How can we be salt and light?
So, as free Christians in a free state, how do we influence our culture as salt and light? First, we engage the culture. Salt is no good in a saltshaker. Light is no use under a basket. We are to take Christ to society, going to those who will not come to us.
In Matthew 4, Jesus called his first disciples to “follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (v. 19). They had been fishermen—now they would fish for men. Why the analogy?
Fishermen know that they must go to the fish where they are rather than waiting for the fish to jump into their boat. They use the bait tha
t attracts the fish, not the bait that is convenient to them. Not many of us would choose to dig worms out of the earth and impale them on a hook, but fishermen use the bait the fish will bite. They fish when the fish are active, not when they happen to want to fish. And they measure success not by the size of their boat but the size of their catch.
These factors all pertain to cultural transformation. Since lost people are not coming to us, we must go to them. The number of atheists and agnostics in America has quadrupled over the last 20 years. One in four millennials (adults ages 18 to 29) has no religious commitment of any kind. Only one percent of college students go to church on Sunday. Clearly we must to go the fish, where they are, as they are. Our salt and light must go where they are needed most.
So see your job, your school, your neighborhood as your Kingdom assignment. Know that you are a missionary to your culture where you are. Bloom where you’re planted. Ask God to lead you where he is at work, to follow his Spirit as he is drawing people to Jesus. Know that he is already working in the hearts of people you know, and is ready to call you to your role in that ministry. Eternal salvation is not up to you—you cannot convict a single sinner of a single sin or save a single soul. But the Spirit wants to use your witness and compassion as he leads people to your Lord. Go where he leads.
Second, measure success by influence. Salt and light are measured by the taste and visibility they bring to the places they touch. The saltshaker is not as important as the taste of the salt. The candlestick is not as important as the candle’s light. Returning to Jesus’ analogy of fishing for men, the boat is not as important as the fish. Our culture measures us by what it can see—our popularity, possessions, and performance. God measures us by what he can see—saved souls and changed lives. Ask God every day to use you to influence those you know.
Last, lose yourself. The salt disappears as it works; the light is dissipated as it overcomes the dark. It’s not about you. God is the great I Am—we are the little I Am Not. Mother Teresa called herself “a little pencil in the hand of a writing God, who is sending a love letter to the world.” Be that pencil, and know that God can make more of your life than you can. You cannot measure the eternal significance of present faithfulness.
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