*Ye* are the light of the world a city situated on the top of a mountain cannot be hid.
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I have enough from three rich sources. Writing the answer.
The character of the testimony
The Lord's words in Matthew 5:14 — "Ye are the light of the world: a city set on a hill cannot be hid" — mark a step beyond what has just been said. The disciples have already been named the salt of the earth; now they are named something more outward and more public.
William Kelly draws the distinction carefully:
William Kelly"Here the character of the position for the disciples goes beyond 'the salt of the earth.' For this was expressive of righteousness; a righteousness not outward like that of the scribes and Pharisees (which sought reputation of man, and was little beyond the pride of a Stoic), but lowly and real as in God's sight. Whereas 'the light of the world' is the shining forth of grace, and inseparable from the confession of Christ in that respect. Salt preserves, but does not make everything manifest as the light does."
So the figure changes from a hidden preservative to an open testimony. The salt keeps corruption at bay; the light brings things into view. The one is a quiet work of holiness, the other an unmistakable declaration.
Why "the world" and not merely "the earth"
Kelly notices that the Lord does not repeat the word "earth" here, but enlarges the scene:
"'The world' had no such special dealing of God as 'the earth.' There moral darkness had reigned, which the light was to dispel as far as He gave it scope and power. Redemption, Christ's death, resurrection, and ascension, would give the light a penetrating energy unknown before. For such was the deadly pall which overhung the favoured land during our Lord's earthly sojourn that, contrary to nature, the darkness resisted the light, and 'comprehended not' even the True Light in His person. But when He rose victorious over all the power of the wicked one, the old commandment became the new, and was true not in Him only but in us, Christians, because the darkness is quite passing and the true light already shines."
The shining therefore is not limited to Israel. The disciples are placed in relation to the whole moral night of mankind, and their light has its source and its energy in a risen Christ.
"A city set on a hill"
The figure is meant to press home that this testimony cannot be a private thing. Kelly continues:
"This is confirmed by the figure which follows and carries the truth out farther. 'A city set, or situated, upon a hill-top cannot be hid.' The sphere is no longer the circumscribed area of the earth or land, but, as for another aspect we read, 'the field is the world.'... And they, His disciples, are the light of the world: a city set upon a hill-top cannot be hid. Once darkness, they are now light in the Lord, and responsible to walk as children of light, corporately as well as individually. For the fruit of light is in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth."
The city is corporate — a company together on a height, visible from every side. Concealment is not open to them; the only question is whether the light shines brightly or dimly.
The lamp and the lamp-stand
Kelly then turns from the city to the lamp, and here the indictment is sharp:
"Men treat their light more fairly than Christendom does the light of which our Lord spoke. Men shrink from natural darkness, its inconveniences, and its dangers; and when they light a lamp, they do not put it under the dry measure (which of course would quite hide it) but on the lampstand, and it shines to all that are in the house. But Christendom fears the light that exposes its neglect of scripture, and of the Holy Spirit's guidance, and of Christ who is and ought to be the all."
The point is not that the light is weak but that those who bear it too often cover it. The remedy is courage — "the faithful are bound with humility yet in courage of faith to let the light shine; for it is not of self, but the confession of Christ in everything going forth as God has taught them, whether men hear or forbear."
Light and good works — not to be confused
One of the most careful observations belongs to F. W. Grant, who warns against collapsing the light into mere benevolence:
F. W. Grant"From it being said, 'let men see your good works,' people often imagine that these are the light itself, and thus make the two things we are considering practically one. Indeed they are made for one another: separate them, and there is at once a fatal deficiency in each. What testimony to Christ can there be, if there be not the life giving evidence? But again, what evidence in the life if the lips are silent as to Christ?"
Grant then presses that the light must shine upon the works, or else the works will be misread:
"Thus it needs the light to shine upon the good works, that they may be seen as such, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Apart from this, they may glorify humanity, or glorify any lie under the sun. Christ is He with whom in the full reality of it, 'light is come into the world,' and if 'men love darkness rather than light,' it is, as He Himself says, 'because their deeds are evil'... Thus if any are to be in any sense a light of the world, there is but one way of it — by reflecting Him."
Kelly puts the same guard in his own words:
"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."
And he follows with a striking warning:
"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."
The company of witnesses
J. T. McBroom places the saying in its context among the beatitudes, and shows how this shining follows directly upon a willingness to suffer for Christ:
J. T. McBroom"Verses 10-16 show the submission of heart which accompanies the foregoing. Suffering whether for the kingdom or the King was to be esteemed a favour, and it would have its bearing both on the present and the future... They were the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Notwithstanding the persecution and hatred of men they were to be a force for good, able to meet and counteract in divine power the corruption that is in the world through lust, and shed a beneficent influence on all around them."
The shining and the suffering belong together: those who take their place with a rejected Christ become His luminaries in the very scene that rejected Him.
Synthesis
Matthew 5:14 presses two things together that ought never to be separated. First, the disciple's place is necessarily visible — a city on a hill, a lamp on its stand. Concealment is a contradiction of calling. Second, the light itself is Christ confessed, not philanthropy, not reputation, not mere moral decency. The good works that men glorify the Father for are the works that the light shines upon — works that could not be accounted for apart from the open confession of Christ. The warning, then, is twofold: do not hide, and do not substitute. Do not hide, for the whole purpose of a lamp is to shine to all in the house; and do not substitute something lesser — even burning charity — for the one thing that makes the light a light at all, which is the presence of Christ owned in word and life before men.