Explore the Bible: December 28

True Righteousness • Matt. 5:13-20, 43-48

By Carl M. White

In a way, verses 13-16 are the heart of the Sermon on the Mount, which is about being His disciple. Christian disciples are to be like salt and light, two things essential for human life. Without salt, humans could not survive. In the Iliad, Homer referred too salt as “a divine substance.”  It was so valuable it was used as currency in the ancient world.

Salt is sodium and chloride. Sodium is critical for maintaining fluids, which is necessary for the proper heart, liver, and kidney function, regulating blood pressure and blood volume. Chloride is used to create hydrochloric acid in the stomach, which is essential for digesting food. You cannot live without salt (https://www.cdc.gov/salt/sodium-potassium-health/index.html, accessed 12/3/25).

In similar fashion, life on earth could not exists without light. If our sun went out, all photosynthesis would stop, killing all plant life. Within hours the average temperature on earth would be below zero. All animal life would cease. The earth would become a frozen ball flying through the cosmos (https://www.discovery.com/science/What-Would-Happen-If-theSun-Disappeared, accessed 12/3/25).

Both salt and light are consumed as they are used. Salt quickly dissolves into the substance in which it is placed. Light is energy, created by consuming something, like a log in a fire, the wick of a candle, or the battery in a flashlight.

Jesus says that his disciples are essential for the flourishing of human life as He intended, but only to the degree that disciples give of themselves or spend themselves in the service of others in His name. How are you spending yourself for others?

Jesus also tells of how salt and light are different. Salt is a hidden quality. You taste it or see its effect, but you don’t see the salt itself. Thus, a disciples’ first influence is hidden from sight. Light, however, is the opposite. It is the obvious, open, visible influence of a disciple. Light reveals itself boldly!

The order is significant. It is salt, then light. First is the hidden aspect of discipleship, then comes the visible aspect of being His disciple. Without the hidden part, there will be no worthwhile visible part. 

Notice it says you ARE salt and light, not you HAVE salt and light. It is about being — truth being incarnate in you, not about some special knowledge you possess. 

When the text says, “You are,” it has three qualities. First, it is emphatic: “you and you alone!” Someone else cannot be salt or light on your behalf. You and you alone will retard the rot of society and shine a light to show a better way. No one else can do your part. Second, it is also inclusive. “You, every one of you!” All disciples are to embody salt and light.

Third, it is broad. Not you are the salt and light of the church, but you are salt and light of the whole earth. We spend too much time in salt-shaker buildings instead of getting out and being salt and light to the world. A light is meant to shine in the darkness, not be hidden. 

When the people of God are out being salt and light, others will see and experience it and your Father in heaven will be glorified.

The Sermon on the Mount is beautiful, yet its demand can seem impossible. Have you ever noticed verses 20 and 48? “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (NASB).

It is doubtful that any of us are as studious or careful as the Pharisees, and none of us are perfect like our heavenly Father. But recognize this — we have the Word of God, which is inerrant and infallible (vss. 17-19). Even if we are not as righteous as a Pharisee, we can stand on God’s Word, and God’s Word declares that we are found in Christ, “… not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith” (Phil 3:9). 

With Christ’s righteousness imputed to me, I have a righteousness that exceeds the Pharisees, and I am counted as perfect, as is my Father in Heaven. Based on Christ’s righteousness, I can be salt and light!

White is a member of Pineview Church, Clinton.