"You are the light of the system. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor does a person light a lamp and put it under the bushel, but on the lamp stand and it shines in all who are within the house." Those who are committed to the Jesus-way of life are the light of the system. He has just addressed key points in the previous verses of this chapter: poverty, mourning, gentleness, thirst for justice, a pure heart, and peacemaking. In the context of Matthew 5, what Jesus means by us becoming a light is crystal clear.
In Holy Wind Living Breath New Testament, the Greek word KOMOS is always translated as "system." This allows for linguistic flexibility in its different contexts. With a basic idea of "ordered arrangement", it is used in the New Testament for a disparate group of ideas: from the current cultural and political world; to the world as individual persons; and even for jewelery and clothing. Most often, as here, it seems to encompass both our cultural world as well as the individuals in it. There is a system to the way this world is structured and arranged. And, that system does not necessarily further the aims of the new realm that Jesus envisioned. The current system often seems to be doing everything but...thirsting for justice. Jesus notes in verse 15 above that the lamp "shines in all who are within the house." HWLB is relatively unique in the way it translates the locative sense of the case of the word PASIN. Yes, one could literally translate as "to all." But since part of the mission of HWLB, as quoted in Authentic Teaching of Jesus, is to provide very literal, yet alternative perspectives on the text, the preposition "in" is used. And, indeed, the light not only shines to us, but in us.
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