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You’ve no doubt heard folks speak of "moonlight". The term is meant to describe the light of a clear night when the moon is "full" and glowing brightly. However, have you ever considered that there is really no such thing as moonlight? This is because the moon produces no light of it’s own. The night-time glow of the moon is actually a lunar reflection of the light of the sun. While the sun does indeed produce a light of it’s own, sunlight is rarely credited for the production of what we call moonlight. However, without it, the darkness of light would be nearly or completely total.
A similar thing is true of the spiritual light or Jesus Christ. At John the eighth chapter, He described Himself at verse twelve as being the Light of the world. However, at Matthew the fifth chapter, He taught in the midst of His sermon on the mount that we are the light of the world, at verse fourteen.
Without further investigation, it could appear that the Savior had stated a doctrine that contradicted itself. Additional study reveals, though, that we become the light of the world much the same way the moon becomes the light of the world at night.
While it is reflecting the light of the sun, we reflect the light of the Son of God, Who is the True light. You see, at John chapter nine, Jesus stated at verse five that he was the Light of the world as long as He was in the world. Therefore, it would be left to faithful men to reflect the light of Christ after His ascension back into heaven.
This is how we accomplish what Paul taught us to do at Philippians the second chapter, where he said at verse fifteen that we should shine as lights in the world. It should be noted that the nearer the reflector moves to the light source, the more brightly it shines. Similarly, the further we move away from the Light Source, the more dimly we glow. In order to reflect the light of Christ as brightly as we may, we must live our spiritual lives as closely as possible to the True Light of Christ.