SALT AND LIGHT
J.Renton
Two features that properly belong to believers during the time of the Lord's absence are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Salt arrests decay, corruption, and the working of leaven. This scripture might read, Ye are the salt of the land; that is, it is salt operating in a certain area. When the Lord was here there was a wonderful influence operating. We were reading on Lord's day in Mark 14 about the Lord in the testing circumstances before the leaders of the Jewish nation in the high priest's palace. He stands out in His perfection, His uniqueness and the holiness of His humanity. The Lord here is a wonderful object of contemplation, but in His absence believers are to be 'the salt of the land'. Wherever believers are, whether it is in their homes or in their business, in their employment, at school, whatever area believers are in, there is to be a restraining influence, a pure influence that arrests the working of corruption or leaven. Where the believer is true and where his reality shines, whatever the area may be, there is an arresting of what is evil. The Lord says "but if the salt have become insipid", that is, if the salt loses its own character; the believer is meant to have a certain character. Peter says "in your faith have also virtue", 2 Pet 1: 5. Virtue is the working of reality; it is the courage to be what you are. There are features in that section which Peter exhorts us about, so that the believer should appear in his true character as linked with and true and faithful to the Lord Jesus in heaven and having the Spirit possessing him down here.
We were reading on Lord's day about Peter "sitting with the officers and warming himself in the light of the fire" Mark 14: 54. For the moment the salt had become insipid. Peter had lost his true character. He said earlier "Lord, if it be thou, command me to come to thee upon the waters", Matt 14: 28. You see in this confession the reality of Peter. He was a real believer. You see his reality again shining out when he said "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God", Matt 16: 16. Think of the character that Peter really had! But when he was warming himself at the fire beside the officers he was not shining in his true character; he became mixed up with those who were really the enemies of the Lord. The salt had become insipid. For the moment its true character was not shining. How liable we are to be mixed up! We need to maintain separation from evil, if the salt is to retain its true character; there has to be the feature of separation. If there is mixture there will be insipidity and the salt will lose its true character. "Ye are the salt of the earth". Just as the Lord was when He was here, so believers ought to be in His absence, and the Lord gives us His Spirit to maintain reality and to prove our reality, and to act as genuine disciples of the Lord. Peter was a genuine disciple of the Lord but he was not acting as a disciple in the verses referred to in Mark 14. We have all been like Peter; maybe some of us still are. Peter was recovered; he went out and wept bitterly. When Peter spoke of dying with the Lord (see Mark 14: 31) he meant it; he really loved the Lord. He was recovered as we can see in the early chapters of the Acts where we can see the feature of "the salt of the earth". Think of the influence Peter had! We read of Peter's shadow; Peter's shadow appeared to be the means of healing persons (see Acts 5: 15). Think of the greatness of the influence that Peter had! Think of him taking that lame man by the right hand! He said "Silver and gold I have not; but what I have, this give I to thee: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazaraean rise up and walk", Acts 3: 6. You see the salt operating in Peter as a recovered man.
If we become insipid in any sense at all, there is a means of recovery. What has happened in Christendom is that the salt has become insipid permanently. In the ruin of the church, including the setting up of the clergy and all the human arrangements of men, the salt has lost its true character; it has become insipid. It says, "if the salt have become insipid, wherewith shall it be salted? It is no longer fit for anything but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot by men". That is what has happened in mere profession, the mere profession of Christ and of Christianity, and it is all around us. What we have around us is not heathendom, it is not heathen darkness; it is the insipidity of salt that has lost its savour. If salt is exposed for any length of time to certain elements it will lose its true character. Let us understand that we are meant to be an influence for good, an influence to arrest the working of evil and the working of leaven wherever we are found. This is what the believer is meant to be; it is how he has part in the testimony, not only in what is said but in what he is in reality, shining out over against a corrupted Christendom among which we move.
Then the Lord says "Ye are the light of the world". When the Lord was here He said "I am the light of the world", John 8: 12. The influence that arrests the working of evil in this world is the influence of believers; and the only light in this world is with believers. When the Lord takes believers out of this world, as will happen at the rapture, there will be nothing left but darkness. Oh, what darkness there will be! It says at the opening of the sixth seal, ''the sun became black as hair sackcloth" (Rev 6: 12); that is what is going to happen. The only light there is in this world now is in believers. When the Lord was here the only light in the world was what shone in Christ; otherwise there was darkness. "In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And light appears in darkness, and the darkness apprehended it not", John 1: 4,5. The Lord said to his disciples, "Ye are the light of the world". This world is in total darkness except for light that shines in believers. This is light, of course, as to God, as to the true knowledge of God and as to the grace of God. Where are these features found? They are found only in believers. Nowhere else in this world is there light according to this verse. "Ye are the light of the world: a city situated on the top of a mountain cannot be hid". So it is geographically, a city on top of a mountain cannot be hid; it is seen. The Lord says "Let your light thus shine before men"; I take it that refers to verse 14 as well as verse 15. Let your light thus shine, as if we were on top of a mountain, not hidden somewhere, not covered up by self-gratification, not covered up by business, not covered up by any other thing, but shining, the light thus available for men. "Let your light thus shine before men, so that they may see your upright works, and glorify your Father who is in the heavens". Oh think of the obligation that is upon us as believers, especially, dear brethren, as believers who have light vouchsafed to us, not because of our faithfulness but because of the faithfulness, the reality and the committal of men and women who have gone before us. Think of the reality that was seen in the recovery of the truth! How real persons were then! How real the coming of the Lord was to these persons! Thus because of their faithfulness, because of their committal, certain light has come to us: light as to the kingdom of God; light as to the assembly of God; light as to "my assembly", as the Lord spoke of in Matthew chapter sixteen. Think of what wonderful light we have! The Lord might say to us here in this city, "Ye are the light of the world". Every believer would shine in some way, but believers who have been blessed with such truth as has come to us are meant to shine in testimony like a city situated on the top of a mountain.
The Lord says, too, "Nor do men light a lamp and put it under the bushel, but upon the lamp-stand, and it shines for all who are in the house". There is the position of a city set on a mountain top; that is a great public thing. Our light is to shine publicly. "By this shall all know that ye are disciples of mine, if ye have love amongst yourselves", John 13: 35. All men are to know. There is what is public, but there is what is inside the house: "Nor do men light a lamp and put it under the bushel, but upon the lamp-stand". That is where the lamp is meant to be; it is meant to be upon the lamp-stand. It corresponds to local assembly conditions; brothers and sisters in their true place, and satisfied with the place they have, in the working out of things locally. It is not to be put under the bushel. We are always tested as to what we put first. We might tend to regard the Lord's things and the meetings as part-time affairs. We may have a pursuit in life and fit in the meetings somehow or fit in the Lord's service somehow. That is not the idea at all. The Lord said "seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you", Matt 6: 33. Everything else will fit into its proper place if we put first things first. Dear Mr Edgar Maynard often told us what he got from Mr Taylor: learn to put first things first. The lamp is not to be put under the bushel. It is important, of course, that we should earn our livelihood and be righteous. But the lamp-stand is the lamp's proper place. The lamp is to be put upon the lamp-stand and it shines for all who are in the house. The city on the mountain shines for all men, for all to see, but the lamp on the lamp-stand shines for those who are in the house. Those in the house get the benefit of the lamp on the lamp-stand in its proper place. May the Lord help us. These are obligations on us. Whether we like them or not, dear brethren, they are obligations upon us, but the Lord would help us to fulfil them. He would give us the power in His Spirit to fill out these obligations that He puts upon us. You will notice that it is emphatic 'ye': "Ye are the salt of the earth"; "Ye are the light of the world". The obligation is put on them and the Lord means it to be put on us, but He will help us to fill it out in reality and power. May it be so.
EDINBURGH
12 July 1977