Mat 5:13 "*You* are the salt of the earth; but if salt has become tasteless, in what way can it regain its saltness? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown away and trodden on by the passers by.
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| Mineral salt: bakeryandsnacks.com |
Notes:
The great calling of the disciples of Christ The Bible Illustrator
1. Salt is intended to nourish: it is an article of food. The godly must nourish the earth spiritually.
2. Salt is intended to preserve.
3. Salt has also a consuming power. There is something sharp, biting, and aggressive in it. Laid on a wound it is painful. The Christian often pains men to heal them. (T. Christlieb, D. D.)
Salt without savour
These words must have seemed ridiculously presumptuous when they were first spoken.
I. The high task of Christ’s disciples as here set forth. This metaphor involves two things: a grave judgment as to the actual state of society, and a lofty claim as to what Christ’s followers can do for it. It is corrupt; you do not salt a living thing. It is the power and obligation of the good to arrest corruption by their own purity. The example of Christian men is not only repressive, it ought to tempt forth all that is purest in the people with whom they come into contact. Salt does its work by being brought into close contact with the thing which it is to work upon. It does its work silently, inconspicuously, gradually.
II. The grave possibility of the salt losing its savour. It is evident that there is the obliteration of the distinction between the salt and the mass into which it is inserted. Is there any difference between your ideal of happiness and the irreligious one?
III. The solemn question, Is there a possibility of resalting the saltless salt, of restoring the lost savour? These words not to be pushed to the extreme.
IV. The certain end of the saltless salt. You cannot put it upon the soil; there is no fertilizing virtue in it. You cannot even fling it into the rubbish heap; it will do mischief there. Pitch it out into the road; it will stop a cranny somewhere between the stones when once it is well trodden down by men’s heels. That is all it is fit for. God has no use for it; man has no use for it. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
What is the use of a church that has lost its saltiness?
How can the church Salt the culture?
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| Salt from the Dead Sea . bakeryandsnacks.com |
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You are the light of the world. v.14
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Mat 5:14 *You* are the light of the world; a town cannot be hid if built on a hill-top.
Mat 5:15 Nor is a lamp lighted to be put under a bushel, but on the lampstand; and then it gives light to all in the house.
Mat 5:16 Just so let your light shine before all men, in order that they may see your holy lives and may give glory to your Father who is in Heaven.
Notes: A light is meant to illuminate the surrounding area, to guide ships away from rocks and into a harbour at night, to show us the way in the dark so that we can place our feet on a sure path. It is not expected to be hidden from sight but held high.
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| www.geodu.cn |
Jesus the Light of the World.
Joh_8:12 Once more Jesus addressed them. "I am the Light of the world," He said; "the man who follows me shall certainly not walk in the dark, but shall have the light of Life."
Joh_9:5 When I am in the world, I am the Light of the world."
Notes:
If we would know how to be the Light of the World we should look to see how Christ lived despite the darkness of His day.
- He taught his twelve disciples by living with them and demonstrating how to shine in the darkness.
- He preached and Proclaimed repentance and the Kingdom of God.
- He willingly laid down His life that men might be saved.
Mat 5:14 *You* are the light of the world; a town cannot be hid if built on a hill-top.
Notes: Light will shine forth when it is held high. We are to be exposed to the world and live in a Christian getto. Pray for many Creative way to shine forth forth the Light of the Gospel. The church is to influence the surrounding society and culture.
Mat 5:15 Nor is a lamp lighted to be put under a bushel, but on the lampstand; and then it gives light to all in the house.
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| putting a light under a bushel |
Notes: Here is a light in a House. That is very place where the Light must shine. What you are out in the world you must be at home. There is no greater light to the world than a Godly Christian home where there is love and godly living and joy and reality. May all your home live in the Light of the truth of God’s Word.
Neither do men light a candle ... - The word rendered “candle” means any portable light, as a lamp, candle, lantern. Compare Mar_4:21; Luk_8:16; Luk_12:35. Jesus proceeded here to show them that the very reason why they were enlightened was that others might also see the light, and be benefited by it. When people light a candle, they do not conceal the light, but place it where it may be of use. So it is with religion. It is given that we may benefit others. It is not to be concealed, but suffered to show itself, and to shed light on a surrounding wicked world.
A bushel - Greek, a measure containing nearly a peck. It denotes anything, here, that might conceal the light.Barnes Notes
The world’s moral darkness implied.
Jesus knew all the attainments of the earth, and He could appreciate their excellency and beauty too;… but nothing of all this could cast light on the deepest problems that agitate the human heart-what must I do to be saved?
Beneath the surface of all this beauty … we find lurking the most revolting immorality. It is the light of Christianity that solves the deepest questions and answers the most anxious inquiries of mankind. The object of light is to disclose what would be otherwise unseen. This light discloses God, the way to heaven, etc. This holy light possesses a peculiar character, which the light of mere science, literature, or secular knowledge has not and cannot have. And since its dawn, even those bright things that were proposed as substitutes for it, this light has seized and made handmaids to it. Science and religion need not be divided.B.I.
Mat 5:16 Just so let your light shine before all men, in order that they may see your holy lives and may give glory to your Father who is in Heaven.
Keep the light bright or you will hear of it
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| Phare de Calais |
I read somewhere of a traveller at Calais going one dark and stormy night to the lighthouse there. Whilst standing looking on, the keeper of the house boasted of its brilliancy and beauty, observing there were few such lights in the world beside. The traveller said, thoughtlessly it may be, “What if one of these burners should go out to-night? … What!” said the keeper, “go out, sir? Oh, sir,” said he, “look at that dark and stormy sea. You cannot see them, but there are ships passing and repassing there to every point of the compass. Were the light to go out from my inattention, in six months news would arrive from every part of the coast, that such ships and crews were lost through my neglect! No, no! God forbid that such a thing should ever occur. I feel every night as I look at my burner as if all the eyes of all the sailors of the world were looking at my lights, and watching me!” If such was his care of lights, the extinction of which could lead only to temporal catastrophes, oh I what should be ours!B.I.
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| Eva and Andrus up on Calais Lighthouse |
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