Bible Study: Salt and Light

Amen. Amen. Amen.

Let's go ahead and have a word of prayer. Father in heaven, thank you for allowing us to gather this evening. We thank you for your word. We thank you for your people. We thank you for the safety that you've granted us in our travels. We thank you for your provision. We thank you for all the good things that you've done for us. We just ask tonight that you would encourage us and challenge us with your word. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So before we dive into kind of our last little section, tonight we want to take a look at Matthew chapter 5. Just a few verses there about salt and light. Next Wednesday night, we're going to jump into the book of Job. I'm going to kind of record an intro video, and we'll send it out an email on Friday, and then again next week, so we don't have to go through a lot of the minutia when we get together.

And so I am more and more excited about Job. I've kind of wanted to do Job for a long time, and thanks to Linda, kind of being the impetus to helping us along with that. Or as my mom used to say, "I have the patience of Job, and I'm losing it." Hi, Mom. Anyway, so we're going to go into the book of Job, and we're going to try to, and we'll talk about this in the intro video, but I looked through some people who had preached through Job before, like one guy, one Puritan, the guy who came before John Owen at his church, spent 20, like 23 years preaching through the book of Job. So it's like, you go, you go to, you show up at church, I want to study, "Oh, we're starting the book of Job," and then you, you know, go AWOL for 20 years and come back, "Oh, what are we studying now?" And it's like, "Oh, well, we're still in Job."

So that's not our goal, but rather we want to kind of try to balance between getting the depth of this incredible book and also not being here for 20 years. So I think it was that John Calvin was like the low end of it was like 169 sermons. So, and that was the low of the Puritans. So anyway, I am excited. I'm trying real hard not to say too much yet. So next week we'll be into Job. So if you're watching us online, we'll be here online. We'll also have handouts on our website, and we're going to have some kind of pre-handouts with some kind of some questions and some thoughts and some things about the text to help us as we read through it. So let's talk about salt and light tonight. Not necessarily a parable in terms of what we would think of parables. I would say maybe we see this more as an illustration or an analogy, but I think helpful and very culturally relevant for us.

It says, Jesus says this, remember this is the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, following directly after the Beatitudes. "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 the light of the world. A city set on the 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 the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others. They may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." And so these sort of two things here, two things we're very familiar with, in fact, that we would probably say are essential to our lives are salt and light.

Now we tend to overlook them, or maybe a better way of saying that is we take them for granted, right? We just sort of assume that we're always going to have salt. We assume we're always going to have light. And these things, until we don't have them, is when we really begin to appreciate them. And so a couple of reasons why I think Jesus uses this, and what's interesting about both of these things, is they are not, these are not isolated references. Light, significantly more so than salt, but throughout Scripture. Old Testament, New Testament, salt is used and light is used throughout the Bible. And so one of the reasons I think these are used is because they're common and they're universal, right? We, in our world, we all understand salt. We all understand light. We don't have to explain.

We will get a little bit of cultural context, because if anything, salt is so common for us that we take it for granted. These things are also distinct, right? We know when something is salty. We know when there is light. They're noticeable. One of Luke's favorite things is he's discovered how light switches work. And so he turns it on and off. And so, right, it's really noticeable. And we're familiar with this. I was thinking about it the other night, our two dusk-to-dawn lights, and we think they got water in the sensors and then froze. And so neither of the two dusk-to-dawn lights work, and I never realized how dark our parking lot is until you walk out and go, "Why is it so dark?" And it's like, "Oh, neither of these two lights are working." And so these things, salt and light, are very distinct.

Now, one of the things that both of these things do is they give us a picture of how to relate to the world. In fact, I think that's Jesus's point, is that when we relate properly to the world, we are both salt and light. So salt doesn't do any good while it's on the counter. So we only have, I know some people have more than one set of salt and pepper shakers. We have one. So usually when we're cooking dinner, they're by the stove, and you sit down and eat, and the kids go, "Well, we want salt and pepper." And it's like, "Well, get up and walk over to the stove. It's not that far. Get your salt and pepper." But the reality is, salt doesn't do any good on the counter, right? It has to interact with what it is.

And the same thing is true of light. It doesn't do any good if you light a lamp, as Jesus says, and put it under a basket, right? It defeats the purpose. And so there is a sort of intrinsic to this example is the fact that salt and light both have to interact with the world in which they are in. And I think for Christians, that's an important thing because there's a tendency sometimes on our part to sort of develop ourselves into kind of Christian forts, right? We're going to segregate ourselves. I'm going to have Christian friends. I'm going to listen to Christian music. I'm going to listen to Christian books. I'm going to watch Christian TV shows. And we sort of just separate ourselves from everything else. And that's not the picture of salt and light. It doesn't work unless it's amongst those things that's supposed to be making salty.

The light doesn't work unless it's surrounded by the darkness. And what this does is it puts some tension on our relationship, right? There's a tension when we're salt. There's a tension when they're light. And Jesus, in John the 17th chapter, as he talks about and praying for his disciples, he says something. You can get a feel for the tension in which we live here. He says, remember Jesus is praying for the disciples. "I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world." He says, "They're not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil ones." He says, "They're not of the world, but don't take them out of the world."

And verse 16, "They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world." And so notice there's this tension between, and the way we always say it is, we're in the world, but not of the world, right? And we'll talk a little bit more about that when we talk about salt losing and saltiness. But there is a tension in our lives and how we relate to this world because we want to have an impact on it as salt and light. But at the same time, we aren't part of the world, right? We are not of the world. The other interesting thing about salt and light together is I think they demonstrate an important contrast.

So, when you add salt to things, it ends up being essentially invisible. So, our kids, one of the things we had this week was we cut up a bunch of cucumbers, they like cucumbers, and they like salt and pepper on their cucumbers. And one of our kids put salt on their cucumbers, look at the cucumbers, put more salt on them, looked at them, and I was like, that's enough salt. Well, I can't see any salt on my cucumbers, right? It's like, well, you taste it, you're gonna taste the salt, right? Because we know, in a lot of situations, when salt is added, it sort of dissolves, becomes invisible. You can taste it, but you can't see it. And so, salt, in many cases, is sort of a hidden part, whereas light is visible. So, right, during the London Blitz, what you gotta do, you gotta turn off all the lights, you shut your blinds, nobody has lights,

because you don't want any light showing to give away your location. And so, light is something that is visible, salt tends to be less so. And I think the intent of salt and light is both to demonstrate our character, that our character is salt, meaning that it flavors, it preserves. We'll talk about that in a minute. And light is the message that goes out. So, our salt would sort of picture as our character, and our witness as light. So, any thoughts about our sort of introduction to salt and light before we dive into it? Alright, let's take a look at being the "salt of the earth," which is a phrase that has sort of come into, you know, common phraseology. You know, these are the "salt of the earth" type people. So, the first thing we want to understand is that, sort of historically, salt has been valuable.

And so, what's interesting is, on occasion, not all the time, Roman soldiers were paid in salt, or sometimes partially in salt. And this was called a "salarium," not a "solarium," which is, you know, a window placed with all your plants. But, you know, a "salarium," because in Latin, "sal" is "salt," which is interesting. So, this comes down into French, and then into English, and we get from it the English word "salary." And so, if you heard the phrase, "Somebody is worth his salt," you know, what does it mean? Is it worth what they've earned? And so, there's been this picture sort of throughout history where salt has been valuable. And there's several reasons it was valuable. One is that it preserves, right? You're living in a time where there's no refrigerators. You know, you don't have deep freezers.

You want to save meat over the winter, what do you do? You salt the meat, and it preserves the meat. We hear about it, you know, if you read about, you know, guys on ships with their salt pork. You just dump a bunch of salt in there. You have salted fish. All these things that salt acts as a preservative. So, it's incredibly important, not just as for what we see it as, as a seasoning to make things taste better, but really as a way of surviving because salt keeps food from spoiling. Now, the other reason it's valuable, you know, is that it flavors. It has a profound effect, right? We have the Crusades because somebody comes back to the Middle East, realizes there's spices, and we all go, "Let's go get some spices." And what's interesting, and I've noticed this because I don't cook with a lot of salt,

but salt brings flavors together, and it's really noticeable when it's absent, right? You put a little salt in and it changes the whole characteristic of something. It brings flavors in and ties them together and just makes it better. It can be used medicinally, and we'll talk about this in a minute. It has some antibacterial properties, although those are very unpleasant. Have you ever gotten salt in a cut? It's not a great thing, but it does do that, and we'll talk a little bit about that. Specifically, it's mentioned in Ezekiel. And so, salt has some very valuable attributes. It preserves, it flavors, it can be used medicinally, and so think about how this relates to the Christian life. In one sense, I think we see biblically that Christian character can, in many cases, preserve the world. Probably the most

famous example of this is, if you remember, Abraham gets three visitors. He feeds them, talks to them, and they're on the road, and he's walking with them, and God says, "I've come down to judge Sodom. Shall I hide from Abraham what I'm about to do?" And so Abraham begins to plead for Sodom, and what does he say? "Is there 50 righteous people? Will you destroy this city?" And God says, "Well, no, not for 50." And then Abraham begins to think a little bit, and goes, "Well, that might be a stretch. Can we do 40?" Right? And so they get all the way down in verse 32. He says, "Lord, don't be angry, and I will speak again, but this once, suppose 10 are found there." And God answered, "For the sake of 10, I will not destroy it." And the Lord went his way, and when he had finished speaking to Abraham,

and Abraham returned to his place. Now, what happens to Sodom and Gomorrah? They get destroyed. Because what? There were not 10 righteous people. So you see, in some ways, Christianity preserves, right? When there are righteous people, oftentimes it holds the sin of culture in check, if Christians are being sought, right? If we're being light, we should hold, in many cases, the evils of culture in check. Now, that wasn't the case in Sodom and Gomorrah, but it would have been. God would have withheld his judgment for those 10 righteous people. The other thing that we see is that, in many cases, Christian character flavors the world. And what I mean by that is I don't necessarily mean flavors the world in the sense that we make it taste good, but that we add good things to the world. So, just give you some context for what happens here in this salt and light.

Remember, Jesus will say, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they are called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sakes, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad. Your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you." And then the very next verse is, "You are the salt of the earth." That living in the manner that God lays out,

changes how we interact with people. So for example, one of the ways that we would think about that would be peacemakers, right? If Christians are truly peacemakers, we are going to bring some seasoning to this world by making peace. And what's interesting is sort of historically, you see this happening, that the Christians not reviling against those who are persecuting them. If you wonder why Christianity went from being persecuted to not being persecuted, in part was because of how we loved our enemies. And people thought, "Whoa, they're not reviling. They're loving their enemies." Additionally, you see hospitals and orphanages being invented and began by Christians, right? As the plagues ravage all these towns and everybody's leaving town to get away from the plague, you find Christians staying behind and taking care of sick people for, you know,

and oftentimes at great risk to themselves, specifically doing these things, changing culture. The same with orphanages. As people discarded infants, Christians would gather them up, bring them into their homes, care for them, watch over them, treat them as part of their families. And it's just sort of one glimpse that Christian character sort of changes the world in a lot of different ways: feeding the hungry, seeking justice, calling out wrongdoing. We'll talk about that in a minute. Making peace, that Christian character should have a flavor, impart a flavor to this world. Third, Christian character should convict the world. So, Ezekiel 16:4, and as I was looking through verses about salt, this is one that kind of jumped out to me. It says this, "As for your birth, from the day you were born, your cord was cut,

nor were you washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling clothes." Now, so the picture is that they were born, but not born properly, right? And we understand some of this, right? You have a baby, you cut the cord, you clean them up, you wrap them up in a nice blanket. But then there's this weird thing. It says they rubbed them with salt. And so I did some reading, and there's not a lot of historical background, but there is a little bit from some rabbis, and then there was a Greek doctor in the first century. In some cases, what they would do is they would make a solution of salt and water, and they'd rub it on the babies to sort of clean them, because salt can have, in some cases, a scouring effect. Like when I clean my cast iron, one of the ways I do it is with like a real coarse salt,

rub it all over. You're not supposed to use soap and dump it out, but they would use it as sort of a cleaning agent. But also it works as a disinfectant, so the baby prevents infection on the baby. And this Greek doctor in the first century would say, you know, one of the things you need to do when you have a baby is rub it with a solution of salt and honey to kind of clean it off and protect it from infection. And so in part what Christianity should do is it should convict the world. So just like when we get a cut and you get salt in it and it stings a little bit, Christian character should, I think in some cases, convict the world, right? Acts chapter 2, when they hear what Peter is preaching to them, what does it say? We are cut to the heart.

Hebrews 4 will say about the Word of God that it's sharper than a two-edged sword, that it cuts into the division of soul and spirit. That there should be something that people, when they see Christian character and they experience Christian character, should make them aware of the brokenness of sin. And I don't mean that in a "look down our noses" kind of way, but in a way that shows them there is a right way and a wrong way to live. Any thoughts or comments about what we've covered so far?

So, the danger here that Jesus elaborates for us is what? The salt losing its saltiness. And what that means is it's not good anymore. I've never had, well, I guess I have left some salt out on the grill. You know, water gets in it, and then you've got to throw it away. But it becomes diluted or not distinct. And so, once again, you see that tension. When the salt gets mixed with something else, it stops being salty. It starts losing its preservative effect. It loses its ability to bring flavor. It loses any medicinal qualities of disinfecting. And so, the only thing good is to throw it on the path and stomp on it. And so, there is a picture here that Christians are supposed to be close enough to flavor the world, but also not to be contaminated by it.

Thoughts or comments? Alright, let's take a look at the light of the world. So, I think instinctively we understand the importance of light, I guess especially here in Texas right now. So, I was leaving the office the other night, and most of the time I don't turn on the hallway lights. I just have my office light on. And for some reason, I think every time I do this, I'll just turn off the office light and I'll be fine. The next thing I know, I've run into the drinking fountain and banged my knee on the wall because you can't see. So, we instinctively understand it even though we take it for granted. And so, what we find is that light reveals. Just like salt, when you find all the cuts in your hands when you get salt on them, light reveals, right?

It can reveal reality. And so, in some cases, we use light to lessen our fears. You know, the kids have a nightlight. You know, we were in the car the other night. Can we turn on the back light so that we can see because we're afraid? I've shared with you the time I was camping and thought I was being attacked by a Sasquatch and turned on my light and it was just a raccoon coming over because I smelled my beef stew. You know, light shows us what is around us. It shows us the path. The 119th Psalm says, "A word is a light to my feet and a lamp unto my path." It shows us obstacles. It shows us holes. It shows us that Lego we're about to step on. And so light reveals. It shows us how things really are.

But the same light that reveals also convicts, right? It can show us things so very clearly. And for some reason, as I was thinking about this earlier this week, something my sixth grade teacher said stuck in my head. So we went to a pretty small Christian school. Everybody kind of knew everybody. We weren't very big. So, you know, she would go over and sometimes have dinner with, you know, students and their family. And I remember one day she was talking, and I never understood this, in sixth grade. She was talking to one of my friends. She was like, "Josh, the light in your bathroom is crazy. I can never see any gray hair until I go to your house and I go to the bathroom and I look in the mirror and I can see all my gray hair."

And your family probably thinks I'm in there rummaging through the medical cabinet, you know, to see what they've got in it. She's like, "I'm just seeing all my gray hairs." You know, that specific light. And we probably noticed that. There are certain lights that shine brighter, reveal more clearly. In fact, if you go to Lowe's to buy light bulbs, they now have a display of all the different, you know, daylight, kind of daylight, somewhat cloudy daylight, you know. And you can kind of see how which one is going to look best in this situation. And so light should clearly show us what something looks like. That's not just lessening our fears, but it should also show us our sin and our brokenness clearly. Light also should, I think, invite us in. I think that's part of the picture that's here.

In Matthew chapter 5. Anybody remember what Motel 6's motto was? Yeah, and what's the point? It's like the, you know, we're going to welcome you in to our somewhat shady motel. You're welcome to come. And so light is an invitation. So think about how this relates to the Christian life. Christians should bring light into dark places, in part lessening fears and showing the way in which we are to walk and live. I always liked that section of Zechariah's prayer in Luke chapter 1, where he's talking about John the baptizer and then talks about Jesus, and he says this: "And you, child, will be called prophet of the Most High, and you will go before the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to His people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high, to give light to those who sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death,

inside our feet into the way of peace." The picture there, the light is comforting, right? It's that it's to bring light to those who are in dark, in the shadow of death, to shine the light of joy, to bring them into peace. But also light should convict of sin. We don't see how bad it is in the dark, but you turn on the light, you should be able to see sin. And so Paul will say this in Ephesians 5: "For at one time you were in darkness, but now you are light in the world. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and true. And try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.

For it is shameful to even speak of the things they do in secret, but when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible. For anything that will become visible is light. Therefore it says, "A wake, O sleeper, arise from the dead, and Christ will shine in you." And so part of our being light in the world is to speak honestly about sin. About what sin is. To show what sin is. Because in some cases people, they may not realize. And so it's to bring conviction of sin. And third, to invite others into the light. Look at what he says in verse 16. "And many, in the same way, let your light shine before others, so they may see your good works, and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." And what's always struck me about that, is it doesn't say, "The people may see your good works and pat you on the back for being such a great human being."

It says, "So that they may see your good works, and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." The chief end of man is to glorify God. And part of our message is to bring others into that joy of glorifying God. Glorifying God by not pointing to ourselves, but through our goodness, pointing to Him. Now, there is a danger in this, verses just like there is with salt. It says, "You are the light of the world. The city set on the 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 the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so they may see your good works, and give glory to your Father who is in heaven."

Here would be for those who are scared of their light. Most of the time, we are not scared of bringing peace. We are not scared of bringing joy and light. We are not afraid of inviting people in light. It is that middle one, right? That convicting of sin, of revealing sin that we are afraid of. And so, instead of speaking prophetically, instead of living prophetically, we sometimes put our light under a basket. It doesn't make any sense. The kids go, "Hey, can we have a light on so we can read at bedtime?" It's like, "Yeah, I'm just going to stick it under this hamper so you can't see it," right? But, many Christians, right, we sometimes live in that same way. We say, "Well, I have this light that brings peace and joy and shows people sin so they can repent and come to Jesus." And then we hide our light, just like we become diluted with salt.

And so, one of the things I was thinking about is that this is a passage of evaluation, not just while we're here, but one of the reasons I think Jesus uses something so common is we eat something salty, we say, "Whoa, salt and light. Am I living as salt?" Seasoning, preserving, disinfecting this world. Am I, do we turn on the lights? Do we think, you know, it's an inactive parable. Every time you turn on a light, right? Bringing hope, welcoming people home, showing sin. That these are not just intellectual exercises for us, but they should be practical exercises for us as well. Any thoughts or comments? I think Ezra has something to say. Zero out of five stars. Alright, let's go ahead and have a word of prayer. Father in heaven, help us to be light, help us to be salt, convict us of our fear, help us to shine brightly, not