Matthew 5:14 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Ye are the light of the world— Jesus compares his disciples to the sun, representingtheefficacyoftheirministry(accompanied by his divine Spirit), to fill the world with the gladsome light of truth; a thing as necessary in the moral world, as light in the natural: ye are the light of the world. This appellation was given by the Jews to their wise men and doctors. See John 5:35. 2 Peter 1:19. The Lord Jesus Christ bestows it on his disciples, because they were appointed to preach the Gospel (Philippians 2:15.), and to reveal to mankind the knowledge of Christ, who is the true light of the world; John 1:9. This is also applicable to Christians in general; and to excite them and all Christians to diligence in dispensing the salutary influences of their doctrine and example, he bade them call to mind, that a city which is set upon a mountain cannot be hid; or, that the disciples of Jesus Christ, and all Christians, being appointed to profess and preach the Gospel, the eyes of all men would be upon them, and so, their faults being by this means known and observed, might stop the progress of the Gospel: compare Philippians 3:17. Mr. Maundrelltells us, that there is a city called Saphet, thought to be the ancient Bethulia, which, standing on a high hill, might easily be seen from the mountain on which Christ made this discourse; and he, very probably, supposes, that our Saviour might point to that here, as he afterwards did to the birds and the lilies; agreeably to what we have observed on Matthew 5:2 of our Lord's manner of taking his similies from the most obvious things; a thought which Sir Isaac Newton has well illustrated in his Observations on the Prophesies of Daniel, p. 148., to whom the writer referred to in the note on Matthew 5:2 is greatly indebted. See Doddridge, and Beausobre and Lenfant.