GAME CHANGERS! DISCOURSE UNIT—5:13–20 [NASB]. The topic is the disciples and the world.

“we are reminded that the statement refers not to status, as if it said “You are the world’s ethical elite,” but to function: “You must add zest to the life of the whole world.”

(Hare, Douglas R. A. Matthew. John Knox Press, 1993, p. 44.5:13-16,

“The topic is a summary statement of the task of God’s people [ICC],

God’s people make a difference in the world [GW]

What is the significance of “you” in the plural? It is two-fold: emphatic & restrictive. By emphatic is meant “YOU are the ONES”. It is restrictive in that YOU ARE THE ONLY ONES. - you and you ALONE.

Salt was/is BENEFICIAL & NECESSARY!

You are valuable, important, and needed EVERYDAY! There is not a day that your life does not have value and importance.

Your value is not determined nor dictated by people, circumstances, or even society. You are valuable, important, and necessary because of WHO YOU ARE!

Believers are like a moral antiseptic or disinfectant for society.

They preserve society from decay by opposing what is corrupt, and they also generally improve the state of things.

They prevent corruption and moral decay

They preserve human life and society and give tone to it.

An Exegetical Summary of Matthew 1–16 (5:13)

QUESTION—In what way might the disciples lose their ‘saltiness’?

This is a metaphor about the loss of purity or spiritual decline [BECNT].

The world needs what only Jesus can do through his disciples, and if they (i.e. disciples) were to turn away from his calling, they would be useless like tasteless salt [CC].

They would lose their saltiness if they were to conform to the world instead of the norms of the kingdom [EBC].

They would lose their saltiness by making peace with the world to avoid persecution, or by failing to be agents of change and redemption by not arresting corruption [NAC].

It refers to losing their distinctiveness as Christians [NIBC, NICNT, WBC], being assimilated by the world [NICNT], losing sight of their mission [NIBC], losing their Christian faith [BNTC, Lns].

Those who once had a knowledge of the truth and then harden their hearts against the Holy Spirit cannot be renewed to repentance [NTC].

Their spiritual knowledge, wisdom, and way of life might become diluted so that they become ineffective as disciples [TH].