Matthew 5:13-16 God's people are called to be distinctive

theological

More from Matthew. The last passage was here, and the first in the series is here.

Matthew 5:13-16 wrote:

13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.
14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Today's passage is a short passage, but there's a lot packed in here.

Jesus continues preaching and it has to do with those who are hearing (the crowd that gathered to Him in 4:25 before He began this sermon). We saw in the last passage that those who come to Jesus and follow Him will be persecuted. Today we start to see what following Jesus looks like and it is challenging!

God's people are supposed to be noticeable:
Jesus says that those who are hearing are like the salt of the earth (verse 13). The point of salt is that it is salty. If it is no longer salty it is no longer fulfilling the purpose of what salt is meant to be. The Christian is meant to be noticeable. If the gospel is making no impact on the Christian so that we are standing out we are no longer being what a Christian is meant to be. This is a reminder of what John the Baptist was saying a few chapters ago about the need to "bear fruit in keeping with repentance" (3:8)

God's people are supposed to be a light in a dark place:
We see that Jesus speaks about light next, and says that we are to be "the light of the world" (verse 14). We see the example of a city on a hill, the city is raised up so that it is seen. The second is a light in a house - its design is that the house should be illuminated. In the same way God's people are called to be a light in a dark place. This fits in with Jesus' ministry of repentance. The redeemed people should advertise God's kingdom.

God's people are called to call others:
We saw in chapter 4 that Jesus told Andrew and Peter that they should be fishers of men rather than fishers of fish (4:19). The same is true for all of us. We are called to invite people to the kingdom of heaven and to follow Jesus.

A few thoughts for prayer:
Father thank you that you have given us meaning and purpose to our lives in this world. Please help us to be willing to be noticeable for you. Please help us to be bold and stand up to be a light in a dark place by living counter-culturally in the world around us. Please help us to see that we are called to call others. Please help us to have courage to speak to our friends, neighbours and colleagues about Jesus and what He has done for us.

Let me know your thoughts as usual. I'm looking forward to learning about this passage with you.

antiskeptic

theological wrote: »

More from Matthew. The last passage was here, and the first in the series is here.



Today's passage is a short passage, but there's a lot packed in here.

Jesus continues preaching and it has to do with those who are hearing (the crowd that gathered to Him in 4:25 before He began this sermon). We saw in the last passage that those who come to Jesus and follow Him will be persecuted. Today we start to see what following Jesus looks like and it is challenging!

God's people are supposed to be noticeable:
Jesus says that those who are hearing are like the salt of the earth (verse 13). The point of salt is that it is salty. If it is no longer salty it is no longer fulfilling the purpose of what salt is meant to be. The Christian is meant to be noticeable. If the gospel is making no impact on the Christian so that we are standing out we are no longer being what a Christian is meant to be. This is a reminder of what John the Baptist was saying a few chapters ago about the need to "bear fruit in keeping with repentance" (3:8)

God's people are supposed to be a light in a dark place:
We see that Jesus speaks about light next, and says that we are to be "the light of the world" (verse 14). We see the example of a city on a hill, the city is raised up so that it is seen. The second is a light in a house - its design is that the house should be illuminated. In the same way God's people are called to be a light in a dark place. This fits in with Jesus' ministry of repentance. The redeemed people should advertise God's kingdom.

God's people are called to call others:
We saw in chapter 4 that Jesus told Andrew and Peter that they should be fishers of men rather than fishers of fish (4:19). The same is true for all of us. We are called to invite people to the kingdom of heaven and to follow Jesus.

A few thoughts for prayer:
Father thank you that you have given us meaning and purpose to our lives in this world. Please help us to be willing to be noticeable for you. Please help us to be bold and stand up to be a light in a dark place by living counter-culturally in the world around us. Please help us to see that we are called to call others. Please help us to have courage to speak to our friends, neighbours and colleagues about Jesus and what He has done for us.

Let me know your thoughts as usual. I'm looking forward to learning about this passage with you.

I know I'm going left field of where you might be at and would contend with what I think is a narrow view. But I must take you to task on your skipping past vs 13 as if it didn't exist. If you are looking at what the verse says, as opposed to importing your view into the text, you will see that if saltiness lost then thrown out. You need deal with the whole

Since the saltiness comes from the householder who owns the salt cellar and the useless salt is to be thrown out and trampled underfoot (not exactly mincing words there) you need figure out what that might mean.

Loss of salvation would be an obvious one....

theological

antiskeptic wrote: »

I know I'm going left field of where you might be at and would contend with what I think is a narrow view. But I must take you to task on your skipping past vs 13 as if it didn't exist. If you are looking at what the verse says, as opposed to importing your view into the text, you will see that if saltiness lost then thrown out. You need deal with the whole

Since the saltiness comes from the householder who owns the salt cellar and the useless salt is to be thrown out and trampled underfoot (not exactly mincing words there) you need figure out what that might mean.

Loss of salvation would be an obvious one....

I'm pretty happy to hear things from another perspective. There's value to what you're saying for verse 13. I guess it is true that there is a strong warning for those of us who may have started off well in the faith and are beginning to lose it, or to lose the distinctive character of what it means to follow Jesus. I did mention verse 13 in the post, and I'm happy that you're pointing out something that I may have missed in my reading. That's a good thing.

antiskeptic

theological wrote: »

I'm pretty happy to hear things from another perspective. There's value to what you're saying for verse 13. I guess it is true that there is a strong warning for those of us who may have started off well in the faith and are beginning to lose it, or to lose the distinctive character of what it means to follow Jesus. I did mention verse 13 in the post, and I'm happy that you're pointing out something that I may have missed in my reading. That's a good thing.

This would doubtlessly be a proof verse from the lose-your-salvation camp.

Now, I don't hold you can (and iirc, you are a Calvinist so would agree with me). You and I obtain our can't lose your salvation from elsewhere.

But someone drawing conclusions from Matthew alone, and given the rather strong language: thrown away and trampled underfoot, would be forgiven holding to a doctrine of losing your salvation.

We simply cannot go line by line through a section or book and form conclusions. Rather we must spin the entirety of scripture as plates: referencing everything off everything else.

It's messier and probably impossible to make progress on a discussion forum that way. But I don't God had our progressing on a discussion forum chief in his goals for giving us scripture!

theological

antiskeptic wrote: »

This would doubtlessly be a proof verse from the lose-your-salvation camp.

Now, I don't hold you can (and iirc, you are a Calvinist so would agree with me). You and I obtain our can't lose your salvation from elsewhere.

But someone drawing conclusions from Matthew alone, and given the rather strong language: thrown away and trampled underfoot, would be forgiven holding to a doctrine of losing your salvation.

We simply cannot go line by line through a section or book and form conclusions. Rather we must spin the entirety of scripture as plates: referencing everything off everything else.

It's messier and probably impossible to make progress on a discussion forum that way. But I don't God had our progressing on a discussion forum chief in his goals for giving us scripture!

I can understand your frustration in my method. You're expecting me to go through topic by topic and look at the whole of Scripture to understand something. That is called systematic theology. It has its place.

There's also biblical theology, which is to understand how the books of the Bible work, and how they fit together in salvation history. There's a lot of value in looking at Matthew and working through it verse by verse.

The first advantage is that we get to learn what Matthew's aim was in arranging the material and therefore can get more out of what we are reading.

The second advantage is that we get to discover Jesus bit by bit and marvel at who He was. This is something I've wanted to do again for a while. I plan to work through all of the gospels this year.

The third advantage is that it actually helps us to do systematic theology properly, because when we understand what the context is around the verses we are using to explain a topic, we will be able to come to more accurate and faithful conclusions.