Red Letter Edition: Salt & Light - Becoming a Person of Influence (Part 1)
Most of us are not in positions of power in this world. Many of us are not in charge of community projects or programs that require large amounts of cash. But that does not mean we are powerless.
I may not have power, but I do have influence simply because I am in a relationship with the LORD of the universe – Jesus Christ. What do I mean by the word influence?” It is our capacity in Christ to positively affect someone’s character and behavior, or the direction of a group of people, by consistently acting in agreement with the will of God.
I will not always be in a position of authority or power, but I will always be able to influence my surroundings. The Holy Spirit is alive in us! His Spirit will cause us to have an influence in places and situations arising around us.
Proverbs 22:29 reminds us,
“Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men.”
When Sherry and I pastored in South Africa, God gave us many wonderful youths in our church. One young lady we led to Jesus when she was 9 or 10 years taught us much about influencing others.
Her father was a sangoma (witch doctor), and he was not happy she had put her faith in Christ. Every day after school, this young lady went home, entered her bedroom, and spent time in prayer. Her father harassed her the whole time she prayed. Sometimes he got violent and beat her for praying. More than once, he tried to take her life, but God protected her.
She never gave up praying for God to use her to influence her father for Christ. It took many years, but God used her prayers and her godly life as a witness. Just before we left South Africa, her father came to faith in Jesus. He laid down alcohol and sorcery. He lived the remainder of his life for Christ!
Instead of becoming influenced by her surroundings: witchcraft, demonic spirits, and spell casting, she chose to ask God to give her influence. She chose to let the Holy Spirit use her for the glory of God.
The Bible often speaks of God’s children being people of influence. Jesus’s most famous teaching about influence is found in Matthew 5:13-16. This is just one part of what we call “The Sermon on the Mount.” In most modern Bibles, these words are printed in RED. Let’s read…
“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.
Jesus uses two familiar elements to create a picture of how you and I become agents of influence in our world: salt and light. Think about the tensions that develop when Jesus chooses these two metaphors. We belong to a heavenly kingdom that is pure, peaceful, life-giving, and full of light. But we live in an earthly kingdom covered in darkness and death.
Paul speaks of this tension in Philippians 1:21:
“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
Paul knew that death leads to life with Jesus. He also knows that living in this dark and dying world affords him the joyful opportunity to be salt and light. His life in Christ creates an avenue to influence those trapped in sin and enslaved by Satan. Paul wants to live so that others can come into the light of God’s kingdom.
Jesus also lived in this world. He came and “dwelled among us” (John 1:14). He felt the same tensions you and I feel every single day, knowing that a beautiful place called Heaven awaits us, but we are not there yet. Jesus tells us that since we live here, on earth with all its problems, we might as well become people who make a difference for those around us.
First, He says we should be salt.
Some people believed salt could be used to keep demons away in the ancient world. In the USA, I know people who believe that if you spill salt on the table, you must use your right hand to throw some over your left shoulder. Why? Because they believe throwing the salt will blind the devil and keep him from taking your soul.
Salt is mainly a preservative that keeps food and meat from spoiling. In the Bible, salt is used as part of the incense in the Temple (Exodus 30:35). It was sprinkled over burnt offerings (Ezekiel 43:24), used to confirm a covenant of friendship (see Numbers 18:19 & 2 Chronicles 13:5), and symbolized purity and preservation.
In the New Testament, Jesus uses salt to represent His follower’s relationship to the world around them. In Ephesians 1:3, Paul describes the “spiritual blessings” we receive when we put our faith in Jesus Christ. One of those is that upon “hearing” and “believing” the gospel, we are “sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.” God puts His mark on His children and brings them into a covenant relationship.
Let me put it like this; when you receive salvation, the Holy Spirit preserves you through your faith in Christ. Though our flesh is getting old, and we are all moving forward in age toward death, our eternal soul is preserved by the mercy of God. That is good news in a world where things are rotting away.
The sinner who rejects Christ does not have that same hope of preservation. He or she will, if they do not repent of sin and turn to Christ, die in their sin, and eternally rot in the fires of Hell. God’s Kingdom, the one we became a part of when we trusted in Christ for salvation, does not corrupt, moth does not destroy it, and it never experiences the corruption of the flesh. This world and everything in it is decaying and dying – but God’s Kingdom is eternal and incorruptible.
Though we live in this world of decay, God still calls it blessed! Why? Because in the middle of that decay, there are those who have made Jesus their Lord. There are those who are serving as an influence for Him. There are believers who are salt in their environments. When someone eats too much salt, they become thirsty. God’s people are called to live a life that makes others thirsty for a Kingdom that is better than this one.
Hear me. Our relationship with Jesus makes it possible for others to know Him! If that is true, then what does Jesus mean when he says it’s possible for salt to lose its taste?
In Jesus’s day, salt was made two ways: 1) from evaporated Dead Sea water or 2) from salt marshes.
Salt from the Dead Sea was pure.
Salt from the salt marsh had lots of impurities (trying to clean the salt with water only made the salt less salty and useless).
Dead Sea salt was so valuable in Jesus’s time that it was used as money (that’s how Roman soldiers were paid – the American saying, “worth your salt” means a good worker worthy of pay). Sometimes though, corrupt people mixed Dead Sea salt with other things that looked like salt, trying to cheat their workers out of wages. Workers threw impure salt on the ground when this happened, and people trampled on it.
I know some of you who like to cook might disagree with me, but salt is NOT a spice or herb. Salt is a chemical (sodium chloride). The only way to change the flavor of salt is to water it down or mix it with other “look-alike” powders.
Pure salt makes things taste good. It brings out the flavors of food. Christians are supposed to be “salty!” God’s salt should bring out the flavor of who we are — children of God!
But what causes us to lose our saltiness? (What can cause damage to our Christian testimony)?
Paul told the church at Corinth, “Bad company ruins good morals” (1 Corinthians 15:33). He is telling the church at Corinth that keeping company with those who do not believe in the resurrection can corrupt their faith in Christ. This principle is true for us today!
In our present world, it’s easy to have a steady diet of worldliness and those things that please the flesh. Sometimes we are so attached to worldly things that we forsake fellowship with other believers who influence us, encourage us, and help us build our relationship with Jesus. This leads to the corruption of our morals. We begin doing things we would never do since becoming a follower of Christ.
If our faith is corrupted, we will be ineffective in acting as salt. We begin losing our ability to help others taste the “good news” because WE BECOME LESS SALTY. You and I are called to stay faithful to our kingdom's King. We live in a relationship with Him. When we sin, we repent and turn from that sin, trusting the Holy Spirit to empower us to continue influencing our surroundings.
No matter how we interpret Matthew 5:13-16, the point is that believers in Christ are salt! We are called to influence the world around us so that others will want to taste the Kingdom of God for themselves. We can live in this world and not be affected by it - but it demands that we stay in a close relationship with Christ.
No matter how corrupt the world becomes we are not obligated to join in that corruption. Followers of Jesus are called to stand above the bad-tasting sin of the world and live differently — live righteously — live soberly. How? Through the power of the Holy Spirit, Who preserves us and makes us beneficial to those around us.
Next week we’ll explore how the light of Christ in us helps us become people of influence.
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