Matthew 5: Salt and Light

Here's the link. I'm looking at verses 13-16.

In these verses, Jesus is talking about being salt and light to the world. I have heard these verses many times in my life, but honestly, I never really knew what being "salt" meant. I always hear the phrase, "He/She is just 'salt of the earth,'" and I interpreted that to mean that someone is essential, basic, and down-to-earth. Salt is a mineral that is essential to the earth and essential to make crops grow, it is prevalent, it is necessary. And to a certain extent, I believe that we as Christians must be essential and down-to-earth. We must make people grow, we must be prevalent.

But, in walking through these verses with my church, I learned a lot more about what it means to be "salt." First, salt was valuable during the time that this verse was written. Some people would even be paid in salt (and that's where we get the phrase, "Worth their salt"). Second, Jesus says we are "salt," not "sugar." Salt is a sharp, savory flavor. Therefore, we as Christians aren't meant only to be sweet and saccharine (that's okay if we are), but we also need to understand that the gospel and what we believe can be offensive, and that in sharing it, we become savory. Third, salt was and still is used tp preserve our foods from decay and rot. Therefore, we as Christians in being "salt" are meant to preserve the world from decay and rot. I see the decay of the world every day--all you have to do is turn on the news, drive in rush hour traffic, read an article about Kim Kardashian, go to Wal-mart. The purpose of our lives and our belief is to be a tool for God, it is to preserve his kingdom.

• Thinking/praying point: Am I "salty"--a preservative of the world--or do I contribute or participate in its decay? I believe that I often am part of the problem. I pray that I become emboldened by the gospel, and that I embrace the savory nature of what I believe. I need to understand how valuable I am to God, and how, as "salt," I have an important role to play in his kingdom.

In a similar way to "salt," Jesus says to be "light." The thing about light is that it is visible, and it is life-giving. We as Christians are meant to be those things as well. We should be visible to the world, to the point where people look in on our lives and see that we are followers of Jesus. My pastor says people can struggle with this concept in three ways:

1. You can forsake the offensiveness of the gospel, to be "nice," "kind," or "a good person." It's like you say you are a "Christian" but you believe you must show it in action only, not through your words, not through speaking the gospel or actually giving God the credit.
2. You can dim your "light" given certain scenarios. Like, you're an outspoken, strong "light" at church, but at work, you dim your Christianity down so that it's not as visible.
3. Your "light" can become overcome by the world's darkness.

I think I fall into the first and second categories of this. I often feel that if I am just "sweet" to others, that's all that's necessary to share Christ's love. Or, I am a reflective Christian with my Christian friends, but I employ a different demeanor with my friends who are non-believers. 

• Thinking/praying point: Do I put my light on a stand or under a bowl most of the time? Am I like a city on a hill, where my light could never be hidden? I pray that I remember to be a "light" to the world, to my friends, to my workplace. And I pray that the light of my actions be accompanied by words that point people to God.

The thing we need to remember is that Jesus is the true salt and light of the earth. The Bible is full of illustrations of Jesus being the "light of the world." So, therefore, we need to remember that we are salt and light only because of him. He doesn't say we "have" salt and light, or we can "get" salt and light, he says we "are" salt and light when we follow him. It is part of ourselves, it is part of our definition. We need to be empowered by it and never let the "saltiness" or visibility of our "light" go away.

Matthew 5: The Beatitudes

Through this sermon series that my church just started, I have already learned a lot more about the Sermon on the Mount than I initially picked up on in my first read-through.

Like I originally thought, the Beatitudes are a section of verses that tells us who is the most blessed in the eyes of God. But what I didn't see was that they are progressive--that is, each blessing builds on the last. So, first we must be "poor in spirit."

I was a little unclear on what this means, but after researching it a bit and hearing it in church, "poor in spirit" means that we must firstly acknowledge that we are spiritually bankrupt. We are not rich...if our goal is to please God and get to heaven, we cannot afford it and the check would eventually bounce. We must look into our spiritual "bank account" and see that there's not much there because of our brokenness. That is the first step to inheriting the Kingdom of Heaven.

• Thinking/praying point: I pray that I can look inwardly and see that I am spiritually broken, or "broke"--I am poor. This is a big sin issue for me, because I have a tendency to look inward and try to find the good things about me or be satisfied with who I am. I think I am spiritually rich, and this verse speaks directly against that.

Then, it says that those who mourn will be comforted. And, being that the Beatitudes build on one another, this verse is implying that those who are "poor in spirit" must be the ones mourning. They mourn not only for sad things in their lives, but also for the state of the world. We need to be in mourning for our brokenness, for our broken societies, for the lost people. We need to be sad that there are people who never ever look into their spiritual "bank account." We need to be utterly heartbroken about our own sin and that of others.

• Thinking/praying point: I need to look at the biggest sin issue in my life. What is the thing that I am going to quench my thirst or my hunger? Am I writing that issue off with shrugged shoulders by saying, "It's just because I'm broken"? This sin should break my heart, I should mourn that it is part of my life and that it takes glory away from God. When I can mourn this issue, I can rest knowing that someday this mourning will be comforted.

Then, those who are "poor in spirit" mourn, and as a result they become "meek." Meekness means that we are humble, we know that we are powerless without a savior, we know that we are sinners, we are teachable and moldable. This verse says that the meek will inherit the earth, which is pretty much the opposite of what our culture teaches us. Our culture says that "Nice guys finish last." The next verse says that those who thirst and hunger for righteousness are the next to be blessed. Therefore, we must be like Jesus in Matthew 4--our hunger must not be satisfied by "bread alone." We must show a desire for righteousness and use righteous things to slake our spiritual thirst rather than running to worldly things to fill a spiritual need.

The thing we need to remember is that Jesus was the first and only person to embody these characteristics fully and without flaw. He was the at the pinnacle of being persecuted for the sake of righteousness. We could not be any of these things without help, so he embodied them perfectly, and now we can take these characteristics on.

• Thinking/praying point: We learn in the Beatitudes what a "blessed" person looks like, and we also learn about God's promises to that kind of person. I want to remember those promises. Those who embody these guidelines are promised the Kingdom of Heaven, comfort from mourning, earth, satisfaction of spiritual hunger and thirst, mercy, a family under God, the very visage of God. These things should be encouraging to me that God gave me a way to have them through Jesus.

Matthew 5: Let's Camp out on the Mount

I know that I said I wanted to kinda breeze through the Sermon on the Mount in my last blog post, but there are two things that are making me think that I need to stick around and really dig deep into this section of the Bible.

First, as I was reading Matthew 5 and 6, it really hit me how important these two chapters are. Jesus is teaching a huge congregation about how to live their lives, about his role in all of this, about the law, about how to be the most blessed. Like Moses who went up to a mountain and brought back down the Law, Jesus went up to a mountain and defined the law with authority and the people came back down and lived it out. The Bible said that the congregation who heard this teaching was "astonished" at the authority with which Jesus presented it. It is the most concentrated, condensed, comprehensive spoken word that Jesus ever delivered. And therefore I think it's worth studying for a little longer.

Second, my church, Mercy Hill Church, in Greensboro, NC has started a sermon series on the Sermon on the Mount. I think that listening to this series will push the boundaries of my understanding compared to if I just breezed through it alone. So, I'm excited to stick with these two chapters in Matthew to learn about Jesus' teaching with the guidance of this new sermon series at my church.