Matt 5:13-16. Salt and Light

The Right Side up Life  / Matthew 5:13–16

Introduction

Up until this point we can say Jesus is talking about someone else, even something else.  Up until this point it is a helpful story

Salt: Drawn into His Promises

Matthew 5:13 ESV

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.

We don’t want to rush ahead with what the Scriptures are saying. We do this quickly and too easily in the Bible and every other place. We hear a phrase or picture or image and we know what it means.  We think we do.

The images salt and light mean something specific about the way God interacts with His people.

Numbers 18:19 ESV

All the holy contributions that the people of Israel present to the Lord I give to you, and to your sons and daughters with you, as a perpetual due. It is a covenant of salt forever before the Lord for you and for your offspring with you.”

The salt reminds us that we are sustained by God’s promises in Christ. 

›     Salt is what we experience by knowing we are kept in Christ.

Sent through His Power

Matthew 5:14–16 ESV

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Genesis 1:3 ESV

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

Exodus 3:2 ESV

And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed.

Exodus 13:21–22 ESV

And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.

John 1:4–5 ESV

In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

SO then as soon as we see light used in this passage we understand that God is breaking into the world.

But how?

Through the church.  Through those devoted to Christ and His life.  That is light as well.  The way we navigate through the world as Christians is what Jesus Himself calls light.

›     We are called to act as light in the world.

The church, according to Jesus, is the necessary voice in the culture.  That God is still working, still moving, still acting, always reconciling.