“Called to Be Salt and Light.”
Matthew 5:13-16
We have now concluded our study of the Beatitudes which serve as an introduction to Jesus’ great “Sermon the Mount.” Each of the Beatitudes was an invitation to self-examination. An invitation to see if we are what we say we are spiritually. It is an invitation to determine if one is really committed or only knows the truth intellectually. Among the audience that day were individuals who knew that Jesus was the Messiah, but who had never committed their lives to Him. The same may be true of some of you today.
The overall theme of this great sermon by the Lord is how people of the Kingdom of Heaven are to live. Jesus was saying, “Those who are My disciples should affect the world in a positive way by the way in which they live.”
"You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. (14)You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. (15) Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. (16) Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”
Unlike some of the parables Jesus teaches where He tells the reader what He wants them to understand, here He gives us no explicit explanation of the word pictures of salt and light that He uses in these verses. Here the reader is left to come to an understanding of these images on the basis of how these things are used in the world around them. We must then seek to understand “What Is It That We Are To Understand About Salt and Light And How Are Christian’s Like Salt and Light?”
First, What Does It Mean To Be the Salt of the Earth? (5:13)
“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.”
• The Meaning
Jesus said to His followers “You are the salt of the earth.” This is one of those places where I think we miss something in the modern English translation; the KJV translates this verse “Ye are the salt of the earth.” Now “Ye” is a good Southern word, it means “Ya’ll” (that is “you all” for you people that not of Southern origin). Jesus is saying, “You all of you are the salt of the earth.”
What did Jesus mean? Jesus refers to His handful of basically uneducated disciples and referred to them as the salt of the earth. What a great compliment! Because salt was a necessity of life in ancient times and thus great value was attached to it. Salt was so important that it was sometimes used for money. The Roman soldiers of Jesus’ day were at times paid with it. In fact, our word “salary” comes from the Latin word salarium or “salt money” which referred to the pay-ments to the soldiers with salt. Whenever we use the phrase saying that someone either is, or is not, “worth their salt” it is a carryover of the idea of the high value that salt had in biblical times.
• The Application
According to the Salt Institute, there are over 14,000 uses for salt. So I will just briefly, describe each one! (Just kidding) I want us to notice two of salts primary uses. First, it is a seasoning. Second, it is a preservative. This is no doubt its main use and it is to this use that I want us look today. Salt was essential for survival in the days prior to refrigeration because it was the only way they had to preserve meat. The salt was rubbed into the meat before it was stored. Salt was to arrest or at least to hinder the process of decay, so too Christians are given the task of arresting the decay of our world.
Christianity has in fact had a profound positive effect on the world. The most dramatic impact of Christianity on the world is that it has attached new value to human life. Prior to Christianity infanticide, and abandonment of children was a common practice. Hospitals as we now know them began through influence of Christianity. The Red Cross was started by an evangelical Christian. Almost every one of the first 123 colleges and universities in the United States has Christian origins, founded by Christians for Christian purposes. The same could be said of orphanages, adoption agencies, humane treatment of the insane, the list goes on and on of the dramatic impact of Christianity in our world. [D. James Kennedy. “What If Jesus Had Never Been Born?” (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Pub., 1994) pp.3- 4]
Christian’s continue to have a positive benefit on our world. As a moral antiseptic, Christians keep the corruption of society at bay by opposing moral decay by their lives and their words.
But there is a horrifying new trend today. George Barna's, the church statistician, says that research shows that, “… the average Christian in the average church is almost indistinguishable from the rest of society. The fundamental moral and ethical difference that Christ can make in how we live is missing. When our teens we claim to be saved, get pregnant and do drugs at the same rate as the general teenage population –(when Christian young people live together without the benefit of marriage) - when the marriages of Christians end in divorce at the same rate as the rest of society - when Christians cheat in business, or lie, steal, and cheat on their spouses at the same statistical level as those who say they are not Christians - something is horribly wrong.”
If we as Christian’s lose the qualities of Christ-likeness that make us distinct and become like the society around us, we no longer have a positive impact. We become a hindrance instead of a preservative.
According to Scripture, one day prior to our Lord’s return the Church will be removed from this world, and when Christians are finally removed from the world scene, all Hell literally breaks loose. In 2 Thess. 2:7 we read, “For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way.”
Jesus says, “…but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.” (v. 13b). Some translations render this “tasteless” (NASB). But technically speaking, salt cannot lose its saltiness; sodium chloride is a stable compound. But in the part of the world where Jesus lived, salt was collected from around the Dead Sea where the crystals were often contaminated with other minerals. These crystallized formations were full of impurities, and since the actual salt was more soluble than the impurities, the rain could wash out the salt, which made what was left of little worth since it lost its saltiness. When this happened, the salt was thrown out, since it was no longer of any value either as a preservative or for flavoring. Just as the essential difference can be leached out of a Christian’s life; by the constant flow of the world’s values through our lives.
“The peculiar property of salt is that even though it may have lost its pungency,… it still retains one very devastating potency. This rare and remarkable material can still …. destroy plant life on the land…. the same principle applies in the case of the Christian. Either our lives or counting for good and for God or they are making an impact for evil and the enemy…. The way we live, the things we say the attitudes we entertain, the life style we adopt… are continuously producing either positive or negative results in society…. Our lives, whether we are aware or not either count for God or against Him. There simply is no middle ground.” [W. Phillip Keller. Salt for Society. (Waco: Word Books, 1981) p. 145-149]
I want you to notice what Jesus says and does not say, He does not say, “You all can be the salt of the earth.” Nor does he say, “You all should be the salt of the earth.” Jesus says “You are the salt of the earth” and in the Greek it is literally “You and you alone are the salt of the earth.”
To be salt, we do not have to be spectacular
To be salt, we do not have to be sensational
To be salt, we do not have to be successful
(by the world’s standard’s)
To be salt, we just have to effect our little corner of the world.
Secondly, What Does It Mean To Be the Light of the World? (5:14-16)
“You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. (15) Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. (16) Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”
Literally Jesus told his disciples “You and you alone are the light of the world.” But the influence of the Church is not being felt in our society the way that it should be. It has been reported that as high as 25% of the population claims to be born again, yet based on the impact we are having this cannot be true.
Perhaps part of the problem is that we have been lead to believe that our religious faith is a purely personal thing; that is that we should keep it to ourselves. While I agree that our faith is personal in that it requires a personal decision on our part, as to whether or not we are going to believe in Jesus, Jesus taught that we are not to keep it to ourselves. The words “let your light so shine” (v.16) are the translation of a single Greek verb (lampsato) which is an imper-ative, meaning that it is a command.
• The Meaning
As we consider “the light” we need to note that we have a three-fold call or responsibility to the light. First, we are called to receive the light. John described Jesus as the light. It is not enough to merely be exposed to the light; we have a choice to respond to the light. John 3:19-20 says, “And this is the condemn-ation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. (20) For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. (21) But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.” We have a choice we can either come to the light or reject the light. In John 1:12 we read “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.”
Second, once we have received the light then we are called to walk in the light. Paul reminds believers in Ephesians 5:8, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.” We were once darkness, but now we are light in the world. How are we to live then? We are to live as children of the light. John speaks to the same problem when he says in 1 John 1:5-7, “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. (6) If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. (7) But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”
Third, we are called to reflect the light. That of course is the central message of our text. In John 9:5 Jesus said, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” But when Jesus returned to Heaven He left Christians with the responsibility to be the light. The Apostle Paul tells us in Philippians 2: 14-15, “Do all things without complaining and disputing,
(15) that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.”
In the same way that the moon merely reflects the light of the sun, Christians are to reflect the light of the S.O.N. Those who follow Jesus actually become reflectors of the light. Just as the sun in the source of light in our universe and the moon reflects the light of the sun; Jesus is the source of light in the world and we His followers are to reflect that light.
• The Application
Notice the simple application in verse sixteen, “Let your light shine before men.” The key is in the little phrase “before men.” You can turn on a light in an empty room and it will dispel the darkness. Evidently there is some choice involved because it says, “let” your light shine.
One of the most frightening things in the world is to be alone in the darkness. You lie in bed trying to go to sleep when suddenly you hear a creak, a little odd sound in the darkness. You strain to see through the darkness but all you can see are vague shapes. Have you ever noticed how everything looks different in the dark? That is because darkness distorts reality.
Jesus uses a simple metaphor to speak a spiritual and physical truth. Light reveals things as they really are. The simple fact is that world is in darkness. But as we saw in John 3:19-20, the sad thing is that the world is in darkness because they prefer the darkness. The world desperately needs light but please under-stand me, the world will not applaud you for bringing it. Although we live in a society where “tolerance” is espoused as a leading virtue there is surprisingly little tolerance for the Christian viewpoint.
We cannot live light-filled lives in our society without standing out, without having people notice us. They may not like us, and they may reject us; but they will know that we are there. If your faith does not make a difference in the way that you live your life you either need to get saved or you need to repent and allow the light of Jesus to shine through.
Jesus said two things would happen when you shine your light:
Men will see your good deeds. The word for
“good” is kalos. It means attractive or beautiful or lovely. “How do we draw people to Christ and advance the Gospel in a darkening and increasingly dangerous day? We do it the same way the early church did in a far more pagan society….Their secret was found in a power of lives well lived. A watching culture sinking into the hopeless, despairing abyss of its own unchecked desires could not help but notice these Christians had something they needed…The fact that early Christians were unintimidated by persecution revealed that they had found something worth living for and if necessary worth dying for. To these pagans whose self-consumed lives had left them without purpose or hope, this unshakeable sense of well-being was undeniably compelling.”[Joseph Stowell“The Light of Lives Well Lived.” Moody Monthly. (July/August, 2001) p. 13]
There’s a second thing that happens when you shine your light before men:
They give God the credit. Verse sixteen says,“They praise your Father who is in heaven.” Did you notice that the word “your” is used three times in this verse? “Your light … Your good deeds … Your Father in heaven.” When you let your light shine before men, they glorify your Father in heaven. What begins on earth ends in Heaven. That’s how much influence we have. We can point men to God. We can lead them out of dark-ness into the light.
Jesus did not say live our lives in such a fashion that people will see our good deeds and say what marvelous, outstanding people we are. A lamp does not call attention to itself. It is simply placed on a lamp-stand from which it will give the best illumination. It is not always easy to perform “good works” in such a way that people will always praise God rather than the one performing the act, but it is still commanded. We are not called to be magnificent chandeliers for the world to admire. We are called to be the little single bulb nightlight in the hallway to keep people from breaking their necks when they get up in the middle of the night! He called us to make a difference in the darkness!!!
On June 5, 1910 the American short-story writer O. Henry spoke his last words he said, “Turn up the lights, I don’t want to go home in the dark.”
As lights in the world, our mission is to make sure no one ever does!!
“Called to Be Salt and Light.”
Matthew 5:13-16
First, What Does It Mean To Be the _______ of the Earth? (5:13)
• The Meaning
• The Application
Secondly, What Does It Mean To Be the _________ of the World? (5:14-16)
• The Meaning
We have a three-fold call or responsibility to the light.
Called to _________ the light. (John 3:19-20, John 1:12)
Called to ________ in the light. (Eph. 5:8, 1 John 1:5-7)
Called to _________ the light. (John 9:5, Phil. 2: 14-15)
• The Application
Two things will happen when you shine your light:
1. Men will see your good _______________.
2. They give God the __________________.
