Salt & Light

Isaiah 60:1–9

“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the LORD rises upon you and His glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. “Lift up your eyes and look about you: All assemble and come to you; your sons come from afar, and your daughters are carried on the hip. Then you will look and be radiant, your heart will throb and swell with joy; the wealth on the seas will be brought to you, to you the riches of the nations will come. Herds of camels will cover your land, young camels of Midian and Ephah. And all from Sheba will come, bearing gold and incense and proclaiming the praise of the LORD. All Kedar’s flocks will be gathered to you, the rams of Nebaioth will serve you; they will be accepted as offerings on my altar, and I will adorn my glorious temple. “Who are these that fly along like clouds, like doves to their nests? Surely the islands look to me; in the lead are the ships of Tarshish, bringing your children from afar, with their silver and gold, to the honor of the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, for He has endowed you with splendor.”

When God’s light is upon us, we bask in the reflected glory and become radiant givers of His grace in a dark world. God’s promise is that then “you will look and be radiant, your heart will throb and swell with joy; the wealth on the seas will be brought to you, to you the riches of the nations will come (v. 5).” How wonderful that promise of joy is! May we always reflect God’s grace in our everyday life. The Apostle Paul tells the Colossian church of a practical application to do just this especially in dealing with non-Christians, he reminds them to “act wisely toward outsiders, redeeming the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone (Col 4:5-6).” Indeed we are the good flavour of the earth, we ought to reject bad taste as it were, and let everything we be in good faith. This stems directly from the LORD’s teaching, the LORD said we are the salt of the earth, and that “salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, with what will you season it? Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with one another (Mark 9:50).” Like Jason shared, there is just no point to the prideful kind of fighting adults engage in, St. Paul encourages all “if it is possible on your part, live at peace with everyone (Rom 12:18)”, and he says this sandwiched in, “do not repay anyone evil for evil. Carefully consider what is right in the eyes of everybody…” and “do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but leave room for God’s wrath. For it is written: “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” (Rom 12:17, 19), further down his letter to the Romans he concludes, so then, let us pursue what leads to peace and to mutual edification (Rom 14:19).” I believe peace begins with peace and reconciliation with God, that’s what Christ came to us for because of God’s love; and that peace starts within us individually, and towards our Christian community, this is how we shine God’s light to this dim and aching world, and nations will come to our light, and kings to the brightness of our dawn (v. 3), we will be known for our love that Christ modelled: “By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another (John 13:35)."