Why you can’t hide your light under a bushel

Our faith may be personal, but it can never be private. We are called to be faithful citizens in the public sphere, argues Malcolm Duncan

On the Day of Pentecost “all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages” (Acts 2:4), and the people in the street heard them. Luke explains to us that on the street “the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in his own language,” (Acts 2:6).

Peter then gives a very public explanation of what is being witnessed, pointing back to the death and resurrection of Jesus and the way in which Christ’s message impacts them. Acts 2:43 tells us, “Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.”

The healing of the man at the Beautiful Gate (Acts 3) was a very public event. Thus the story of the early church continues through Acts. Chapter by chapter, we read of these believers living out their personal convictions in a very public way. They were ‘doing’ public theology by being faithful followers of Jesus.

They were unafraid, unashamed and unapologetic about the centrality of Jesus and his message. When told by the Jewish Council not to speak in Jesus’ name, Peter replied, “Whether it is right in God’s sight to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge; for we cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard,” (Acts 4:20).

A City on a Hill

In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said to his disciples, “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lamp stand, and it gives a light to all the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven,” (Matthew 5:14-16).

And when Paul urged the believers in Rome to present their “bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship,” (Romans 12:1), he most certainly meant their material lives, located in the midst of Roman culture because he adds, “Do not be conformed to this world, (literally ‘age’) but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,” (Romans 12:2). He later emphasises this public call once again when he says, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good,” (Romans 12:21).

None of this makes sense unless we understand that the call to be a follower of Jesus is a call to be public, open witnesses. In fact, New Testament Christianity makes no sense if it is interpreted as a privatised expression of devotion to Jesus. Christian faith is a public faith.

It is a demonstrated faith. It is an engaged faith. As Paul reminds the Ephesians (2:10), each of us is God’s workmanship, called by God to do the good works that he has ordained for us to do. Your personal faith and mine matter in the public life of our communities. In the words of American theologian Jim Wallis, our faith may be personal, but it is NEVER private.

Our Faith is Public

Whilst the ‘public sphere’ is both a relatively modern and Western term that refers to the space between our private lives and public life, into which Christian faith is called to speak, there are much more regularly encountered ways of thinking about how personal faith can be seen publicly. By way of example, let me list just eight.

Luke recounts at least two public spaces where Paul was engaged as a witness for Christ. Acts 17:16-17 tells us that whilst Paul was in Athens, “he was deeply distressed to see the city was full of idols. So he argued in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and also in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.”

One of Paul’s public spaces was amongst the Jews, the religious and God-fearing folk of his day, and his own religious community of origin.

The second was the Agora (translated marketplace), where he set out the message of Christ with whoever was there. Luke tells us that he debated with Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. The Agora was where ideas were formed, deals were done, contracts were signed and policies argued about.

Then we have the third public space of friends and family, and those with whom we engage day by day.

Fourthly, there is the public space of the church herself. The New Testament epistles are written to specific people in specific places about faith. Speaking to John about the seven churches at the beginning of Revelation, Jesus roots all of his words in the actual locus and context of their life of faith.

Fifthly, our places of work, sphere of influence or vocation are public spaces, where we can bring our personal faith into public intersections.

Sixthly, in the great moral and political challenges of our day, our personal faith and the whole worldview of New Testament Christianity has something important to say, demonstrating and proclaiming the truth of the gospel.

Seventhly, there is the digital space including the emerging world of the Metaverse.

Eighthly, we have the space of the academy, or the scholarly space.

These eight spheres are not meant to be exhaustive, rather they are illustrative. My point is that we all have public spaces into which we are called to live, display and speak the hope of the gospel.

This is a long way from Roman Catholic theologian David Tracy’s three ‘publics’ of society, academy and church, which he identified in the early 1980s; however Tracy’s observation that all theology is public is exactly the point I am making.

My encouragement to you is that you firstly understand where God has placed you publicly, and, secondly, you seek to be a faithful witness to him in that space.

Faithful Citizens

To what should we be faithful? There are many Christians around the world who are allowing their national, political or denominational identities to come BEFORE their faithfulness to the biblical Christ. There are equally as many who see their public witness as simply one that calls for social change, political renewal, or policy improvement.

Laudable as all of these might be, I am struck by the fact that when Paul was in Athens, he “was deeply distressed to see that the city was full of idols” (Acts 17:16). If we are not careful, our theological, political, social or national convictions can become idols that diminish our witness to Christ rather than enable it.

True public theology is shaped by the realisation that we have a citizenship in heaven, that we are shaped by the hope of a returning Saviour, and that we are called now to live as witnesses to his ultimate transfiguration of all things (Philippians 3:20-21). We must be faithful to his call to be a counter-cultural community, pointing toward the truth of who he is and what he has called us to be in a world that is fading away.

All of our public witness points to the truth that lasting transformation and ultimate peace come only through him.

As Pentecostals, we see everything we are, everything we do, and everywhere we are placed as gifts from God through which we can point out the power of the gospel, the reality of the King and the hope of a coming Kingdom that cannot be shaken.

This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.