Salt and Light Part 2 - Actions of Faith

Continuing on this theme of “Salt and Light” and “good deeds” I want to look at the book of James. In reality I would love to look at this entire book but for starters I’ll just hit a few verses that I think give us an even greater challenge to the idea of being Salt and Light and explore this idea of others seeing our good deeds as I discussed in my last blog post. (If you have not read that one yet just look down a few posts for “Salt and Light” and read that one first)

When we looked at Mathew 5 we see Jesus challenging us to show that we are truly followers of Christ, Salt and Light to this world, by our “good deeds” and I ended it with a challenge to go do good deeds. This past week I was reading in the book of James and I came across the same phrase, “good deeds” and it got my attention again.

In James 2:20 James says “How foolish! Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is dead?” In other words, if our faith is not seen by what we do then we really don’t have a life changing faith. That might seem harsh but look at the verse right before. In verse 19 James says, “You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror. “

Here James makes a very hard direct statement to those who call themselves Christians. He says that just claiming the knowledge of truth does not set us apart yet as followers of Christ (or as Salt and Light). Even the demons know that truth you claim BUT it has not penetrated their heart and life to a point of living out that truth in a way that makes them different then the way they where before they knew the truth. Our faith MUST be shown! Not because our actions save us, but its our actions that show we are saved. If the actions are absent, if our life does not have the good deeds Jesus and James talk about then what do we have? We have knowledge of Truth, yes we know Jesus is God, but what is that alone? James even asks the question in verse 14 “If you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions…Can that faith save you?”

When we truly surrender to God as the LORD of our lives our faith then is shown in our actions and good deeds because we truly begin to live out the truth that “our lives our not our own” (1 Cor 6:19) and our actions show our faith is real and alive by how we live, showing that we are living as Jesus would live and do what we saw Jesus doing.

This is not an easy word to think about but I think it’s a word that all of us who call ourselves followers of Christ must be willing to hear and let God speak to us and challenge us through.

This has greatly challenged me! Is my faith seen as active and alive by my actions? Am I Salt and Light that is seen by the world around me as different then the rest of the world? Does my faith appear dead by my actions, or lack their of…? 

I encourage you to read James Chapter 2 completely to get an even better picture of this incredible challenge to us all.  BUT also find encouragement that God is writing this to Christians who had the same struggles when it was written back then as we do today. God wants us to grow through these words and find our strength in us coming to Him in this challenge!

Salt and Light

The last several weeks there has been a theme emerging from my blog posts. I know it is flowing out of things God is teaching me but I also believe they are for us as a church. Today I came to Mathew 5. It’s a great chapter, full of so much teaching and direction from Jesus. I feel I could hang out in it for a month and still not be done seeing the many things Jesus would show me. For this blog post we will skip past a few verses and look at Matthew 5:16.

 Even though verse 16 was the one that stood out to me, here is the group of verses it flows with. Mathew 5 starting in verse 13. Jesus is talking and says:

13 “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. 14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

These are verses I have read many times and I expect you might have as well. Jesus is calling his followers, his Church, the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Great verses and they are so popular there are even a few kids’ songs that come from these as well. But it was the last verse that God emphasized to me today.

Here we are being called to be salt and light, but then the question is, how are we to be salt and light. Since there are many ways we can do that, Jesus gives clarity at the end of this section. We are salt and light when others “see your good deeds”.

So, if you’re like me, when Jesus says, “be my salt and light on this earth,” we raise our hands and say “yes” to the call. But I read that last verse and had to ask myself; have I had good deeds, and has the world seen them in a way that points to God? It’s a question we all must ask ourselves. The answer will look a little different depending on our season of life and where God has called us to be BUT the call is there all the same. He didn’t say they will hear your good words, no, he said they will see your good deeds.

So what deeds have you and I done this week or last week? Would Jesus say we are being salt and light by our deeds? It seems that is the challenge to us today….let’s go do it