Say So, Part II

--Brian Cox

"To be salt and light in the world"

This idea has always fascinated me. Sometimes, the smallest ideas can be the most profound. The words of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ in Matthew are as follows:

"¹²Be glad and supremely joyful, for your reward in heaven is great (strong and intense), for in this same way people persecuted the prophets who were before you. [II Chron. 36:16.]

¹³You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste (its strength, its quality), how can its saltiness be restored? It is not good for anything any longer but to be thrown out and trodden underfoot by men.

¹⁴You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.

¹⁵Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a peck measure, but on a lamp-stand, and it gives light to all in the house.

¹⁶Let your light so shine before men that they may see your ^a]">[a]moral excellence and your praiseworthy, noble, and good deeds and ^b]">[b]recognize and honor and praise and glorify your Father Who is in heaven." Matthew 5:12-16 (Amplified Bible)

SALT

Notice that Jesus didn't say we were the sugar, or the honey of the world. He also didn't say we were the pepper of the world. The function of salt was to preserve the meat from rotting. To prevent corruption and putrification.

Speaking of the condition of the world, the Holy Spirit tells us this:

"²⁹Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,

³⁰Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,

³¹Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:

³²Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them." Romans 1:29-32 (King James Version)

This is God's description of a rotting world...a world in need of preservation. We have the answer for this dying world, and His Name is Jesus. If we are not in the world, among the non-believer, what good is our saltiness? A good question to ask ourselves is, "Have we lost our saltiness?"

LIGHT

"I am the Light of the world. He who follows Me will not be walking in the dark, but will have the Light which is Life."--John 8:12 (Amp)

Again, notice the contrast: salt is the answer for corruption, light is the answer for darkness. The condemnation of the world is not a question, it is a fact. (Rom 1:18) Our light must shine for all men to see. While we must not be a part of the world, we must be in it.

"¹⁴I have given and delivered to them Your word (message) and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world [do not belong to the world], just as I am not of the world. ¹⁵I do not ask that You will take them out of the world, but that You will keep and protect them from the evil one"--John 17:14-15

We don't buy light or salt for their own sake. No one eats a chunk of salt, or sits down to look at light. However, these are both things that are useful and necessary to live and to appreciate life. The world needs our message, our Savior. It may not taste like sugar (the flesh wars against the Spirit, Gal. 5:17), but it is the Gospel that is the power to salvation (Rom. 1:16).