Salt and Light: What Jesus Said & What It Means for You

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You may have heard the phrases “salt of the earth” or “salt and light” before and thought that it is just another thing Christians say, some call it “Christianese”. These words are actually very powerful and important to our mission and calling as believers.

When Jesus said that we are the “salt of the earth” and “light of the world” He was telling us that we are called to live Christ-like lives that point others to God. He called us to share our passion for God with everyone in the world and to let our actions lead others to God.

How is a human being supposed to act like a block of salt? How are we supposed to act like intangible sources of light? These common questions miss the whole point of Jesus’ metaphor, so let’s dive into Matthew chapter 5 to understand exactly what Jesus meant.

Salt & Light: What Did Jesus Say?

The metaphors of “salt” and “light” come from Matthew 5:13-16. These metaphors come as part of Jesus’ famous “Sermon on the Mount” preached atop the Mount of Beatitudes.

These metaphors come after Jesus’ famous beatitude statements; eight statements beginning with “blessed are” spanning Matthew 5:3-12.

When reading this passage, I want us to be cautious of having a posture of passivity. It can be easy to say, “I’m a good person! I am nice, peaceful, and pure at heart! Wow! I must be a really good disciple of Jesus!” Unfortunately, in saying these things, we would be quite wrong.

First, we could use a bit of humility. But also, these are not things we can hold onto passively. Jesus really dispels this passive behaviour in Matthew 5:13-16. In these verses lies one of Jesus’ more famous metaphors where He calls His disciples the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

You may have heard these metaphors before, but I am convinced that half of us who have heard these metaphors have zero idea what Jesus actually means here. How is a human being supposed to act like a block of salt?! How are we supposed to understand this as if it was common knowledge?!

Let’s take a look at the passages we are covering in this article, and then dive into what it means for us to be salt and light.

¹³ “You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless. ¹⁴ “You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. ¹⁵No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. ¹⁶In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.

Matthew 5:13-16 (NLT)

Jesus Is Very Clear In Wording the Salt and Light Metaphors

In Matthew 5:13-16, Jesus does not say that we are “to be” salt and light; rather, Jesus says you are salt and light already. Being salt and light is not something that we can earn or work towards. It is something that we automatically become when we confess faith in Jesus.

Typically, when we talk about salt and light, we always talk about it as a missional statement; that Jesus instructs us to be salt and light. When we do this, we are missing a crucial understanding here. We miss that Jesus has already done the work on our behalf. We are just “borrowing” the salt and light of Jesus, it’s not our own.

As part of my role as an assistant pastor, I had the privilege of sitting in on one of the membership classes at my church. One of the main topics we talk about in these classes is baptism.

In this class, I had the chance to share some of my story leading up to baptism when I was younger and how I had this misconception of what baptism was really about. I always viewed it as this “graduation step” that I had to keep working towards. I thought that, once I was a good enough Christian and did enough good things, then I could become baptized.

Eventually, I came to the realization that I had it all backwards. Committing your life to Jesus is not a graduation step, but an elementary step. We do not try and clean up everything in ourselves all at once to follow Him. Then Jesus will come alongside and you can work together on becoming more like Him.

When we say phrases like, “Come as you are” we don’t mean it to be this cheesy church saying to try and get as many people to come to church as possible. We say these phrases because we want as many people to get to know Jesus as we can, and to let His transformative work be done through the power of the Holy Spirit.

We first must accept our identity in Christ, then the transformation can occur. This is what Jesus is working through here in this text. Being salt and light is a call to action, urging us to go out and do what we can to become better people or make ourselves look good to God. It is part of our identity as disciples of Jesus.

Mission flows from identity, not the other way around. We are unable to be salt and light without first accepting Jesus as our Lord and Saviour and inviting the Holy Spirit to dwell within us. Now, this is important, I am not calling us to passivity here. After internalizing our identity as salt and light, we are still called to act upon it. But what does that look like?

What Does It Mean to Be Salt?

Salt is not generally interesting to look at as, on its own, it doesn’t really do anything. But, salt actually does have a couple of purposes both today and in Jesus’ time. Salt is used both for flavour in our food and as a fertilizer on crops and fields.

Salt was also commonly used as a preservative for food in the days when refrigerators weren’t a thing. This aspect of salt is what many preachers focus on in their sermons. We can make the connection to say that, as people of salt of the earth, we are called to help preserve God’s Kingdom on earth and prevent moral decay.

Although I think that’s a good understanding of Jesus’ metaphor, it is not what we are going to focus on in too much depth in this article.

Instead when I think of salt, I think of McDonald’s, specifically their fries. I don’t know what it is, but those things are just loaded up with salt that whenever I eat them I absolutely need something to drink to go with them.

And to make it worse, if I get fries with one specific person I know (for his/her sake, I won’t expose him/her) he/she feels the need to add more salt to them. Whenever I take some fries from him/her, I am suddenly transported to the Sahara Desert and I need something to drink fast because those things just have so much salt on them.

This is what Jesus means when he calls us the salt of the earth. It means we are creating a thirst to know who Christ is. When people who have yet to know Jesus see us out in the world, serving those around us, they will notice something is different about how we act. And when they see that, a thirst is created to understand why we are serving those in our community.

What Does It Mean To Be Light?

As followers of Jesus, it is our responsibility to redirect that thirst toward Christ. To point to Him and say “Everything I do is because of the loving God that I love and serve”. This is the role of the light that we bear, to illuminate the grace and work of Jesus Christ. To show the transformative work in our lives to others and point to our God.

And that is ultimately our core purpose as a community of believers; to cultivate disciples of Jesus who embody God’s love everywhere we go. For us as a community to be equipped as strong lights of Jesus, to show God’s love, to draw more towards Him.

We don’t draw people to Christ by trying to debate them into submission. Nor do we draw people to Christ by being good people who are passive. We draw them through making an impact in people’s lives and by giving God all the credit for that impact.

Theologian and commentator William Barclay provided three helpful ways of what being the light of the world looked like:

1. A light is meant to be seen
2. A light is a guide
3. A light can often be a warning light

A Light Is Meant To Be Seen

Let’s look at the first of the three; a light is meant to be seen. In Matthew 5:15, Jesus strongly pushes against this idea of keeping our faith hidden away.

¹⁵No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. 

Matthew 5:13 (NLT)

We have been given an amazing gift from Jesus to help draw more people towards Him, but if we hide it, it’s completely useless. And, don’t get me wrong, it can be really awkward at times to openly talk about your faith in a society that feels to be more and more individualistic and pushing away from faith altogether.

In the last year or two, I have felt this several times where somebody who doesn’t seem to have much interest in faith asks me what my job is, and I tell them I work at a church. While it provides an excellent opportunity to present the gospel to others, there are times when have to really push myself past the potential awkwardness or argument to do so.

My prayer is that the Spirit provides you, reader, with the comfort and courage to continue to do so in whatever spaces you find yourself in. That we are able to find the confidence to obey Jesus’ command here in Matthew 5:15, not to hide our lamp but to light and shine where everyone can see.

Pastor Alistair Begg of Parkside Church in Cleveland said it this way: “There can be no such thing as secret discipleship, for either the secrecy destroys the discipleship, or the discipleship destroys the secrecy. Our Christianity should be perfectly visible to everyone”.

Again, Jesus does not call us to be passive and secret followers. Rather, we are called to be actively working and sharing the gospel for everybody to see.

A Light Is A Guide

Next, let’s look at that second point: light is a guide. when we are driving at nighttime, all the streetlights help guide our path to where we need to go. In the same way that we as followers of Jesus can be a moral guide in society. To advocate for those in need. To stand up for the marginalized.

This is a lot of the work that Under the Same Sun does in Tanzania as a Christian organization. This is a charity founded by my father in 2008 that advocates for the rights and treatment of persons with albinism in Tanzania.

When Under the Same Sun (UTSS) started, witchcraft was incredibly prominent throughout society, including the elite of Tanzania. UTSS was created to advocate for persons with albinism as a marginalized and persecuted people group. It actively seeks justice for those who have been attacked by advocating at all levels of government for change.

Under the Same Sun acted as a guiding light for society not only in Tanzania but globally. Advocating that persons with albinism are equals and deserve a place at all levels of society.

UTSS is continuing to shine this light even today, August 2023 was a great example of that. A team of North Americans including Jeremy and myself along with volunteers from Tanzania and the rest of the world ran a summer camp for kids with albinism.

While it was a great time of fun and development for all the kids that participated, it was also a statement to those that heard and continue to hear about the camp that these students deserve the same treatment and love that any other child deserves.

There is a common phrase “lead by example” and that is exactly what it means to be a guiding light. Matthew 5:16 calls us to this; we are called by Jesus to guide others to God through our actions.

¹⁶In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.

Matthew 5:16 (NLT)

A Light Can Often Be a Warning Light

The last usage we’ll look at is light as a “warning light”. When we are driving, we often see flashing lights around to warn us of potential hazards as well.

In the same way, we can act as warning lights for those around us. To be willing to point out to our neighbour potential hazards that we see. We all have blind spots in our lives, and to know you have people in your life that can lovingly point those out to you can be a tremendous help.

It could be in areas of relationships with family or friends, or it could be in how we use our finances. Of course, we must be discerning of how and when we start flashing our warning lights.

We must ensure we have built up the relational trust where you can enter a place of vulnerability like this. These warnings also are not to be given out in a way of condescension or frustration, but rather in love and kindness. And this is something we do in the community with other believers.

How Do Jesus’ “Salt & Light” Metaphors Apply to Us Today?

My prayer for you is that you remember that your identity is ultimately in Christ. And that you are reminded of how your mission flows from that identity in Him. Moving forward, I challenge you to think about how you can be light in your community; how can you pursue that?

It could be your light is, as Jesus puts it in Matthew 5:15, hidden under the basket and needs to be taken out and shown to people around you.

Maybe you have a co-worker or neighbour in your life where faith conversations have come up but you haven’t talked about your faith because of fear or anxiety.

I challenge you to, in the next week, focus on being a guiding light. There could be an injustice happening at school or work that you see and have yet to raise your hand and say “This is not right”. If that is the case, I encourage you to pray and consider how you might bring light to that situation.

Perhaps you have someone in your life who is struggling with a blind spot that they are not aware of. You can step in and be a warning light for that person. I encourage you to pray for guidance on how to best point that out to somebody you care about and help correct them in a loving, Christ-like way.