You are Salt and light (Matt. 5:1-16)
You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. (Matt. 5:13-16)
Salt is such a common substance, which is taken out of another substance. Like salt extracted from sea water, or salt marshes, or deep beneath the earth, from salt mines, it is made separate from that which used to contain it. We put it on and in almost everything we consume. It is so distinct from that which it flavors, looking nothing like the food it flavors. It is always added to something to make it better. You are the salt of the earth! YOU are; and you ARE! If YOU have come to Christ in the humility of the previous beatitudes (Matt. 5:1-12), in desperate need of the righteousness Jesus is offering, to the point where you are willing to suffer for Christ’s sake, and are rejoicing for having been chosen to suffer for Him, then YOU…chosen, extracted from the sea of humanity that is perishing, made alive by the Spirit of Christ, and chosen to represent the King of kings, YOU are the salt of the earth, called to flavor the world by your distinctiveness, righteousness and obedience to Jesus. You ARE the salt of the earth! You don’t have to become it, be made into it; you ARE because Jesus has called you, extracted you, filled you, and empowers you to be who He wants you to be. You have the life of Christ and His word on the inside of you, His moral guidance, teachings, mind, etc. You are His representatives to this world that needs to be flavored with His presence which you carry. Do you get it? YOU ARE SALT called to flavor your world! Hopefully nobody has lost their saltiness, cause then you’re “good for nothing”. How do we lose our saltiness? By letting the impurities of the world we were taken out of contaminate the purity of our saltiness: sin, anger and bitterness towards God or the church, etc. Saltiness is maintained by staying close to Jesus, and living out of kingdom principles of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Communion with Christ and His word is how we maintain our saltiness, recognizing that we all have a prophetic calling to display Jesus to a world that so desperately needs to be flavored by Jesus carriers (2Cor. 5).
YOU ARE the light of the world because the Light of the World lives inside of you. You’re the light house that carries the Light. You are destined to shine brightly. Now the only way that light cannot shine is if we keep it under a bowl (bushel); that is keep Jesus hidden from the world. Jesus, the light of the world is in you to be seen and let out. Light is best seen in the darkness – the evil world in which we live. Why is it that so many of us want to shine when we are around other lights, inside our churches (our bushels), but the moment we get outside in the darkness, we seem to turn our light off? God has not called us to shine inside of church walls, once a week on Sunday. He has called us to shine in the darkness where we work, live and play. It seems the world is getting darker because the light has stopped shining or hidden under a bushel. The opposite needs to be true! We need to shine more than ever; not hidden but placed high on a hill for everyone to see. But we can only be placed high to see if we believe that what we have, just has to be seen. Again, if our lifestyle looks more like the world than righteous followers of Jesus, then all we have to shine is more darkness. When I see the church embracing more and more of the cultural norms, attitudes, and practices of the world, we have become darkened by the sinful world we are supposed to be lighting up. The goal of shining is to display our good works and glorify our Father with our lives. The good works are not those of meeting social needs but of kingdom righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Actually, just before Matthew 5, Jesus starts His ministry by preaching the kingdom of God, and calling people to repentance and obedience, demonstrating a new life of proclaiming kingdom truths and healing the sick, and casting out demons (Matt. 4:18-25). Then he calls His disciples to Himself and teaches kingdom lessons to them of humility, self-abandonment, righteousness, and obedience even to the point of death. What Jesus is really saying is, the kingdom is available to those who are spiritually poor, mourning over their own sinfulness, hungering for true righteousness, desiring the mercy of God found in Christ, who have pure hearts for transformation, looking to make peace with God by coming into relationship with Him as “sons” through His Son, Jesus. When we humble ourselves to that extent, we become counter-cultural, the opposite of darkness, and true followers of Jesus willing to die for Him and His kingdom. It is at that point that we become salt and light. The Apostle Paul says the exact same thing in Philippians 2 – have the humility of Christ, the fear of the Lord, allowing Him to work in you, being blameless and innocent children of God, that shine as lights in the world, in the midst of a “crooked and perverse generation” (Phil. 2:3-16).
Once again, Jesus is not asking us to do something. As true followers of Jesus who have surrendered our lives to Him, He is simply asking us to be who we are…. salt and light to a dying world. That means, being separated from the sins of the world, conforming no longer to the patterns of this world, but being transformed by the renewing of our mind, living as holy sacrifices in worship to our God (Rom. 12:1-2). We must be distinct and separate if we are going to stand out for our light and saltiness and have any effect on this world. Let us not look at the condition of “the church”. Let us worry about our own witness to the world around us. I am encouraged by the conversations I am having with other followers of Jesus, since there is a boldness rising up in them as they consecrate themselves more to Christ and His word, and are willing to truly follow Him and shine brighter in the midst of persecution. God is on the move in His people! The prophet Isaiah had this confidence: “For behold, darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples; But the LORD will rise upon you And His glory will appear upon you” (Isa. 60:2). The Light of the World is in YOU! It’s time to let Him out for the world to see!
"Advancing the Kingdom of God by releasing Spirit-filled followers to serve Jesus in freedom and joy."
Leave a Comment