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The principle of being

In studying the Principle of Being, we come to Matthew 5:1316:

“Ye are the salt of the earth; but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted?  It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of men.

Ye are the light of the world.  A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.  Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

It is important to note that the key words which point us to this vital principle are found in verses 13 and 14 and they are the words “ye are”.

One of our friends, who was recently in Switzerland, learnt a lesson one day as she walked amongst the magnificent towering mountains. She was impressed by the fact that those mountains were not doing anything and yet, by just being what they were, they glorified God with a loud voice even whilst they were saying nothing. Because God had made them what they were, they glorified Him, and His glory was seen on them by their very being. And it is “being” that this principle is all about.

A transforming presence

Jesus was speaking about what we are and not what we do – for unless what we do comes from what we are it is not only unreal but it is a lie, it is destructive. So Jesus said, “Ye are the salt of the earth.”

Wherever salt is needed to be used for flavouring, if it is present and if it is truly salt, its presence will be very clearly detected. Likewise if it is not there its absence will be very obvious. Yet salt does nothing of itself but is simply salt. It does nothing, yet its presence transforms that with which it is mixed. Salt does not have to try to act like salt, it does not have to do anything. The one imperative is that it is salt and in being salt it is salty and in being salty its presence transforms.

So it is with us in manifesting the very character and nature of God in our lives. If we do not truly have the life of God and, therefore, His qualities within us, then all our efforts at trying to appear that we do will be futile and false.

It is not a matter of appearing to have the qualities of God, but it is in having them, by being what God has called us to be. when a person is real he does not have to impress because, being what he is, the impression is made. His very presence makes its point and has its effect. Our qualities will always communicate louder than our words and people will sense what we are and be affected by that, regardless of what we do or do not say.

It is in “being” that we are the salt of the earth.

A dispelling presence

Likewise light does nothing, yet its presence dispels darkness. All it needs to do is to be what it is, that is, light. And in being light it must cause darkness to disappear. If we are truly the light of the world then we must expect that by being light we will, in fact, dispel darkness.

An example of this can be seen in the case of a counselling situation where, instead of applying a technique, the counsellor simply seeks to express God and what God is wanting to be to the person whom he is counselling. It is not a technique but rather the turning on of the light which can cause darkness to flee and which can cause a person’s problems to be sorted out,  The person goes away not having been helped by a clever counselling technique but rather having been brought to light. As that life was exposed to light the darkness within it had to flee.

Our need is not in knowing how to chase away darkness; we do not have to study darkness. We only need to know how to turn on the light. When Jesus came up against darkness he just turned on the light because he was the light. He was not a “darkness specialist”, rather he was a “light specialist”.

In my own conversion at a Billy Graham Crusade it was the light that Billy Graham was rather than the word he spoke which touched my life and brought me to Jesus. Never since the night of my conversion onwards have I been able to recall any of the words which Billy Graham preached and yet, when it came to the altar call at that Crusade meeting, I knew God was speaking to me and drawing me because the light had been turned onto my life. Ten years later I understood that a little better when I met Billy Graham personally and found again, in a momentary meeting, that sense of the presence of God with a man who was being light. That man was being light and was able therefore to simply and naturally dispel darkness.

So it is with our ministry to people. It is not a more perfect technique that is required, but rather it is in being that which God has created you to be that darkness is exposed and expelled.

On the day of Pentecost three thousand people were saved. They were not saved so much because of the words which Peter spoke, rather it was a transformed Peter, a Peter who was light to those people and whom God used to draw them to himself.

In Acts 26:18 Paul, in giving an account of his conversion, said that Jesus was calling him to go to people, to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance amongst those who are sanctified by faith in Jesus. He was to turn people from darkness to light. A person can never turn other people to light unless he himself is light, for we can only take people to the point where we ourselves have been and we can only reproduce what we are. In being light we can turn others to light.

Paul was not an impressive, silvertongued orator. Nevertheless wherever he went he was light in that place. He was the light of the world in that place  his presence rather than the cleverness of his words continually dispelled darkness and turned people from darkness to light.

One danger for young, sincere Christians is that there are so many people and institutions who offer them an instant, readymade technique for transforming lives and dispelling sin and its effects. They offer them courses, books, lectures  all of them seeming to present easy methods with which to do God’s job. But the fact is that it just cannot be done like that. We do not turn on the light by having a sharp sales pitch technique, or any other type of technique, for methods and techniques do not dispel darkness. Jesus transformed lives by coming into contact with them, and sin and its effects were dispelled because of what He was. His critics were frustrated as they tried to trap Him in his words and deeds but they could not put their finger on what He was He was light and they could not extinguish that light.

The Bible says (John 3:19) “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”

And it also says that the darkness could not apprehend the light. We are not to talk and act as if the devil has some inordinate power, for darkness cannot dispel light and the powers of darkness, therefore, can never defeat the powers of light, Jesus knew that so He dealt with the darkness as light does He dispelled it. As light approaches, darkness retreats!

Key word "LET"

We read that we are to let light shine. We do not make it shine, yet neither are we to hinder it from shining as in hiding it under a bushel.

It is important to remember that in the kingdom of God we do not make things happen, rather we let them happen. A light switch does not make light it lets it shine. A water tap does not make water, it lets it through. We are not the generators of the light; we are not the producers of God’s works; we are not the producers of God’s words; we are not the producers of God’s plan; we are not the producers of God’s guidance. For in all of these, the most any man can be is one who lets God do what he wants. In reality it is simple for it is just a matter of cooperating with what is already there from God.

It is dangerous for any man who is in ministry to give the impression that he is the one who makes things happen. We are not the manufacturers of power or of revelation but, as we let the life of God flow to us and through us, we become the ministers of that life.

A fruit tree does not make fruit appear, rather it lets it appear. Jesus said that we are the branches and the branch is simply something between the trunk and the fruit and all the branch does is to let the fruit-bearing happen. Jesus said that if we let our light shine then those who see the results will glorify God. God will get the glory for they will know where it comes from and they will be impressed, not by what men produce, but by what God produces with and through men.

Co-operating with God

God has chosen to be glorified through human flesh. This in itself is, and has been, a great stumbling block to many with regard to the incarnation the paradox of God in human flesh.  Yet God has chosen to be glorified in men and women of flesh and blood. It is true that, if He chose to, He could do all his works quite unhindered by human agency. Yet He has chosen to use human channels, and if those channels will truly be His channels then the good works of God will be seen through them as they let God be known.

It is not a matter of saying, “Lord do it”, as if God is going to work quite apart from us, but rather it is a matter of cooperating with God’s desire and letting it happen through us.

Moses had been burdened for many, many years because of the Hebrew slaves in Egypt and it would doubtless have been his prayer again and again that God would send someone to deliver them. Yet once he personally had received God’s call to go and be that deliverer it was no longer simply enough for him to pray, “God deliver the Hebrews”. In going to Egypt he cooperated with God and he let the will of God be done there.

He went there as light and as salt, he went there as one sent from God to be the deliverer of the Hebrews and he became just that. Yet prior to this at the burning bush Moses had tried to avoid the call of God because he was overwhelmed by his own inabilities. It was hard for him to believe that in just being the man that God called him to be, God’s will could be done. He stumbled at his own humanity. And so will you if, every time you see the challenge of God before you, you look at your own humanity and your lack of ability and knowhow instead of realising that God is the source of all things and, as you trust and obey Him and let Him have His way, you will be the right person for each situation into which he leads you.

Jesus has been made all things to the church. By Him and because of Him it is our privilege to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. If we cease to be transforming salt and dispelling light we are good for nothing, like savourless salt and the light under the bushel. Salt which is not salt is good for nothing and the candle which is hidden is useless.

If we are not what He has called us to be, we can work hard, pray hard, study our Bibles intently and so on, and still be useless in the kingdom of God.  Yet even if we are not particularly endowed with intelligence or outstanding abilities but are salt and light, the Lord can and will use us to transform and dispel, and lives will be changed because of us.

About the author

Tony Kostas was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1941, where at the age of seventeen, he committed his life to Jesus at a Billy Graham Crusade. In 1967 he founded the Melbourne Outreach Crusade, a non-denominational evangelistic outreach. This later grew into Outreach International, which is now a worldwide body of believers, who share a God-given calling and are committed to live in love with Him and with one another.

Tony’s life is a true expression of all that God has revealed to him throughout the years, in its purity and focus on loving God. His passion is for God to have the desire of His hears: a people who truly represent Him because they are His and His alone.