We Are the Salt of the Earth and the Light of the World
Several weeks ago I was walking up the hill in my neighborhood in NC when I heard Jesus speak into my spirit. He asked me “who do you say I am?” Without thinking I said, “You are the door into the Kingdom of God”. He said, “You are correct”. Later I thought about Jesus telling us that He is the Door – “I am the Door; anyone who enters in through me will be saved (will live)” (John 10: 9 AMP. “I am the door” is also used in the NKJV). ‘Saved,’ which is the Greek word sozo, is life in the Kingdom of God — salvation, healed, and made whole or well. And more recently this passage from Hebrews: “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, opened for us through the curtain, that is, His body . . .” (Hebrews 10: 19, 20 NIV).
Jesus is the door or the gate into the Holy of Holies; that is, the Kingdom of God. It is through His crucified body and blood shed to cleanse us of our sins and make us presentable to His Father that we can enter into the Kingdom. We enter the Kingdom of God ‘through’ Jesus — literally passing through His flesh.
In the next second on my walk Jesus asked me who I was. Before I could answer I ‘heard’ Him tell me that I (John) am also a door — the door from the Kingdom of God into the kingdom of the world used by Him to release His love and power into the world around me. That surprised me, but later I thought of these passages that I believe explained what Jesus meant:
“You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown our and trampled underfoot by men.
You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand and it gives light to all who are in the house.
Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5: 13 — 16 NKJV).
I like the Message translation so I am including it here to compare with the NKJV:
“Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste Godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.
Here’s another way to put it. You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I am going to hide you under a bucket, do you? Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand — shine! Keep open house, be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven” (Matthew 5: 13-16 MSG).
Paul also emphasizes the truth that we have a role to play in Christ’s mission to restore the world. In 2 Corinthians 2 he writes: “But thanks be to God, Who in Christ always leads us in triumph as trophies of Christ’s victory and through us spreads and makes evident the fragrance of the knowledge of God everywhere” (2 Corinthians 2: 14 AMP). And Paul pens a similar message later in 2 Corinthians: “It was God personally present in Christ, reconciling and restoring the world to favor with Himself . . . and committing to us the message of reconciliation of the restoration to favor. So we are Christ’s ambassadors, God making His appeal as it were through us (2 Corinthians 5: 20, 21 AMP).
Christ is the door into the Kingdom of God. And we are the doors through which Jesus and His power, glory, and love are released into the kingdom of the world. Jesus is the door in and we apparently are the doors through which He is released out – each Kingdom man or woman is a bridge between the heavenly and the earthly realms.
Here are some thoughts, in no particular order:
In the last post “We are the Aroma of Christ” I wrote that we are to be the fragrance or aroma of Christ. Christ in us literally has a smell. Now Jesus is telling us that we are to release God-flavors. God has a taste. And we are to display God-colors. The world should see beautiful God-colors in us as we live in Christ. I suppose I can find the other senses represented –the sound of God (the “still small Voice” that Elijah heard) and the feel (touch) of God.
I really like Peterson’s opening line “Let me tell you why you are here.” Although he doesn’t use the word door, he implies that we are to have an opening in our hearts through which the saltiness and light of Christ flows into the world. It is the reason why Christ died for us, why we have been called into and live in the world. Our primary purpose as Christians (and the primary purpose of the Church) is to release the Kingdom of God into the kingdom of the world!
Jesus is the light of the world.“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8: 12 NIV). In Revelation we read that in the New Heaven and New Earth “the city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it for the Glory of God gives it light and the lamb is its lamp” (Revelation 21: 23 NIV). That light lives in every Kingdom man and woman because Jesus lives in us — “Christ in us, the hope of glory”. So the light of Christ and the glory of God reside in each Kingdom man and woman. That is the light that Jesus tells us to shine into the world – it is not my light, I have no light in my own power. It is His light, His life, and His glory in me as I live in Christ with Jesus and the Father in the Holy of Holies or Kingdom of God.
Jesus is all-powerful. He could just blast the earth with His light like an exploding super nova. But He has chosen to work through us. He is the light, but we are the doors. The light cannot shine into the room if the door is shut. What if we put the light under a bucket? Isn’t that the same thing as shutting the door? The light overcomes the darkness. The door is obviously not the light, but the door must be open for the light to shine out.
What a responsibility! As Paul says “And who is qualified, fit and sufficient, for these things? Who is able for such a ministry? We?” (2 Corinthians 2: 16 AMP). Not in our flesh, and certainly not as men and women who live spiritually and emotionally in the kingdom of self (the world).
I guess the best way to say it is God has chosen to need us. And we can choose to fulfill our purpose or not. I can shut the door of my heart so no light shines, or open the door a crack so a little bit of light shines, or throw the door wide open so the light and glory of God illuminate the lives of everyone I encounter — friends, family, co-workers, strangers, even enemies.
What does it look like to ‘shine’? In the simplest sense it looks like generosity. Be generous with your love, your forgiveness, your encouragement, your time and money for Kingdom work, your willingness to listen and not judge. Share your joy, hope, and peace; work to have an unoffendable heart. We ‘shine’ when we manifest the Spiritual Gifts God has given each of us — when we pray, heal, prophesy, and serve in the name of Jesus. When we do what Jesus did, only more, as He tells us in John 14. We all have to make a choice, almost minute by minute, about the words we speak, how we spend our time, and our actions.
We are a door. A really important door. We can let goodness and beauty into the kingdom of the world, and thereby join Christ in pushing back the darkness of Satan, restoring His creation. Or, we can let evil and corruption into the kingdom of the world through words that devalue, discourage, cause fear and anxiety, or set people against each other. We can carry grudges, release unforgiveness into the world, and seek to gain advantage for ourselves. We have that power – for many of us it is our ‘default setting’. Of course, our actions are important. Do we lie, steal, cheat, break the law, litter (I had to put that in); spend time alone on the Internet looking at pornography? If we do any or all of these things we open the door of our heart to let darkness into the world. And if we do that, the power of evil grows. I can’t think of any Scripture to back this up, although it might exist, but I believe that we give evil power, even natural evil like earthquakes and tornadoes, when we let the wrong ‘stuff’ slip through our door. In Christ, we have the power to speak life. In the power of our flesh, we can speak death into the world.
Salvation, living in Christ with Him in the Kingdom of God, is not just about going to heaven when we die. It is about life and death in this world now, here on earth. We are called to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world — this earth, this world.
And all of this depends upon each Christian being a Kingdom man or woman. It often begins with our spiritual, emotional, and even physical healing. It means repenting and being repentant. It means denying yourself, picking up your cross (a place of death), and following Jesus. It means a life of discipleship, a life in community with like-minded people. It also means a life of joy, hope, and peace in Christ. A life of power, freedom, and blessing, even in the face of suffering.
I believe that true Kingdom men and women will just naturally be doors through which light shines into the world. But I also believe that many people, who suppose themselves to be Christians, who are not living in the Kingdom of God but residing mostly in the kingdom of self or the kingdom of the world, are not light-shiners. These are the ones who grieve God’s heart and do damage to the Kingdom of God. These are the ones whose actions, attitudes, and words are indistinguishable from the world’s. And I believe the Church in America and Europe is filled with these types of Christians. I was one of these, and in parts of my heart, I still am. I believe that there is a crisis of faith in much of the Church today, and this unbelief is at the heart of that crisis. Only the Church can address it, but it must choose to preach this hard message, which is not ‘seeker friendly’.
I read an article on Flipboard the other day written by a woman who identified herself as a Christian. It was titled “I’M Tired of Being a Christian”. It made me sad. It was an article, as best I could tell, written by a woman who never experienced the joy and freedom of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is about the rule and reign of Christ in our lives – about surrender and obedience, about giving up the right to ourselves. When we do, we make two amazing discoveries – 1) we are most free when we surrender to Christ and give up our wants, needs, desires, and demands; and 2) God has need of us, we are incredibly valuable to Him. We have a purpose and a role to play in this world that is bigger and more important than anything we could possibly have imagined. This role is independent of our ‘station’ in life. It is through our collective doors that God will bring salvation to all who receive Him. Who could get tired of that? And if we keep those doors shut? Well, we wouldn’t do that, would we?
Trying to practice an open-door policy,
John