You Are Salt and Light - By Neville Tambe

Jesus said that we are "the salt of the earth" and "the light of the world". Being salt and light is not optional. Jesus did not say you can be..or you have the potential to be..He said you are the salt and light of the earth. Everyone who has trusted Lord Jesus Christ for salvation as been save and is born again is the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

       

       To 'be salt means' to deliberately seek to influence the people in one's life by showing them the unconditional love of Christ through good deeds. To be 'light means' light is a symbol used to mean awareness, knowledge, understanding the word of God , to be a witness to others concerning the truth of God's Word, especially about who Christ is and how he died and rose again for our salvation.

Salt: The value of salt, especially in the ancient world can not be under estimated. Roman soldiers received their wages in salt. The Greeks considered salt to be divine. The mosaic law required that all offerings presented by the Israelites contain salt. Lev 2:13 When Jesus told his disciples that they were "the salt of the earth"as recorded in Matthew 5.13 "You are the salt of the earth. But suppose the salt loses its saltiness. How can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything. It will be thrown out. People will walk all over it". They understood the metaphor. While the universal importance of salt is not as readily apparent in our modern world,the mandate that Jesus gave to his first disciples is still relevant and applicable to him followers today.

   

    What are the characteristics of salt that caused the lord to use it in this context? Theologians have different theories about the meaning of "salt" in matthew 5:13 Some think that its whiteness represents the purity of justified believer. Others say that salt's flavor to the world with rebuke and judgement the way salt stings and open wound. Another group asserts that ad salt Christians are to create a thirst for probably what the Lord had in mind - it stops decay. When Jesus said,"You are the salt of the earth", He meant that all of his disciples were to serve as preservatives, stopping the moral decay in our sin infected world.

   

  We have been given a wonderful privilege to be the salt of the earth but Jesus gave us a warning In the second half of Mattew 5:13. Jesus did not say that we can lose our salvation, He said that we can lose our saltiness. When salt is contaminated it becomes corrosive and poisonour's. Contaminated salt cannot ever be used for fertilizer on the field so it has to be thrown on the road. If we have allowed disobedience, carelessness and indifference to rule our lives, we have become contaminated salt and have lost our saltiness. We nee to confess our sin and let the lord restore us to the purpose for which we were called.

Light: In Mattew 5:14 Jesus tells his disciples, "You are the light of the world". As "salt" the Christians is to counteract the power of sin. As "light" we are to illuminate or make visible. Our lives are to be an on-going witness to the reality of Christ's present in our lives. When we worship God with pure heart, when we love others as our selves  and when we do good without growing weary, we are light shining. It is reflection of the light of the world Jesus Christ himself that people will see in us. In Philippians 2:15 the apostle paul says,"Believers, you are to shine as light in the world". It provides hope for those who have lost hope. Everyday we are surrounded by people groping around in the darkness, separated from the God who loves us. God uses his children like beacons from a lightouse to show the way to him.

Either we are "salt" and "light"by the grace of God, or we are willfully disobeying the one who saved us from our depth of our sin and shame.