Luke 8:16: Hide it Under a Bushel? No!

"No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed,

but puts it on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light." Luke 8:16

Hide it under a bushel? No! I'm gonna let it shine. Hide it under a bushel??? NO!! I'm gonna let it shine, let it shine, let it shine. I love this classic camp song. It portrays for us so well how we ought to share Christ with others. Although we know that Christ isn't a "little light" but rather an all-consuming fire (Heb. 12:29), the analogy still stands: we ought not to take the light of God and hide it from those around us.

In Luke 8:16, we find Christ teaching his people about how they ought to share the Gospel with those around them. He speaks of the Gospel as this "light" which one ought to hide under a jar or a bed. The analogy goes like this: who, after lighting a candle, covers it up so that no one can see it? Let's contemporize this a little bit. You know those electronic, light-up candles that you grab out of the cupboard when the neighbor's come over for dinner? You know you have them. You think they're cool; let's be honest. But what if your spouse, right before the neighbors came over for dinner, took those electric candles that you so wonderfully set on the kitchen table and hid them under a couch cushion. It wouldn't make any sense, would it? Yet, each and every day, we do the same exact thing with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

What Jesus is trying to get across here is this: we ought not to keep the wonderful truths of God for ourselves. God has blessed us with the truth of his Word, with his son Jesus Christ, and with everlasting life. Yet so often, we live day by day hiding these things from those around us. We can have great conversation about football, politics, the weather, and a myriad of other things, but as soon as the Spirit to prompts us to "share our faith," we choke up. We avoid the topic. We consider it "awkward." We make excuses. And we do this greatly to our and their eternal detriment.

Now, I understand, sharing the Gospel can be hard, but the LORD has really convicted me about this lately. Let us put this into an eternal perspective. There are people who will be in eternal damnation if they do not repent and believe in Christ before they pass from this earth. Think about those two terms: eternal damnation. Miserable, unbearable hell, not for a short time, but forever. Apart from the blessings of Christ, and apart from full satisfaction in him. Yet there is another solution waiting: the Gospel, a grace that comes freely for all those who call upon the name of the Lord (Rom. 10:13). Yet, in the words of Paul, "How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?" (Romans 10:14a). Answer: they won't, because indeed they cannot. Thus, the Gospel must be proclaimed.

Consider this with me real quick this morning: you never know who is around you who has no other access to the Gospel besides you. Someone a long, long time ago told me this once (I have no clue who) and I've never forgotten it. It's stuck with me all these years, but it's true. We never know who we are the closest to that has no opportunity to hear the Gospel otherwise. Think of coworkers, friends, family members, or even your local auto mechanic or Walmart cashier. You never know if they have someone else in their lives who will ever share the Gospel with them. Will you?

The point of me writing this post is not to guilt-trip you into sharing your faith, but to show you the biblical precedent for it. On almost every page of scripture, I see a call for evangelism, yet it is so often missed. And yes, yes, yes: I am all for going overseas and sharing our faith. But how will we ever share our faith across the sea if we can't share it across the sidewalk? How will we ever reach a distant nation for Christ if we can't even do it in our own backyards? Honestly, I think the Church in America has greatly failed at this; let's be the generation that changes that. Starting today.

In conclusion, let me ask you a question that has weighed on my heart lately: if you were to die tomorrow, and I gathered together the five people outside your home who you spend the most time with, would they know you were a Christian? Better yet, would they be able to explain the Gospel to me? In other words, if I took your closest friends, coworkers, family members, and neighbors and asked them what you believed in, would they be able to tell me? If your answer to that question is "no," then that needs to change. You need to stop putting your light under a bushel and let it shine. And are there better ways to do this than others? Absolutely. And I'd love to talk to you about them. But don't get too tied up in that, lest you never share the Gospel at all. Rather, imitate what the blind man said to those around him after Jesus healed him:

"One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!" (John 9:25b)

You might not have a seminary degree to help you share Jesus. In fact, you might not even know where Zephaniah is in scripture (or that it was even a book, for that matter). But this you do know: that you were blind, and now you can see. So what you do know, go and tell, and watch as the power of God breaks into the lives of those around you through the power of his Spirit. I've seen God work in this way, and if you are faithful to God, you will see it too. So go and let your light shine before men.

"Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God." -- William Carey