Periodically, I hope to offer you some at home Bible study opportunities. These studies can be used individually or as a family. Please let me know if I can equip you in other ways to learn and apply God’s word.
In 2002, Mark Kulansky wrote Salt: A World History, a book that traces the history and historical uses of salt. The back cover of his book reveals, “Until about 100 years ago, when modern geology revealed its prevalence, salt was one of the world’s most sought-after commodities. A substance so valuable it served as currency, salt has influenced the establishment of trade routes and cities, provoked and financed wards, secured empires, and inspired revolutions.”
Salt was once a treasured commodity and a necessary staple of life. Today, salt is still a necessary staple of life, but it is so abundant in the West that people do not work to afford or find salt, instead they work to limit their intake of salt. Because salt and light are so abundant today, it can be easy today to miss the power of Jesus’s metaphor in Matthew 5:13-16. For those in the ancient world, however, they would have readily understood that Jesus’s message was for them to impact their world with lives that reflect the kingdom principles preached in the Beatitudes and the entire Sermon on the Mount.
- Salt was a preservative in the ancient world. How do should Christians’ activity in society help to keep culture from rotting?
- Jesus says that by doing good deeds, His followers can cause others to glorify the Father in heaven. What role do our good deeds play in evangelism?
Summary
Salt and light were necessary and hard to come by in the ancient world. Salt represented preservation and thus food and light represented safety. But salt was rare, and light was expensive, just barely portable, and at times even dangerous in its own right. The light of a city on a hill would beckon travelers to come, but the light was created only with effort and was maintained only as someone regularly supplied oil or other fuel.
In an age where salt is prevalent and light is available inexpensively at the flick of a switch, Christians can neglect to fully understand their role as salt and light in the world. In fact, in a world where there are many alternatives to Christ, Christians must work to point non-believers to the true light.
1. Live a Life that Blesses Others
Read Matthew 5:13-16
Salt in the ancient world was a preservative. When Jesus told his listeners to be salt in the world, He was urging them to live in such way that they actually kept the world around them from rotting. The world should be a better place because Christians live in it.
Just a few weeks ago, you studied Jeremiah 29 where the exiles were urged to seek the welfare of the city into which they had been carried. In a similar way, Jesus is urging his followers in Matthew 5 to live lives of blessing to those around them. Jesus also issues a warning. Salt that has lost its “saltiness” is of no use. Likewise, Christians who have lost or neglected their ability to bless the world and make it better are of no use in God’s kingdom.
- How are you blessing others? How does your church make your community a better place?
Local communities should be different when they are filled with churches and Christians. Though sin is working to spoil the world, Christians serve as a preservative, working to make sure that the world is not as bad as it could be. This can seem like a daunting task, but the way of the Kingdom is not the way of a superhero. It is the life of humility, meekness, and purity. Christians change the world one person, one community, and one day at a time by loving their neighbor, proclaiming the Great Commission, and living lives that are consistently characterized by the kingdom principles of the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount.
- Read the Beatitudes. How do you or should you put these kingdom principles into practice on a daily basis?
Living lives characterized by Christ’s principles is not guarantor against persecution or attack. In fact, Jesus warns his children that they will be persecuted because of him in John 15:1-4. Here in Matthew 5, Jesus encourages his children who will be persecuted, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for there’s is the kingdom of heaven.” Even the way that you handle suffering and persecution present an opportunity for you to live out Christ’s kingdom purposes and to proclaim his love to a lost and dying world.
2. Point the World Toward Jesus with Gospel Proclamation
Read Matthew 5:13-16
In the ancient world, when light was scarce, this metaphor would have been incredibly powerful. For Jesus’s disciples, they would have known what hope it was to see the lights of a city in the darkness as they traveled at night. That light would bring hope and the promise of rest and protection.
As the light of the world, Christians have the incredible privilege and responsibility of pointing others toward Jesus. As lights in the world, the task of pointing people toward Jesus really comes with a two-fold responsibility—the task of helping others to see their sin and of pointing them toward the gospel. Consider the following story:
A battleship had been at sea on its routine maneuvers under heavy weathers for days. The captain, who was worried about the deteriorating weather conditions, stayed on the bridge to keep an eye on all activities.
One night, the lookout on the bridge suddenly shouted, “Captain! A light, bearing on the starboard bow.”
“Is it stationary or moving astern?” the captain asked.
The lookout replied that it was stationary. This meant the battleship was on a dangerous collision course with the other ship. The captain immediately ordered his signalman to signal to the ship: “We are on a collision course. I advise you to change course 20 degrees east.”
Back came a response from the other ship: “You change course 20 degrees west.”
Agitated by the arrogance of the response, the captain asked his signalman to shoot out another message: “I am a captain, you change course 20 degrees east.”
Back came the second response: “I am a second-class seaman, you had still better change course 20 degrees west.”
The captain was furious this time! He shouted to the signalman to send back a final message: “I am a battleship. Change course 20 degrees east right now!”
Back came the flashing response: “I am a lighthouse.”
The captain duly changed course.
Just like that lighthouse, as Christ’s follower, you should live your life in such a way that those around you see in you the hope of rest and protection as you humbly and patiently warn others of the dangers of their sin.
Christians can fail to be light in two particular ways. First, Christians can fail to be light by failing to proclaim Christ and live out their faith in public. The contemporary arguments for “freedom of religion” argued by many in the west today suggest that religion is a private affair that should not be discussed. However, Christianity is not a private affair. There are more private aspects of the Christian life like prayer and personal Bible reading, but to be a follower of Christ is to be a public follower of Christ.
- How can you warn others of the danger that lies ahead if they do not trust Christ?
The Great Commission is not a suggestion, it is a command from Jesus. For Christians, missions and public proclamation of the gospel is not an option, it is an imperative. In Matthew 10:33, Jesus even warned, “But whoever denies me before others, I will also deny him before my Father in heaven.” as lights in the world by regularly acknowledging and sharing your faith with a watching world.
The second way Christians can fail to be light is by not living as the light. In the 1990s, DC Talk cautioned believers, “the greatest single cause of atheism today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, but walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world, simply finds unbelievable.” Hypocrisy may or may not be the greatest cause of atheism, but it is certainly a stumbling block for others. You must live as a light that not only points toward Jesus, but reflects Jesus so that the watching world can behold him for his power and beauty.
- Have you ever heard anyone say that they wouldn’t come to church because it was full of hypocrites? How did you respond to that argument?
3. Change the Culture with Christ-like Living
Read Matthew 5:13-16
The task of a Christian life is not complete when the gospel has been proclaimed. Christians are called to live for Christ in all things, so that God will be glorified by those who see your good deeds. But, the purpose of living the Christian life can be more than seeking change in the lives of individuals, Christians work to see the culture changed and transformed. Salt is a preservative, but it also gives flavor. Light provides direction, but it also gives security. As salt and light in the culture, Christians are called to flavor the culture with Christ-likeness and to direct the culture one person at a time toward justice and peace.
In evangelicalism today, social action and gospel proclamation are often perceived to be at odds with one another, but historically, when the church has become strong within a culture through evangelism, the culture is transformed religiously and socially. Christians like William Wilberforce have committed themselves to Christ and His Word and in so doing have been convicted to bring about social change within culture.
- Why do mercy ministries often eclipse proclamation missions within the church?
- How can the church engage in social action and mercy ministries without lessening the emphasis upon evangelism?
Christians were responsible for the establishment of the first hospitals, the first public schools, and are largely responsible for the abolition of slavery in the West. The Old Testament places a high priority on issues of justice for the poor and the oppressed in passages like Amos 5:24, Hosea 12:6, and Micah 6:8. In James 1:27, God says, “Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” In the Christian worldview, anything you do can and should be done “from the heart, as something done for the Lord and not [only] for people” (Colossians 3:23).
Christians should see injustice and oppression in the world around them and be driven to see change. It is appropriate for Christians to engage in efforts to end abortion and promote marriage, but Christians should also consider the plight of the poor and the oppressed work to see their lives made better.
- Race relations is a hot topic in American culture today. Why should Christians be concerned with racial diversity and equality?
Conclusion
Sea turtle hatchlings can be drawn off course by artificial light. When they are hatched, they instinctively follow the light of the moon into the ocean, but too much artificial light can be confusing to new hatchlings and can draw them toward danger instead of the relative safety of the sea. Our world is filled with a blinding plethora of artificial light that works to draw people away from the true Light of the world. These idols beckon people to follow the glow, but in the end these lights lead to destruction. A freight train gives light, but it does not give life. So too, the idols of the world offer excitement and security, but in the end they lead to destruction.
Jesus is the Light of the world illuminating the darkness and He is the way, the truth, and the life. He has called his people to be lights in a dark world, showing people their sin and pointing them toward the Savior. In a dark and depraved generation, be lighthouses that point to the true light by living lives that are characterized by love and good deeds.
- Read Micah 6:8. How does this verse apply to the church today? How can the church fulfill God’s expectation of justice?
- The recent rash of moral failures by well-known pastors and Christian leaders has marred the image of the church within American culture. How can you work to regain the trust of those outside of the church who have been hurt or jaded by these leaders whose lives have proven to be hypocritical?
- Read Romans 12:1-2. How might the Word of God transform your mind so that you can better know and obey God’s will within your particular culture?
- If your church were to leave your community, would it be missed? How might the culture suffer without the influence of your church? How can your church do more to impact the culture right now?
