Matthew 5:13-16

Matthew 5:13-16

True Influencers

1. Disciples of Christ must impact the world through their lives, so we must influence others through our saltiness (v. 13)

1. Jesus’ “Beatitudes” describe how the lives of His follower are supposed to look, and now He uses the metaphors of salt and light to describe what we’re supposed to do with those lives. First Jesus says that His followers are the salt of the earth. It doesn’t matter who you are, where you live, what your station in life is, or what you perceive your strengths or weaknesses to be, if you belong to Him you’re salt. In order to fully understand what Jesus is saying we have to consider salt in the context of His life. Today we use salt primarily as a seasoning, but also use it as a disinfectant and as a preservative. It was also used in all these ways in Jesus time, but its use in every area was much more significant. In the first century they had no antibiotics or antibiotic creams, so they would use salt to treat open wounds and infections to keep them from becoming septic. By describing us as salt in the world, Jesus is telling us that the world is by nature suffering from an infection of sin which has caused it to become hopelessly sceptic without His disinfecting intervention. If we’ve been cleansed and disinfected from sin by God’s grace in Christ, and are continually staving off sins infection through our growing relationship with Him, our lives will be examples of Christ’s disinfecting and antiseptic work which is necessary in the lives of all people for life. Salt is also a preservative. We still use salt to cure meats today, but we generally do so out of nostalgia and not necessity. When Jesus preached this sermon, they didn’t have freezers, so they salt was a necessity for preserving meat and keeping if from spoiling. By describing His followers as salt, Jesus is also describing the world in which live as one which is in a natural state of decay and rot in which He calls us to bear testimony to preservative grace. Lastly, then like now, salt seasoned food by bringing tastebuds alive and bringing out its flavor. It added the quality of enjoyment to eating, and produced a craving and desire for otherwise bland food. Our lives are to salt the world and season life in a way that produces a craving for Jesus in others. But Jesus also warns us that if salt becomes tasteless it’s no longer accomplishes its purposes and can only be rejected and thrown out. In Jesus day, salt was not refined and chemically pure, it was a mixture of salt and other minerals. If it was exposed to the elements, moisture would dissolve and leach out the salt leaving only sand and other minerals rendering it useless. In the same way if we’re too contaminated by the world, or allow the gospel message of truth in love to become too watered down, we lose our saltiness and Christlike influence. We must also make certain that we don’t isolate ourselves from the decaying and flavorless world in which we live. No matter how chemically pure salt is, it can’t perform any of its functions if it remains in the container. We must come into contact with the wounds of sin to disinfect, be rubbed into rotting world to preserve it, and we must be stirred into the flavorless, joyless, hopeless, peaceless, purposeless, and dissatisfied world to season and flavor it with true life. When we belong to Him and truly, intentionally, and continually hunger and thirst for His righteousness, crave the nourishment of His Word, and taste and see that He’s good, our lives will be purified and seasoned, and we’ll give others a craving and thirst for Jesus. (v. 13; Lev. 2:13; Ps. 34:8; 119:105, 130; Ezek. 43:23-24; Mark 9:49-50; John 7:37-38; 15:1-8; 17:15-21; Col. 4:5-6; 1 Pet. 3:14-17)

2. Disciples of Christ must impact the world through their lives, so we must influence other by reflecting the light of Christ into the dark world for His glory (Vv. 14-16)

1. Jesus continues to describe how the attitude and actions of His followers must influence the world by declaring them to be the light of the world. He isn’t describing us a source of light, but as those who reflect the true Light which is Him. Further He says that if our lives have been illuminated by Him that hiding His light would be as senseless as hiding a city of white limestone built high on a hill which can’t help but reflect the sun and be seen for miles, or lighting a lamp in a dark house and then covering it. These examples speak to the desperate need for light in our dark world. As a shining city on a hill we can give those traveling wearily through life hope for shelter, refreshment, nourishment, safety, and rest. And like a light in a dark room, we can provide light for those who grope hopelessly, slamming dangerously into everything, and grasping desperately at everything trying to find their way through our dark world. But being light isn’t easy because Light drives out darkness and more fully illuminates what’s really there, and people love darkness and prefer sin. But only in Christ were we delivered from the darkness of sin and into His marvelous Light, and only He can rescue the world from the darkness of sin. He has chosen us to be the bearers and reflectors of His Light through our good works and good words of truth and love. We’re to reflect His light into the world so that others might get a glimpse of Him, and glorify God by running to the warmth of provision only available in His Light. We’re only true influencers in life when we shine His light. (Vv. 14-16; Ps. 34:4-7; Isa. 60:1-3; John 1:4-5; 3:16-21, 36; 8:12; 12:35-17; Acts 17:24-31; 2 Cor. 4:5-6; Eph. 2:8-10; 5:1-17; Phil. 2:14-16; Col. 1:13-14 1 Pet. 2:9-12; Rev. 22:3-5)