Matthew 5:10-16 - Salt and Light
Tom Shrader examines the final beatitude about persecution and Christ's call for believers to be salt and light in the world. He explains that persecution is inevitable for those living righteously, not as something to avoid but as evidence of authentic faith. Christians are called to have contact with the world without contamination, bringing preservation and illumination through their distinctive lives that point others to glorify God the Father.
“Righteousness is confrontational, even where it's not preached in so many words, it confronts wickedness by its very contrast.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Sermon on the Mount
Recorded: 2002
Duration: 38 min
Themes: persecution, suffering, witness, influence, righteousness, character, distinctiveness, purpose, facing opposition, new believer, struggling with persecution, workplace witness, living distinctively, seeking purpose, christian in secular world, feeling different
Scripture: Matthew 5:10-16, 2 Timothy 1:8, 2 Timothy 2:3, 2 Timothy 3:12, John 15:18-20, John 8:12, John 9:5, John 3:16, John 3:19-20, Hebrews 11:33-38, Revelation 2:10, Romans 12:1-2
Theological Themes: sanctification, becoming holy, christian witness, discipleship, beatitudes, sermon on the mount, biblical living, authentic faith
Full Transcript
We are in our fourth week looking at the Sermon on the Mount, and we began with the Beatitudes. In the first three weeks we have worked our way through the first nine verses or so. Jesus is delivering to us what is arguably the greatest sermon ever preached. He's talking to us not so much about how to become a Christian, although clearly that's in there, but He's saying now as a Christian this is how I'll live. My life is distinctive. My life is different.
You saw it. Blessed are the poor in spirit. That's where it all begins, when we acknowledge that we're unable to do anything for ourselves spiritually. Blessed are those who mourn. The idea there is, I'm broken over my sin. Blessed are those who are gentle. It's strength under control. Now in my life, as I begin to grow, if I'm truly a Christian, if I've been converted, I'll begin to hunger and thirst for righteousness. There'll be a deep desire to know God, to know His Word, to know what's right.
Mercy. Now this love that I say I have begins to manifest itself externally. Blessed are the pure in heart. That means the idea of pure in the sense that it's without hypocrisy. It's true. It's genuine. It loves what's good and hates what's evil. Blessed are the peacemakers. Those are the people who have made peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. They have the peace of God. Consequently, because they have this peace with God, they begin to be His ambassadors through the world to take the message of peace. Peace through Christ and Christ alone.
The Strange Nature of Christian Blessing
Today we pick up in verse 10, and I would have to admit that if I was somebody who was here for the first time and I heard this, I'd say these are definitely weird people, because it just sounds so strange. Let's read through verse 16:
"Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men cast insults at you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely on account of me. Rejoice and be glad." That's what I mean. Doesn't that sound weird? In the midst of that persecution, rejoice and be glad. "Rejoice and be glad. Why? For your reward in heaven is great. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt becomes tasteless, how will it be made salty again? It is good for nothing anymore except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven."
He begins, here's what He says. Blessed—this is now the end of the Beatitudes, they all begin with that word blessed. It means happy in a divine sense, a joyous sense, not some superficial circumstantial way. Blessed are those who are persecuted.
The Counterintuitive Nature of Persecution
Of all the Beatitudes, this last one seems the most contrary to human thinking and experience. The world does not associate happiness with humility, or mourning over sin, or gentleness, or righteousness, or mercy, or purity of heart, or peacemaking, or holiness, but even less, the world does not associate happiness with persecution.
Jesus is very clear. He says in this life there is going to be this persecution, this will come. When Paul writes to his protégé Timothy, he talks at length about just life issues, but in 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 8, he says this: "Therefore do not be ashamed of the gospel of our Lord, or of me, your prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God." 2 Timothy 2:3, he said, "suffer hardship with me." It's so clearly stated, 2 Timothy 3:12, "and indeed all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted."
The Inevitability of Christian Persecution
Here's what we're saying: that persecution is an inevitable mark of the Christian faith, and the reason is simple. We've talked about it, because you now assume a role in your life that runs counterculture. Remember that's what we said as we read from John Stott, as we were opening our study in the Sermon on the Mount, that the Christian culture is counterculture. What the world values oftentimes, and what Christ tells us to value are two different things, and even if both have some value, the priority or emphasis is very different.
What I want to get at in your mind is, don't be surprised by this idea of suffering. The night before He died, Jesus spoke to His disciples. Here's what He says, John 15:18: "If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Because you're not of this world, I chose you out of this world, therefore the world hates you. Remember what the word said, a slave is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you." This is an inevitable part of the Christian life.
The Confrontational Nature of Righteousness
One author writes this: righteousness is confrontational, even where it's not preached in so many words, it confronts wickedness by its very contrast. Let me read it again: righteousness is confrontational, and even where it's not preached in so many words, it confronts wickedness by its very contrast.
Some of you have had this experience. As a Christian, you were converted to Christianity in your adult life. You had formed in your life a lot of relationships, a lot of habits, a lot of places that you went, a lot of guys or gals that you hung with. All of a sudden, that value system that you have changes. You don't sit down one day and say, "You
I know what, I'm going to stop doing this, and stop doing this, and stop doing this. But inevitably, as you draw closer to Him, and you grow more and more in Him, your life begins to change. As your life begins to change, some of your friends have come to you and said, there's something different about you, I don't like it anymore. Or they've even maybe just come to you out of the clear blue, and you've noticed that they've pulled away, and you say, what's going on here? And they say, listen, I don't need you preaching at me all the time.
And you stop and you do an inventory, and you realize you never even said anything. And you go back and you talk to your spouse, or you talk to your friends, and you say, what did we do? Did you say something? No. Did you? No. Is there something we've done? And the answer is, no. It isn't anything you've done. It's who you are.
The Source of Their Discomfort
Your very presence is an affront to them. Now listen closely to me. It's not you that they hate. It's not you that they don't like. They like you. They enjoy you. They used to hang out with you, go to movies with you, ball games with you, play golf with you. They like you. And this should be comforting. It's the Jesus in you that they don't like.
You don't even have to say anything. Your righteousness, your very presence. All of a sudden, they start calling you a preacher. All of a sudden, you're the freak. All of a sudden, you're the one that's the Christian guru. And when you stop, what it is, is nothing more than Christ beginning to live in you. Blessed are you when they persecute you.
Modern-Day Persecution
Now, there's no way to get around this. When we think of persecution, what we're thinking of, first and foremost, I think, at least I am, when I think about it, is we're thinking about physical persecution. Let me give you a website. It's a website that you ought to frequent, I think. It's persecutedchurch.org. There are, literally, tons of information about the persecuted church.
Church right now, Christian church, is persecuted in over 60 countries in the world. Here's one sentence from the website. Modern-day persecution is well-documented, despite some reports to the contrary. In fact, it's estimated that more Christians were martyred in the 20th century than in the prior 1,900 years combined.
We can talk about openness around the world, but when you begin to go on to that website and you click Afghanistan or Sudan or China, interesting that came up in the press conference with the premier of China. I don't know if you've heard that yet. He was asked twice yesterday about the persecution of Christians in China and he refused to answer. Finally the third time, he's not probably accustomed to this, the press, and finally the third time. And he said well these people are jailed not for their religious beliefs, but because they were acting illegally.
Well all of a sudden. This is around the world, and there's discussion you hear it all the time. Oh someday, it's going to hit over in this country. I don't know anything about that. But we ought not be surprised when He says listen, you'll be persecuted.
The Nature of Persecution
John Piper writes this: this conviction is rooted in the nature of fallen man and the new nature in Christ. Therefore it doesn't go out of date. It's still true today. Sooner or later God-centered Christians will be mistreated for the things he believes or doesn't believe. You get this, he says blessed are you when you're persecuted.
I forgot to tell you at the beginning, not a lot of yucks in this lesson today. I don't think there's one even smile.
The idea here is blessed are you whenever you're persecuted. Now that persecution again, that persecution could be physical, but He expands on it. He expands on it in Matthew 5:10. Blessed are you when you're persecuted. Here you go, verse 11: blessed are you when they cast insults at you. The idea there means literally when you are cast into the teeth, when they vilify you, when they insult you.
And then He adds to that again in verse 11, and they say all kinds of things falsely against you. There's kind of a difference there. There's a difference between the idea of the verbal insult that's face-to-face. The false accusation is what's done behind your back.
The Critical Qualifier
Now in each of these, you've got the word in front of you, look closely. In each of these He gives us the qualifier. Blessed are you when you are persecuted for righteousness sake. When they cast insults and say false things about you on my account. We have a tendency as Christians, for example, to look at our suffering and take all of our suffering and say oh, that's what He's talking about here. That's persecution. No, that's not enough, listen.
The godly and the ungodly have problems in their lives. You may look at your life, and you may have a disease that's visiting you. Will there be something wrong if you said with God? Here's part of God's suffering for me. Now God may use it, but that's not what He's talking about here.
You may have parents that are sick or children that are sick or jobs that have gone away, hardship, the death of people that you love. Those things that are so hard. Doesn't get any harder. I don't think then the terminal sickness or the death of a child, especially that accidental death where you had no time to prepare, the child's just taken away. But that's not what He's talking about here. Those are hard issues, and we have answers for that, but that's not what He's talking about.
Suffering for Christ's Sake
I want you to see this. It's suffering on account of our relationship with Christ. Because you are mine, the world will persecute you. By the way, if you don't want any part of this persecution, it's easy to avoid. It's easy to avoid.
John MacArthur writes this: The way to avoid persecution is easy and obvious. Just live like the world or at least live and let live. That'll cost you nothing. To mimic the world's standards and never criticize them will cost you nothing. To keep quiet about the gospel, especially the truth that apart from
The Cost of Going with the Flow
The saving power remains elusive when men remain in their sins and destined for hell. That'll cost you nothing. To go along with the world, to laugh at its jokes, to enjoy its entertainment, to smile when it mocks God, to take His name in vain, to be ashamed to take a stand for Christ will not bring persecution.
Listen, if you don't want any of this persecution, that's real easy. Just go with the flow. I always thought that sounded pretty good—I'm just one of those guys that goes with the flow. Here's the problem with that: what if that flow is going somewhere you don't want to go?
That's what He's saying here. He's saying if I'm truly a Christian, if I'm truly a follower of Christ, then there will be evidence all around.
The Two Responses to Christian Living
In the midst of this, He says something so odd in verse 12: "Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven." Here you go, in the midst of this life that we're talking about, in the midst of starting to live this way. There are only two responses that people can have to you: they're either going to be converted or they're going to persecute.
All of a sudden you start to live this life and present this before people. They're either going to be converted to Christ or persecute you. Now you may be sitting there saying, "No, no, no, no. There's a third one. There's kind of ambivalence." Well, if they're ambivalent, it's because you aren't living this stuff rightly enough in front of them.
The Counterintuitive Command to Rejoice
Be glad. Rejoice. Here's why—two things. Number one: verse 12 means literally to skip and jump with happy excitement. "Yeah, I'm being persecuted!" That kind of excitement. It doesn't make any sense.
One of the things we know about the Christian faith is it may be countercultural, but it makes sense. It ultimately makes the only sense. How can I be at verse 12? Two things.
Number one: your reward is great in heaven. What He's saying here is interesting. Christians are so heavenly minded they're no earthly good. What He's saying is no, that's exactly the opposite. Because Christians are heavenly minded, they are earthly good. Because the Christian understands that the reward in heaven is great, their life on earth makes a difference.
The Eternal Weight of Glory
Paul writes this to the church at Corinth in 2nd Corinthians chapter 4, talking about this very issue. Here's what he says in verse 16: "Therefore we do not lose heart, though the outer man is decaying, the inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison."
In a sense, if we're going to use a scale, here's what he said: if I took all the hardship, all the suffering, all the persecution, all the anguish—everything in this world—and I put it on this side of the scale, it would go like this. But now I take that eternal weight of glory and I put it on the other side, and it goes like this. But in reality, he says the scale is silly. This is beyond all comparison.
That's why we say to you, and we mean it: remember, no matter how bad it gets, it can only last a lifetime. This isn't home for us. That's why we ought not be so attached to the things of this world. This isn't our home. Our citizenship is in heaven. Our concern is about heaven. Our concern is about being with our Savior. Our concern is about living there for eternity. Consequently, when I look at the things of this world, they start to fade away. That's what the song says.
In Good Company with the Prophets
You can count it all joy. You can rejoice in the midst of persecution for two reasons. Number one: your reward in heaven is great. Number two: you're in really good company. They did that to the prophets too.
Hebrews chapter 11, the author of Hebrews gives us what we call the hall of fame of faith. It's a powerful chapter, especially if you want to study it in depth and go back and do the study on each one of these. By faith Abraham, by faith Enoch, by faith Noah, by faith Abraham, by faith Sarah, by faith Joseph, by faith Moses, by faith even Rahab and others—they did these extraordinary things.
The Rest of the Story
In Hebrews 11:33, they performed by faith. They conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fire, escaped the edge of the sword. From weakness they were made strong. They became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection.
Now lots of times, especially when you watch channel 21 and you watch some of that Christian TV stuff, they'll go to this chapter and they'll talk about that—and they receive back the dead—and they're pumping. They always stop right there at Hebrews 11:35a. They never get to the rest. Let me read the rest: "Others were tortured, not accepting their release, in order that they may obtain a better resurrection. Others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword. They went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated, men of whom the world was not worthy, wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground."
That's what they did. What did the nation of Israel do with the prophets of old? All of a sudden they stood up and they said, "Thus saith the Lord, you better get this together. You better get this figured out. You're a wicked people." What did they do? Persecute them.
The Pattern of Persecution
What did they do to Jesus? Kill Him. What did they do to the apostles? As close as we can tell, all but one—that would be John—all but one were executed. And I don't know how much you know about John, but tradition says John was boiled in oil and survived and then was exiled to Patmos.
The persecution is a central part of the Christian life. So here's what He says: Rejoice, be happy, be glad. You're going to be persecuted. That's just part of the deal.
When Jesus speaks to the church at Smyrna in Revelation, the book of Revelation, in the second chapter, verse 10, here's what He says: "Do not fear what you are about to suffer." It's an integral part of the Christian life.
part of our life. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, as they're leading him to the gallows, about to kill him, said this: "This is the end? No. For me, this is the beginning of life." So He says, look, if you have all these beatitudes in place, if you're poor in spirit, if you're gentle, if you mourn, if you're persecuted, that ought to motivate you to live.
You Are the Salt of the Earth
Now, verse 13: "You are the salt of the earth." You're the salt of the earth. And you are, look at verse 14, "You are the light of the world." Let's use each one of those illustrations.
When He talks about salt, this is one of those things where you can go way too extreme. Basically, salt's got two aspects that we look at. One is as a preservative, the other is to add flavor. I'm not sure that we give flavor to the world. Maybe we do. But I think the aspect He has in mind here is the preserving aspect.
The salt, especially the salt that came from the Dead Sea, was contaminated by gypsum and other minerals. And frequently, it lost its ability to preserve. And you know what they used it for? They would take those paths that were frequently walked, and they'd throw it down to kill the weeds as they'd grow.
See what He's saying? If the salt becomes saltless, tasteless, how can it be salty again? It's good for nothing more except to be thrown down and trampled underfoot. That's what they used it for. You and I come into this world, and we bring into this world reason. We bring into this world real flavor.
You Are the Light of the World
Here you go, verse 14: "But also we're the light of the world." I hope this isn't a stretch. When Jesus was here, He said, "I'm the light of the world"—John 8:12, I believe. Then in John 9:5, He said this: "While I'm in the world, I'm the light of the world." While I'm here, I'm the light of the world.
But now it seems to me He changes the emphasis here. Here's what He says: "You're the light of the world." You're the light now. See how He concludes it? When people see you, they praise your Father in heaven.
The light that Jesus had was that direct light. He was the light. In a sense, what He's saying is, we now reflect that source of light through our lives. We've talked about it before. Light basically has three functions. We use it as a standard. We use it as a measurement. We use it to energize.
Now, I don't want to make this too simple, but my question to you is this: how do you become the light of the world? Let me give you what I think is the answer: just by living. Just doing it. How do I become the light of the world? I just do it.
Light Exposes Darkness
When John is speaking, throughout his gospel, he's contrasting light and darkness. Here's what he says: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:19: "And this is the judgment that light has come into the world. Men love their darkness rather than their life, for their deeds are evil."
Man loves the dark. I was at a stoplight the other day. I looked to my right. There's an adult bookstore. I look at this adult bookstore, and everyone is the same—there's not a window in the joint. You drive by a strip club, go down by Bourbon Street, not a light in the joint. Men love the dark. Our evils are dark.
That's why you go into a bar—I'm talking now, not about some grill where they serve food, I mean a bar, a real bar. You don't have any light in there. You don't have any windows in there. It's dark.
That's what He says, John 3:20. He continues: "For everybody who does evil hates the light, does not come into the light. Why? Lest its deeds be exposed."
When Light Comes, Darkness is Banished
Here's all the light does. The light and the dark cannot possibly coexist. The minute the light comes into a room, the dark is banished. The minute the light comes—that's you—the minute the light of Christ comes, the minute the Word comes, the minute the truth comes, darkness is exposed.
I was, in my younger days at home, I used to hang out at a place called the Circle Tap, a great bar, and I loved to go there. I always loved the bar. To me, the bars were great places because it had everything you wanted. It had booze, it had sports, and everybody liked everybody. Three great things.
I was home a few years ago, and I went up to the Circle Tap. The front windows were all covered with advertising, so it just blocked out all the light, and then there'd be a little slot where you could put a neon sign in.
I went into the Circle one day, and they were moving from one brand to something new. They stripped all the advertising away, all the doors were kicked open, all the lights were on, and there was additional lighting in there because they were cleaning. I'd never been into the Circle with all the lights on, and all the stuff stripped away from the windows.
You could see on the top the grease, and you could see on the floor all of the grime. You could see things that were there since probably the Kennedy administration that were under the bar. And you could see. And I never saw it until the light came.
Light Exposes Who We Really Are
Now what happens to your life? All of a sudden, the light of life of Christ comes into your life. And all of a sudden, you open up this Word, and here's what it does. All of a sudden, it exposes your deeds, and it exposes you for who you are.
The other Sunday, Paul says, "I'm the least of the Apostles. I'm the chief of sinners." In this day and age, if Paul were to stand up in a group and say that, we'd say, "You know what, we need to do two things. We need to get him into a support group, and we better get him some real serious help because he's got low self-esteem."
What he's got is a real accurate view of himself. See, men and women, as you
get closer and closer and closer to God and who He is, not who you think He is, not how you'd like Him to be, but as He really is, when you get closer and closer and closer to Him, all of a sudden, it's not just that you see Him more clearly, you see yourself more clearly. You see what a wretched, awful, self-centered human you are. Now you go into the world, and here's your message. You're a selfish, self-centered, awful generation. That's why they're going to persecute you. By the way, that's only the first part of the message. The second part of the message is, but there's hope.
Let Your Light Shine
So here's what He's saying to you. Verse 14, you're the light of the world. A city set on a hill can't be hidden. You don't take a lamp, here you go, I need light up here just to read, I don't take a light like this and put it down like this, no, I put it up on a lamp stand where it can be seen. Consequently, He says to you, verse 16, let your light shine before men in such a way as they see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Let your light be such, here you go, let your life be such that it's obvious, it's visible, it's clear who you are. They see it, they can't miss it.
Remember, telling the story, we had a guy that came in one day and he said, I am so excited, he said, I'm working with a Christian, and I said, well, I didn't think they were hiring down at your place, and he said, well, they haven't hired anybody, and I said, well, is this a new guy? He said, no, he said, I've been working with him, I don't remember the exact age, seven or eight years, he said, I just discovered he's a Christian. How can that be possible? How could you sit next to somebody for seven or eight years and not maybe at Christmas or Easter, somewhere along the way, have them see that there's a distinctiveness and a difference about you?
Contact Without Contamination
Let me make a couple of points here. Salt and light, for both of them to work, for salt to work, it must come in contact with whatever it is it's supposed to preserve. For light to work, it must come in contact with the dark. One of the gigantic mistakes that Christians make is to begin to withdraw from the world. That's what's wrong with monasteries and monks. For years, we gave that emphasis like that was the ultimate, these are the ultimate spiritual people. They're the ultimate escape artists. If you can't be holy in a monastery, you've got major issues, my friend. And they couldn't.
God didn't call us out of the world. He called us to be apart from the world, but to be in the world. You understand that. We're not of the world, but we're in the world. Here's the phrase I've been using. We're to have contact, but not contamination. We're to have contact with the world.
You're going out, we're going to say amen in about five minutes, and boom, out the door you're going to go. You're going to sit out here, you're going to be frustrated by the time you can't get out of the parking lot. You're not even going to get to the light at Tatum before you're frustrated, and your day's already ruined. You're going to walk into an office filled with pagans. You're going to have calls with people who are trying to cheat you and separate you from your cash. You're going to have people who yesterday told you how great they were, and today they're going to lie to you. Yet yesterday, guys would say, this is the best deal I can get you. You're going to tell them I'm going with somebody else, and today I'll be dipped if there isn't some sort of factory incentive that we can get you a better deal today. In other words, I lied to you yesterday, here's the deal today.
Living Differently in a Dirty World
How do you react in the midst of that world? You are salt and light in the midst of that world. You have to be contact in the midst of that world. This Christian life is a dirty business, and by that I mean it's not clean and tidy. It doesn't just fit into a box. You don't know who the real guys are always. You don't always know how it's going to shake out. But you live in such a way that they see your good works. They see that there's something different about you.
When's the last time somebody asked you that? When's the last time somebody came up to you that you work with, or you play golf with, or you're at the club with, or you work out with, or you're neighbors? When's the last time they came up to you and said, there's something different and distinct about you? They're different than everybody else. When's the last time that happened? If that's not happening, I would suggest something could well be wrong in your life. They ought to see a difference. And now they glorify not you, and then say, oh Bob, you're a great guy, oh Barbara, you're a great gal. They glorify your Father who's in heaven.
Your Everyday Ordinary Life as Worship
Let me read to you, and then we'll close. Let me read to you Romans chapter 12, verse 1 and 2. Let me read it to you from the New American Standard, and then let me read it to you from the message Eugene Peterson. It's a passage that's familiar to you, but let's see if in light of today's discussion doesn't sound a little different.
Here it is from the New American Standard. I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercy of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. Romans 12, 2. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is the will of God, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
Here's how Eugene Peterson paraphrases Romans 12, 1 and 2. I really like this. So here's what I want you to do, God helping you. Take your everyday, ordinary life, your sleeping, your eating, your going to work, your walking around and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him. Here's verse 2. I really like this. Don't become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed
from the inside out. Readily recognize what He wants from you and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you and develops well-formed maturity in you. That's the way you're supposed to live.
Strange way to end this section. Blessed are those who are persecuted, and that should be you. Persecuted for His righteousness sake, but you rejoice. Why? Your reward's great in heaven, you're in really good company, and now the charge.
You Are Salt and Light
Don't you say, "I'm so heavenly minded, I'm no earthly good." He said, that's not true. You, my friend, are the salt of the earth. And you, my friend, are the light of the world. And the end result of your salty, light life is that those around you begin to see a distinctiveness and begin to praise your Father who is in heaven.
Running Out of Options
I've got to close, but let me just make the point. If you're not salt and you're not light, we're running out of options on why that would be. Either A, you're a brand new Christian and you haven't had an opportunity, or B, you're just kind of ignorant of what you're supposed to do—that doesn't seem likely. C, you're disobedient. In other words, you're talking a good game with your Bible, but your life is just like everybody else. Or D, you're not a Christian at all.
Remember what we said when we started in the Sermon on the Mount? We want you every week, at every moment, to examine your life. Is that you? Does this apply to you? We'll pick up right there next week, verse 17.
Father, help us see this truth. God thank us—thank You that You saved us for a purpose and that You left us here to be Your men and Your women in this world. God give us courage in the face of persecution, physical, insults, false accusations. Humbly, Lord, let us live life that brings honor and glory to You. God let us be Your eyes, Your ears, Your hands, Your feet. Let us show Your mercy to this world. We ask it in Jesus' name, amen. See you next week.