God’s Constitution, Pt 11: Salt and Light
Matthew 5:13-16 13“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. 14“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Neither 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. 16In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
1John 1:6-7 6If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
1Peter 2:9-12 9But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 11Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. 12Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
Psalm 51:7 7Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
People of the 21st Century reading v13 might wonder how salt can lose its saltiness. We are, after all, used to modern refinement methods so the verse seems unbelievable. There were no modern refinement methods in the 1st Century though. Salt was obtained simply from salt marshes, not even by evaporation of sea water, and contained many impurities. But salt, sodium chloride, is more soluble than the impurities and thus becomes ‘unsalty’.
A clue as to the intent of these verses lie in the clauses ‘of the earth’ and ‘of the world’. They don’t say ‘of heaven’ for instance. Both metaphors of salt and light describe the influence the believer is to have on the world around him. The last thing Jesus said to his disciples in Mathew 28 was,
19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, 20teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
Certainly, believers are to bring the unsaved into the Kingdom through the testimony of Jesus Christ, but also they are to do so through the testimony of their lives. So let’s look at how salt and light do that.
When persons become saved they are changed, they are reborn. In short they become different than those around them; they are distinctive. It is in this way that salt and light inform us as to the character of believers. Salt is a preservative; it prevents corruption and decay. Salt is also a flavor enhancer and many of us have had the experience of adding salt to bland food to increase the food’s flavor. When Jesus says we are ‘the salt of the earth’ he is saying it is our ‘job’ to decrease the corruption of the earth and to increase its flavor or vitality. There is a concept in physics called entropy which is the tendency in any closed system to gradually move away from order towards disorder. Another way of looking at this is to realize that air always moves from high pressure to low, and heat moves from hot to cold. It is much the same in spiritual matters as people of high character can find themselves affected or infected by those of low. If a righteousness person allows himself to do so, he can find himself gradually becoming diluted by the world. In this case such a person is hardly distinguishable from the rest of the world. His witness to the life of Christ has become bland and tasteless. How many of us have watched a so-called believer have thought or even said, “He sure doesn’t act like any of what he says is true!”
The light metaphor similarly has much to say about the life of a believer. Notice that Jesus does not say “you are a light of the world”. It’s like Jesus is pointing a verbal finger to Peter, or John, or you, or me and saying, “it is you who can make a difference”. The point of the lamp on a stand or the city on a hill is visibility. Believers are to be noticed. This is a quality that has been heavily counterfeited by Satan. In the 17th and 18th Centuries the Age of Enlightenment promulgated ideals such as tolerance, fraternity, liberty, and separation of church and state. This deception was so effective that now one cannot hold to Godly values without being labeled intolerant or indifferent. But it is clear that we are to be different, so much so that we are to be seen as different. We believers are just as human as the next guy, so as we encounter struggles much as they do, it is how we react to them that marks us as different.
Certainly there is a place for evangelism; people can’t respond to the Gospel without knowing the content of the Gospel. But there is a disconnect here and this is why missionary work is so difficult. Most people do not respond to the Gospel by hearing it, but by seeing the changed lives and good deeds that spring from it. So most people are converted not through a street evangelist, or even a missionary, but through a close relationship with a believer. So while most of us are not called to the mission field, all of us are called to live lives reflective of Jesus’ love.
Living lives reflective of Jesus’ love is not easy. It takes effort. It means abstaining from sinful actions, even thoughts, conducting ourselves honorably, and doing good works. Although it can mean things like helping ones with their struggles, good works is really as simple as being visible. It means that everyone around you knows you are a believer. In many parts of the world, being a Christian brings a prison term or even a death sentence. There is a cliché that asks, “If you were put on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” There is another cliché that says, “We are in the world, but not of the world.” I rather prefer, “We are not of the world, but rather for the world”. Let’s put that into practice!