"You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. "You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:13-16

“You are the salt… You are the light…” These statements are not imperatives—telling us what we are supposed to become. They are indicatives—declaring what we are. We are salt and we are light. The question is, how salty are we? The question is, where are we shining, and how brightly?

This reminds me of the difference between justification and sanctification. God’s justified people are declared to be righteous in God’s eyes even though we are not always so in practice—which is why we are being sanctified, or growing in righteousness. May we not only be salt and light, but let us grow in our saltiness, and in how brightly we shine!

In Jesus’ day salt was a seasoning, but more importantly, it was a preservative. I cannot help but believe it was the preserving aspect of salt that Jesus was referring to. The sinful world is putrefying and rotting from within due to sin and rebellion against God and His ways. God’s people are a preservative, inhibiting the spiritual and moral decay that is the natural result of unrestrained sin. I use the word unrestrained, knowing that the world is not as sinful as it could be if it were not for God’s restraining grace. But do we understand that God’s people scattered in and throughout this rotting world are His agents of restraining grace?

It is as we live moral lives, and are a voice declaring both law and gospel, that the salt preserves what otherwise would be rotting. It is God’s work, but He has ordained us as His agents. When salt loses its saltiness—or ceases to be a preserving influence, the salt is good for nothing except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.