What does it mean that our lives should be a testimony for Jesus?

Again, let us remember, that it is what we are, not simply what we say, that is the witness before men. The apostle could say. "For me to live is Christ." It is the life that is the true and most impressive witness to Christ. At the birth of Christ the religious leaders in Jerusalem had a very correct knowledge of Scripture, and could direct the wise men from the East to Christ, but they had no heart for Christ, and never took the way themselves. Their words witnessed to Christ but not their lives. Alas! it is possible to become a mere finger post that for ever points the way but never takes the path.

A Christian should be a candle, and what for? That his light may be seen, and the Father get the glory. The Lord is very careful not to say, Let your good works be seen, but, Let your light so shine, and why? What is your light? It is the life of Christ reproduced in you, and that being seen, it is Christ in you that is seen. That is the point. The world is to see Christ in you. It is not merely giving a testimony, but being a testimony. Not being a light-bearer, but being light; and so your Father gets the glory, for that is all Christ. The reflection of Christ in the life of a saint has this for its effect, men will glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Life first, then lip. That is the order. The character of Christ written upon the inner man of the heart, godly behaviour flowing therefrom, and then faithful adherence to the whole truth of Christ as enshrined in Scripture, and courageous proclamation of the truth publicly and privately — these are the things which go to make up a true testimony to Him.

Paul preached Christ to the Corinthians. The Spirit of God used the ministry to make Christ precious to these Corinthian believers — He wrote Christ on their hearts. The Christ written on their hearts, became livingly expressed in their lives. Being expressed in their lives, they became witnesses to Christ — a letter, as it were, known and read of all men. Commending Christ they became a letter to commend Paul, the chosen vessel through whom they had heard of Christ.

It is true that it is possible for the world to form some estimate of Christ from the Word of God; but, apart from the Word — which they may call in question, or fail to understand, even if read — it is God's intention that in the lives of His people there should be a presentation of Christ "known and read of all men."

23 Christ, having given us our place down here, and taken away all our sins, sends down the Comforter, that we, being the living epistle of Christ, known and read of all men, may manifest Him in our walk down here. God loved us when we hated Him; we are to love those who do not love us, and thus show the character of God down here. Christ was the living expression of it as a man. "He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself so to walk, even as He walked." By His intercession Christ obtains for us all we need, and lifts us up if we do fall. He sustains us to walk as He walked, having the word of God as the source of our actions, as God was the source of all His thoughts; but if we fail there is grace to restore us.

This is a wonderful picture of the fact that God intends people who know nothing about Him to get to know Him by watching, indeed examining, even scrutinising closely, the lives of Christians of their acquaintance. The closer they get to us, and the better they get to know us, the more they should be able to learn about God.

You see here His heart is going out to do it. Then you must have your lights burning. "Let your light" (not your works) "so shine before men," that they may know where your works come from, "and glorify your Father which is in heaven," that they may attribute them to God. I do whatever God tells me to do, and it is a testimony to Christ. People say that is what comes from a man being a Christian. It is that there may be no uncertainty as to what we are - a well trimmed lamp, the testimony of the life of Christ - that it may be manifested what I am, and what I am about - a pilgrim and a stranger in a thousand different circumstances, the ordinary duties of life to perform, but one service - to be the epistle of Christ. I may be a carpenter or a shoemaker; I must be a Christian. In various relationships, servants, masters, in eating or drinking in our houses, wherever it is, I must be a Christian.

When we open the scriptures, we see His grace and truth clearly. The very object of God in so revealing Himself is to put believers, convicted of sin and repentant, in the bright, thorough, simple-hearted enjoyment of His grace, that the whole life should be the expression of thanksgiving and praise, as well as of service and devotedness to Himself. There is another reason why people shrink from this, because they have accepted the mischievous idea that the Christian is left in this world to improve the race and be an ornament, if not an ameliorator, of society, to deal with mankind as under probation and the law of God, just as Israel were before redemption. Now I do not for a moment deny that the Christian is meant to be the light of the world, the salt of the earth. He is here for a testimony; but a testimony of what? of his own goodness, or of Christ's? It makes a great difference, "Let your light so shine before men," said our Lord, "that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." This is the grand point. It is not, Let your good works shine before men, the effect of which would be to glorify yourself. And here is where men are apt to err, because the glory of a certain individual casts a sort of halo around the race to which he belongs.

"Thus let your light shine before men, so that they may see your good (or, comely, καλὰ) works, and glorify your Father that is in the heavens." This is practical Christianity in its outgoing, as the salt is the preservative power of purity which we always need to have in ourselves. It is to confess and live Christ, not only in secret which is essential and so pressed elsewhere before Him who sees there, but also truly and unflinchingly before men. Benevolent works are no test, and are not what Christ looked for and here expresses. He spoke of works excellent in the sense of what suits the Father and the Son, and of which the Holy Spirit is the sole power in us. It is not His mind to let our good works shine before men, but our light, or confession of Himself in word and deed.

Nor can anything other or short of this secure the end He proposes. For I might dole out all my goods in what men call charity, or deliver up my body to be burned without confessing Christ, and therefore without in any way glorifying the Father. There is neither light nor love without the faith and the confession of Christ; and self might thereby be honoured, but not the Father. Whereas let the light of Christ shine in your confession; and when men see right works in accordance with the will of God, they glorify not you but the Father who is the spring and aim of what you do.