Let me tell you why you are here...

¹³ “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.

¹⁴ “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ 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. ¹⁶In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:13-16)

A familiar piece of scripture, but an important one. I agree with 'The Message' which includes as a first verse:

¹³"Let me tell you why you are here.

That's really it. In a continuation to the sermon on the mount from yesterday, God explains why we are here... what we are to do and be as His disciples. In short- Be salty! Be light! In other words, as His disciples, we must both 'taste' and 'look' like His. Actually both of these metaphors bring important insights into 'why we are here'.

Be Salty!

¹³ “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.

So, we're supposed to be salty, to taste like God. How do we do that? It may remind us of Psalm 34:8 "O taste and see that the Lord is good." It has often been explained as stating something like "By experience, know that the Lord is good." And indeed, that is what it means to me. It is one of my favorite verses, because it reminds me of all the experiences that have shown me and continue to show me His goodness.

But this verse also clues us into 'why' it is so important for us to be 'the salt of the earth'. It explains that salt that loses its saltiness is 'no longer good for anything', and then it stands to reason that salty salt is good for something- it's useful. Be useful... be helpful... be salty... be tasteful... if we keep our saltiness, then people can be true disciples and people can experience/taste/know God through us.

Be Light!

¹⁴ “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ 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. ¹⁶In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:14-16)

And now, we're supposed to be light. My optical science friends could probably explain why technically speaking that is an impossibility, but thankfully this is another metaphor. There will be no bending or refracting here. Instead, let's look at what we're to do with this light. Jesus tells us to give this light to everyone in the house and to let it shine before others. The fact that we are to 'give this light to everyone in the house' is interesting. I've never heard the song go, "This little light of mine, I'm gonna give it to everyone." This suggests that we should be offering this light... in an inclusive way, to everyone. Of course, this is central to Christianity. You dont' need to be born into a certain family line. You only need to be 'born again' in Christ, who gave His life for all. And we also see that our light should 'shine' before others.

So now, we see that individuals should be able to see God in us (light) and then experience/know God through us (salt). But how do we do that?

How?

On our own, we cannot be 'salt' or 'light'... these are distinguishing characteristics of those who walk closely with God. You may have noticed that you start acting or talking like someone that you spend a lot of time with. This kind of thing is very natural. (I can especially speak for the 'talking' part. ;o) And that should be us. As followers of Christ, we seek to imitate Him. We seek to 'be holy as He is holy', to 'be salty as He is salty', to 'be light as He is light'.

But to do that, we must daily ask the Holy Spirit to enter into our lives, asking Him to change and mold us into the likeness of Christ, so that we may be 'good for something' - and that something is leading others to 'glorify the Lord'.