Salt was a necessity in Jesus’ day. There were no refrigerators. The only way to preserve meat and fish was to salt it. As salt preserves what is good and fights against decay, Jesus taught that His disciples were to have a similar effect on the world. The way we live, work, speak, and relate to people should serve as a purifying agent, stemming sin and adding the flavor of God’s grace to the world through our message and our actions.
Salt was also important to the Jew because it accompanied every sacrifice. In Leviticus 2:13 (NIV) God said to Israel, Season all your grain offerings with salt. Do not leave the salt of the covenant of your God out of your grain offerings; add salt to all your offerings. As leaven represented sin and corruption because it quickly goes bad, salt represented God’s grace and his covenant with His people because it preserves what it touches. Salt was a visible symbol of God’s grace, it was God’s grace the salt of the covenant typified that made the sacrifices a pleasing aroma to the Lord. Paul hints at this meaning when he says in Colossians 4:6 (NIV) Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.
In a similar way, we are also to be light to the world. Sin has left the world in a spiritual darkness. That darkness hides the malignant nature of sin, the need for its punishment, and God’s offer of forgiveness. Ephesians 4:17-19 (NIV) says,
So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.
Instead of being imitators of the world and its darkened thinking—who did not know Christ and lived by the sinful nature—Christians are to be imitators of Christ—the light of the world. Christians are to live in such a way as to light up these realities so that they can be seen. Our lives should make the power of God as plain to the world as a city that this built on a hill.
Are we living as salt and light? How bright is our light? How salty are we?
If Christianity were outlawed today and the “religion police” tapped your phones and put you under surveillance because they got a tip we might be a Christian, would they be able to make a case against you?
I am not just talking about looking religious. Can you say with Paul, Galatians 6:14 (NIV) the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world? The Pharisees had God’s Word memorized, they made it their business to teach God’s Word to Israel, they tithed even from the spices in their window boxes, and would travel over land and sea to win a single convert. Yet Jesus says they merely worshiped God with their lips. They were hypocrites who were not on the road to heaven, and who impeded those who were. Jesus said in Matthew 5:20 (NIV) For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking, “well, I have the righteousness of Christ, and His righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, so I don’t need to worry about that.” That is not true. That is not what Jesus was saying. He expects His disciples to incarnate the attributes of salt and light in how we live. He wants our righteousness to exceed that of the Pharisees. Their righteousness was false, counterfeit; it was only worldliness masquerading as righteousness.
They did a lot of actions that looked good: they studied Scripture, they made their sacrifices and offerings, they kept Israel from falling back into idolatry, they kept the Law. Jesus says of them in Matthew 23:4 (NIV), They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. But all those things were done from pride, from self-interest, and self-promotion, not from a love of God. Over and against this Jesus says in Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV),
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
How then, are we to gauge our righteousness? How can we know if we are acting as salt and light? Can you say 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NIV) is true of yourself?
I am patient, I am kind. I do not envy, I do not boast, I am not proud. I do not dishonor others, I am not self-seeking, I am not easily angered, I keep no record of wrongs. I do not delight in evil but rejoice with the truth. I always protect, always trust, always hope, always persevere.
The more that becomes true of you, the more that becomes the reputation you have with others, the more you are serving as salt and light in the world.
Jesus wants us to be like a city on a hill. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. It can be seen from far away. It attracts people to come and see it, to live and work in it, to make their home in it. If it is attractive people will tell others to come and visit it…like Boston. If it is run down and ugly, people will tell others to avoid it…like Newark.
What do people see when they see us relating together, worshiping together, or working together? Do they see love? Do they see forgiveness? Do they see the fruits of the Spirit? Or do they see people living and acting, working and worrying, just like any other group of people?
We need to be a city on a hill. We want to be the kind of person that gets people’s attention. That turns heads. That is the topic of conversation at coffee breaks and lunch hours. We want people asking themselves, “I don’t know exactly what is going on down at that Church, but there is something contagious about the people who go there and I want to find out what it is, I need what they have.” To do that, we need to be both living as people called out of the world, and living as salt and light in the world. It is not either or, but both and.
Learning To Be Full Of Grace And Truth. 