Salt and Light
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You are Salt
You are Salt
“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.
Clearly this is a great and deep theological statement made by Jesus to Christians. But what does it mean that we are salt?
Keep in mind that the Beatitudes showed the heart of Christians this verse also is directed to Christians.
How is salt used in the Bible?
How is salt used in the Bible?
Genesis 19:26
As a Judgement
But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
the whole land burned out with brimstone and salt, nothing sown and nothing growing, where no plant can sprout, an overthrow like that of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in his anger and wrath—
And Abimelech fought against the city all that day. He captured the city and killed the people who were in it, and he razed the city and sowed it with salt.
Salt is used in the Sacrificial System
Salt is used in the Sacrificial System
- Burnt Offerings
- Grain Offerings (Leviticus 2:13)
- Fellowship Offerings
- Sin Offerings
- Guilt Offering
You shall season all your grain offerings with salt. You shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be missing from your grain offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt.
Levitius 2:13
“No grain offering that you bring to the Lord shall be made with leaven, for you shall burn no leaven nor any honey as a food offering to the Lord.
What is a Covenant of Salt?
What is a Covenant of Salt?
Scholars are unsure of the exact meaning of this phrase, but salt appears several times in the context of a covenant (legal agreement). We saw it in Leviticus, where salt was part of the grain offering to God.
Here are more:
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.”
Now because we eat the salt of the palace and it is not fitting for us to witness the king’s dishonor, therefore we send and inform the king,
Ezra 4:14
Apparently by partaking of the salt of the palace you would agree to faithfully serve it.
Summary of Salt
Summary of Salt
We know of two primary purposes for salt:
Purify or preserve (… water and salt on new babies to clean them)
Flavor (..”is tastless food aten without salt?”
In the Bible we see salt used primarily in these ways:
As Judgement
In offerings to God
in Covenant agreements
So How am I Salt?
So How am I Salt?
Jesus may have been alluding to all three of these when he called us “the salt of the Earth.”
Salt as judgment
Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases?
Salt as offerings to God
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Salt in covenant agreements
Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.
My purpose as Salt
My purpose as Salt
If this is what Jesus meant when He called Christians salt, then He expects us to judge rightly (currently judging ourselves, and later judging the world) live rightly, and to give others the gospel.
If we are not doing these things then we have lost our saltiness and are utterly useless to Christ. We need to do what we were made to do.
“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.
You are light
You are light
“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.
Light in the Bible
Light in the Bible
While many references to light in the Bible describe the natural phenomena of the sun or something similar, there are some special references to the light in the Book of Isaiah.
But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,
on them has light shone.
Isiah 9:1-2
Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my Spirit upon him;
he will bring forth justice to the nations.
“I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness;
I will take you by the hand and keep you;
I will give you as a covenant for the people,
a light for the nations,
to open the eyes that are blind,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
from the prison those who sit in darkness.
Isaiah
And now the Lord says,
he who formed me from the womb to be his servant,
to bring Jacob back to him;
and that Israel might be gathered to him—
for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord,
and my God has become my strength—
he says:
“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to bring back the preserved of Israel;
I will make you as a light for the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
Our purpose as light
Our purpose as light
Light is meant to reveal what is present
Jesus is the true light of the world and we are to reflect His light
Are we being Salt and Light?
Are we being Salt and Light?
If we do what salt should do then our Christian walk will be obvious to the people around us.
Like a city on a hill or a lamp on a lampstand
our good deeds will be seen by the world around us and will reflect Christ’s light bringing glory to the Father
Let’s reveal Christ to the lost people around us and lets help the lost be purified and preserved from God’s judgment on the world.