Intro
We have found in our study of the Beatitudes that a certain kind of person is blessed (approved
and favored by God). This follower of Christ has the same characteristics developed in him that
we see in Christ. He is poor in spirit, mournful of anything that does not glorify God, meek, etc.
It is this kind of person who influences the world around him in a positive way.
Jesus does not end his discussion of the Beatitudes without explaining the influence of these
Christ-like people. So, in Matthew 5:13-16 he says,
“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”
(Matt. 5:13-16).i
In both verses 13 and 14 the pronoun is emphatic and contrastive; humeis este (you are) the salt
and the light.ii Only Christ’s followers, as described in the Beatitudes, qualify as salt and light in
this world.
Designed for Influence
God’s purpose in transforming people to fit the mold of the Beatitudes is not fulfilled
until those people are influencing other people. Our understanding of the Beatitudes must not be
confined to what we become. That is essential. Our doing must always flow out of our being.
And the kind of being that rightly influences the world is described in the Beatitudes. But this
kind of devoted follower of Christ does not live unto himself. We are not called to hunker down
in a holy huddle and congratulate ourselves on spiritual progress. We are to let our light shine in
a dark and needy world. Just as each person of the Trinity goes out toward the others in love, so
Beatitude-described believers live for the wellbeing of others: the wellbeing of other believers
and the wellbeing of all humanity.
The language of love is always dominated by the word “others.” On Christmas Eve 1910,
“General William Booth, the founder of The Salvation Army was an invalid and near the end of
his life—it was impossible for him to attend the Army’s annual convention.iii But he sent a
telegram that was read to the thousands of workers in attendance. It contained only one word, a
word that summarizes Jesus’s message in our text today: “others.”iv If the spiritual development
in our lives does not point us to others, that development cannot be the authentic work of the
Holy Spirit. God’s sanctifying work of grace in believers is to deliver us from self-absorption
and orientate us in love toward others.
Paul understood this when he wrote,
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing” (1 Cor. 13:1-3).
It is no wonder that Jesus spoke our text in Matthew 5:13-16 immediately following his declaration of the Beatitudes. The Beatitudes fall short of their purpose without these disciples functioning as salt and light in the world. Commenting on the metaphor of salt, Luther wrote, “Salt is not salt for itself, it cannot salt itself. But it is used to salt meat and other things in the kitchen so that they keep their taste, stay fresh, and do not rot.”v
Transformation Essential for Proper Influence
Why did Jesus teach the Beatitudes before stating our text? To be salt and light in the world, one must be the people described in the Beatitudes. Immeasurable harm is done by unconverted preachers who present themselves as messengers of righteousness but are preaching “another gospel.”vi They declare themselves as God’s peacemakers, but it is not the gospel of peace that they preach. Nor do they represent the God of peace who sent Christ into the world to provide genuine peace in the hearts of men and women. They are the blind leading the blind off the cliff into spiritual destruction (Matt. 15:14). “Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God” (Matt. 5:8). Spiritual sight must begin with the new birth, as Jesus said in John 3:3, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” The seeing must precede the leading. The new birth gives the person eyes to see. It is foundational to the sanctifying process that develops increasingly clear sight through purity of heart. Only those who are under the tutorship of the Holy Spirit as described in the Beatitudes are fit to function as salt and light in the world. Those who climb up some other way do more harm than good.
Relationship of Jesus’s Teaching on Salt and Light with the Beatitudes Summarized
So that is the relationship of Jesus’s teaching on salt and light in our text to his teaching that immediately precedes it in the Beatitudes. It is the followers of Christ described in the Beatitudes who are the salt and light of the world. It is them and only them, not the unconverted who mimic the qualities but lack the inner transformation.
But the thrust of our text is to remind devoted followers of God’s purpose for them in the world. They are not to live for themselves.vii They are not to retreat into safety. They are to engage the world with biblical truth. They are salt and light, and they must not hide that light under a bushel. In this teaching, we will deal with the metaphor of salt. In the next message we will examine Jesus’s instruction using the metaphor of light.
“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” (Matt. 5:13).
Within that verse we have:
(1) A fact stated concerning the followers of Christ,
(2) the world’s condition implied,
(3) an action required of disciples, and
(4) a warning issued to Christ’s disciples.
A FACT STATED
In this text we have moved from a discussion of the Christian’s character to a declaration of his function: salt and light. God’s people are in fact the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Jesus does not say “try to be salt.” A devoted follower of Christ is salt. He carries the presence of the Holy Spirit within him, and the Spirit exercises influence through him. The believer does not have to make himself to be salt. God has already done that. But he is exhorted to function in what he is.
It is common in the New Testament for God to declare what believers are, then admonish them to function accordingly. For example, in Ephesians 5:8 Paul writes to Christians at Ephesus, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.” Be what you are. Be what I have made you to be.
In 1 Peter 2:9 that apostle reminded believers, “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” That is who you are as a Christian. Then in verses 11-12 Peter attaches the admonition to function accordingly. “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, 12 having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles. . . .”
We see something similar in Paul’s instruction concerning the unity of believers. In Ephesians 4:1-3 he tells Christians to lead a life worthy of their calling, “endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Then he reminds them that he has already made the Body of Christ one. The believer’s part is to recognize that and work to preserve that unity by following biblical directives. Human efforts to create the unity through organizational efforts usually result in compromises that ultimately weaken the church. When the unity God has created is simply honored and maintained through mutual respect, the kingdom of God advances.
So, we want to be clear on this distinction: there is a difference between making ourselves salt versus functioning in what God has already made us by living in fellowship with him. We do not have to make ourselves salt and light. God has already done that. But, in recognition of that fact, we are to function accordingly.
Salt is an amazing commodity used in a variety of ways. Davies and Allison comment on eleven usages.viii Prominent applications of salt include the following:
1. Salt is a preservative. In earlier cultures, this was particularly important since they did not have refrigerators and freezers. Salt was rubbed into meat to retard spoilage. Leviticus 2:13 required salt to be added to the sacrifices.
2. Eating salt with someone was “a sign of loyaltyix” and peace. “In Num 18:19; 2 Chron 13:5, a ‘covenant of salt’ is mentioned (compare Mark 9:49). This custom of pledging friendship or confirming a compact by eating food containing salt is still retained among Arabic-speaking people. The Arabic word for "salt" and for a "compact" or "treaty" is the same.”x Colossians 4:6 associates salt with graciousness: “Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.”xi
3. Salt was used “as an antiseptic in medicine. Newborn babies were bathed and salted (Ezek. 16:4).”xii Elisha used salt in conjunction with the miracle he did to purify water (2 Kings 2:19-22).
4. Then and now salt is used to season food (Job 6:6).
Since Jesus did not specify in our text any one of these uses, it is best to not restrict our interpretation to only one application.xiii Any one of these applications could have come to mind for those originally hearing Jesus’s instruction. Salt as a food seasoning might be the most likely application since the secondary meaning of the Greek word moraino is “to make flat and tasteless.”xiv Therefore, the New King James translates as follows: “but if the salt loses its flavor [moraino], how shall it be seasoned?”xv
Certainly, devoted followers of Christ act as a preservative to impede the moral decay of society. Believers function as an antiseptic to heal social disease. And, as we saw in our discussion of the seventh beatitude, they are the real peacemakers for humanity. Any of these applications remind us of believers’ influence in the world.
THE WORLD’S CONDITION IMPLIED
The world’s condition is implied in both metaphors (salt and light). The world is in spiritual darkness, desperately needing the light of the gospel. Christ came as the light of the world (John 9:5). The world as a whole rejected him because their deeds were evil. They loved darkness rather than light (John 3:19). Even after that rejection God commended his love for humanity by sending Jesus’s followers into the world as carries of his light (John 20:21). So, now in Matthew 5:14 Christ says to those followers, “You are the light of the world.” The Christ-light continues to shine giving light to the world.
The world is decaying in moral corruption. It is in a process of self-destruction. Liberal environmentalists voice their concerns about the ecological deterioration, especially the impact of carbon emissions. While there may be some validity in the concern, the ecological impact is only a fruit of the fundamental corrupting influence: sin. The sinful, selfish nature of fallen man drives him to activities that provide immediate benefits for himself to the detriment of others. Unregenerated people do not love their neighbors as themselves.xvi It takes a deep work of God’s grace to work that kind of love in the human heart. Every time someone becomes a devoted follower of Christ, the corruption of the world is mitigated. That person becomes more caring about the wellbeing of others, regardless of what secular laws have been enacted in the land. Laws do serve to restrict destructive activities (Rom. 13:1-7). However, with every law enacted, the ungodly find loopholes and continue to assert their destructive influence. When people are transformed on the inside and made pure in heart, they do not look for such loopholes (Matt. 7:17-18).
Even with the restraining influence of God’s people in the earth, Paul predicted a continued moral decline in the last days. He told Timothy to endure the persecution he would experience from the ungodly, and he warned in 2 Timothy 3:13-14, “But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.” The world may advance scientifically, but morally it is declining. In the book of Revelation, we see the corruption of the world coming to the full under the influence of the Antichrist. The rebellion against the Creator brings judgment and destruction to the earth. In the meantime, the influence of godly people retards and slows down that process of decay.
The false idea that the world can get better on its own without God is altogether contrary to biblical revelation. That has already been tried at the Tower of Babel. Neither will people be able to come up with a moral code superior to that which God has already revealed. All the humanistic dreams for a utopia are delusional. In my college days, the song celebrating the Age of Aquarius was popular.xvii The Hippie Generation dreamed of making the world better through a humanistic peace movement. What they actually did through sexual promiscuity, drug abuse, etc. was to advance the moral decay of society. Their righteousness turned out to be filthy rags (Isa. 64:6).
AN ACTION REQUIRED
Implied in Matthew 5:13 is the responsibility of believers to act as salt in the earth. Their influence should make the world a better place to live. They make life more palatable. They act as a medicine to bring healing to individuals and to society. They restrain evil in a number of ways: by their voice and message, by their acts of kindness, by their opposition to oppression and injustice, and by their function as peacemakers. Their daily interaction with others makes a difference.
This story in Woodrow Wilson’s life illustrates this beautifully.
“‘I was in the barber shop,’ remarked former President Woodrow Wilson, when I became aware that a personality had entered the room. A man had come quietly in upon the same errand as myself, and sat in the chair next to me. Every word that he uttered showed a personal and vital interest in the man who was serving him; and before I got through, I was aware that I had attended an evangelistic service, because Mr. Moody was in the next chair. I purposely lingered in the room after he left, and noted the singular effect his visit had upon the barbers in that shop. They did not know his name, but they knew that something had elevated their thoughts. And I felt that I left that place as I should have left a place of worship.”xviii
In 1826 Charles Finney “visited a cotton manufacturing plant where his brother-in-law was superintendent. As Finney passed through a spacious room in which many women were working at looms and spinning jennies, he noticed several young women watching him and speaking among themselves. As Finney approached them, they became more agitated. When Finney was about ten feet away, one woman sank to the ground and burst into tears. Soon others were sobbing, overcome with conviction of their sin. This outpouring of the Spirit spread rapidly throughout the building until the entire factory was singularly aware of God's presence.”xix
These are two inspiring stories of how Christians can act as salt in this world. Our personal stories may not be as sensational, but we too are influencing those around us. Evil is restrained by your presence. Your testimony of Christ causes others to pause and ponder, even if they don’t do so when they are with you. Every time you cast your vote based on biblical principles you are functioning as salt. Every time you decline an invitation to participate in ungodly reveling, you are being salt. Every good deed to lift up those who are cast down counters the selfish nature of this ungodly world.
A WARNING ISSUED
But Jesus concludes Matthew 5:13 with this warning to his people: “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 significance of this warning is reinforced by the fact that the caution is recorded in three of the gospels. Mark 9:50 shares it in conjunction with being at peace with one another. “Salt is good, but if the salt loses its flavor, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace with one another.”xx Luke shares it in conjunction with the cost of discipleship. Luke 14:35 says, “Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? 35 It is neither fit for the land nor for the dunghill, but men throw it out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”xxi So as believers, we take the warning seriously.
What does it mean for salt to lose its “saltiness” (NIV)? The Amplified Bible says, “its taste (its strength, its quality).” There has been debate as to whether salt can lose its quality as salt, but it is an “indisputable fact that salt can be so mixed with impurities as to become useless (cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. 31.82).xxii
When the church becomes decidedly mixed with the world, she loses her influence.xxiii That’s why the current craze to become more and more relevant to the culture is brimming with dangers. We certainly want to reduce communication barriers so that the gospel is clearly understood when preached. But when the church becomes more and more like the world, it ceases to function as salt.
Salt is useful because it is different from the substance it is influencing. It gives taste to food because it is something distinct from the food. It preserves meat because it is of a different nature than the meat itself. To fulfill her function, Israel had to stay separate from the idolatrous pagan nations. When she failed to do that, she was trampled under the foot of those nations. Paul corrected the Corinthians for their compromise with the ungodly (2 Cor. 6:14-16). Then, with a possible reference to Isaiah 52:11, he wrote, “Therefore ‘Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you’” (2 Cor. 6:17). The salt needs to be on the food, possibly rubbed into the meat, but it is never to become like the meat. Someone has summed up this issue well by saying, “When the church feels it must become like the world to reach the world, we have not won the world, the world has won us.”xxiv
The consequence of such compromise is that the Christians lose their power of influence, ironically the very thing they thought they would gain by the compromise. They fail to function as God intended, and they lose their “power” to influence. As Samson lost his anointing through compromise of his consecration, the church can lose the anointing of the Holy Spirit. And it is the anointing of the Spirit that enables the church to function as salt. The salt becomes so mixed with the corruption of the world that “it is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.”
Men cannot trample the church underfoot as long as she is living in consecration unto God and operating in the anointing of the Holy Spirit. It was only after Samson crossed the line of compromise that the Philistines were able to trample him under foot putting him in the prison house (Judges 16:20-21). Under the anointing, Samson easily prevailed when contending with the world around him (Judges 15:14-16). The world persecuted the early church, but the world did not prevail against those Spirit-empowered people. To the contrary, they turned the world upside down and spread the word of God throughout the known world.xxv
In John 15:5-6 Jesus issued a warning to his disciples similar to this text. He told them, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.” The function of a branch is to bear fruit. If that function is not being fulfilled, then the branch is discarded. Pink comments, “Unspeakably solemn is this: one who has been bought at such infinite cost, saved by such wondrous grace, may yet, in this world, fall into a barren and unprofitable state, and thus fail to glorify God.”xxvi
The caution in John 15 is to abide in Christ and allow his life to bring forth fruit in your life. While “fruitfulness is impossible apart from Christ,” writes Leon Morris, it is “inevitable if we preserve vital contact with him. Fruitfulness is not something we achieve in the natural energies of the flesh but something that follows naturally enough when we are in Christ.”xxvii In both this metaphor of the vine and the metaphor of salt, the key message is that we are to stay rightly related to Christ so that we can fulfill our God-given function on earth.xxviii
Salt can be an irritant when rubbed into a wound as an antiseptic. It can sting, but the benefits far outweigh the disturbance. The gospel disturbs the world, but it brings the much-needed healing. Oswald Chambers’s observations on this are as applicable today as when he shared it. He wrote,
“‘Ye are the salt of the earth.’ Some modern teachers seem to think our Lord said, ‘Ye are the sugar of the earth,’ meaning that gentleness and winsomeness without curative-ness is the ideal of the Christian. Our Lord’s illustration of a Christian is salt, and salt is the most concentrated thing known. Salt preserves wholesomeness and prevents decay. It is a disadvantage to be salt. Think of the action of salt on a wound, and you will realise this. If you get salt into a wound, it hurts, and when God’s children are amongst those who are ‘raw’ towards God, their presence hurts. The man who is wrong with God is like an open wound, and when ‘salt’ gets in it causes annoyance and distress and he is spiteful and bitter. The disciples of Jesus in the present dispensation preserve society from corruption; the ‘salt’ causes excessive irritation which spells persecution for the saint” (emphasis Chamber’s).xxix
Conclusion
Persecution or no persecution believers must engage the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. They must act as he would act. They must show by their good works that God is good, and God is merciful. We cannot withdraw in our comfort zone and fulfill the calling to be salt. We must engage, and we must do it with grace and love.
ENDNOTES:
i All Scripture quotes are in the New King James Version unless indicated otherwise.
ii Cleon L. Rogers, Jr. and Cleon L. Rogers III, The New Linguistic and Exegetical Key to the Greek New Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1998) 9. Cf. Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996) 503. 318.
iii “The Need to Retune Your Focus,” Deeper Christian. Accessed at https://deeperchristian.com/others-2/.
iv “The Need to Retune Your Focus,” Deeper Christian. Accessed at https://deeperchristian.com/others-2/.
v Martin Luther, Luther’s Works: The Sermon on the Mount (Sermons) and The Magnificat, Vol. 21, Jaroslav Pelikan, ed. (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing, 1956), 54.
vi Cf. 2 Cor. 11:4, 13-15
vii Cf. 2 Cor. 5:15.
viii W. D. Davies and Dale C. Allison, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to Saint Matthew, vo. 1, International Critical Commentary (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1988), 472-473.
ix W. D. Davies and Dale C. Allison, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to Saint Matthew, vo. 1, International Critical Commentary (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1988), 472.
x International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, s.v. “salt” by James A. Patch. Accessed in Electronic Database Copyright (c)1996 by Biblesoft.
xi In a small group this verse could be made memorable by having each one stick out his tongue and sprinkling a little salt on it after which the participant says “seasoned with grace.”
xii International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, s.v. “salt” by James A. Patch. Accessed in Electronic Database Copyright (c)1996 by Biblesoft.
xiii “After listing eleven views, Davies and Allison 1988: 472-73 prudently conclude that the saying may play on salt’s many uses rather than a particular one (similarly Hagner 1993: 99” (emphasis mine). Craig Keener, A Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999), 173.
xiv Joseph Thayer, Thayer's Greek Lexicon, 1896. Accessed in electronic data base: Biblesoft 2000. Keener believes in this context, “taste may well be in view.” Craig Keener, A Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999), 173. Keener says that “the use of salt here is as a flavoring agent: ‘if salt has become tasteless’ (the Greek word can also mean ‘become foolish,’ so it may include a play on words).” Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), 57.
xv Using the salt as a food condiment, The Message paraphrases Matthew 5:13: “Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.” Eugene H. Peterson, The Message: The New Testament in Contemporary Language (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 1993, 18-19.
xvi Unregenerated people may do some good works just as the Pharisees did in Jesus’s day. But the motive is not divine love (agape) as required in the second great commandment (Matt. 22:39).
xvii “The Age of Aquarius is the fourth album by American pop group the 5th Dimension, released in 1969.” “The Age of Aquarius (album),” Wikipedia. Accessed at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Age_of_Aquarius_(album).
xviii Paul Lee Tan, ed., Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times, 1979 (Rockville, MD: Assurance Publishers, 1985) s. v. “Worship in Barbershop” by Ruby Miller, 1136.
xix Brian Branam, “Charles Finney,” Feel My Faith. Accessed at https://www.feelmyfaith.com/2015/12/charles-finney.html#:~:text=Charles%20G.%20Finney%20was%20a%20nineteenth-century%20evangelist%20whose,cotton%20manufacturing%20plant%20where%20his%20brother-in-law%20was%20superintendent.
xx The caution here might be that broken relationships among Christians along with the bitterness and hardening of hearts might cause Christians to lose their saltiness, their ability to influence the world toward godliness.
xxi The caution in Luke 14:35 is the danger that a person might not persevere in the discipleship disciplines of self-denial and therefore fail to function as salt.
xxii W. D. Davies and Dale C. Allison, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to Saint Matthew, vo. 1, International Critical Commentary (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1988), 473.
xxiii Christ’s followers are in the world (John 17:11) but not of the world (John 17:16). Cf. 1 John 2:15-17.
xxiv Franklin L. Kirksey, “The Woeful Story of the World System,” Pastor Life. Retrieved Sept. 30, 2017 at http://www.pastorlife.com/members/sermon.asp?fm=whatnew&USERID=&SERMON_ID=6716. Franklin also offers this very relevant quote from A. W. Tozer. “Christianity is so entangled with the world that millions never guess how radically they have missed the New Testament pattern. Compromise is everywhere. The world is whitewashed just enough to pass inspection by blind men posing as believers, and those same believers are everlastingly seeking to gain acceptance with the world. By mutual concessions men who call themselves Christians manage to get on with men who have for the things of God nothing but quiet contempt.” (The Divine Conquest, 111). Tozer was speaking to a much less compromised church than we have today in America.
xxv Acts 6:7; 12:24; 17:6; 19:20.
xxvi Arthur W. Pink, Exposition of the Gospel of John: Three Volumes Complete and Unabridged in One, 1945 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1975), 399.
xxvii Leon Morris, Reflections on the Gospel of John, 1986 (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2000), 519.
xxviii Our saltiness as believers is a result of God’s life expressed through us. As we abide in Christ, as we are continually filled with his Spirit (Eph. 5:18), we bear the fruit of the Spirit and influence the world as salt. It is the Christ-anointing operating through us that makes us salty.
xxix Oswald Chambers, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, 6th ed. (London, Simpkin Marshall, n.d.), 19.
