Matthew 5:13-16
Salt and Light
Read the passage
Matthew 5:13-16 · 4 verses
Read the passage
Matthew 5:13-16 · 4 verses
Matthew 5:13-16
13Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.
14Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
15Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. a bushel: the word in the original signifieth a measure containing about a pint less than a peck
16Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
The Beatitudes describe what the citizens of the kingdom are inside; now Jesus describes what they are in the world. Two images, short as parables, dense as theology: salt of the earth, light of the world. Both images are declarations before they are commands — He says “ye are,” not “ye ought to become.” The identity is given; the question is whether it will be expressed or suppressed. Salt that loses its savour is fit only to be trodden on. A light hidden under a bushel illuminates nothing. Jesus is telling His disciples — a gathering of Galilean fishermen and tax collectors on a hillside — that they are the world's preservative and the world's illumination. The audacity of the claim is the point. They are not going to change the world by being like it. They will change it only by remaining entirely themselves.