Being salt and light (Matthew 5:13-16) is a command that no doubt is familiar to you all, but ahead of summer ministry it doesn’t hurt to be reminded what this looks like in practice.
Salt and light are used to permeate and transform both the food and darkness in which they are found. The call to be salt and light is the call to permeate and transform society around us just as Jesus did throughout his life here on earth. To show people purity in the decay of ungodliness, and shine light into the darkness of sin. We are called to be set apart from the rest of the world; our lives should display God’s love and grace as we seek to obey his law rather than conform to the world around us. We live in a broken and sinful world that is full of darkness and so as lights we are called to make God’s presence visible in that darkness. We have no idea what sin and darkness those we come in contact with are struggling through, our job is to point them to Jesus. He alone is the light of the world who has the power to take away darkness and in exchange offer the light of eternal life.
The end goal of living out Christ’s example is that the young people we lead this summer “see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (v16). Our lives are set apart, not so that people look at our lives and think ‘Wow, they’re a really great person’, but instead that everything we say and do points to Christ and so God is glorified through us. We need to come into ministry with humility, willing to be used by God for his glory and not our own, setting our ego and desires aside and simply praying ‘here I am Lord, use me’. Paul voices this same sentiment in his letter to the Galatians, “And they glorified God because of me” (Gal 1:24). May this be the posture of our hearts this summer and always.
Being salt and light in this broken world isn’t just a nice suggestion from Jesus or a role that we step into for the summer when we are serving. This passage makes it clear that as Christians “you are the salt . . . you are the light”, this is our identity in Christ and so we should daily live out our faith as God by his spirit has made us to be.
Study during the week:
Read Hebrews 10:19-25
Read 1 Peter 2:9-12
