Prayerfully meditate upon Matthew 5:16. Be light and shine out. A godly life gives convincing testimony of the saving power of God. That brings Him glory. Cf. 1 Pet. 2:12.
God wants Believers to be good witnesses and to give verbal witness at times those who are open to hear. So He spoke to his disciples about, salt and light (Matt 5:13–16)
Two pictures here regarding salt and light. Salt speaks of godly inward character that influences a decaying world; light speaks of the outward nonverbal testimony of good works that points to God.
Our task is to keep our lives so pure as we cooperate with the Holy Spirit that we might “salt” this earth and hold back the corruption here, so that the Gospel can get out (nonverbally and verbally). Our good works must accompany our dedicated lives and verbal witness as we let our lights shine In the dark.
Prayerfully Meditate Some More Upon Matthew 5:13...
You are the salt, Jesus said — not sugar, not such a substance that pleases every tongue, not such soft and dissolving sweetness that many people crave when life feels young or sour.
Salt was wages back in the day. Yep, it once was in Rome's empire. Worth its weight in a soldier's honest pay. And salt preserved the meat through summer's rotting — it kept the value when death and heat would take that away.
Salt draws out the blood from flesh it touches. It might irritate a burn or a wound before one's wound heals clean. Truth does this too — it might sting a bit before it steadies the personal situation, and names the thing that comfort cannot see.
God did not say: Seek to be liked among the nations. He did not say: Seek to make every table glad instead of sad, but Jesus basically said: "Be salt" — and live flavorful, it divides the dinner: The grateful might wince, and some might leave furious, mad.
If sinners get upset at you, let it never be due to you missing the will of God. Let it not be due to you acting or speaking poorly -- being obnoxious. Let God's word and love empower you to behave and speak consistently right.
The warning is good for us -- it cuts the deepest, brother: If the salt has lost its savor — what then? It's neither punished nor highly useful. It's simply thrown out. It's simply useless. It's to be trampled underneath the feet of men.
The danger is not that the world will reject you. The danger is in becoming nothing useful for the Lord's hand — so bland. A believer that laughs at every joke told, soft clay that's reshaped by every culture's hand instead of the Potter's.
So irritate so to speak, but not in some selfish or fleshly sort of way. If it happens, then let it be from the Spirit working (while using your deeds, good attitude and words). Preserve. Draw out. Sting rightly, not wrongly. Not merely for the sake of stinging — but for the saving and the healing that can happen. Flavor the earth well, with what the earth cannot make for itself. Let the Lord bring His holiness in that does not dull or fade away.
What Jesus Actually Meant
Matthew 5:13 — "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."
Jesus did not say become real physical salt. He said you are salt. It is a declaration of identity, not an aspiration.
I Love the Three Functions of Salt in the Ancient World
1. Preservation. There were no refrigerators. Salt kept meat from rotting. The Christian's role in culture is not to celebrate decay, not to accommodate it, and not to merely document it. You slow the rot. You hold back corruption through holy living, truthful speech, and righteous presence. When you remove Christians from a culture, it does not stay neutral. It rots faster.
2. Flavor. Salt does not call attention to itself. It calls attention to what it seasons. When you are genuinely salt, people taste something different in your words, your work, your marriage, your conduct at the Ritz-Carlton desk. They cannot always name it. But they notice it. Salt never announces itself. It just changes everything around it.
3. Irritation. This is the part the modern church has fled. Salt in a wound burns. Truth in a comfortable lie stings. A genuine Christian presence in a fallen world will produce friction. Not because Christians are harsh or rude, but because holiness creates contrast, and contrast creates discomfort. Jesus himself was called a troublemaker (Luke 23:2). Paul was called a plague (Acts 24:5). If no one around you is ever even slightly uncomfortable with what you believe, you are probably sugar.
I Love This Warning
Salt that has lost its saltiness is good for nothing. Back in the day, in first-century Palestine, salt was sometimes mixed with other minerals too, and the sodium chloride could basically leach out, leaving a white powder that looked like salt but it sadly preserved nothing and it sadly flavored nothing. We all like good flavor. It was ceremonially useless for anything. One would throw it out on the road.
The warning is not about a Christian becoming pure evil. The warning is about a Christian becoming totally irrelevant. A church that cannot be distinguished from the unholy culture around it has tragically already lost its savor. It looks like the real deal, but it NOT. It sits in the same building. It uses the same Christianese vocabulary. But it changes nothing. God wants to use you and me, and we need to get out of our own way. We need to quit impeding Him and His Spirit.
I Love a Wise Application
You do not need everyone to like you. Really? Why? Are you a man-pleaser or out to please your Lord?
You and I need to be useful to God every day. Sugar can make people comfortable, but it's sort of addictive and very unhealthy. Salt makes people different. Jesus was not crucified for being pleasant or for being liked by all. He was crucified for living all salt in a world that preferred its rot to remain undisturbed.
Be salt. Sting when you must. Preserve what is worth preserving. Season every person in every room you enter with something the world cannot manufacture on its own. We don't point people to ourselves. Why seek attention, or have such a deficit inside?
What are some Bible verses about health?
Does the Bible say anything about political correctness?
What are some Bible verses about speech?
What are some Bible verses about words?
And never, ever let the culture leach the sodium right out of you. Be all in for Jesus and let Him live BIG in and through you.
On Salty Living — Christian Distinctiveness with Courage
Charles Spurgeon:
"The worst thing that can happen to a Christian is to become agreeable to the world. When the church and the world can jog along comfortably together, you may be sure there is something wrong."
Martyn Lloyd-Jones:
"The glory of the gospel is that when the Church is absolutely different from the world, she invariably attracts it."
A.W. Tozer:
"It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply."
Dietrich Bonhoeffer:
"Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship."
On Light — Reflecting Christ
C.S. Lewis:
"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."
Augustine of Hippo:
"Our heart is restless until it finds its rest in Thee."
John Calvin:
"There is not one blade of grass, there is no color in this world that is not intended to make men rejoice."
John Piper:
"God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him."
On the Name of Jesus -- His name is the sweetest name I know.
Bernard of Clairvaux
"Jesus, the very thought of Thee with sweetness fills my breast; but sweeter far Thy face to see, and in Thy presence rest."
Samuel Rutherford
"Jesus Christ came into my prison cell last night, and every stone flashed like a ruby."
E.M. Bounds:
"Prayer is not preparation for the battle. Prayer is the battle."
Can I do a poem on Salt and Light (see Matthew 5:13-14 and John 8:12)?
His name is sweet upon my tongue,
Sweeter than I've words to say,
Jesus, light before the morning,
Burning darkness clean away.
I could spend my whole life singing
Every mercy He has shown,
And still find some new wonder waiting
At the foot of His holy throne.
Jesus, You are light — and I will carry it,
Into every darkened room and every broken street.
Jesus, You are life — and I will share it,
Salt and shine together, Lord, until the two worlds meet.
Not sugar — I was made for something stronger,
Not comfort — I was made to hold the flame.
Jesus, let me burn a little longer,
Let the darkness know Your name.
There is sweetness in Your presence,
Fellowship that nothing else can give,
In the quiet of the morning,
In the breath by which I live.
But You did not make me for the sanctuary only,
You have sent me where the shadows run deep,
So I carry what is holy into what is lonely,
Salt for what is rotting, light for those asleep.
I will not dissolve into the culture,
I will not dim my lamp to make friends here,
The world does not need sweetness without substance,
It needs the One whose name the darkness fears.
So let me be the sting before the healing,
Let me be the flame that costs me something real,
Let me be the salt that does its work in silence,
And point to You — the only One who heals
Jesus, You are light — and I will carry it,
All the way to where the comfortable dare not go.
Jesus, You are life — I will declare it,
In the places where the broken need to know.
Not sugar — this was never meant to be easy,
Not softness — You were crucified for love.
Jesus, keep me salty, keep me shining,
Until I see Your face above
There is healing in Your name.
There is freedom in Your name.
There is nothing in this darkness
That can swallow up Your flame.
Always, only — Jesus.
