Ye are the light of the world.A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. (Matt. 5:14)
Verily, verily, I say unto you,I give unto you to be the light of this people.A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. (3 Nephi 12:14)
Okay, what do we make of the differences between these
verses?
First, 3 Nephi has an extra bit of “verily, verily, I say
unto you” that is supposed to emphasize the truth of what Jesus says.
Second, we notice that in Matthew it sounds as if being a
light is something we just are, but 3 Nephi shows us that being a light is
something that comes from Jesus. He is the light of the world, and He
lights our lights so we can shine to others around us.
A third difference we notice is that in Matthew “the world”
is to be lighted with shining example, but in 3 Nephi it is “this people” that
is to be lighted. Part of me
wonders if this was personalized to the people of that day. After all, the Acts of the apostles
were written and preserved in the Bible, which has gone throughout the world,
but the acts of the disciples in the Americas are not found in the Book of
Mormon, so they were only a light to that people. There is very little preserved in the Book of Mormon of the
good example they were from day to day except from very general statements of 4
Nephi that make us wish we could have been there.
We may read it another way if we apply it to ourselves. Technology and the internet makes it
possible to be a light to the world, but very little of we do is going to be
broadcast (thank goodness). Most
of the light we shine will be to the people in our lives every day.
Today, let’s try extra hard to be a good example to the
people around us.
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