Matthew 5:13-16 (NIV) 13"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. 14"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
What we think of ourselves shows, even if we have never given it a thought. Buried in our soul is a belief about our self and it comes out in the way we live. As Jesus goes up to the mountain and begins to teach, he first teaches about God and what God will do when we are poor in spirit, when we mourn, when we are meek, when we hunger and thirst for righteousness, when we are persecuted. As Jesus continues his message, he begins to tell us who we are. He tells us who we are as a statement of fact. You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world.
When we say to someone “you are the salt of the earth,” we are talking about someone with a special goodness. We are talking about someone who is a gift to our life, valuable and worthwhile. You have tremendous worth to God. Do you believe that?
To be light is to be people who reveal the light, love and truth of God. To be light means that others see something in us that they think is special, that they feel is attractive, and most importantly, God gets the glory. People can see that God has done something with us.
You are the salt of the world, but what if that salt has lost its taste. You are the light of the world, but what if you seek to hide that light? You can forget what kind of person you really are. You can lose touch with the sense of what God is doing with you. You can lose your focus and your commitment to God in the pull and pressures of life.
When we lose our sense of being the salt of the earth, we replace the price tag of what Christ paid for us with the price tags others place upon us. We can begin getting our sense of value from what others think of us, from what we own, from what we have achieved, and from a dozen other sources that tell us false value. We can lose our salt of the “earthness” when we lose touch with the truth God has given us in Jesus. We can lose our sense of being important to God. We can hide the light of God’s good work in us.
Let your light so shine before others that they may see your good works and give glory to God. Jesus is saying do it - you are the salt of the earth, live that way; you are the light of the world, live that way. We can hear the words over and over again and forget them. We ignore them. We resist the power of this truth for our soul. But when we do the words, the truth begins to sink in. The truth becomes operating truth in our life. We become salt by living out of a sense of value that we receive from God. We become light by living in the light of God’s word. Jesus calls us to the wager of action, to live as if God is making us the salt of the world, to live as if God is making us a light to the world. When we do it, we open the door for God to keep his promise to us. You are salt. You are light. Because of God. Do you believe it?
From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope
© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles
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