The Bible Study Podcast, episode 415. Today, the Bible Study podcast continues the study of the gospel of Matthew and the sermon on the Mount.

Welcome to the Bible study podcast. I'm your host, Chris Christensen. We dealt with the beatitudes

last week in Matthew 5, and we're going to go on with as much of the sermon on the Mount as we

can get to today. And we start this way, with salt and light. You are the salt of the earth,

but if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?

It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.

Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.

Instead, they put it on a stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.

In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your father in heaven.

Salt of the earth is certainly an expression we've heard, although it's probably a little

more obscure that it used to be.

I'm not sure if you realize how valuable salt used to be.

Salt was the only thing that let your meat last longer, and therefore it was quite valuable.

And that's why somebody who is valuable is worth their salt. That is why you get a salary,

in fact, which is still coming from salt, and why when we go to work,

we often are going back to the salt mines. And so when he's talking about salt, he's not talking

about something like we think of as being just something cheap you buy at the supermarket,

but something quite valuable. But what good is that salt when it loses

its value? Salt is supposed to be salty. Light is supposed to shine. And he's saying here,

if you are God's followers, if you are God's disciples, you're supposed to shine.

You're supposed to be salty.

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