Be The Salt & Light

• The various names God gives His children in the Bible. (Some are: sheep, brethren, little ones, etc.) When Jesus gives us the name of "salt" and ‘light”, He is reminding us that we have the opportunity and the responsibility to be an influence in the world.

• In the first twelve verses of Matthew 5 in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount we find the beatitudes.

• These blessings–

• “Blessed are the poor in spirit. . .” “Blessed are those who mourn. . .” “Blessed are the meek. . .” “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness,” and so on–are descriptions of the character that Christians must have.

• But from verse 13 on, we are told how we must function in the world as the church of Jesus Christ. In this section, Matthew 5:13-16, Jesus tells his disciples, “You are the salt of the earth” and “You are the light of the world.”

• In this study, therefore, we will examine what it means to be salt and light

There are two things that we value that seem so insignificant at first, they don’t even come up on our radar, but they’re actually needed for our survival.

The first is salt. Too little of it and your food can be under seasoned, but too much can ruin the taste of your food.

The second is light. We all need light to navigate at night or in the dark, otherwise we’ll run into something and/or stub our toe and then wail in totally agony.

I. SALT

"You are the salt of the earth." (v.13a)

THE PURPOSE OF SALT

Jesus did not tell his disciples, “You are the sugar of the world,” but “You are the salt.” Let us, then, examine what the purpose of salt is and how Christians function as salt.

Why does Jesus refer to us as salt?

Salt is a miracle. As you know, it is chemically composed of sodium and chloride. Now pour a little hydrochloric acid on your hand, and it will be burned away in less than a minute. Drink hydrochloric acid and you will die in unbelievable agony very quickly. But when you add sodium to hydrochloride you have salt, which is one of the most common useful substances on planet earth.

You need to understand how valuable salt was in the days of Jesus.

• What we take for granted today was like pure gold to them. You see, salt is a preservative, and 2,000 years ago people did not have refrigeration.

• Salt was so valuable in Bible days that it was often traded ounce-for-ounce with gold.

• Roman soldiers were paid in salt. In fact, the word salary is derived from the word for salt. If a Roman soldier didn't do his job, he wouldn't get all of his salt. That's where we get the phrase, "He is not worth his salt," if someone does not do a good days work.

• Sodium chloride is one of the most stable compounds in all of the universe; it doesn't change and it never loses its character. But there is truth to what Jesus is saying.

How to be a salty Christian.

We are called salt because of:

A. Our Preserving Ability –

? In the days before iceboxes and modern refrigeration, salt was the main means of preserving perishable food. Food would be heavily salted to keep food from spoiling.

? What happens if fish sits out for a few days? It get very aromatic. In Jesus day, fish was one of the main staples of the diet. Fish had to be transported from the seas to the various markets in the towns and villages. Fish would be salted in order to preserve it from rotting and decay.

? salt functions as a preservative. It is an antiseptic which performs the negative function of preventing spoiling meat from becoming even more rotten and corrupt. In tropical countries where there is no refrigeration, people rub salt into meat to keep it from going bad. In the same way, when Christians come in close contact with the sinful people of the world, the world is kept from progressing further into unspeakable foulness. Christians benefit secular society. Without their presence, the world would degenerate at an even faster rate. As a moral antiseptic, Christians keep the corruption of society at bay by opposing moral decay by their lives and their words.

? We are to impact our world to preserve it from moral decay.

? Our world is decaying, our world is rotting, and it is our job as salt to preserve the holiness of God, and the goodness of Jesus as much as we can.

We are called salt because of

• Our Preserving Ability

We are called salt because of