This quotation from the gospel of Matthew (5:14) has been on our home page since the online tape group began in 2010. Joel has given us some beautiful interpretations of this verse, such as this one from the 1951 Second Portland Series (Tape 611, Side 1: “A Morning Meditation”):
“Now remember this … This work is not given to us of God for our benefit. This work is given to us to show forth the glory of God. It’s to show forth what happens … when we receive the activity of the Christ in our consciousness not merely to make our own bodies healthier or our own purses wealthier, but for the purpose of being the light unto the world. ‘Ye are the light of the world.’ The Master did not say ‘Ye are a light for yourselves,’ but ‘Ye are the light of the world.’ God imparts this truth to us that we may be a light of the world, not merely a light to our own little body and pocketbook…
“The activity of the Christ in my consciousness is a blessing to all those who touch my consciousness. It is the activity of truth in my consciousness that performs the miracles for me and for all those who touch me on this highway of life. It is the activity of truth, the activity of Christ, in my consciousness that is the light of the world.
“‘Ye are the light of the world.’ The activity of Christ in your consciousness is the light of the world. The activity of Christ in your consciousness feeds you, sustains you, supplies you, maintains and sustains you. But the activity of Christ in your consciousness does that for everyone who, with a degree of receptivity, touches you on life’s highway.
“I can only be a light of the world in proportion to the activity of truth, to the activity of Christ, in my consciousness; in proportion to the degree in which I open my consciousness to truth, to Christ. I can’t live a life twenty-two hours a day as a human being and two hours as a spiritual being and be much of a light to the world. It’s far better to be a human being two hours a day and live spiritually twenty-two hours, and then be the real light of the world.
“‘You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.’ … We haven’t chosen God, but God has chosen us, called us to a higher light, to the realization that the activity of the Christ within us is the light of the world. The activity of Christ within us is bread, wine, water. The activity of the Christ within us is the resurrection.
“The activity of the Christ in the consciousness of Jesus enabled him to be resurrected and to make the ascension. Take away the activity of the Christ from the mind of Jesus and there would have been no resurrection. Take away the activity of the Christ from the mind of Jesus and he could not have taken the thief into paradise with him that night. …
“Your responsibility is to maintain the light of Christ in your own consciousness and be the light. Just as the lighthouse at sea is not responsible for the ships that pass by – it is only responsible for maintaining its own light, its own integrity, and then the ships that pass by must make proper use of that light – so with us. We are responsible only for maintaining and sustaining the activity of Christ in our individual consciousness to let It shine; to let It be the light of the world.”
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