When we are willing to receive instruction from God and embrace his attitudes, we display God’s character and his heart to the world. This will draw increasing attention to the Church of Christ from the people of this world. Not all the attention will be positive. Because we are the fragrance of life to those who are being saved and the smell of death to those who are perishing, people will either be drawn or repulsed by our testimony (2 Cor 2:15-16). And that is why after talking about the godly attitudes we are to embrace (Mat 5:1-9), Jesus warned us that there would be persecution and rejection (Mat 5:10-12).

The confrontation between truth and lies, light and darkness will become even more intense in our generation. Therefore we should not allow ourselves to be intimidated nor to give up, because we are the light and salt of the earth. (Mat 5:13-16) As the salt of the earth we are to be pure, to flavor life with the wonder of God's presence among us, to sting and convict the sinful wound of the world, to create a thirst for Christ by the very way we live, as Israel is to be provoked to jealousy by the church, and we are to be a preservative, placed in the world to retard its corruption.

We are in the world (John 17:11) because we have to be in contact with the world to exert our influence. God has placed us where we are to bring the fragrance of Christ there. And we need to be conscious about abiding in the faith. When things seem to go wrong and get worse we need to pray (1 Peter 4:7) and continue to stand firm on our values. The world is not shy to espouse perverted values; we likewise cannot be shy about what we believe. We cannot sit on the fence, we have to choose who we will serve (Jos 24:15). If we choose to live like the world, we will suffer the same calamity as the world.

Jesus calls us to be both salt and light. Salt is hidden in its work, but light is obvious. It cannot be hidden (Mat 5:14). Light both dispels the works of darkness and exposes them (Eph 5:11-13). While salt is the influence of our Christian character, quiet but powerful, light is the communication of our Christian faith, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, in an obvious and demonstrative way. We are to communicate our faith by both words and conduct to show forth the light of the world.

In the Bible, light refers to the knowledge of God that brings life (Psa 36:9). In the New Testament, we discover that Jesus is God’s light that brings life (John 1:4, 8:12). The devil fights to blind the world from seeing the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ (2 Cor 4:3-4). Therefore we have to be visible influences. In Israel cities would be built on hills, where they would be both visible and easily defended. And at nightfall the entire city would be lit up, because each household would light itself up and the individual lights would shine collectively. People traveling will never be lost, because they can see the city in the darkness. And this is a picture of what the church is supposed to be to the world, a light in the darkness. The world desperately needs us to reveal Jesus Christ to them. If we do not, we are salt that are no longer salty, light that is hidden under the bowl. We would lose our relevance and usefulness to the world we live in.

In order that we may reveal Christ we need to first be clear-minded and prayerful (1 Pet 4:7). That will keep us from being intimidated nor be confused by spiritual opposition. We are also to rejoice at our trials and persecutions because the Spirit of glory and of God is upon us (1 Pet 4:12-14). We are not to jump into every battle, but to carefully choose our battles based on God’s leading and remember that Jesus has won the war. There will come a time when we will have no further opportunity to work (John 9:4), so now is the time to stand up and be counted for God’s cause.

Points to ponder: