{"id":4119,"date":"2011-07-28T16:25:10","date_gmt":"2011-07-28T23:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/?p=4119"},"modified":"2016-01-11T05:25:41","modified_gmt":"2016-01-11T12:25:41","slug":"secret-city-on-a-hill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/2011\/07\/28\/secret-city-on-a-hill\/","title":{"rendered":"Secret city on a hill"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Often in Scripture we have to harmonize two passages which seem to present some kind of conflict with each other. Today I would like to present one such conflict, \u00a0one with which I’ve struggled over the years.<\/p>\n

In the fifth chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus says:<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden.\u00a0Neither 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.\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

“In the same way, let your light shine before others<\/span>, that they may see your good deeds<\/span> and glorify your Father in heaven” – Matthew 5:14-16<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

So, we’re supposed to let our light shine before others.\u00a0Got it.\u00a0Yet…in the next chapter it says…<\/p>\n

“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others<\/span> to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.\u00a0So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.\u00a0But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,\u00a0so that your giving may be in secret<\/span>. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you” – Matthew 6:1-4<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

So we should let our light shine….but only in secret? Hmm….<\/p>\n

I’ve had people ask me about these two passages before and I have given them an answer, providing some distinctions between each of these passages, but today I’d like to turn the question over to you<\/span>.\u00a0How do we reconcile these two passages? What is Jesus trying to teach us? And if we follow His teaching here, what does it practically look like?<\/p>\n

Please answer in the comments below.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Often in Scripture we have to harmonize two passages which seem to present some kind of conflict with each other. Today I would like to present one such conflict, \u00a0one with which I’ve struggled over the years. In the fifth chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus says: \u201cYou are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[3100,2969],"class_list":["post-4119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","tag-city-on-a-hill","tag-featured"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4119"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60350,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4119\/revisions\/60350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}