Scripture Reading: Matt. 5:14b-16; 13:43a; 15:13; 25:1; 1 Cor. 3:6-8
Ⅰ
The believers are symbolized by a lamp—Matt. 5:15-16:
A
In order to be a lamp shining upon others, the believers need to be without any covering—v. 15.
B
The believers should not be covered by a bushel, an item pertaining to food, concern for which causes people to be anxious—6:25, 34.
C
If we are anxious about our living, this anxiety will become a bushel covering our light—Phil. 4:6; 1 Pet. 5:7.
D
If we let our light shine before others, God will be expressed in this shining, and those around us will see glory, God expressed—Matt. 5:16.
Ⅱ
The believers are symbolized by a city situated upon a mountain—v. 14b:
A
The light is not an individual believer; the light is a corporate city built up as one entity to shine over the people surrounding it.
B
In order to shine upon others outwardly, we need to be built up as a city on the mountain top; the city is the light—Rev. 21:23-24a.
C
If we would be a shining city, we must keep the oneness and remain one entity, a corporate Body—Eph. 4:1-6; 5:8-9.
Ⅲ
The believers are symbolized by the sun—Matt. 13:43a:
A
Those who will shine forth like the sun are the sons of the kingdom as the righteous—v. 38; 5:20.
B
When in the millennium the overcomers enjoy the Father as light, they will shine forth like the sun in the kingdom of their Father—1 John 1:5; 1 Tim. 6:16.
C
"Because of the merciful compassions of our God, in which the rising sun will visit us from on high, to shine upon those sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death"—Luke 1:78-79a:
１
Jesus the Savior was the dawning sun to the dark age.
２
As the sun in Zachariah's prophecy, He is light to us—John 9:5; Matt. 4:16.
D
The Sun of righteousness will arise with healing in His wings—Mal. 4:2:
１
Christ is the Sun that heals us as it shines upon us.
２
The word Sun indicates life, and the word righteousness indicates justice; with the healing Christ there is life and justice.
３
As believers in Christ, we enjoy Christ's shining as the Sun of righteous-ness for our growth in life in the dispelling of darkness, and also for our healing in life in the effacing of unrighteousness.
E
Christ is "like the light of the morning when the sun rises, / A morning without clouds, / As when the tender grass sprouts up from the earth / At the sun's shining after a rain"—2 Sam. 23:4.
F
Those who are one with Christ and who are constituted with Him will shine forth like the sun—Matt. 13:43a:
１
"May those who love Him be like the sun / When it rises in its might"— Judg. 5:31b.
２
"The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, / Which shines brighter and brighter until the full day"—Prov. 4:18.
３
"Who is this woman who looks forth like the dawn, / As beautiful as the moon, / As clear as the sun"—S. S. 6:10a.
４
"Those who have insight will shine like the shining of the heavenly expanse"— Dan. 12:3a.
Ⅳ
The believers are symbolized by virgins—Matt. 25:1:
A
Virgins signify the believers in the aspect of life—2 Cor. 11:2.
B
In order to become the New Jerusalem—an aggregate virgin—we must be virgins who love the Lord and watch for His coming—Rev. 21:2.
C
If we would bear the Lord's testimony (the lamp) in the dark age and go out of the world to meet the Lord, we need the filling of the Holy Spirit—Matt. 25:4, 6.
Ⅴ
The believers are symbolized by plants—1 Cor. 3:6-8; Matt. 15:13:
A
As God's plants, we are planted in the church, which is God's farm—1 Cor. 3:9.
B
The life with which the believers grow and are transformed is the crucified and resurrected Christ—vv. 6-7, 12; 1:23; 2:2; 15:3-4, 20, 45b; 2 Cor. 3:18.
C
As believers, we may experience and enjoy the riches of the all-inclusive Christ typified by the plant life—Psa. 1:3; 92:12-14; Isa. 61:3; Jer. 17:7-8; Rev. 7:9:
１
"Out of the ground Jehovah God caused to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, as well as the tree of life in the middle of the garden"—Gen. 2:9.
２
"There were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees"—Exo. 15:27.
３
"You shall take for yourselves the product of stately trees, branches of palm trees and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook"—Lev. 23:40.
４
"Like valleys they are spread forth, / Like gardens beside a river, / Like aloes which Jehovah has planted, / Like cedars beside water"—Num. 24:6.
５
"Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates / With choicest fruit; / Henna with spikenard, / Spikenard and saffron; / Calamus and cinnamon, / With all the trees of frankincense; / Myrrh and aloes, / With all the chief spices"— S. S. 4:13-14.
６
"He built the walls of the house within with cedar boards…And he overlaid the floor of the house with boards of cypress…In the innermost sanctuary he made two cherubim of olive wood"—1 Kings 6:15, 23.
７
"He carved all the walls of the house all around with engraved carvings of cherubim and palm trees and open flowers"—v. 29; cf. Ezek. 41:18-20.