Matthew 5:13-16
“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Jesus delivers his next discourse following the Beatitudes. We should not think that these teachings of Jesus are akin to little nuggets of truth without relation to one another. On the contrary, each portion flows from one to another, driving home each point that Jesus wants to make. When doing a verse-by-verse study like this, there is the danger of not seeing the big picture. This passage of salt and light is not disconnected from the first part of his discourse on the beatitudes. Actually, they are like a crown. For the moment, so we don’t get lost in the details, we should look at the structure of our passage and see where it takes us.
Jesus is using a common literary device known as antithetical parallelism. In this passage the parallel structure goes like this:
Each part of the first section builds its point until it reaches C. The the whole structure does it a second time but using a different subject. It is a form of literary duplication. However, in this use of antithetical parallelism the C parts are reversed. The first C part is negative and the second C part is positive. Thus, Jesus is driving us toward the second C to make his final point. Let’s see this in the text.
Structure: Antithetical Parallelism where the last segments are a contrast.
Jesus uses this structure to drive home his point. He gives a positive, then a negative, then his last statements are contrasts from “no longer good” to “good works” that glorify God. Thus, Jesus is using two descriptions to drive home a single point or paint a single picture.
Note how Jesus transitions from the beatitudes’ rejoicing in persecution to salt and light. Regardless of what the world may do to God’s people, the church is a blessing to the world. In other words, you are blessed to be a blessing!
Now, let’s go verse by verse through our passage.
(V.13) “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?”
To know Jesus’ meaning we need to know how salt was used in the ancient world. Salt was used to preserve, purify, and season. It had both functional and ceremonial uses. “Because salt can delay the rotting or decaying process when rubbed into meat, it is a symbol of incorruptibility.” Newborns were often rubbed with salt to help clean and ritually purify them.
Salt was a requirement for grain and meat sacrifices and the Mosaic Covenant was sometimes called a “Covenant of Salt,” probably because of the preserving and purifying properties.
Salt was sometimes used as currency because it was so necessary for life and valuable. Battles were even fought over it.
Interestingly, salt cannot be destroyed by fire or time. It is a stable mineral. This may be a picture of the church which cannot be destroyed either. Jesus said the gates of hell cannot prevail against it (Matthew 16:18).
“The use of salt in Scripture to describe the covenant mixes themes of blessing and curse, judgment, and salvation.” Last week I was asked for a definition of a beatitude. A beatitude sometimes combines a blessing and a curse to provide a positive outcome. It is therefore interesting that Jesus follows up his beatitudes with a reference to salt as salt can represent both life and death. To sow salt in a field would ruin the field.
To say that someone is the “salt of the earth” is to say that they are a good person.
The earth needs the salt, not heaven. The earth needs preservation, purification. We do this by confronting the world’s sin and bringing the influence of the gospel to bear upon it.
(V.13) “It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.”
For salt to lose its taste is to say that it loses its fundamental properties that make it salt. The statement is rhetorical. Salt cannot lose its saltiness. It is a stable mineral. This is a picture of the Christian life. We cannot lose our salvation. We cannot lose the fundamental property that makes us a Christian. What is that property? It is grace through faith, our salvation.
To use the phrase trample under the feet, is to say that something is good for nothing. Is this the kind of Christian life that we want to live? Where we do no good works for God and are basically useless?
(V.14) “You are the light of the world.”
HOW ARE YOU A LIGHT TO THE WORLD?
The Bible is the first text in ancient history to use this phrase. Therefore we should examine how this phrasing is used in the biblical text.
Jesus calls himself the light of the world in John 8:12.
Israel is called a light to the nations in Isaiah 42:6 and 49:6.
The Apostle John called Jesus the True Light in John 1:9.
In John 9:4-5, Jesus said, “As long as I am in the world I am the light of the world.” The implication is that another light is needed when he is no longer in the world. That is the church, us.
Look at what Paul said about our function as light in Ephesians 5:8-14. “At one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light.”
First, without Christ we are darkness. Now we are light. Paul ties light with goodness. Then, by living as light we expose the evil around us, not to simply point at it and call it evil, but to bring the gospel to bear on it. Our role is to bring light to others in darkness that they might also become light.
Notice also that the scripture does not say we have light but that we are light. This is an important distinction. In becoming like Christ we don’t acquire light. We become light just as Jesus was light. He did not have the light, he was the light. We do not have light. We are light.
Paul calls us lights in the world in Philippians 2:14-15.
Look at Jesus’ words in Luke 11:34. “Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. Therefore, be careful lest the light in you be darkness.”
Note the implication, there can be false light. Light is a universal metaphor through most religions in history. But only Jesus makes us light based upon our salvation in him that we receive for free. In other faiths, you work to become saved. In Christ, it is given to you as a gift.
We should remember that Jesus said he was the light of the world. But he never said he was the salt of the earth. Only his disciples have that distinction. One reason may be that Jesus didn’t come to preserve the world, but to save it. But his disciples do both.
We can’t forget what the Psalms say about light. “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105). So, three things in scripture are called light: Jesus, the word, and the church. All three are tied together. The scriptures are Jesus’ word and we are his people. We look to his word, which illumines us. That word is from him. And we become light.
(V.14) “A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.”
Often ancient cities were built of white limestone and would glisten in the sunlight. At night, lamps would illuminate the city, making it impossible to hide them.
Isaiah 2:2 predicts that the mountain of the Lord will be set above all others. That city will not be hidden.
(V.15) “Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.”
Regarding being a light in these two verses, Jesus progresses from world, then to city, and finally to house. This is similar to Jesus’ statement in Acts 1 to go to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. But in reverse.
(V.16) “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in Heaven.”
Jesus said to let your light shine before others. But this stands in contrast to another saying of Jesus also found in the Sermon on the Mount, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 6:1).
THIS SEEMS TO BE A CONTRADICTION ABOUT LETTING THE WORLD SEE OUR GOOD WORKS. HOW DO YOU SOLVE THIS CONTRADICTION?
By systematizing these two passages we see that Jesus is dealing with our motivations. I.E., don’t show off to gain the approval of others. Let your good deeds be a testimony of God’s goodness.
Recently, a young Muslim man helped me replace the battery in my car. When I offered him some money as a thanks he refused to take it. He pulled a Quran and pamphlets about Islam out of his car and said, “God has called me to tell people about Islam.” If a Muslim can use good deeds to open doors for Islam, imagine how much more we can do the same when we have the Holy Spirit to empower and use us in such a way.
The Apostle Peter also made a specific reference to good deeds. I Peter 2:12, “…they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.”
Good deeds glorify God. God is honored when his people do good deeds. Paul said that God has given us good deeds, prepared beforehand. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).
This is the first time that Matthew calls God, Father. He would go on to do that 45 times in his gospel. By calling God Father in this passage he is making a deep personal connection. We can do the right thing for the sake of being right. Or we can do right because it pleases God. Do you want to please your Father?
INTERPRETATION
In our modern Bibles this section of scripture is divided from the beatitudes as if it stands alone as its own teaching. But this is a mistake. These verses are the climax of the beatitudes. Jesus talks about the blessings and the persecution, then he says you are the salt and light of the world. In other words, he’s saying, “Guys, I know this sounds bad, but it’s not. You are the salt of the earth. The world needs you! You make the earth good. You are the light of the world, so shine as you are designed!”
Remember that at the creation the world wasn’t “very good” until after man was created. So too, in this passage, the earth is blessed because of the followers of Jesus. Believers in Jesus have a preserving and salvific influence. Imagine what the world would look like if there had been no church.
So what is Jesus’ big idea for this discourse? I think Jesus spelled it out clearly in verse 16. There’s no need to put an interpretive twist on this. Jesus said it quite plainly. Remember the structural analysis of this passage. Jesus is driving us to verse 16. In verse 16 he reveals the meaning of his metaphor.
“In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in Heaven.”
APPLICATION QUESTIONS
HOW DOES A CHRISTIAN MAKE HIS LIGHT SHINE?
WHAT KIND OF GOD WORKS GLORIFY GOD?
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO GLORIFY GOD?
HOW DO WE ADD TO GOD’S REPUTATION?
