Light on a Hill — Our Bible App

kinga-cichewicz-s4aOPAJ4v0E-unsplash (1).jpg — Light on a Hill

Katelyn Woods

Day 1 of 7: Introduction

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”
—Matthew 5:14-16

Evangelism has always been a dicey topic among progressive Christians. Many churches, solely focused on preaching the gospel, seem intent on forcing the Bible down people’s throats and preach the importance of conversion, of convincing people to commit their lives to Christ. This mindset is reflected in preachers on street corners, harassing passers-by and telling them they will go to hell unless they convert. Historically, the Western church has used the gospel as a reason to commit atrocities, like the Crusades and colonising countries in the name of God. Missionaries banned people from speaking their own languages, forcing them to learn the Bible and reject their cultures in order to adopt the religion of their oppressors. For this and many other reasons, the whole concept of evangelism rubs me the wrong way, especially since growing up it was beaten into my head over and over again that the most important thing in our lives was to “bring people to Christ.” It feels manipulative, heartless, as if we care more about “bringing God glory” than about respecting the basic humanity of others. The idea that God wants Christians to treat people that way seems abhorrent to me. And if that was the God who I believed in, I wouldn’t want to be Christian.

Luckily that’s not the God of the Bible, and not my God. My God is the God of the oppressed, who loves all people and wants a relationship with us. But They don’t want us to be coerced into it. The whole point of the Bible and the thousands of years of reaching out to us and then sending Jesus to live among us is that She cares about us and wants to know us as a friend, not as some tyrant. That’s why if we want to keep our faith, we need to rethink the way we understand the gospel, go back to God’s word and realize how God really wants us to share Their love with people. In Matthew 5, among other famous sayings of Jesus, He talks about how His followers, God’s people, are meant to be like a lamp on a stand or a lit-up town on a hill, a metaphor which means that how we act should reflect God’s goodness and draw others to us. This is nothing like the evangelism and conversion we’ve been exposed to, where we go out and try to indoctrinate anyone we can get our hands on. Over the next few days, we’ll be looking at examples in the Bible of how this whole light on a stand thing worked, and think about how we can preach the Gospel without hurting the very people we want to help.

Take this time to think about what you’ve been taught about evangelism in the past. Did what you learn emphasize the value of every person regardless of their conversion to Christ? Or did it fall more under the forceful notion that they needed to learn about God no matter what or they’re going to hell? Either way, dwell on this, and consider the God you believe in. What do you think is the best way to share that God with others?

Day 1 of 7: Introduction

Start reading this 7-day devotional in the app. Find it on the Featured shelf.