You are the salt of the earth.–Matthew 5:13
I love salt, and I am sure many of you do as well. In our day and age, we love salt mainly because it adds flavor to our food. But in the time of Jesus, salt was loved for an entirely different reason: it was a preservative. Salt has very strong antibacterial properties, so it helps to preserve the freshness of whatever food it is used in. In the time of Jesus, there was no such thing as electric refrigeration, so salt was used frequently and judiciously to keep food fresh.
Jesus’ followers were well aware of this, and so they probably got quite readily the point that Jesus was making: that those who identified with and lived out His message would function as a preservative to keep the forces of sin and corruption at bay in our world.
It is fairly easy to see this: Imagine a world in which there was no conception that we ought to control our angry or lustful thoughts, that we ought to give to the poor, that we ought to honor the sanctity of the institution of marriage, or that the way we treat others–especially those perceived as being less than ourselves–matters to anyone outside of ourselves. Imagine a world in which might makes right, rather than existing to serve the cause of right. Not a world that any of us would want to live in, right?
However, I think that we as evangelicals tend to fixate way too much on the cultural implications of this verse. Listening to the way we talk about being salt and light to the world, it is easy to think that this means simply living a morally superior life. As if the unbelieving world around us will all come to know Christ because we didn’t cheat on that test, didn’t go out drinking with the guys, didn’t fudge the numbers in order to land the deal, etc.
Yes, all these things are important. Jesus, Paul, and the other Biblical writers laid down a lot of ink in order to address these things. But to think that the moral superiority which we evidence by living in this fashion will draw others towards Christ is foolishness. If it does, then it is not anything for us to take pride in; rather, it is a reflection of the sorry moral state of our society when such values are perceived as being so extraordinary as to be worthy of attention.
So what is it that draws people to Christ?
Love, people. That’s all it is.
Don’t cheat on the test. Don’t cheat on the wife. Don’t fudge the numbers for the sake of the deal. But don’t think that any of that is going to win the world for Christ. Instead, try being real in your relationships with the people in your world. Take the time to know them and show genuine concern for them. Be available to help them if they need it. Try giving a quarter to the homeless person on the street the next time you pass by. Don’t expect anything in return–just do it.
Take a look at Matthew 25:31-46. Notice that the sheep in this parable, to whom Jesus says, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world”, are not those who stayed faithful to their wives, didn’t cheat in school or in business, didn’t go out drinking with the guys. Read what Jesus says next and get a clue from this: “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”
Let’s try living our lives in this fashion, and see what a difference it makes in our world.
