Matthew 5: 13
The Believer as Salt, Light

I. THE FIRST OF THE TWO IS "SALT:" "You are the salt of the earth."

1. The problem in understanding this metaphor is that we moderns use salt almost exclusively for flavoring.  But in Biblical times it had two uses and flavoring was not the most conspicuous of them.  The main use of salt was for preserving and for preventing decay.  Almost certainly this is how the passage would have been understood by the disciples.  I think the interpretation about our faith being the "salt of life" -- something like the popular phrase, the "spice of life," is inappropriate.  It is not about our happiness but about the effect of our lives on the world around us.  Our happiness is a bi-product of this sort of thing but not the main concern.

And one of the other things here peculiar to ancient times, is that the thing they called salt was something more than pure salt.  Pure salt does not lose its saltiness.  But in their case, they got a block of this substance from the region down around the Dead Sea, (which they called the "Salt Sea" because it is so saturated with salt) and used that for their flavoring and preserving.  With the effects of the sun and water, something that looked like salt remained, but had no saltiness.

2. The Christian is the "salt of the earth."  And if the salt has lost its saltiness, it is good for nothing except to be thrown out and trodden under foot by men.  What is meant by this?  I think it refers to the role of Christians to stand in society as the children of God and, just by their living their lives, as citizens they prevent decay and putrefaction and, as a result, preserve and promote the positive good of the people of the surrounding society -- even those who do not know the Lord.  And as you think about American history you will see how apt a metaphor it is.

3. Biblical Christians have always done this.  Probably, the main reason that Western Civilization is radically better than Afghanistan's or Saudi Arabia's or China's, or many other cultures which have driven out their Christian citizens is explained by this principle.  In our own tradition Christian individuals have often been great blessings to society, "salt of the earth," we call them.  Many of the people who set up this society were Christians.  Within general Christendom, the reformation and, then later, the Reformed and Puritan movement, and the revival of faith in England in the late 1700s, and the best part of the great evangelical movement of the 20th century have indeed been salt to western society.  Those movements always fell short of Biblical Christianity in many areas but the fact that they somewhat approached it had a remarkable effect on the society.  Now that we see a secularized liberalism and a wimpy and theologically simplistic conservatism, we are beginning to see that influence wane.

4. And in your case, you are called to be the "salt" of your world, living a life of Christian integrity: being a good citizen with serious involvement in society -- being a good neighbor, promoting integrity and morality in education, business, politics, entertainment, and culture, "doing what is good and shunning evil," as Paul said.

Does this describe you?  You are a Christian, a citizen of heaven.  Are you any earthly good?  Or are you -- for all practical purposes -- on the side of the decadent people who would turn society into one expansive slum, a cultural and moral gutter?  Do you vote?  Do you take any part in society?  Do you, as a child of God, created in the image of God and redeemed in Christ -- do you have any better cultural standards than the ugliness and baseness of modern art, architecture, music -- or its radio, TV, movies, and ideas of entertainment?  Does this metaphor of the Lord describe you in most of these areas?  "You are the salt of the earth!"  Does your life demonstrate that fact?

II. THE SECOND METAPHOR HERE IS LIGHT. "You are the light of the world."

1. This second one progresses from the former one.  It is an especially striking one.  It is one thing to say that we are salt, but in the case of this metaphor, the dear Lord who affirms this as true, has previously (in order of time in the gospel history) called himself the exclusive Light of Salvation and the only way to God. -- I speak of John 8: 12 which probably was said by Jesus earlier than the Sermon On The Mount.  And now he tells his disciples and probably other hearers -- and us, through his disciple Matthew -- that we are lights of God in the world.  The fact is astounding and ennobling and humbling.

2. Presumably, we "lights of the world" reflect THE Light of the world.  This connection to the Savior makes us light bearers of the divine "Sun of Righteousness."  The first metaphor, "salt," is about our good influence in society, even aside from society's relationship or non-relationship to Christ.  This one has to do with our lives reflecting Christ in the larger society.  The first one is Christian sociology; the second one is, exhaltation of Christ and Christian evangelism.

We are corporately "the light of the world" and, individually, "lights of the world."  Do you agree with me that this affirmation is astounding and ennobling and humbling?  You personally are a part of the Savior's plan and it gives your life an eternal purpose and dimension.  Do you see any considerable evidence of it in your own life?

Can you see the ennobling quality in this?  Jesus didn't say that sometimes the disciples served as "lights of the world," but that they were "lights of the world."  He didn't say they were "lights of the world", only when they were verbally telling the gospel and trying to extract a confession of faith out of someone on a street corner, but while they were living, eating, working, relaxing, thinking, relating to neighbors and friends and strangers, they were being "a Light of the world."  It is a case for whole-life Christianity and not merely a life divided into the sacred and secular, with the sacred being a tiny influence.

Does your life, in some sense, serve as the light of your "world" in which you live and work and influence others?  How would you say that it does?

The history of Christianity shows that God often uses the lifestyle of Christians to be witnesses to surrounding people and it will do so, in your life too, if you live life consistently, exhibiting Christian values and virtues in the midst of the pagan culture where you live.  There are people who go and live in Saudi Arabia or in China (or other places) with this kind of light-giving in mind.  And numbers of you, whom I can think of, wonderfully exhibit such light-giving.  I give thanks to God for you and pray that it may be more common among the rest of us.

But I think that this reflected "light-giving" is also more explicitly related to people hearing the message of the Gospel.  It may be your telling the gospel.  Often the testimony of your Christian life opens the door to such an opportunity.  The fact that you attend a believing Church, does the same.  We need to pray that God will sovereignty make opportunities for us to tell the gospel in connection with our living Christian lives.  It is a wonderful experience to know that God has used you as his instrument to bring someone into eternal life, even if it is only the mere fact that you are a serious Christian, and that you behave like a Christian should behave.  It is the ultimate fulfillment of being "a light of the world."

But don't forget, also, that the kind of church you go to is a way of expressing the Light; and the belief and consistency of that particular church becomes the Light which you exhibit to the watching world.  I think that it is true that the church you support is a confession that your faith is what that church believes.  It is saying: "this is the Light."  If you go to a church which does not hold to the Gospel in some aspect of its belief system, it may not be true of you, yourself, but their short-coming will be the way the watching world perceives your belief system.  If you go to a church that is a mere reflection of middle American, middle-class values and believes that the sum of Christianity is being a nice person, it won't be much of a light even though you love the sound of the choir and the half million dollar pipe organ, and relish the Saturday morning pancake-breakfasts which they put on, or the advantage of schmoozing with a lot of socially important people.  But that will be how many people will perceive your example.  And it will cancel out what should be your witness to the truth of God.

And this giving of light might be understood to describe your paying the bills for someone -- or many people -- who are in the ministry of active proclamation of the Gospel.  You become a light by supporting the light which they bear.  There ought to be people, in a rich culture like ours, who would be very prosperous and instead of squandering all that money God has enabled them to make, would have a special ministry of funding evangelical Christian work.  I have known people who have done so and have been wonderful examples of being lights in the world by means of their giving.

Live your life by the grace of God and pray that God will use you as salt in the society in which you find yourself, and will use you as a reflected "light" of the gospel of "The Light Of The World."  Don't put on a show for unbelievers to see; don't pretend to be Christian; be a Christian in your faith and lifestyle, relying on the Holy Spirit.  Call upon God to give you grace to live in the way that will be salt and will reflect the "Light of the World."  You and I are "the salt of the earth" and the reflected "Light of the World."  May God help us to act like it.