You’ve probably all heard the old adage “No man is an island.” Since that was the thought that first came to mind as I read the passage that we’ll look at this morning, this week I did some research to find out where that saying originated. It comes from Meditation XVII written by an English poet named John Donne in 1623. Here is a brief excerpt from that composition:
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main…any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.
The point of Donne’s essay is that as humans, our lives are connected and that they are all equally valued by God. And as we’ll see this morning, the fact that our lives are interwoven like that means that as followers of Jesus, we can have tremendous influence in the lives of others.
Last week, we looked at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount as Jesus described the character of those who belong to His kingdom and the present and future blessings that come from being part of that kingdom. But as we’ll clearly see this morning, those blessings are not merely for our own good and edification; they are to be used as a positive influence in the world around us. So take your Bibles and turn to Matthew 5 and we’ll pick up where we left off last week. You can follow along as I begin reading in verse 13:
13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Matthew 5:13-16 (ESV)
Here Jesus uses two common objects as metaphors to describe how His followers are to influence the world around them. As part of His kingdom, they are to bring that kingdom to others through their ability to influence those who are not yet part of the kingdom.
The message this morning is clearly directed to those who are Jesus’ disciples. So if you haven’t yet committed your life to Jesus, a lot of this probably isn’t going to make a lot of sense and you’re going to have a hard time applying the message to your life. But if that is the case, my prayer for you is that in some way God will use these words of Jesus to draw you to Him and that you will heed His call to submit your life to Him.
For those of us who are followers of Jesus, this is perhaps one of the most important passages we’ll study in the Sermon on the Mount. It is the perfect complement to the message from a few weeks ago when we talked about our life’s mission to proclaim good news and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. Here, Jesus is going to give us some very practical guidance on how we are to actually carry out that mission.
I’ll briefly make a few introductory comments about salt and light, since they are the objects of Jesus’ message and then we’ll spend the majority of our time seeing how we can apply what Jesus said in order to maintain our influence in the world around us.
Salt
Since today, we can go to the grocery store and buy a container of salt pretty inexpensively, we don’t really understand the importance of salt in the culture of Jesus’ day.
During that time salt was a necessity of life. Since they didn’t have refrigeration, salt was used primarily as a preservative as well as a seasoning. It was so valuable that it was actually used as a currency. Our English word “salary” comes from the Latin word which refers to the fact that Roman soldiers were paid with salt. So a soldier that did not carry out his duties adequately was said to be “not worth his salt.”
We also know that salt in those days was often not very pure and also contained other elements like gypsum. So when it was exposed to water, the sodium chloride – salt – would leach out, leaving a white residue that looked like salt, but had none of its flavor. This residue would then be thrown on the roads and pathways to keep the dust down.
Light
In Jesus’ day most homes had one large living area. At night, an oil-filled lamp would be lit and then set on the lampstand and that one lamp would light the entire living area.
Jesus also refers here to a city on a hill. For strategic purposes, most of the cities in ancient Israel were built on the hilltops. And at night, when the houses in the city were lit up, the city would be visible for quite some distance.
With that background in mind, let’s develop some practical principles from this passage.
Principle #1 – Christ-followers are the primary means of influencing the world for Jesus.
The word “you” at the beginning of both verse 13 and verse 14 is plural – in the south they would translate it “y’all”. We’ll talk a bit more about the significance of that in a moment. But that word is also what is known as an “emphatic you” - something that is really difficult to show in our English translations. In effect Jesus is saying something like this: “You, and you alone are the salt of the earth” and “You, and you alone are the light of the world.” Since, as we saw last week, Jesus’ primary audience as He teaches here is His disciples, Jesus makes it clear here that it is only His followers who are salt and light.
The other thing we note here is that Jesus uses the present tense verb – “you are”. He is not saying that they might be salt and light or that they will one day become salt and light. Because they are His disciples, they already are salt and light.
In other words, as Christ followers we are already His means of influencing the world around us. The question is not, “Will we be an influence?” but rather “Will we be an effective influence?”
That leads us to our second principle:
Principle #2 - In order to maintain an effective influence as a Christ follower, I must:
Obviously there are many things we need to do in order to maintain an effective influence for Jesus, but we’ll limit our discussion this morning to four of the most significant:
• Connect:
o With God
I was really intrigued by Jesus’ statement that we are the light of the world. My first thought when I read that was “How can that be? Didn’t Jesus say He was the light of the world?” But as I dug a little further, it became easier to understand Jesus’ words here.
Jesus did in fact say He was the light of the world:
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world.
John 8:12a (ESV)
But shortly thereafter, He further clarified that remark:
As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
John 9:5 (ESV)
Finally, after that I went back to the second half of John 8:12:
Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
John 8:12b (ESV)
I really like how Dr. Donald Barnhouse illustrated the overall picture we can draw from these and other passages that reveal Jesus as the light of the world. He said that when Christ was in the world, he was like the shining sun that is here in the day and gone at night. When the sun sets, the moon comes up. The moon, the church, shines, but not with its own light. It shines with reflected light. When Jesus was in the world he said, "I am the light of the world." But as he contemplated leaving this world, he said, "You are the light of the world."
So only those who have connected with God though faith in Jesus can be the light of the world and have an effective influence for Him because Christ is in them and He is light.
o With other believers
You don’t just put one grain of salt on anything. No one ever asks to pass the salt shaker and then picks out one grain of salt to put on the food. And the same is true with light in this passage. Jesus speaks of a city of lights, not merely one individual light.
Earlier we saw that the “you” and “your” that Jesus uses in this passage are all plural. The important lesson that we learn from that is that it is not possible to be effective in our influence for Jesus if we try to isolate ourselves from other believers and try to pursue a life of being a “Lone Ranger” Christian. Jesus made it clear here and elsewhere in Scripture that His followers are part of a body in which He is the Head and we are all equally valuable members, regardless of our roles. And our influence in the world is most effective when we all work together and do our part.
Paul summarized this principle like this:
For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.
Romans 12:4, 5 (ESV)
• Contact
I know I risk stating the obvious, but both the preservative and the flavoring functions of salt, to which Jesus alludes, require contact. If we don’t get the salt out of the salt shaker it can’t accomplish its purpose.
The same thing is true with light in a sense. Notice that Jesus said we are to let our light shine before others. I’m reminded here of this age old question:
“If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”
And then there is this corollary question:
"If a man speaks in the woods, and no woman is around to hear him, is he still wrong?"
Jesus’ point here is quite clear – if our light shines in a way that no one else can see it, then that light can’t, by definition, influence others.
Being salt and light requires that we have contact with the unbelieving world around us. That is why Jesus, in His well known prayer in John 17 described us as His followers as being “in the world, but not of the world.”
In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul wrote to those in the church who had mistakenly taken his earlier instructions to mean that they were not to associate with unbelieving sinners. Here’s how he addressed that situation:
I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people - not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.
1 Corinthians 5:9, 10 (ESV)
In a moment, I’m going to address the danger of becoming just like the world around us, which is obviously a potential way to damage our influence. But we need to avoid the tendency to cocoon ourselves as Christ followers to the point where we lose our ability to be a positive influence for Jesus in the world because we have no contact with the world.
• Conduct
Jesus uses two examples to show how His followers can lose or damage their ability to influence. The first has to do with salt losing its saltiness. As we saw earlier, the only way that could occur is if the salt was contaminated by its contact with other earthly elements. The same thing can happen to us spiritually if we’re not careful. As we’ve already seen, in order to have influence in the world, we have to have contact with it and one of the dangers of that contact is that we can mix so much with that world that we become contaminated and lose our saltiness.
The second example Jesus uses is that of light. You’ll notice that at the beginning of verse 16, He says, “let your light shine”. As we’ve seen, the light, Jesus, is already in us. And nobody, including us, can blow that light out. But we can put a basket over it so that nobody will know that we have that light.
Salt and light are unlike the medium in which they are placed. Salt is not the same as food and light is certainly unlike darkness. And Jesus is warning us here that as we preserve, flavor and bring light to the world, we must not lose our essential character as His disciples.
As we’ll see more clearly in a moment, the reason that we are called to do good works is not to bring attention to ourselves but to bring glory to God. But it is also true that righteous conduct keeps us from damaging or eliminating our influence in the world.
Paul also uses the metaphor of salt when writing about the importance of our conduct toward the world around us.
Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.
Colossians 4:5, 6 (ESV)
We are to walk, or to conduct ourselves, with wisdom as we deal with those outside the kingdom of heaven. And that should be reflected in both our actions and our words as we deal with them.
From what I can determine, this poem, titled “The Living Sermon” was first published as a devotional by “Faith for Daily Living” in South Africa around 1990. It really summarizes well the need for conduct that is consistent with our professed faith in Jesus:
I'd rather see a sermon than hear one any day.
I'd rather one would walk with me than merely show the way,
The eye is a better pupil and more willing than the ear.
Fine council is confusing but examples always clear.
The best of all the preachers are the ones who live their creeds.
For to see good put into action is what everyone needs.
I soon can learn to do it if you let me see it done.
I can watch your hands in action, but your tongue too fast may run.
The lectures you deliver may be very wise and true.
But I would rather get my lessons by observing what you do.
I may not understand the high advice that you may give.
But there is no misunderstanding how you act and how you live.
• Confer
Jesus closes this section by proclaiming that ultimately there is only one reason to be salt and light in the world and to be a positive influence for Jesus in the world – to confer glory to our Father in heaven.
The world is full of moral people who do works that are considered “good” in the eyes of the world but that do not cause the world to glorify God. In fact, if you read our passage carefully, the good works, in and of themselves, are not the light. The light is only intended to illuminate those works in a way that gives glory to God.
Just a moment ago I read a poem titled “The Living Sermon” which did a good job of emphasizing the importance of our conduct in influencing others for Jesus. And I know many Christ followers who feel like they can be a positive influence for Jesus by being that “living sermon.” But that is only part of what is needed.
Let me ask you a question. When people observe our lives and see good works, how do we make sure that God gets the glory from that? I’ve thought a lot about that question this week and I can only come up with one answer – at some point we have to give a verbal witness that makes it clear that we are not doing these things to enhance our own reputations, but rather to give glory to God. Peter confirms that principle in this well known passage:
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
1 Peter 2:9 (ESV)
The word “proclaim” there is a word that means to tell forth, to tell something not otherwise known, to make widely known, to report widely, to proclaim throughout and to tell everywhere. The idea here is that there must be a verbal witness that calls attention to God and not to ourselves.
Principle #3 – A little influence goes a long way
John Donne was right – no man is an island. And that is certainly true for those of us who are followers of Jesus. God has intentionally placed us here on this earth and given us a mission to fulfill. And as part of that mission, He has called us to be a positive influence in the lives of others. That may seem like an impossible task. But here’s the good news. Just a little influence can go a long way.
Think about it. It doesn’t take a lot of salt to do the job. I can salt a whole order of French fries with just one small packet of salt. And it doesn’t take a lot of light to illuminate something. I can still remember going down into a uranium mine that was absolutely pitch dark. When all of us turned off our lights you could literally not see your hand in front of your face. But as soon as just one of us turned on our light, the entire area we were in was illuminated.
The same is true with our influence in the world. Remember the account in Genesis 18 of Abraham praying to God to spare Sodom because his nephew Lot lived there? When God revealed to Abraham that He was about to destroy Sodom, Abraham asked if God would spare the city if there were only 50 righteous people there. And God replied that He would. But Abraham, realizing that there probably weren’t that many righteous people there began to bargain with God until God finally promised that He would spare the city if there were even ten righteous people there.
As it turned out, there weren’t even ten righteous people in Sodom. But just think of it! God would have spared that wicked city if there were only ten people who could have been a positive influence there.
I think we often underestimate the importance of our influence in the world around us. If only ten righteous people could have had a positive influence in Sodom, just think what an impact our body here can have in this community if we will just adhere to the principles that we’ve discovered this morning.
We have the ability to change the world. Not politically, or by protesting, or by using technology, or with our money. There is nothing inherently wrong with any of those things – the problem is that they lack the power to change the hearts of men and women, which is the only way that things are ever going to be changed permanently for the good.
But we can change the world one life at a time by being salt and light in the lives of the other people that God brings into our lives.
So let’s commit to begin by connecting with God through faith in Jesus. Let’s commit to connect with each other in order to make our influence more effective. Let’s commit to being in contact with the unbelieving world around us. Let’s commit to living a life that is consistent with our professed faith in Jesus. And finally, let us commit to making sure that God is the one who gets the glory in all these things.
