Technology! As much as it drives us crazy, it’s amazing. Brilliant engineers have taken elements of God’s creation and coaxed them to do remarkable things. Take fiber optics, for example. You’ve probably heard the term, but what does it mean and how does it work?

A fiber optic cable is a long strand of glass (about the size of a hair), wrapped in a protective coating. Often a number of strands will form one cable about the size of a computer cord. Since light travels so fast, it can bounce through the cable instantly. When you speak on the phone or broadcast a signal, it can be carried on pulses of light, dashing through the glass strand, and your conversation with a friend in Paris or Hong Kong or Mexico City seems instantaneous.

This isn’t new. The first fiber-optic cable across the Atlantic was laid in 1988. About the size of a garden hose, it was able to handle forty thousand phone calls at once. One thing has changed though; the transatlantic cables now have a special coating to protect them from sharks, which, for some reason, have a special appetite for the fiber optics.

I guess it makes their eyes light up!

What makes my eyes light up is knowing that God has appointed you and me—the followers of Christ—to be walking strands of fiber optics. We are lights that transmit His Gospel message. We’re to be GLOWING with the GOSPEL. The devil may attack us like a shark, but we have the protective coating of God’s grace, and we have the impulse of His Great Commission rushing through us.

In New Testament days, no one had dreamed of fiber optics, but they did know about torches, lamps, and candlesticks. So that’s the illustration Jesus used in His Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 5:14-15, He said, “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.”

We Are Salt

In that great sermon in Matthew 5–7, Jesus began with the word “Blessed!” Our life is touched with the deepest blessings of heaven when we recognize our spiritual poverty, mourn over it, turn to the Lord in meekness and humility, and let Him give us a hunger and thirst for righteousness. That allows His mercy and purity to transform our life, and we become peacemakers. That is, we want others to discover the peace with God we’ve found, and we long for Gospel peace to overtake their lives.

While sharing this message, we may be persecuted, but even that is a blessing. “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake” (Matthew 5:11). All of that is summed up in Matthew 5:1-12, in the portion of Scripture we commonly call the Beatitudes.

Our Lord follows that up by telling us that as we share the Gospel and even face persecution we are “the salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13). Salt has a distinctive flavor. There’s nothing else like it. It’s one of the basic human tastes, and it enhances other foods and makes them more flavorful. If it lost its distinctive taste, perhaps by becoming mixed with sand or other substances, it would be worthless. That often happened in New Testament days when much of the salt came from evaporating waters of the Dead Sea.

In the same way, we have a distinctive style of living—one that refrains from sinful habits and expresses hope, cheer, joy, and love. If we lose that, the value of our witness evaporates. Greg Laurie wrote, “Like salt, we can stimulate spiritual thirst in others if we live godly lives…. One of the greatest compliments paid to a Christian is when a non-Christian says, ‘What is different about you? There’s a quality that I admire, and I want to know more.’”¹

We Let Our Light Shine

That brings us to our Lord’s next words: “You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14). As a boy, Jesus undoubtedly climbed to the top of the ridge of little Nazareth on dark evenings. With no modern lights, the darkness would have been engulfing. But across the fields sat a large hilltop city named Sepphoris, the governmental city of Galilee. Josephus called Sepphoris “the ornament of all Galilee.” It was a few miles from Nazareth, and its fires, lamps, and torches would have lit up the streets, theater, homes, and city squares. After all, light travels a long way in sheer darkness.

He used that image to talk about our message to the entire world. One of the most encouraging things about being a candle on a stand or a city on a hill is this—we never know how far the light will spread.

In The Upper Room magazine, Elizabeth Erlandson wrote that when she was 22 years old, her family moved to Saudi Arabia, where her dad worked for the United States Army Corps of Engineers. Joining her parents there, she began working in a hospital in Riyadh. “One of the men in my department was a committed Christian who kept a Bible on his desk,” she said. “His name was Charlie, and he witnessed to me nearly every day for 18 months. I consistently rebuffed his invitation to accept Jesus as my Savior.

“When I returned to the United States, I still felt lost and lonely. On February 16, 1977, I actually considered committing suicide by driving off a bridge in Washington State. Instead, I drove into a parking lot adjacent to an employment agency and went into the building.

“A gentleman in the lobby struck up a conversation with me and invited me to attend a Bible study that evening with him and his wife. I felt so desperate that I went to the study, and that night I realized that Jesus Christ was the only answer for all my needs. From that moment on, my life changed course, and I became a new creature in Christ.”²

Notice that Elizabeth was first attracted to the light when she saw a Bible on a colleague’s desk. His words to her were like pulses of light, piercing the darkness, although he didn’t have the blessing of seeing her come to Christ. Still, his light bounced around in her mind, and on her darkest day a total stranger invited her to a Bible study.

The Bible says, “Your labor is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58).

How can you be a better Glow Carrier?

First, begin every day affirming your joy in the Lord! Dr. D. A. Carson said when he was growing up, there was a wall plaque with the words, “This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24, KJV). Whenever he would wake up complaining, his dad would remind him of those words. Whenever he was too hot or cold or tired or bored, his dad would repeat those words, sometimes putting the emphasis on one word or another, as in “THIS is the day.”³ It’s nearly impossible to process that verse in the morning without drawing strength and hope from it that will brighten the look on your face and the hope that’s within you.

Second, find nonverbal ways to witness. Remember Elizabeth Erlandson’s coworker who kept a Bible on his desk? It paid off! If you can’t keep a Bible on your desk, maybe have a John 3:16 bracelet around your wrist or an empty cross on your hat. We don’t want to be ostentatious, but there are subtle ways to pique the interest of others.

Third, plow your finances into evangelistic causes. Support your local church and other ministries that are beaming the light to dark spots in our nation and world.

Fourth, always be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks you a reason for the hope you have. Often you can bring up the subject. Work on developing the knack for guiding the conversation to a natural discussion of the Gospel.

Be a Fiber Optic Christian, part of what people often call the Salt and Light Company. Don’t put your light under a basket but on the lampstand. Be light on your feet, a walking candle, and throw some light into a darkened heart or a blackened world.

Consider yourself a Great Commission Christian and be a Glow Carrier!

Sources:

¹ Greg Laurie, Let God Change Your Life (Colorado Springs: David C. Cook, 2011), 155.
² Elizabeth Erlandson, “More From Elizabeth Erlandson,” The Upper Room, January 21, 2022.
³ “Psalm 118:24 Commentary—This Is the Day,” Precept Austin, December 24, 2016.