In the beatitudes Jesus describes the character to be possessed by the kingdom citizen. When Jesus teaches, “You are the salt of the earth…” (Matt. 5:13) and “You are the light of the world” (5:14); He is informing us of how we are to put that character to work in the world. When we do this we are manifesting Jesus’ life and character in the world. By being “salt” and “light” we declare to our corrupt and often hostile world the God-designed and God-directed character of the kingdom citizen at work. This fact reminds us that our influence should never be underestimated.

Just as salt and light are valuable, can you imagine living without them, so are we. As children of God we do not live in isolation. We are daily living in this world and our responsibility is to influence it in a positive way. Peter reminds us that because we are “God’s special people” our task is to “proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (I Peter 2:9). Just as salt and light affect our lives in a positive way we are affect the world around us.

Think of those to whom Jesus is speaking. They were ordinary people, like most of us, without great reputations, power or social status. They were people who went about their life everyday and probably were not really noticed by many. Jesus sees who these people can become and He seeks to cultivate their potential. So it is not surprising that Jesus would use a common ordinary substance like salt to teach such. Salt does not have an attention getting aroma like cinnamon or the hot taste of a jalapeño pepper. While salt is ordinary it was needed and valuable. When we become new creatures in Christ we are to be like salt: important, necessary and valuable.

The kingdom citizen is also to be the light of the world. We are to shine as lights in the darkness of this old world. Light makes it possible for us to see so we do not stumble and fall or stub our toe. Light makes us feel safe so we set timers to automatically turn our lights on when we are away from home making it appear that someone is in the house.

Like salt, light is indispensable and cannot be ignored. It means the kingdom citizen’s activities are visible to all. When Jesus says, “You are the light of the world” He is teaching that nobody else can give any hope and solution to the world’s real need except kingdom citizens. Scientists, philosophers, politicians, etc are powerless to give humanity any lasting solutions to its problems. There is no “light” in the world except the “light” that is provided by those who submit to He who is the “Light of the world” (John 8:12).

Jesus was and is a “world changer!” He uses the ordinary, salt and light, to impress upon His followers that we are to be world changers too!

Bill Feist