By: Mike Kelly
Retired Pastor
This is the 9th article on the Sermon on the Mount as found in Matt 5-7. We’ve all heard it: we are to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world.
I suspect that most non-believers have heard it as well since it has crept into our culture: “That guy’s the salt of the earth” meaning he is someone you can count on and who is not a drama king.
“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.
“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither 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. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. (Matt 5:13-17)
One of the most interesting parts about these 2 illustrations is that they are just that…illustrations. They illustrate what God expects of those he has been transforming.
The Beatitudes are what a transformed faith walk should look like. We should be meek, we should be poor in spirit, we should be those who hunger and thirst for right standing with others, we should be those who show mercy.
But to do those things, to live like that, we need to be out and about in the real world. We can’t do all that and stay in our homes or inside the church’s 4 walls or even among our brothers and sisters.
God is developing us, but he is not doing it for our sake alone but for the Kingdom’s sake. So, now that we are in the process of becoming useful to the Kingdom, we need to be going out.
We need to be the seasoning that flavors the secular world, our relationship with God and our transformed spirit are not to be hidden under a basket but set on the table to provide light for all.
Being light and salt is the calling. Salt without flavor is just as useless as light hidden under a basket. What good is salt if it loses its ability to flavor what is around it? What good is light if it is never shined?
Jesus, when he calls us “the salt of the earth,” “the light of the world,” is saying to us, “You should make a difference.” There should be a difference in the world because you are in it.
When people interact with us, there should be a difference, an impact, made by Christ in us. If we make no difference, then what good are we to the Kingdom?
God is concerned that we can become less than difference makers if we are not careful to keep our own distinctives, the things that God chooses to bless like mourning for those lost in sin, like being pure in our motives, like being willing to suffer persecution for being His.
These are the upside-down qualities that demonstrate His life in us to a lost and dying world. If we hide our light, then how are we different from the world?
And if we appear no different, then how will we be able to do what he called us to do…impact the world? Make a difference?
Not only do these verses tell us what we were created to do, they are a warning to us and to the Jews. Being “salt and light” is how Kingdom people are to walk in holy distinction from the world that is centered in the sinful self with its deceitful desires.
These illustrations serve to alert Christians (the new Israel) to the vigilance needed to work for the Kingdom as well as a warning of what will become of the old Israel if it rejects Christ.
The image of the salt and the light are an appeal to the community of disciples to publicly bear witness to the gospel by the way they live out life in this earthly kingdom, in the midst of this world which hates it. By living a life in conformity with Jesus’ instructions we change the world.
The danger is for the salt to become flavorless and for the light to be unseen, then by implication, the Lord is commanding the disciples to keep their distinct flavor. And what is that flavor?
To continue to walk openly in the way of blessedness as unpacked in the Beatitudes. If we fail to be what he called us to be, we risk being found with a righteousness as fake and useless as the Pharisees.
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Mike Kelly is the founding pastor of Bryan’s Grace Community Church (retired) and Board Chairman of Bryan’s Sanctuary Homeless Shelter and Williams County’s Compassion (free) Medical Clinic.