Meditation
SALT AND LIGHT Dr. Joseph Stowell
You are the Salt of the Earth…The Light of the World. Matthew 5:13-14
When Jesus summarized our mission in this world, He used two familiar metaphors to illustrate the role that we should play. We are to be like salt and light. Salt adds flavor, preserves, and purifies. Light illuminates, guides, and reveals what is otherwise hidden in the darkness.
In short, salt and light make a difference wherever they are. They make a difference because they are different. Different from saltless food. Different from all that is dark. It’s simple–we are called to be different and to bring that strategic difference to our world through the uniqueness of our lives.
For instance, as we resist the seductions of greed and manage our personal economies according to biblical stewardship, we salt our world with a Spirit of generosity.
A generosity that stands in stark contrast to a world that lives to accumulate gain and believes that life consists in the abundance of that which can be possessed (Luke 12:15).
When we unflinchingly trust in the loving sovereign control of our God over all of life, we are free to demonstrate peace in the midst of the storm, patience in stress, and the unusual power of a love that reaches all the way to our enemies. Self-centeredness is replaced by servanthood, self-enhancement by living to glorify Christ and pride by humility.
God calls us to lives so full of salt and so radiantly expressive of the light that He can use us to overcome evil with good and make a difference for His glory.
Carl Henry, theologian and gifted Christian thinker, asked, “Can we take a holy initiative in history?… Will we offer civilization a realistic option, or only a warning of impending doom? Will Christianity speak only to man’s fears and frustration, or will it also fill the vacuums in his heart and crown his longings for life at its best?”
May our lives be so lived that people cannot help but ask us about the difference and find their longings fulfilled and life at its best in Christ