Salt and Light

Matthew 5:10-20

10 “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in this same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

13 “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by people.

14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; 15 nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 Your light must shine before people in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

17 “Do not presume that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. 18 For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter shall pass from the Law, until all is accomplished! 19 Therefore, whoever nullifies one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

20 “For I say to you that unless your righteousness far surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

A popular pastor has a new sermon series titled, Heaven: who goes to there. I admittedly have not watched all three of his sermons, but what I saw was troublesome enough. He is encouraging believers to stay silent and not speak out in society because, as he says, God’s rules do not apply to non-Christians. This sermon series is in direct contradiction to what we see in Scripture. The reason I bring it up is that many churches re-teach these sermons that this pastor produces and his false theology gets accepted among evangelicals. There are many passages that dispute this pastor’s ideas, and even here in Matthew 5, we see he is not aligning with what Jesus has said. Not only are we not to remain silent in our society, but God’s law applies to all people. Let’s look closely at these words of Jesus, and learn what He spoke so eloquently then to His crowd of followers, so we can better understand how these unchangeable words still apply to us today.

This chapter in Matthew is called the Sermon on the Mount and it recounts one of the most famous sermons spoken by Jesus. Each of the first 9 verses could be sermons in themselves. Here in verse 10, Jesus is continuing His repeated phrase, describing who is blessed. He says, “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Usually, though not always, the reason that Christians will be persecuted is because they are trying to effect a change in their society. If Christians are proselytizing others, the non-Christians get upset about it. If Christians are trying to proclaim change, they get persecuted. Think through history. Believers like William Wilberforce or Dietrich Bonhoeffer are two people who come to my mind immediately. William Wilberforce was largely responsible for ending the slave trade in England. People hated him because of that. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was killed by the Nazi regime he spoke out against. Neither of those men stayed silent in their society. They risked everything to stand up for what was right. They didn’t think that God’s rules only applied to Christians. They knew that God’s rules apply to all people and Christians have a duty to effect change in society for the sake of righteousness.

This risk of persecution should not dissuade us, for not only are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness blessed and rewarded, but verse 11 says, “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.”

Jesus is assuming the world is going to insult and persecute Christians. He is assuming that people will be against Christians and tell lies about us. If Jesus wanted us to be silent in our society, then wouldn’t He have worded this another way? He didn’t say, “Blessed are you when you remain silent, so no one persecutes you.” He is saying, “Blessed are you when people do these things to you because of Me.” It’s a given that if we are following Jesus and acting like Him, then we will be persecuted. Jesus’ worldview is that Christians are offensive to the world. This whole idea of seeker sensitivity that has swept through Christianity is so foreign to the world of Jesus. While I don’t think we are to be offensive to people for the sake of being offensive, on the same hand, our goal should not be to please people. Our goal should be to please God. As we studied the other week, the Bible also instructs us to be wise, sneaky and innocent as we go about our business of following God, knowing though at some point, we will upset people. Jesus is saying that’s okay and expected. Nowhere does Jesus tell us to remain silent in the face of things that really matter.

If we are following Jesus, at some point we will be persecuted in some way. We’ve been talking about this a lot lately because it’s a common theme throughout the New Testament. Jesus is assuming that we will be persecuted for the sake of righteousness. But rather than fear persecution, Jesus tells them, and us, to “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in this same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” So blessed will the Christian be because of persecution that the response to persecution should be one of joy.

Then Jesus ends His Beatitudes, which is the name for the verses which start with the phrase “Blessed are you when,” and He continues His sermon by using two key metaphors of salt of light. He says, “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by people.”

Before the invention of refrigeration, salt was used as a preservative. It kept food from spoiling. It slowed the decay. I think that is what Jesus is saying in this metaphor. He is telling the Jews that they are to be the salt of earth. N.T. Wright, in his book Matthew for Everyone, writes, “God had called Israel to be the salt of the earth; but Israel was behaving like everyone else, with its power politics, its faction squabbles, its militant revolutions. How could God keep the world from going bad-the main function of salt in the ancient world if Israel, his chose ‘salt’, had lost its distinctive taste?” (p. 40).

This also applies to all Christians. We are to be salt in our society. We are to slow down the decay. If we remain silent and let sin overrun our society, then what good are we? If we look just like everybody else in our society and act just like them, then we have failed to do our job. Then aren’t we, like Jesus said, no longer good for anything? We have purpose. We are needed here.

Then Jesus says, not only are you salt, but, “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 the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Your light must shine before people in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

Israel was supposed to be God’s light, showing the people of the world a better way. As N.T. Wright also said, “Jerusalem, the city set on a hill, was supposed to be a beacon of hope to the world. His followers were to be like that: their deep, heartfelt keeping of God’s laws would be a sign to the nations around that the one God, the creator, the God of Israel, was God indeed, and that they should worship him.”

But what happens to the world if those who are supposed to be shining a light for the world place their lights under a basket? What if the people who have the lights don’t even light them? What if the light bearers are hanging out in the dark, never lighting their lamps? A whole lot of people would be left in the dark, left to stumble around, getting hurt and injured. How can anyone see clearly if there is no light to show people the way? We are called to be salt and light. Jesus, who is called the Light of the World, has left us here on earth to be these things. We are supposed to slow the decay of sin by showing people the way to live. We are to shine brightly, revealing the love of God to a world that is swallowed up in the darkness. If Christians don’t shine the light of Jesus, how can the world be saved?

These popular preachers and teachers seem to be telling Christians to hide their lights. They are telling believers to be silent and to fit in with the world so as not to offend anybody. Their theology says: God’s rules don’t matter anymore because Jesus died for everyone and love wins. If we read the Bible though, we see Jesus has something very different to say on the matter. He says, “Do not presume that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter shall pass from the Law, until all is accomplished! “

Jesus is clarifying that He has not abolished the law of the Old Testament. He has fulfilled the law. The Greek word here, according to Strong’s Concordance, is pléroó, which means: to make full, to complete. Later in this sermon, Jesus explains what He means by this statement. In Matthew 7:12, Jesus says, “In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”

Jesus has shown what following the law looks like. He was the perfect example of the law lived out in action. For as the NIV translations states, “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” If we do to others what we would want them to do for us, then we won’t kill, steal, slander, covet or otherwise harm other people. We will automatically keep a majority of God’s laws.

Even later in Matthew 22:37-40, Jesus expands more on what this means to fulfill the Law and Prophets: “And He said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Upon these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.”

If we love God with all of our being, then He will be number one in our lives. We won’t have other gods that we place before Him. We will be quick to obey Him. We will trust Him and follow His word. And if we love others the way we love ourselves and treat others the way we want to be treated, then we will keep God’s commands that are rules of how we are to treat other people. This was of great importance to Jesus, for He spent a lot of time telling parables and illustrating what all of this looks like in practical application.

We know that obedience to these commandments is vital to following Jesus because, picking back up in verse Matthew 5:19, He goes on to say, “Therefore, whoever nullifies one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

We are mistaken if we think that we can pick and choose what rules or laws of God to follow. And we are doing the world no favors if we tell them that that they don’t need to worry about God’s law. That false pastor who is telling people not to worry about showing unbelievers “the rules” is so misguided. This is such a strong word of caution and warning to teachers like that pastor. He should be careful that he is not teaching others to nullify the commandments of God, for the consequence for that person is they will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. I don’t think that’s a good thing!

We should not avoid telling unbelievers about the law of God, for it is through the telling of the law that people see they are sinners. The law reveals to us our sin and why we need a Savior. It shows us we cannot be perfect as Jesus is perfect. We should not despise God’s law, we should proclaim it so people see they need saving. As Jesus says in verse 20, “For I say to you that unless your righteousness far surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Try as we may, we can never keep God’s law perfectly, and so that is why Jesus came to earth and died for our sin. He offers us forgiveness of our sin and covers us in His righteousness. The law reveals just how great the good news of the gospel is to the world. Without the law showing us our sin, why would we think we need a savior?

At the end of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 7:13-23 records Jesus saying:

13 “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is constricted that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

15 “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they? 17 So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 So then, you will know them by their fruits.

21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22 Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; leave Me, you who practice lawlessness.’”

His whole Sermon on the Mount is a perfectly crafted message of how we are to live and be as Christians. We will face persecution if we are following Jesus, but we don’t need to fear it because we will be blessed if we suffer for righteousness’ sake. We must not shrink away from being the salt and light that our world so urgently needs. We can proclaim the good news of the Gospel to our world through our words and actions as we follow God, keeping His commandments, loving Him and other people.

After Jesus died and was resurrected, right before He ascended into heaven, He spoke a final message to the disciples. Matthew 28:18-20 says, “And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’”

Jesus’ commission to the disciples is the same commission He still has for His Church today. We are to go into all the world, making disciples, baptizing people and teach them how to follow all of God’s commands. None of that has changed. We are not to stay silent. We are to share the good news. In order to make disciples, we must explain why Jesus had to die. We must speak of sin and repentance and the good news of the cross and forgiveness. Then we are to teach people what following Jesus looks like. That means we speak about dying to self and laying off sin. It means daily picking up our cross and following Jesus. Following Jesus is not a cake-walk and if we present the gospel that way, we are teaching people to do what Jesus warns us not to do. The devil would love for Christians to either fear or embrace legalism. Jesus speaks of a different way. He has fulfilled the law and by following Him we need not fear legalism. We instead will find that the law is good and for our benefit. It reveals to us just how desperately we need a savior. We don’t follow God’s law so that we get saved, rather, we follow God’s law because it is best for us. It is not a burden, but a delight. As Psalm 119:47 states, “I will delight in Your commandments, which I love.”

Pray: Heavenly Father, thank You for sending us Your son Jesus to die on the cross for us. Thank You for making a way for us to be clothed in righteousness. Please forgive us of our sin and help us to share Your message of hope and love to the world. Help us to not be afraid to speak up for Your righteous ways. Please fill us with Your Holy Spirit so we can be salt and light to this world that is so cloaked in darkness. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.