Why are Christians called to be the salt for the earth and light for the world?

Answer 1

There are numerous ways this could be applied today. Although other substances have replaced it in many applications today salt performed a number of vital functions in the ancient world. It was used to purify or cleanse, for its antiseptic, and for preservation.

In the Old Testament it was symbolic of God's covenant with His people. See Numbers 18:19 and 2 Chronicles 13:5. This covenant which was external was to be replaced (as foreshadowed in the Old Testament) by the New Covenant or Testament in which believers were to as Jesus taught to:

50.... Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another. Thus the salt with its properties was to be somehow inside the believers (in a metaphorical sense) and they were to perform its functions in the world.

In applying this there would be a multitude of meanings, according to the particular work a person is called to do. But in a general sense Christians are called to be different from the world, and to stand for eternal truth, to reject the limited philosophies of men, which ultimately fail, since they are based on faulty presuppositions. Christians also challenge the various 'isms' that seek to replace God such as materialism, naturalism, Humanism etc pointing to another way which is not just a way among many but 'the way' and so in some aspects they are an irritant.

The preservative function comes into effect when the culture uses Christian principles which help it to stay intact, such as the principle of 'one man and one woman for life', the departing from which causes much heartache and disintegration within society as well as individual lives and families. This is only one, but there are many others such as the respect for human life, paying people a just wage and not exploiting them etc.

When Christians 'go with the flow', in particular the post-modern philosophy of relativism they lose their saltiness and blend in with whatever is going. Relativism, which says 'that's just your opinion' is possibly the single most destructive philosophy, if swallowed to the absolute truth of scripture.

Light performs a slightly different function in that it reveals things as they really are. The brighter the better. Thus Christians are even more offensive to some when they 'call a spade a spade.' Much of this will apply only in the Christian church specifically, and probably needs to begin there, as well as the lives of individual believers before it can effect the world generally.

Thus, contrary to one popular derogatory view prevalent today, Christians are pro-knowledge and pro-education, not the reverse. What they reject is the worlds view which is essentially humanism, which is behind much educational philosophy today. They seek to bring God's light onto every field of endeavor, including education, and so will bring light to the faulty pre-suppositions of humanism as applied to education and to any other area.

Light (metaphorically speaking) though, has a particular function in the life of the individual to reveal 'where they stand' on any particular issue and to brush away the pretense and hypocrisy. Thus, if I tell someone not to do something and then I do it, the light of God may, indeed will, convict me of that hypocrisy, which is really the work of the Holy Spirit.

Light prevents stumbling and enables a person to go in the right path as they see not only where it is going to lead down the track but also any obstacles, since the word of God, through the Holy Spirit is a 'lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.' (Psalm 119:105)

Jesus' followers then are to be salt and light in the world, in having first the 'surgery' of the functions of salt and light first performed on their own lives, so that they can be of use in the world in a similar manner. Neither of these functions are welcome to those who wish to remain in darkness. This needs to be done with humility and sensitivity, which Christians are rightly corrected for when not shown, although sometimes there may be confusion between the truth itself which may hurt and the manner in which it is presented.

It is difficult to envisage a world in which Christians would not irritate someone by being salt and light in a Biblical sense and Christians having lost their saltiness has caused many problems in society today. Christians also find it difficult to perform their function when in a post-Christian society many people are unaware of how offensive and inflammatory their anti-Christian bias may be, yet Christians are 'jumped on' whenever they proclaim what is absolute truth. Perhaps even the idea of absolute truth in a world of post-modernism, is a nonsense to some anyway, but, like the first eyewitnesses whose lives of despair were turned upside down, so Christians who 'know their God' will not be shaken, though dismayed and saddened by the hypocrisy of those who viciously ridicule them and attack them for intolerance. Part of being salt and light is to find a way through such attacks and ridicule, and to keep on keeping on, as Christians have nothing to fear by the open and full revelation of 'how things are' that light brings.

Answer 2

SALT: (Matt 5:13)

1) Salt is used as a preservative. When Christians preach to others about God's Kingdom, it can result in their 'salvation', or their 'preservation' in the day of God's wrath upon the ungodly.

2) Also, just as salt can preserve things from corruption; those Christians themselves would be 'protected' or 'preserved' from the moral and spiritual decay in the communities in which they lived.

(Of course, we're assuming we're speaking about 'TRUE' Christians; not just anyone who calls themselves 'christians', or the 'self-proclaimed' christians. They are referred to as 'leaven', instead of 'salt'.)

[Salt is used as a taste enhancer. (But that's a different scripture and another figurative usage in the Scriptures.) Col 4:6 says that a Christians 'words' ought to be 'seasoned with salt'.]

[Also another scripture says that those who are guilty of serious sins, who stumble into a life of sin or who are responsible for so stumbling others, must be 'salted with fire' (Mark 9:49) They would we 'completely destroyed' just as fire destroys something completely. The ashes cannot be restored back into the person.]

LIGHT:

~ ~ ~ Someone else's turn ~ ~ ~

Answer 3

christian as the salt and light of the world what it means

Answer 4

You can be a light of Jesus by following His words and letting Christ's love shine through your actions.