I Am in Christ Jesus

“Salt and Light of the Earth”

Matthew 5:13-16 (NIV)

“You 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 underfoot. “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.  Neither 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.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

The righteousness which Christ commends will exert in the world a most gracious moral influence. It will season, as the salt does; it will illuminate and quicken, as the light does. "Salt seasons things, causing things to taste savoury, which otherwise would be no way pleasant, or wholesome, or good for the body." "Our Lord applies to his disciples the stronger word "light," i.e. essential light, rather than any which signifies merely a light-bearer. They are not only to reflect or transmit this light, but to become themselves "lights." The believer is not a mere reflector, in himself dead and dark, receiving and emitting rays; he is a new seat and centre of spiritual life." As Christ was pleased to use the two figures of the "salt" and the "light" as illustrative of sanctified character, we may consider the suggestions which the two figures have in common.

~ R. Tuck