The Salt and the Light

How many of you like salt? Most people, if they can afford it, will put salt on just about anything. Salt adds flavor to an otherwise bland food. The other night I was eating potatoes and I forgot the salt. Rather than getting up and getting the salt shaker I thought I would just eat the potatoes without seasoning. They taste like dirt without salt. Salt greatly enhances flavor.

Jesus calls us the salt of the earth. As Christians, we are called to be the flavor within this world. The world is dark, it is grey, it is gloomy. Our duty is to be hopeful, optimistic, and energetic. We have a message that will save lives. Why would we be boring while telling it? And why would we lead a bland life after receiving it?

Salt was also, and most importantly, a preservative. Salt draws the moisture out of meat. They did not have freezers or refrigerators during this time period so the only way that they could preserve meat would be to smother it in salt. Salt would dry the water out which would cause the meat to decay at a much slower rate. Effectively preserving the meat for a later date of consumption. But if salt had lost its effective qualities, what would it be good for? Nothing really. Nothing more than throwing it out where you do not want the grass to grow.

The Dead Sea has such a high salt content that little life can be found within its waters. However, salt around the area was often contaminated with gypsum. If a contaminated batch of salt made its way into a house and was discovered to be salt mixed with other impurities, it was promptly thrown out. Now the salt was still salty, it cannot truly lose its properties, but it is contaminated enough that it would lose its effectiveness.

As Christians, we have to watch what we allow into our lives. If you claim to be a Christian, but you spend your time cussing or speaking inappropriately while you are in the hallways, on the court, or on the field, or anywhere else out in the world, how does that make you look? When you are called to be pure and holy, but you allow the world to leach in and take hold, you lose your effectiveness. If you spend your weekends drinking or partying, if you spend your time slipping of and getting into sticky situations with other people, then you are trying to mix the world with your Christianity, and we are called to stand apart, not blend in.

And I am not saying that you guys do any of the sort, but how many of you guys have ever been wrapped up in some negative drama? How many of you have been known to cheat a little, or tell a little white lie, or gossip even just a little bit? It may seem small and harmless, but when you mix the world in with your Christianity then we lose our effectiveness as a witness. Let me remind you that the world is a stage, and all eyes are on you. When you lower your standards and you fail, why would the world listen to you? (I am not talking about having a slip up, everyone falls now and again, I am talking about willingly sinning) This does not meant that you lose you salvation either. John 10:27-28 “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”

Let me close with this last segment. If you hide a light underneath a basket, is it still a light? Yes it is, but what is its purpose and point? A light is meant to shine bright and illuminate the world around it. It is meant to push back the darkness so that those around it can see clearly. That is what a Christian is meant to be. That is our purpose. We shine Jesus’s light, the light that He placed within us, and we shine it brightly for all to see. We expel the darkness around us so that those who interact with us can see the Lord clearly in our lives. A Christian who is hiding the fact that they are a Christian is still save, they are still a chid of God, but they have lost their effectiveness.

Do not be a closet Christian. Shine your light bright.

You and I are influencers. Christian character consciously and unconsciously affects other people for better or for worse. The world needs salt because it is corrupt, and it needs light because it is dark. You and I were once corrupt men and women who lived in the dark, but when we were saved we were preserved in holiness, and given the light of Jesus Christ to shine in our lives. Verse 13 and verse 14 the pronoun you is emphatic. The idea is “You are the only salt” and “You are the only light”

In a room full of 100 people 1 man will read the bible, and 99 men will read that one man. Be the salt, and shine your light. Undiluted, and bright for all to see.