{"id":337,"date":"2014-08-04T12:00:11","date_gmt":"2014-08-04T12:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?p=337"},"modified":"2014-07-29T20:53:28","modified_gmt":"2014-07-29T20:53:28","slug":"matthew-513-16-salt-and-light-rhetorical-influences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/08\/matthew-513-16-salt-and-light-rhetorical-influences.html","title":{"rendered":"Matthew 5:13-16; Salt and Light (Rhetorical Influences)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Some Bible teachers try to mine deeply the idea that Christians are \u201csalt and light.\u201d For them, every little aspect bears a significant application: Salt preserves, so we should be \u201cpreservatives\u201d in our society. Light shines, so we should testify brightlyall the time. Salt was used to kill vegetation on ancient footpaths, so we should\u2026well, who knows what we should do with that. And so on.<\/p>\n<p>In their zeal for the biblical text, these preachers often overlook the divine simplicity of Christ\u2019s teaching. In this case, Jesus simply employed <em>rhetorical absurdity<\/em> to make a point, using extreme metaphors of salt and light to reveal natural spiritual truth to his hearers.<\/p>\n<p>For instance, pure salt is a chemically stable substance. It never goes bad, has no expiration date, and can never \u201close its saltiness.\u201d Thus, when Jesus said \u201cif the salt loses its saltiness\u201d he made an over-the-top rhetorical statement that would&#8217;ve been easily understood as such by his audience. The image of a person lighting a lamp and then hiding it under a bowl was likewise ridiculous. Only a mentally unstable person would have done that.<\/p>\n<p>The point Jesus seemed to make here wasn&#8217;t that we\u2019re supposed to take on all the obscure characteristics of salt or light. Instead, Christ called his hearers to live out everyday expressions of faith that are similar to the run-of-the-mill existence of salt and light:<\/p>\n<p>Just as it\u2019s <em>natural<\/em> for salt to be salty and <em>natural<\/em> for light to shine, it\u2019s a <em>natural<\/em> thing for God\u2019s children to daily reflect the goodness and glory of their heavenly Father.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/workscited.html\">Works Cited<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>[MAC, 1381]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u2126\u2126\u2126<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"About: Bible Study Nerds\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/about-for-bible-study-nerds.html\">About: For Bible Study Nerds\u2122<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"About: Mike Nappa\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/about-mike-nappa.html\">About: Mike Nappa<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2014 to present by\u00a0<a title=\"Nappaland Communications Inc. official website\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nappaland.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nappaland Communications Inc<\/a>. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some Bible teachers try to mine deeply the idea that Christians are \u201csalt and light.\u201d For them, every little aspect bears a significant application: Salt preserves, so we should be \u201cpreservatives\u201d in our society. Light shines, so we should testify brightlyall the time. Salt was used to kill vegetation on ancient footpaths, so we should\u2026well,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":571,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,113],"tags":[81,115,116,114],"class_list":["post-337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-matthew","category-rhetorical-influences","tag-light","tag-parables","tag-rhetoric","tag-salt"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Matthew 5:13-16; Salt and Light (Rhetorical Influences) - For Bible Study Nerds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/08\/matthew-513-16-salt-and-light-rhetorical-influences.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Matthew 5:13-16; Salt and Light (Rhetorical Influences) - For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Some Bible teachers try to mine deeply the idea that Christians are \u201csalt and light.\u201d For them, every little aspect bears a significant application: Salt preserves, so we should be \u201cpreservatives\u201d in our society. Light shines, so we should testify brightlyall the time. Salt was used to kill vegetation on ancient footpaths, so we should\u2026well,&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/08\/matthew-513-16-salt-and-light-rhetorical-influences.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-08-04T12:00:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-07-29T20:53:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mike Nappa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Matthew 5:13-16; Salt and Light (Rhetorical Influences) - For Bible Study Nerds","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/08\/matthew-513-16-salt-and-light-rhetorical-influences.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Matthew 5:13-16; Salt and Light (Rhetorical Influences) - For Bible Study Nerds","og_description":"Some Bible teachers try to mine deeply the idea that Christians are \u201csalt and light.\u201d For them, every little aspect bears a significant application: Salt preserves, so we should be \u201cpreservatives\u201d in our society. Light shines, so we should testify brightlyall the time. Salt was used to kill vegetation on ancient footpaths, so we should\u2026well,&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/08\/matthew-513-16-salt-and-light-rhetorical-influences.html","og_site_name":"For Bible Study Nerds","article_published_time":"2014-08-04T12:00:11+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-07-29T20:53:28+00:00","author":"Mike Nappa","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/08\/matthew-513-16-salt-and-light-rhetorical-influences.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/08\/matthew-513-16-salt-and-light-rhetorical-influences.html","name":"Matthew 5:13-16; Salt and Light (Rhetorical Influences) - For Bible Study Nerds","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-08-04T12:00:11+00:00","dateModified":"2014-07-29T20:53:28+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#\/schema\/person\/a0ce37903172885871b0c504c6694575"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/08\/matthew-513-16-salt-and-light-rhetorical-influences.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/08\/matthew-513-16-salt-and-light-rhetorical-influences.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/08\/matthew-513-16-salt-and-light-rhetorical-influences.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Matthew 5:13-16; Salt and Light (Rhetorical Influences)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/","name":"For Bible Study Nerds","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Mike Nappa","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#\/schema\/person\/a0ce37903172885871b0c504c6694575","name":"Mike Nappa","description":"Mike Nappa is an entertainment journalist at FamilyFans.com, a bestselling author\u2014and a notorious Bible Study Nerd. He's a former youth pastor who shepherded kids on staff at Chuck Swindoll's church in Southern California\u2014and he's a bestselling and award-winning author with more than a million copies of his books sold worldwide. Plus, he holds a degree in Christian Education with an emphasis in Bible Theology. So, you know, he\u2019s got that going for him. Mike is also a pop culture dork who watches too much TV, reads too many comic books, utters too many bad words, laughs at all the wrong jokes, and often gets in trouble because he says whatever he happens to be thinking at the moment\u2014like quoting an R-rated movie in the middle of a sermon. Yeah, he\u2019s a mess (just like you!), but he kind of likes it that way. Most of all, Mike Nappa loves Jesus, and he figures that covers over a multitude of sins. Learn more at nappaland.com\/mikenappa.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.biblestudynerds.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/author\/mnappa"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/571"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":341,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337\/revisions\/341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}