Salt and Light

The Hippopotamus’s day
Is passed in sleep; at night he hunts;
God works in a mysterious way—
The Church can sleep and feed at once.

—T. S. Eliot, The Hippopotamus

Why do Christians exist? According to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, our central purpose is to influence our environment. He expects us to live as if we are constantly being watched (not only by God, but by the surrounding culture) and describes us as salt, light, and a city on a hill—all images which speak of having a noticeable effect on the world:

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. (Mt. 5:13-16)

Many years later, speaking through John, Jesus addressed the culturally irrelevant church of Laodicea:

I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew [literally, vomit] you out of my mouth. (Rev. 3:15-16)

This statement echoes a famous Old Testament warning to Israel, in which God threatened to “spew out” the covenant people for breaking His laws (Lev. 18:24-28; cf.   Dt. 28). Christ’s own judgment on an ineffective church is that it is “good for nothing.” The Christian’s calling is not to blend in with his environment, but to convert it, transform it, rebuild it in terms of the whole counsel of God as mandated in His word. Ultimately, our goal is “salvation to the ends of the earth” (Acts 13:47). If we are not transforming our society, if we are not “Christianizing” our culture, what good are we? Look again at those words of Jesus: we are to “shine our light” by doing “good works,” so that our neighbors will notice what we have done and be inspired to follow our example—to “glorify” God themselves. How will they glorify God? Paul said it isn’t a matter of some special “religious” activity, but obeying God in every area of life: “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31). In other words: If our goal is to live in such a way that all men will glorify our Father in heaven, our ultimate task can be nothing less than world conversion. But what, really, does it mean to shine our “light”? The Bible is quite specific: “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all” (1 Jn. 1:5). As Solomon counseled, “the commandment is a lamp, and the law is light; reproofs of instruction are the way of life” (Prov. 6:23). Here’s how it works: God is light; God’s law (the reflection of His holy character) is light; and God’s people, created in God’s image, are His lights as well (Eph. 5:8; Phil. 2:15; 1 Thes. 5:5).

Because God’s law is the perfect, written transcript of His character, it is the model for our behavior in every area of life. It is not as if there exists a “spiritual” dimension that we should tack on to our normally “secular” way of life; rather, all aspects of everything we do are to bring glory to God by our obedience, so that “the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Rom. 8:4). We are to act like Christians wherever we are—and we are commanded to have a noticeable effect on our environment, so that people will see our good works and be inspired to do good works themselves. As Paul put it, “providing honorable things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men” (2 Cor. 8:21). We are to shine as God’s lights in the sight of men.

At the same time. Christians are not supposed to draw attention to themselves in doing it! Later in the same Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warned: “Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise, you have no reward from your Father in heaven.... But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly” (Mt. 6:1-4).