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 by men.
14 “You are the light of the world. A city 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 men, that they may see your good deedsand praise your Father in heaven.
I'm basically just going to include quotes from MacArthur's sermon, You are the Light of the World, because he just hits the nail on the head with this one....
In the Beatitudes, He says, "Here is the character I expect you to have, and if you have this kind of character, then you are a child of My Kingdom. If you have this character, and are a child of my Kingdom, here is your job: sweep through the world as salt and light and make a difference." Jesus is calling on us, as we saw in our last study, to influence the world for His glory, to find the lost before it's too late. The key is what has gone on in the verses before. Having magnificently come to know the principles and the qualities that render us effective for God, that bring us into His Kingdom, that make us distinct from the world, He now tells us, "Move out into the world with that marvelous distinctiveness, find those that are lost, and bring them to Christ."
The supreme matter in the Kingdom is character; character is the issue. The character described in the Beatitudes makes it possible for us to affect the world...
The presupposition in this text is the decay and darkness of the world. The very text presupposes decay and darkness. Where you need salt, you have decay, and where you need light, there is darkness. Our Lord is saying, "Here is the presupposition: we are living in a decadent, dark world."
That's what I was trying to say to you this morning - we've got to be different. We can't affect the world unless we are different. Our lives and relationships and homes have to be different....Our world is a desperate world, and just because they make it hard on us, we can't stop preaching, because there is someone lost out in that field, and we have to sweep through the world no matter what the price....
The presupposition is the darkness and decay of the world; the plan is the dominion of the disciples. We've got to move in the world and dominate it. Notice in verse 13 that we are the salt, in verse 14, we are the light. In verse 16, "Let your light so shine." What is God's plan to deal with this darkened, decaying world? His plan is us! It's us. There is no one else. It isn't going to be given to anyone else. It doesn't belong to famous evangelists. They'll never touch the people you touch. It doesn't belong to great preachers, or people on the radio or television, or people who write books. It belongs to all of us. This is God's divine plan....
salt has five basic functions: purity, flavor, sting (in a wound), thirst (it creates thirst), and preservation. We are to be pure, glistening white against the darkness of the world. We are to flavor life with the wonder of God's presence among us. We are to sting and convict the sinful wound of the world. We are to create a thirst for Christ by the very way we live, as Israel is to be provoked to jealousy by the church. We are to be a preservative, we are an antiseptic in the world to retard the spread of its corruption. If it weren't for Christians in the world, it would be far more corrupt that it is now; we preserve it....
But it doesn't stop with influence. We now come to the second thing, light. Verse 14. "You are the light of the world." We're moving to another thought here. Salt and light balance each other in this sense. Salt is hidden; you don't see it at all. It just melts away into whatever it flavors or preserves. It works secretly to preserve from the inside, but light shines on the outside, and light is open and working visibly. In other words, salt is the influence of Christian character; it is quiet but powerful. Light is the communication of the content of the Gospel. So there are two sides; on one hand, we live it, on the other hand, we preach it. On one hand, from the inside, we affect society's thinking and living by the power of our lives. On the other hand, we turn on the light so that everyone can see the message we want to give.
It isn't just in our words, but in our very overt, open godly conduct. We are not to be just a subtle influence like salt, but we are to be a very open and blatant influence like light. You see, salt can't change corruption into incorruption. Salt can only retard the corruption. That's only a negative function. Salt only holds back the corruption; we have to turn on the light of the Gospel to transform that corruption into incorruption....verse 16, "Let your light so shine before men that they will see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven." That implies, first of all, that they see our good works. Secondly, they glorify our Father in Heaven; that means they've heard something about our Father in Heaven. It implies both a life and a message lived and spoken...
You're light, my friend, and light isn't supposed to be hidden. You're a city on a hill. The point is conspicuousness. We're not just subtle salt; we're very conspicuous light....
the problem is the danger of failure. There is that danger. With this tremendous responsibility, there is an attendant danger. We are salt and light, but we need to be warned because if sin enters our lives, and if we don't walk in the Spirit, then we will stop being effective as salt and we will be useless as light.
Look again at verse 13. "You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, what good is it?" Non-salty salt has absolutely no use. "It is thereafter good for nothing, but to be cast out and trampled under men's feet. Neither do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house." The point is this: salt is only good when it has saltiness. Light is only good when it is conscious. There is no place for a secret disciple; there is no place for a secret Christian....
If sin is in your life, you have no influence; you can't retard the corruption of the world because you're in it. You can't be purity against an impure background because you're impure too. You can't be stinging in the wounds of other people's sin because you have your own. You're not going to create in someone a thirst for God, because there is nothing there to make them thirsty for what you have. You are just like them in behavior.
The point here is not that you lose your salvation, but like I Corinthians 9:27, you become a castaway; you forfeit your influence and lose your impact...you are to be salt. But to be salt, you have to stay away from that which corrupts you....
The beginning of verse 16 says, "Let your light shine." You don't have to trump it up; you don't have to light it, crank it up, worry about getting it started, all you have to do is let it go. You can't stop the light, and you can't light the light, you can just stick a bushel on it. The light is there. If Christ lives in you, He is the light and you can't change that....But you can put a bushel basket on top of it so nobody will ever know. It may be the basket of fear, or wanting to be acceptable, not wanting to offend or make waves, or whatever. But whatever it is, it needs to come off. You don't have to light it and you can't put it out, you just have to let it shine by the way you live and the things you say....
There is one single reason why you should be salt that is salty and light that is manifest, and it is this: that you might glorify your Father who is in Heaven. If you don't do it, then you are more concerned with your reputation than His glory....
What about you? Are you the kind of salt that retards corruption and the kind of light that attracts in the beauty of holiness, as the shining of your goodness and beauty, the power of God released in you, touches the people around you? Do you never mitigate it, cover it, do you let it shine so that God can be glorified?
I don't think it's a coincidence that these verses follow directly after the discussion on persecution. Our fear of being mocked or ridiculed is what keeps us from being salt and light in the world. We like the phrase "Preach the Gospel always, when necessary use words" because we can use that as an excuse never to use words. The principle is true - of course we need to live out our faith authentically and with integrity. That is without question. But we aren't only supposed to be salt. We are also to be light. Which means we need to use words too. I don't know about you, but this is very convicting for me.Tomorrow's scripture focus: Matthew 5:17-20
1 comment:
Very convicting for me too.
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