Bible Study Series 2011: Jesus Teaches about Salt and Light: Matthew 5:13-16

The Salt and the Light

Jesus Teaches About Salt and Light.  It was now the time as He sat with His disciples as well as the people that joined them to begin teaching about what it was going to be like or what it was to be like a Christian.  Granted, the people were still of the Jewish faith as were the disciples as was Jesus Himself. Jesus began His sermons (the beautitudes) with the lesson of the Salt and Light. 

Here is what He said in Matthew 5:13-16:  13You are the salt of the earth.  But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?  It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.  

14You are the light of the world.  A city on a hill cannot be hidden.  15Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.  Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.  16In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in Heaven. (The Life Application Study Bible, NIV, ppgs. 1538.)

First, let us look at the salt that Jesus was referring to.  He was referring to the seasoning that has no flavor.  Salt, even though we put it on food and add it to food to retain its flavor, it really has no true flavor.  As Christians we need to affect the world around us.  We need to have flavor to what we say and how we act for the "salt" to work.  If we are too much like those around us, then we are made worthless.  Christians should not be like everyone else, we have to stand out.  We have to stand out as the seasonings that we put on our food so that the flavor is kept.  We have to act accordingly to the Word which is the food.  We should not add to much flavor or seasoning to it.  It is what it is:  The Word of God.  Do not change it and do not interpret it as something that it is not.

Second, we are the light.  We are the light as the city on the hill.  We need to stand out and shine.  We have to glow like the light that stands on the seashores assisting the lost mariners as they get too close to the shoreline.  We have to be glowing in the Word and in God Himself.  He glows for us so as we should for Him.  In the footnotes of the Life Application Study Bible says, "we have to be a beacon of truth - don't shut your light off from the rest of the world."

I do not add salt to anything.  There is an old cliche that goes something like this:  "Take things with a grain of salt."  As Christians, we cannot do this when it comes to the Word.  We have to understand what it is that Jesus teaches us and go with it out into the world.  Let us not hide it and turn off the lights.  We have to let the light be seen for miles as the city on the hill that is lit does.  But let us not make it just a mile or two, let us take that light and spread it among the four corners of the earth!

Have a great weekend.  I will be posting the next study over the weekend, and it will be Matthew 5:17-20, "Jesus Teaches about the Law." 


God Bless and may God bless you and keep you safe!

David Brown