but also how I hear myself. Because of my own condition I may be in danger of accepting an error and rejecting the truth. The mistake is not always in what I hear, but can also be within myself. If we don’t listen carefully because we are in a bad mind, we will lose what we already thought we had. Then we are not good soil and there is no fruit.

For example, one hears a speech about the truth of Christ’s coming for the church and he sees that he is part of the bride of Christ. If he does not take this into his heart and speak about it with God, he will not look forward to the coming of Christ. He will forget that he does not belong to the world, and the truth that Christ is coming soon will lose its power to him. The consequence is that he will merge into the world because he does not keep that truth in his heart in fellowship with God.