People love pretty lies, so the world needs Christians who are willing to say hard things in a convicting way. Or, to put it another way, “You are the salt of the earth.”

 

At the same time, people feel embattled and crushed by life, so the world needs Christians to say encouraging things about our ultimate purpose. In other words: “You are the light of the world.”
-Tom Hoopes

 

You are the salt of the earth

When I first sat down to write this post, I was going in a totally different direction until I found this article written by Tom Hoopes. Wowzers. I mean, wow! This hits different.

People love pretty lies, so the world needs Christians who are willing to say hard things in a convicting way. Or to put it another way, “You are the salt of the earth.”

People love pretty lies. Isn’t this the sad truth about our sinful selves? If/when Satan wraps a lie in a pretty package, it often doesn’t take much for us to be enticed. This “pretty package” might look different for you than it does for me, but put it in pretty wrapping paper and tie a gorgeous bow on top and all of a sudden something that we were attempting to stand strongly in opposition to draws us in and we get a bit tangled up in the enticement even if we know what’s inside is a bomb waiting to detonate.

We love pretty lies whether we want to admit it or not. The sins we struggle with the most almost never appear repulsive in the moments that we are the weakest. In fact, the more we brush up with or fall into deviance, the more and more comfortable we become being deviant, sometimes even claiming this way of life as part of our identity. This, THIS is why we are called to be the salt of the earth. “The world needs Christians who are willing to say hard things in a convicting way,” as Tom Hoopes puts it, to keep us from falling into the trap of pretty lies. The harder we fall into the lies, the more we get comfortable in our cesspool of sin.

You are the light of the world

And isn’t it equally true for many that “people feel embattled and crushed by life” and the weight of the sin of the whole world? As Christians it is imperative that we embody ourselves as the light of the world to bring glory to God and to be reminded that we have a Savior. “The world needs Christians to say encouraging things about our ultimate purpose.” Just like a lamp placed underneath a bushel basket becomes useless, Christians can be less than useful if we are afraid to embody ourselves with the light of the world and to speak the Truth of God. We are hurting. The world is hurting. When we withhold the “secret” of our Savior, hurt remains, sometimes growing in amplification. Let us not only stymie the brokenness of the world, but let us instead step into our God-given purpose as His created. We were made for the Creator and to do His work. Whether we like that truth or not, it is imbued in our very being. No matter how hard we may try to outrun that truth, it’s simply not possible. The harder we may try to outrun this truth, the more we actually need to be in union with it.

A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden

Let us become the city set on a mountain, so that like the disciples we may not escape notice. Rather, let us be a burgeoning force of good works not to be rendered useless like flavorless salt or a lamp hidden. May our light shine before others so they may see our good deeds and glorify our heavenly Father.

Let us come out of hiding.

Have no fear,
Jackie

Hoopes, T. (2023, February 2). This Sunday, the deep psychology behind ‘Salt’ and ‘Light.’ Benedictine College Media & Culture. https://media.benedictine.edu/this-sunday-the-deep-psychology-behind-salt-and-light#:~:text=Jesus%20told%20us%20we%20are,insipid%2C%20and%20too%20often%20dark