How does being salt and light help us to get along with others? This devotion looks at preserving, purifying, and nourishing the world by shining the Light on them.
Nuggets
- God accomplishes His plan of redemption through His disciples.
- Just as Jesus was pure, we are called to be pure.
I grew up hearing disciples should be salt and light in the world. But what does that really mean? And what does that mean in interacting with the world?
Let's Put It into Context
We are going to use the following definition from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary for social. It is defined as “of or relating to human society, the interaction of the individual and the group, or the welfare of human beings as members of society.”
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Getting Along as Salt
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt should lose its taste, how can it be made salty? It’s no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet” (Mt. 5: 13 CSB)
In my world, salt is a common item these days. It didn’t use to be.
Salt is used for preservation. It prevents corruption and decay.
It is also used for purification and nourishment.
Christlieb made an excellent point. He wrote, “Laid on a wound it is painful. The Christian often pains men to heal them.”
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Ooo, baby. Can’t it be really painful when God is working to cut the sin out of our lives? It is really painful when God shows us what has to be cut out, but during the actual cutting – ouch.
And just think. God uses us as salt to cut out the sin in other people’s lives. That can be a big ouch for them – and cause them to blow back on us.
But look at the middle part of the verse. “… But if the salt should lose its taste, how can it be made salty? …” (Mt. 5: 13 CSB).
Mankind had lost its salt in the original sin. Jesus is the way to become salty again (Jn. 14: 6).
Look what Maclaren said. He wrote, “This metaphor involves two things: a grave judgment as to the actual state of society, and a lofty claim as to what Christ’s followers can do for it.”
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God accomplishes His plan of redemption through His disciples. But look to whom Jesus was talking. Uneducated folk. Common folk.
People like you and me.
We learn from salt here, too. The technical name is sodium chloride. The chlorine gas is dangerous. The sodium isn’t salty. When combined, they create sodium chloride. Together they are much more than they could ever be separately.
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Yeah, God plans on using us to tell others about the plan of salvation. He could do it on His own, but He doesn’t want to work that way.
So, we have to combine with God and become more than who we are.
What does all this mean? It means we are going to have to be a part of the society to whom we are witnessing. (Remember, it is an in-the-world-not-of-the-world thing.)
We have get into close contact with them. We have to build relationships to earn their trust and respect.
We have to love them through the pain the salt brings. We have to not quit showing God to them.
Once salt has lost its saltiness, it is useless. We talked about this in a previous devotion.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
Luckily, for us, there is hope. God can and will forgive us when we ask Him.
The church is to be the salt. We are supposed to be the moral influence on society to show them how to be preserved, purified, and nourished.
Getting Along as Light
“You are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, but rather on a lampstand, and it gives light for all who are 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 in heaven” (Mt, 5: 14-16 CSB)
Jesus said that He is the Light of the world. “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’” (Jn. 8: 12 ESV).
When we think of light, we think of it as being pure. Just as Jesus was pure, we are called to be pure. It is this purity that we are to reflect to the world.
That light is in us. We have to reflect that light on society so they see God in us. In fact, our imitating Jesus and reflecting His light is a “demonstration of the practicability of religious life, as well as the truthfulness of Christianity, and the most successful method of removing objections to it” (Christian Age).
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Jesus’ light enters us when we make a profession of faith. The whole purpose of light is to radiate. We are to radiate Jesus.
And we aren’t talking a thin, weak light here. We are talk about shining brightly.
Taylor told us how we shine that light.
1. By voicing our opinions
2. By exhibiting our character
3. By our witness to non-believers
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Rees made an excellent observation. He said society should see our good works, not us. They can identify these as good works by our doing them through faith and love for God to glorify God.
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All of our lights will be different. The commonality among them is that we are reflecting Jesus.
We need to make sure society sees the works, not us. We don’t want our pride leading us. We want all the glory to go to God — that is our purpose.
What diminishes that light? Sin definitely does. Not seeking Him does, too.
Making the Connections
I was going to add another passage for us to go through, but I think I am going to cut it off here. It didn’t really fit.
Pastor Chad’s funeral was today. We didn’t get to go. Adam and I were talking about leaving from church yesterday and heading for Tennessee. He just couldn’t do the ten-hour drive.
So, we watched the livestream video. It was one of the most beautiful funeral services I’ve seen lately. It was evident that Pastor Chad was salt and light.
I shared this quote a couple of times, but I am going to do it again.
“Each and every one of us, through the power of the gospel message, have the ability to bring change in this world because, by just simply speaking the gospel, introducing people to God through His Word, people will come to know Him, and peoples’ lives will be transformed. Once you’ve had an encounter with Christ, your life will be transformed. We understand that, if we can introduce people to Christ and they can come to be saved, then the problems of this world will seem like bygone issues.”
To me, that was Pastor Chad’s motto and mission. That is also his charge to us.
The purpose of the salt and light are to change the world. As salt, we can prevent corruption and decay by bringing others to Christ. I started to type that will bring peace to this world — but it won’t.
Oh, we will find peace within us. But Satan will never allow peace to reign in this world.
It will stop our spiritual decay. This body may give out, like Pastor Chad’s did. He is at the foot of God’s throne, praising the Father. (Ooo. The boy is singing!)
The salt helps us get along with others. It helps us live in this chaotic world.
Making the Connections to Self-Discipline
Maclaren wrote, “It is the power and obligation of the good to arrest corruption by their own purity.”
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Our own purity means we have to be navigating the sanctification road as we should. That will take self-discipline to seek God consistently.
We’ve been looking at defending our beliefs when we are witnessing. That means we have to be secure enough to convince someone to accept our beliefs.
Our questions should still serve us to determine on what we need to focus.
- What does the Scriptures say?
- What do I believe?
- Why do I believe the same/differently than the Scriptures?
- What are the talking points when witnessing to a non-believer?
Related Links
I have created a worksheet of the questions above. Click on the button below to access it.
How Do We Apply This?
• We must live to glorify God.
• We have to be consistent and humble.
• We have to mortify sin and obey God.
• We can’t conform to the world.
• We must love our neighbors and enemies by showing good will and being accommodating.
• We must be concerned about the spiritual condition of those with whom we come into contact.
/It is our purpose to be salt and light. It is our mission to actively witness to a lost and dying world.
Father God. The world is in need of You. In Your wonderful plan, You have decreed that we should be the ones to witness to them. Help us be the salt and light they need. Amen.
What do you think?
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