ON BEING SALT AND LIGHT
Matthew 5:13-16

If someone were to come up to me today and say, “Max, the world is going to hell and you don’t care,” I would be taken back by his straightforward accusation.  You can rest assured he would have my attention.  Suppose I were to ask this person to share the foundation for his thesis.  I think he might share something like this:

“Where is the voice of the Church with regard to abortion?  Three babies a minute.  Doesn’t the Church care?”

“Doesn’t the Church care about crime?  What is the Church doing about the reality of children killing children?  Where is the voice of the Church with regard to the proliferation of violence within our society?”

“What about the homeless, or the poor?  Why doesn’t the Church do something about those problems?”

This conversation could go on for a period of time. 

My initial response probably would be to get defensive.  Yet, this person would have struck a cord of truth.  The Church of Jesus Christ has lost its influence in the world.  The sermon of the local pastor no longer makes the front page of the local newspaper.  The Church is not consulted on major issues facing society.  We have come a long way from the teachings of Jesus here in this text, where He states:  You are the salt of the earth…You are the light of the world.

Salt has been used for centuries as a preservative.  Until the advent of refrigeration, salt was the mainstay in the preservation of foods.  How does this concept of preservation  impact the Church? 

The world manifests a constant tendency to deteriorate.  In spite of what evolutionists are saying, man is not getting better and better.  Man is getting worse and worse.  Society has reached a point where there are no longer any moral values, where there is no standard of right and wrong.  In this text, when Jesus proclaims to His disciples that they were the salt of the earth, He implies that, apart from His disciples, the world would become even more rotten.  Listen to these words of warning from the pen of Paul:  And now you know what is holding him back (Paul is referring to the man of lawlessness), so that he may be revealed at the proper time.  For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way.  And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming.  The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing (2 Thessalonians 2:6-10). 

Friends, if the world is to know what God desires from His creation, it must flow through the lives of His Church – that is, you and me.  It is time that we take this role of being salt more seriously.

Father, Thank You for commanding us to be salt in a world that is rapidly decaying.  May You be pleased to use us to demonstrate to a lost world Your love and Your care.  In Christ’s name we pray.  Amen.

 

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