Attributed commentary excerpt
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown on Matthew 5:14
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown · 19th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
Ye are the light of the world--This being the distinctive title which our Lord appropriates to Himself (Joh 8:12; Joh 9:5; and see Joh 1:4, Joh 1:9; Joh 3:19; Joh 12:35-36) --a title expressly said to be unsuitable even to the highest of all the prophets (Joh 1:8) --it must be applied here by our Lord to His disciples only as they shine with His light upon the world, in virtue of His Spirit dwelling in them, and the same mind being in them which was also in Christ Jesus. Nor are Christians anywhere else so called. Nay, as if to avoid the august title which the Master has appropriated to Himself, Christians are said to "shine"--not as "lights," as our translators render it, but--"as luminaries in the world" (Phi 2:15); and the Baptist is said to have been "the burning and shining"--not "light," as in our translation, but "lamp" of his day (Joh 5:35). Let it be observed, too, that while the two figures of salt and sunlight both express the same function of Christians--their blessed influence on their fellow men--they each set this forth under a different aspect. Salt operates internally, in the mass with which it comes in contact; the sunlight operates externally, irradiating all that it reaches. Hence Christians are warily styled "the salt of the earth"--with reference to the masses of mankind with whom they are expected to mix; but "the light of the world"--with reference to the vast and variegated surface which feels its fructifying and gladdening radiance. The same distinction is observable in the second pair of those seven parables which our Lord spoke from the Galilean Lake--that of the "mustard seed," which grew to be a great overshadowing tree, answering to the sunlight which invests the world, and that of the "leaven," which a woman took and, like the salt, hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened (Mat 13:31-33). A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid--nor can it be supposed to have been so built except to be seen by many eyes.
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