Jesus meant for Christians not only to preserve the decaying world, but to flavor, enliven, and make tasty a bland insipid world of vice. So we are to see ourselves as flavoring agents. This is part of our identity. Amidst a society in decay, we are to have a characteristic flavoring ministry.

Matthew 5:13-16

It may have occurred to you recently as we studied the Beatitudes that one cannot practice those in isolation. Evidently, the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount are not designed primarily for monastic living. You can’t be meek or merciful alone. It is impossible to follow those norms of the Kingdom in a purely private way. They are to be lived among other people. And living this way among others will have a decided witness. As Jesus continues in this sermon, an implicit assumption of vss 3-12 is made explicit in verses 13-16. “If the Beatitudes describe the essential character of the disciples of Jesus, the metaphors of ‘Salt and Light’ here indicate their [outer] influence or witness for good in the world. In his mind, there is a connection between attitude and action; no separation. Those whose character is described by the Beatitudes are now further said to be Salt and Light.” In this part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, we move on to consider the function or purpose of the Christian in this world. In preview, it is this: All those to whom God gives the internalvirtues described in vss. 3-12 will also have an external influence described in vss. 13-16.

As my title suggests Christ did not say you are the milk-toast of ineffectiveness. He did not say you are the honey or sweetener of the world. The Christian who lives the Beatitudes will not be some sweet nothing who never has a troubling effect on the world. We may aggravate wounds like salt in a cut. Contrary to the Gospel of Winsomeness or Charm, the Beatitudes-person will be an irritant often because the world in which we live is decaying and putrefying. It needs salt—not sugar. Although salt and sugar may look somewhat alike, when analyzed or when applied they are certainly different.

Nor did Christ say we are the shade of the world. We are not to muffle or encumber the light of the world. Rather we are to broadcast it. The metaphor of light clues us that we are to distribute the good news as widely as possible, given the means that God provides.

Christ taught his original and later disciples that Christians are to have a definite, lasting impact on the world because the character and person of Christ lives in us.

Before we examine these two metaphors, there is one giant presupposition that lies behind them and is common to them. Don’t overlook it. This giant unwritten truth is that the church—made up of Beatitude Christians—and the world are different and distinct communities. They are not confused but significantly different.

The simple grammar bears this out. The salt of the earth means a small class from within the greater whole. The same is true of light from the world. If we are the salt and light of the world, that world must be destitute of those commodities. Most fundamentally then, we are recognized as being different from or a subset of the world. Christians are not identifiable with the world. We are, as the Bible says, in the world but not of it. This distinction or difference is real, and Jesus’ plan is for the subset to influence the greater part. His intention is for the Salt and Light to influence this other distinct community. Jesus believed that a little salt went a long way.

Now as soon as we say that this world needs the influence of Salt and Light, we admit by implication that the world is in a bad state. If Jesus purposed to send the salt community into the world community then that world must be in need of salt. Why would something be in need of salt? Only if it were rotting and decaying, without its influence, or tasteless. So we must recognize here that the world is characterized by rottenness, pollution, deterioration, its tendency to putrefy, festering, and putrid in need of a preservative or antiseptic. Hidden within this saying was Jesus’ condemnation of the world as a system. He did not believe the world was good or not in need of redemption. The very calling of Christians as salt and light assumes that the world is spoiling on its own and dark. The light of the world is only needed if the world is dark, blind, and in need of illumination.

So Jesus realizes clearly that the Christian is to be different from the world and yet in it for a positive good. The Church—collection of saints—in this world will have two roles to society:

• A negative one. To arrest decay. To combat deterioration.
• A positive one. To dispel darkness. To point the way.

We are not to be conformed to this world or let the world set the agenda for the Church. Rather the Church follows her Lord’s agenda and call to be different from the unredeemed world, while yet seeking to witness, influence it. As we look more carefully at these two metaphors never lose sight of our first point: We are to be unlike the world. Salt is essentially different from the medium in which it is placed and in a sense it exercises all its qualities by being different.” (Lloyd-Jones) The very nature of salt is that it is different in substance from what it seeks to influence.

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