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. 15 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. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Matthew 5:13 - 16
ReplyDeleteThings to check out:
- What is salt?
- What is light?
On the surface I think I understand these things, but I am sure I am missing things.
Why does Jesus go on about salt losing its taste and then about trampling it? At first glance this would seem to talk about believers becoming useless and being discarded. It seems to suggest it can NOT be restored. OTOH, is it even possible for salt to lose its flavor?
Deletehttp://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/called-to-be-salt-and-light-john-hamby-sermon-on-christian-witness-156387.asp says that "you" is not singular. "Ye are the salt of the earth." If this cannot be applied singularly, then the question of salvation lost is moot.
DeleteIf you apply this to the church, then it would mean that the overall church has a reputation to maintain - not for itself or members, but for Christ. satan is always trying to ruin the reputation of the church. It's working even on our children - many have given up on the church. We the church need to be extra salty so that even the church's enemies will be ashamed and confess that they were wrong. If the church does lose it's saltiness, it will be discarded - just like what happened in many parts of Europe. Those churches will never rise again. However, it is possible that new churches could rise and become salt.
In conclusion, we together are salt. There's a lot of things wanting to mix in with us to dilute and/or poison us. We need to drive each other to be salty. One salty person does not make the reputation of the church. It's us together.
Salt of the world
ReplyDeletehttp://www.christianity.com/bible/christian-you-are-salt-and-light-11596480.html says,
"Being salt and light is not optional. . . The value of salt [is great]. . . . Roman soldiers received their wages in salt. . . The Mosaic Law required that all offerings presented by the Israelites contain salt.
He meant that all of His disciples were to serve as preservatives, stopping the moral decay in our sin infected world. . . Christians, as salt, are to inhibit sin's power to destroy lives. This in turn creates opportunity for the gospel to be proclaimed and received.
If we have allowed disobedience, carelessness and indifference to rule our lives, we have become contaminated salt and have lost our saltiness. We need to confess our sin and let the Lord restore us to the purpose for which we were called."
http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/called-to-be-salt-and-light-john-hamby-sermon-on-christian-witness-156387.asp?Page=1 says:
"Salt was so important that it was sometimes used for money. . . “salary” comes from the Latin word salarium or “salt money” . . . Christians are given the task of arresting the decay of our world.
Prior to Christianity infanticide, and abandonment of children was a common practice. Hospitals as we now know them began through influence of Christianity. The Red Cross was started by an evangelical Christian. Almost every one of the first 123 colleges and universities in the United States has Christian origins, founded by Christians for Christian purposes. The same could be said of orphanages, adoption agencies, humane treatment of the insane, the list goes on and on of the dramatic impact of Christianity in our world.
As a moral antiseptic, Christians keep the corruption of society at bay by opposing moral decay by their lives and their words. . . research shows that, “… the average Christian in the average church is almost indistinguishable from the rest of society.
(more tomorrow)
More from http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/called-to-be-salt-and-light-john-hamby-sermon-on-christian-witness-156387.asp?Page=3:
Delete"Just as the essential difference can be leached out of a Christian’s life; by the constant flow of the world’s values through our lives.
The peculiar property of salt is that even though it may have lost its pungency,… it still retains one very devastating potency. This rare and remarkable material can still …. destroy plant life on the land…. the same principle applies in the case of the Christian. Either our lives or counting for good and for God or they are making an impact for evil and the enemy…. The way we live, the things we say the attitudes we entertain, the life style we adopt… are continuously producing either positive or negative results in society…. Our lives, whether we are aware or not either count for God or against Him. There simply is no middle ground.”
Light of the world:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/called-to-be-salt-and-light-john-hamby-sermon-on-christian-witness-156387.asp?Page=4:
"part of the problem is that we have been lead to believe that our religious faith is a purely personal thing; that is that we should keep it to ourselves. . . .First, we are called to receive the light. . . Second, once we have received the light then we are called to walk in the light. . . Third, we are called to reflect the light. That of course is the central message of our text.
darkness distorts reality. . . Light reveals things as they really are. . . We cannot live light-filled lives in our society without standing out, without having people notice us. They may not like us, and they may reject us; but they will know that we are there.
Jesus said two things would happen when you shine your light: 1. Men will see your good deeds. . . A watching culture sinking into the hopeless, despairing abyss of its own unchecked desires could not help but notice these Christians had something they needed. . . 2. They give God the credit. . . .That’s how much influence we have. We can point men to God. We can lead them out of dark-ness into the light.
http://www.christianity.com/bible/christian-you-are-salt-and-light-11596480.html:
ReplyDelete"As "salt", the Christian is to counteract the power of sin. As "light" we are to illuminate or make visible. . . It is important, however to know that it is not our light, but the reflection of the Light of the world, Jesus Christ Himself, that people will see in us.
This is a really good exercise. My paradigm, even up to this last week, was that the reason we are here on earth is to prepare ourselves and others for eternity (by showing others the way to Christ and encouraging those in Christ). This is certainly upheld by "we are the light of the world".
ReplyDeleteBut the other part of the passage, "we are the salt of the earth", presents difficulties for that paradigm. I only can see that meaning is along social justice and God's goodness in this world. I believe that this is commanding us to be a force of good in the world - paying attention to social justice issues and, dare I say it, raising our voices to make a difference in governmental issues.
I think that "you are the salt of the earth" shoots down my previous idea that the only thing that matters on earth is the next life - our lives with God. Apparently, God cares about what happens on this earth and doesn't want us to abandon being a positive force in it.
On the surface, this sounds like no change. Whereas before I wanted to do good to glorify God by what I did, now I need to add to that being salt on this earth (which also brings God's glory). However, the difference in my mind is that I have to add a temporal view to my eternal view - and that will make a difference in the way I act.
There's quite a few things that this will effect (although at the moment, I'm not thinking clearly enough to list them all). One main thing is that now I need to care about decisions non-Christians make, and influence them to not make bad decisions. Before, I didn't care at all, because it didn't make an eternal difference in their lives. I also need to care about the direction of government, whereas before I didn't really care about anything that didn't make an eternal difference.
I know I'm munging this and would appreciate feedback to help clarify some thoughts.
Von brought up a good parallel. If we compare staying on Earth to staying in a hotel that is going to be destroyed within the week (and afterwards, spending eternity in our rescuers mansion), what is our duty to the people in the hotel and the hotel itself.
DeleteObviously, we want to show them the way to avoid the disaster of the hotel being destroyed (being the light of the world). But what else is there (being the salt of the world)? Well, obviously, we don't want to be bad citizens in the hotel. We don't want to throw trash on the floor, go to the bathroom in the swimming pool, etc. We wouldn't want to do those things, for one, because we want people to trust us enough to listen to us when we show the way out of the disaster. Furthermore, our rescuer built the hotel and even though He's going to destroy it soon, we need to have respect for His hotel. Even beyond that, we need to esteem the people He created, for the reason that He made them special.
So, we are the salt of the earth to:
1. Take care of and respect His creation because He made it, even though He's going to destroy it soon.
2. Respect the people He created to earn an audience so that we can be light.
3. Respect the people He created just because He created them.
Personal application: I need to not be cynical about people. I can be realistic, but I need to let the Holy Spirit move my actions so that I can be salt - even when I think there is no hope. I need to care about justice, and not give up on justice in this world. I need to care about how the choices that non-believers make effect them, and not just say the equivalent of, "yup, you go to your doom - have fun with that."