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My God and My Neighbor is a “Bible talk show” that looks at religious issues, Christian living and world events in light of the Word of God to give hope. This podcast is a ministry of Tennessee Bible College. TBC offers a bachelor's in Bible studies, a master of theology, and a doctorate of theology in apologetics and Christian evidences. TBC also provides Christian books, audio recordings on the Bible, and free Bible courses in English and Spanish. Tune in to My God and My Neighbor to experience the educational content that TBC has been delivering for nearly five decades!
Kerry Duke: Hi, I'm Kerry Duke, host of My God and My Neighbor podcast from Tennessee Bible College, where we see the Bible as not just another book, but the Book. Join us in a study of the inspired Word to strengthen your faith and to share what you've learned with others.
We're talking today about being the right kind of example. We're talking about the influence that you have, the impression that you make on other people. And we're looking at this from a Christian standpoint. We're talking about Christian influence. And the famous section that we're looking at is Matthew chapter 5, verses 13 through 16.
Jesus said, “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.”
Oftentimes in reading a passage of Scripture, it is extremely helpful to go back and look at the verses before it, and if necessary, to look at the verses after it. We call that the context. So as you look at the verses before this passage, you find what we call the Beatitudes. And what do those Beatitudes point to? They talk about having the right kind of heart. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are the merciful. Blessed are the pure in heart, and so forth.
And so, there is a direct connection between the Beatitudes and having the right example because being a good influence on other people is not just doing things in their presence. It's not just saying something that maybe does have a good influence on those people. It all starts in the heart. And if our hearts are right, then we're going to say the right things, we're going to do the right things, and you don't have to plan out or consciously make a decision to do something good or to say something right just to make an impression on people for good even if you have the right kind of motive. It's going to be natural if your heart is right. So focus on the heart and the rest will follow.
The second thing that I want you to notice in the context is the connection to persecution, because in the last verses of the Beatitudes, Jesus says, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake.” He says in verse 11, “Blessed are you when they,” that is, people who are not Christians, “revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake.” Now, human wisdom might say this: “You're not going to be able to have a good influence on them because they hate you. They despise you. They're persecuting you. So, how could you ever make an impression on them for Christ?” And yet note verses 13 through 16, where He says you are “the salt of the earth.” “You are the light of the world” comes right after what he says about being persecuted. So being persecuted doesn't mean that we're never going to be able to have a good influence on other people.
There are always going to be some people that hate and despise Christians, that's true. But there are some of those people that you're going to be able to influence. You're going to be able to have a good influence on them. Let me give you a good commentary on what we're talking about. The book of first Peter is a book, as we've said, that talks a lot about suffering as Christians and in first Peter, chapter two, verse 12, you have a verse that is worded similarly to what we just read in Matthew chapter five.
A lot of people know Matthew five, verse 16. It says, “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” But not many Christians know as well 1 Peter 2, verse 12. Listen to what he says. “Having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers,”—and there's the persecution, he goes on to say—"they may by your good works, which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation
So there's a change that he talks about here. There's a change in viewpoint. There's a change in attitude. He says that these people may speak evil of you, that they will talk about you as if you are an evil doer, but by your good works, which they observe, he says, they will end up glorifying God in the day of visitation.
It's interesting here in speaking about the context that the context of 1 Peter chapter 2 is about submission, particularly submitting to government authorities. So he says in verse 12, you go ahead and you conduct yourselves honorably among these Gentiles because when they talk about you like you're an evildoer, they will see the good life that you're living and they will glorify God in the end.
But in verse 13, he says, therefore, “Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those that do well.” Now listen to verse 15. Remember the context here. He's talking about submitting to the laws of the land, even though there are some wicked people in those government positions, and there certainly were back in the first century. He says you submit as long as those laws of the land do not violate and contradict what God has told you. You submit to them.
Listen to verse 15. “For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.” Now what is the “doing good” here in verse 15? He says, you will silence them, you will shut their mouths. They will speak evil against you, but you will be able to stop that. Not in every case, but in some.
How do you do that? By doing good. That takes you back to verse 12: by your good works, which they observe, they will glorify God in the day of visitation. Now that doing good here is not just a general statement like you have in Matthew five verse 16. In Matthew 5 verse 16, the doing good there could include many things, but in 1 Peter chapter 2 this is specifically doing good from the standpoint of submitting to government.
That's what the whole context is about here. But let's go back to our main passage, which is in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 13 through 16. This is about Christian salt and Christian life. First of all, let's think about the fact that if you are a Christian, you are salt. Christians are salt, and salt is used to flavor food, obviously, and to preserve food, especially back in old times.
This is what Christians are to the world. This earth, the world itself, needs flavoring. The world is a meaningless, hopeless, aimless, selfish place without Christians. Christians are the people who give this world a real sense of optimism. Other people talk about it, other people act like it, but Christians are the ones who alone have true optimism in this world.
In Romans 8, verse 18, the Bible says, “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” We're forward looking people. Romans 8, verse 28 says, “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God.” So Christians are like salt in this world because we're the ones who have and give that kind of optimism.
Christians are the ones who are really salt in this world because we're the ones who, because we follow the Word of God, we believe it, we obey it in our lives, we teach it to other people, and we point people to the Word of God, we're the ones who act as salt because we provide the moral basis for society.
That doesn't mean that we're perfect, that doesn't mean that we live a sinless life, but we're the ones that give meaning to the idea of right and wrong by pointing people to the ultimate law giver.
And Christians are also like salt because we give the true meaning of love. Now most people misunderstand it, but Christians show what love is. Now I'm talking about a Christian who really practices Christianity. I'm not talking about a hypocrite here. But I'm talking about those who are sincere in living the Christian life. Most people talk about love today, but they really don't know what it is. True love means that you sacrifice. It means that you give.
It's not about getting. It's not about receiving, it's about giving. True love includes correction, not just hearing praise from people and wanting to have the favor of men. The Bible says in Revelation chapter 3 verse 19, “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.” And another aspect of true biblical love is later in this chapter of Matthew chapter 5. That's where Jesus said love doesn't just mean loving people and being kind to people that you already love or that love you in return. It means that you love people who are your enemies in the sense that you do them good instead of wanting to do them harm and evil.
And here's another way in which Christians are truly salt in a world that needs some seasoning. The Bible teaches in Colossians 4 verse 6 that Christians add kind, sensible, helpful words in a world full of harsh, mean, sarcastic, and hurtful things that people say. Colossians 4 verse 6 says, “Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how that you ought to answer every man.”
That's the seasoning power of the Christian life. But the earth also needs preserving. That is, the world of people needs preserving, and salt is a preservative. Our world is on a path to self-destruction. And I'm not talking simply about physical destruction. I'm talking about moral and spiritual destruction.
Mankind is like a person who's on drugs. You can see it coming. The writing is on the wall. He will eventually destroy himself, and cultures are like this. Most countries, most civilizations, it's been noted, last about 150 or 200 years, and then as John Adams once said, they're like all democracies in that they commit suicide.
Men destroy themselves and each other. But Christians preserve the earth. Most of the food that you buy has preservatives, good or bad. Well, Christians are a natural, spiritual, and moral preservative. Righteousness keeps a country from rotting. Proverbs chapter 14 verse 34 says “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.”
For instance, just think about the Christian attitude toward others. Just consider what the Bible tells us to have as far as a good attitude is concerned toward other people. Matthew chapter 7 verse 12, which we call the golden rule: Do unto others, as we say, as they would do unto you. Actually, in the Bible, it says, “All things therefore whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you even so to them, for this is the law and the prophets” [Matthew 7, verse 12]. Mark 12, 31: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Think of what this does to improve society. And you contrast that kind of attitude with the selfish, humanistic, evolutionary model of man today. And I ask you the question: Who is responsible for the good that is in society? It's not those people who teach that kind of atheistic and humanistic philosophy.
Christians preserve society by teaching people to live together in harmony and hold it together. It teaches us to obey the law, not become rebels [Romans 13, verses 1-7]. It teaches husbands and wives to stay together [1 Peter 3: 1-7]. It teaches children to obey their parents [Ephesians 6: 1-3]. It teaches servants to obey their masters [1 Peter 2: 18-20]. It teaches respect for people in general [Matthew 5, verse 47]. And that kind of attitude creates stability. This keeps people from turning against each other, from coming apart, and from disintegrating as a society.
In a word, Christians preserve society by preserving the home. Someone once said, “As the home goes, so goes the nation.” Homes are the building blocks of communities which, in turn, make up the nation. Now, Christianity preserves society, literally, by preserving the lives of the unborn and by taking care of them. If a culture is to survive, children have to be born. God says in the beginning, in Genesis 1 verse 28, “Be fruitful and multiply.” Psalm 127 verses three through five talks about children being the “heritage of the Lord.” A society of people who kill their unborn are committing national suicide. They're killing their future workers, their future leaders, their future soldiers, and doctors, and educators, and mothers, and fathers, and so forth.
And also, when a culture attacks marriage and kills its unborn, who's going to take care of its aging population? And these are just a few examples of what I'm talking about that the teaching of Jesus, the teaching of the Bible, preserves society. It's like salt. And so individual Christians are salt.
That means that if you're a child of God, you add flavor to a flat world. You keep the world from rotting by acting as a preservative. But Jesus warns that you have to live it. He said if you're not living the Christian life, then you're like salt that doesn't have any strength. It's lost its flavor. So think about it. You sprinkle some salt on your food and then you realize that it tastes like sand. It just blends in with the food and it has no taste. And Jesus is talking about people. He's talking about Christians who have no flavor in them to affect other people. They just blend in with the world. Salt that has no flavor looks like regular salt, but it's lost its strength inside.
As a Christian, then, you need to ask yourself the question [all of us do]: Am I like salt? Do you change people? Do you add something good to a group of people? Do you bring out the best in people? Are people encouraged and motivated to be better because you're around them? Salt that has no strength will not keep meat from rotting.
Salt without flavor will not make a meal better, and Christians without flavor cannot make the world a better place and a more pleasant place to live. To be salt, you have to have flavor. You have to have strength of the Christian inside. You have to have faith. You have to have love and mercy and justice, joy and peace and patience.
These things are strong. And they just naturally permeate people around you. Some need a little salt around you and some need a lot. Others, no matter how much you put into them, as far as salt is concerned, won't pay any attention. But people who have a good heart and an honest heart will listen. They'll be affected.
Jesus said in Luke 14:34, “Salt is good.” And the more of the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount that you put into your heart, the better an influence you're going to be. And let me add again and emphasize: That is a natural thing. It happens naturally. You don't have to get up in the morning and plan it out. As a matter of fact, it doesn't work that way at all. You don't have to get up in the morning and ask yourself the question, “What good thing can I do today that people will see so that they'll give glory to God?” I'm not talking about a situation where a person is trying to get attention for himself. I'm talking about sincerely trying to be a good example.
You don't have to plan it out. You can't predict what people are going to think or who's going to be around you. You just can't make those kinds of plans. But if you just put the Word of God into your heart and into your life, it's going to happen naturally. And sometimes, it's going to happen when you don't expect it and when you don't even know that you're having that kind of influence.
So, that's why it starts all in the heart. Now, the second illustration that Jesus gives in Matthew chapter 5 about being a good example is light in verse 14. He says, “You are the light of the world.” And what a strong image that is. How simple are these illustrations? Notice in verse 13, “You are the salt of the earth” and verse 14 “You are the light of the world.”
People anywhere on earth, regardless of what language they speak, regardless of what kind of culture they live in, regardless of what kind of customs they observe, can understand that those are simple symbols, and yet they are so profound. You know, one of the criticisms that people oftentimes have of the Bible today is that it's an old book and the things that you read about in the Bible are so unfamiliar to modern readers in this technological age that you can't expect us to really get anything out of the Bible.
Well, think about these two images. People anywhere in any culture today can understand what salt is and what light is, and they can understand the reference here. I realize that there are some things even in this passage that might be unfamiliar to people today. There are some things that we might have to do a little extra study about when He talks about the basket and the lamp stand and so forth. Yes, we might have to think that through and do some digging. But overall, we get the basic idea of what salt is.
We understand what Jesus means by the image of light. So let's talk about the image of light being a representation of Christian influence. Darkness in the Bible represents sin and evil. It symbolizes the dark and the selfish side of mankind. But men, on the other hand, are given to this kind of dark living. That's why we even talk about that to this day. We talk about the dark side of mankind. In John chapter 3, verse 19, Jesus said, “Men loved darkness rather than light.” They loved sin rather than the light of God's word. In Ephesians 5 verse 11, the Bible says, “Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.”
Now light, on the other hand, is the symbol of goodness and truth and virtue and love and faith. When people are in darkness, they're in a state of hopelessness. They're in a state of helplessness until they have some light. And that's what the gospel is. It's interesting that one of the first things said about Jesus in His preaching is that He was a light to people who were in darkness. In Matthew chapter 4, just before the Sermon on the Mount—in Matthew chapter 4, beginning in verse 14—the Bible talks about Him going into Capernaum, and in the regions of Zebulun and Naphtali, “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles: The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death, light has dawned.” Later in John chapter 8 verse 12 Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.” Jesus came to give hope to people who are in darkness. And we live in dark times. We live in a dark world. There's the dark side of mankind that we don't even want to think about when we're living in peace and safety.
But it's there. And people are living in darkness because they're living in sin. They need that light. They need the light of God's word first of all. But they need to see that light in God's people. Now, here's what Paul said in Philippians chapter two, verse 14. He said, “Do all things without complaining and disputing.”
That's very important if you're going to have the right influence on people. If we're going to be a good example to other people, we need to do exactly what he's saying here in verse 14. Do everything without complaining. “Without disputing,” that is, in needless and trivial disputes, “that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you shine as lights in the world.”
If we want to shine as lights in the world. We have to quit complaining as Christians. We have to quit arguing about things that don't really matter. We have to live a good life in the midst of people who are described as a crooked and perverse generation. We will shine like a light in darkness.
And you don't have to think about that darkness in terms of some kind of huge, bright, shining spotlight in people's eyes on a very dark night. You've probably read that the human eye is capable of seeing a single candlelight from miles away on a very dark, clear night. Even a small amount of light against a very dark background is very noticeable. There was a painter years ago that became famous for that, Thomas Kincade. They called him the painter of lights.
Today, the background is very dark morally and spiritually. And so, a Christian just being a Christian really stands out. And by the way, this illustration of Christians being the light of the world destroys the view that there's really no difference between a Christian and a non-Christian. Sometimes people say that.
“Well, we're all sinners anyway. There's really no difference between somebody that's saved and somebody that's not—like the lyrics of a song years ago that said, “The only difference between a sinner and a saint is that one is forgiven and the other one ain't.” That's just foolishness.
There is a difference. There's a difference in our attitude. There's a difference in the way that we talk. There's a difference in the way that we live. If a person is truly a Christian, there will be a big, noticeable difference. And Jesus used two illustrations about this life. They're very simple.
First of all, he said a city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Even a house on the hill stands out, but a city on the hill can be seen from far away. And it's interesting that Jerusalem was on a hill. That's why the Bible says so often that people went up to Jerusalem. And yet, ironically, in a spiritual and in a moral sense, you find that they were not the light of the world. They thought that they were, but they actually were not. And Paul talks about that image they had of themselves and the image that they really had in the eyes of the world in Romans 2 verses 17 through 25.
But let's look at the second image here. He says, “Nor do people light a lamp,” [now that would be a candle] “and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand.” Now who would think of putting a candle under a basket? You put it on a candlestick or on a lamp stand, and that way it gives light, as Jesus said, to everybody in the house. So a Christian gives light to everybody around him. He gives encouragement to do right. He gives direction. He shows goodness. He shows patience. He encourages people by his example to be just and fair with other people. And a man has to be blind not to see those qualities. Now sometimes that's the problem. Sometimes people don't want to see that light. But if a person has any semblance of honesty and a conscience, they will notice.
Now, you may be wondering: But didn't Jesus say something about not letting your left hand know what your right hand is doing?
Yes, He did. That's in Matthew chapter 6. So, there's a difference between what He talked about in Matthew chapter 6, verses 1 through 18, and what He's telling us to do here in Matthew chapter 5, verse 16. The difference is the motive. Notice the wording here, Matthew chapter five, verse 16, “Let your light so shine before men,” that is, for this reason, for this purpose, “that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”
He doesn't say so that they may see your good works period, so that they will just notice what you're doing and it just ends there. He says the end result of this, the goal is, so that people will see the good that you're doing and as a result, glorify your Father which is in heaven.
Christians are just the servants. Christians are just the instruments. Christians are just that pathway for people to look at so that they will glorify God. That's where the attention goes. In Matthew chapter six, verses one through eighteen, when Jesus talks about not letting your left hand know what your right hand is doing, and He uses other figures there too, He's talking about people, as He says, who do these good works “to be seen of men.” They're not trying to glorify God. They don't want people to see them and then glorify God. They just want to be glorified and praised by men themselves. So that's the difference.
So they're really two extremes when it comes to a Christian's influence. On the one extreme, you have some people who do good things just so that people will see them and brag on them—so that they will get attention. Those are the people that Jesus talks about in Matthew 6, 1 through 18. And there are people like that today. On the other extreme, you have some people who are afraid to do good because they fear that people might get the wrong idea. They think that somebody might think that they are doing it just to get attention because of what they've seen in hypocrites and so forth. That's the wrong idea as well. Jesus said, don't be afraid to do this. You “let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” It's not about you. It's about God. And if you just do the right things for the right reason, then the rest will take care of itself.
Let me mention to you a few examples that you'll probably remember in the Bible of people that were really lights of the world. One of them was Jeremiah. Jeremiah was oftentimes discouraged because he preached to the people of Judah. He tried to get them to repent. As a matter of fact, he warned them for 40 years that if they did not turn their lives and their nation around, then the Babylonians would come and they would spend 70 years in captivity in Babylon.
The people didn't listen. As a matter of fact, they persecuted him. They wanted nothing to do with what Jeremiah was talking about. So after 40 years, the Babylonians invaded and when they did, the king himself had told the commander of the Babylonian army not to harm Jeremiah. Now, remember the king of Babylon was a heathen king. He didn't believe in God, and yet, he saw that Jeremiah was different. He saw that Jeremiah was an honest man trying to do what was right and actually trying to save these people's lives. That's how far the influence of Jeremiah went. So, Jeremiah was discouraged because he wasn't having any influence that he could see on the people, and yet, his light was shining all the way to a dark place called Babylon.
And Daniel, by the way, was one of the ones who was first to go into Babylonian captivity. So here he finds himself in a strange world, in a dark place morally and spiritually. They're away from the temple, they're away from people who believe in God and who have the Scriptures like the Jews did. So in Babylon, he was in a totally dark place as far as righteousness and spirituality and morality were concerned, and yet the Bible says that he shined in Daniel, chapter one, verse eight.
He stuck to his principles. He purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with what the king was offering to him. And in Daniel chapter six, verse three, a later king in Babylon saw in Daniel an excellent spirit. Now what's being talked about there is that there were all kinds of government workers of which Daniel was one. But the king saw something in Daniel that he did not see in those other officials. They were selfish, they were self serving, but Daniel was not that way. He had an excellent spirit in him. That is being a light in the world.
And by the way, in the New Testament you find another great example of being lights in the world because of the church at Rome. In Romans chapter 1 verse 8. Paul said of the church at Rome that their faith was spoken of throughout the whole world. Now that's very impressive because Rome was the capital of the Roman Empire, obviously. And the city of Rome had a notorious reputation for immorality and superstition and all kinds of worldliness. In other words, it was a very dark place, but as far as morality and spirituality were concerned, they were in a world of darkness. And yet here you find these Christians living the Christian life in the city of Rome. Paul told them, he warned and admonished them, in Romans chapter 12 verse 2, “Do not be conformed to this world.” In other words, you remain separate from it. One of the ancient writers of Rome said that all the filth of the Roman Empire came into the city of Rome. It was like a moral sewer of the empire. And so, these Christians were able to live the Christian life there. They were able to stand out like a light in a world of darkness.
And if Christians in the first century could live in cities like Rome and Corinth and Ephesus and other places that were full of all kinds of immorality and darkness, if they could be faithful to God, if they could raise their families and maintain their Christian light in those kinds of environments, then we can do the same today.
“Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father in heaven.”
Thank you for listening to My God and My Neighbor. Stay connected with our podcast on our website and on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever fine podcasts are distributed. Tennessee Bible College, providing Christian education since 1975 in Cookeville, Tennessee, offers undergraduate and graduate programs.
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