Living in the Image of God M04S02
Through the salt and light teaching, Christ calls every person to build positive reputation by making positive impact in human interactions. God creates every person to do this, having granted them an intrinsic capability to represent his presence and impact in interactions with others. The capability defines an intrinsic human value that Christ likens to the saltiness of salt and calls every person to apply their human value towards responsibilities to self and others. Thus, every person has an individual responsibility to build positive reputation by making positive impact.
We discuss Christ teaching in “Salt of the Earth” and Parable of the Talents: to understand the individual responsibility to build positive reputation by making positive impact in human interactions. God creates every person with an intrinsic capability to represent his presence and radiate his impact in interactions with others. He creates every person with the capability to enhance and preserve goodness in human interactions, similar to salt enhancing and preserving goodness in food.
This capability defines an intrinsic human value that Christ likens to the saltiness of salt [Matthew 5:13]: “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.” That is, God’s purpose is for every person to build positive reputation by making positive impact in human interactions. Those that don’t have no value except to be discarded as eternal trash.
Through the “salt of the earth” analogy, Christ calls every person to apply their human value to perform responsibilities to themselves and to others. Also, he calls every person to make their human value visible and available by making positive impact in human interactions, like a light source positioned to give light to everyone, so that others will benefit and thank God for their experience. God rewards those that apply their human value to radiate positive impact and punishes those that don’t.
Call to Positive Reputation
The message of human capabilities in the Parable of the Talents combines with the message of human value in the salt and light teaching, which Christ describes using the analogy of the saltiness of salt. The two messages join to call every person to apply their God-given human capabilities to build positive reputation by making positive impact in human interactions. The Parable of the Talents provides the message that God grants human capabilities to every person and calls them to apply the capabilities to serve themselves and others and grow and diversify the capabilities through use. In the salt and light teaching, Christ calls every person to apply their human capabilities to build positive reputation by making positive impact.
Therefore, Christ teaching in the salt and light segment of the Sermon on the Mount and in the Parable of the Talents, together describe the individual responsibility to build positive reputation by making positive impact: apply human capabilities that God grants to every person to perform responsibilities to self and others and enhance and preserve goodness in human interactions.
Salt and Light Teaching
In the “Salt of the Earth” teaching of the “Sermon on the Mount,” Christ likens human value to the saltiness of salt, i.e., the intrinsic quality of salt to enhance and preserve goodness in food [Matthew 5:13]: “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.” Human value, therefore, describes the intrinsic capability of a person to enhance and preserve goodness in human interactions. Human value is the quality of a person to radiate positive impact in interactions with others.
Through the “Salt of the Earth” teaching, we learn that God calls every person to apply their human value toward responsibilities to themselves and others. He promises punishment for those that don’t. Also, he calls every person to make their human value evident through interactions with others. Similar to a light source positioned to radiate light everywhere. He calls every person to build positive reputation by making positive impact: “In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” [Matthew 5:16].
The salt and light teaching provides a message of individual responsibility regarding human values. Deploy your human value in interactions with others: to build positive reputation by making positive impact, so that others will benefit and thank God for the opportunity to interact with you.
Parable of the Talents
As we discuss previously under Individual Responsibility Regarding Human Capabilities, the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14–30) provides a message that God distributes portions of his resources as grants of human capabilities to every person; calls them to apply the capabilities to perform responsibilities to themselves and others; and expects every person to do this the same way he would, if he were to manage human responsibilities and capabilities directly in human form. Further, he calls every person to expand and diversify their capabilities by using them, rewards those that do, and punishes those that stagnate theirs by declining opportunities to use them.
Positive Reputation Examples
The bible provides several examples of positive reputation of real people. First, an example from Jesus. People were drawn to Jesus because they heard he healed the sick, freed the demon-possessed, and preached the message of God. They did not know he was God but believed his actions were of God. That is, he had a positive reputation: “When they heard about all he was doing, many people came to him from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, and the regions across the Jordan and around Tyre and Sidon” [Mark 3:8].
In an example regarding David, a servant of Saul provided an account of the positive reputation of David to recommend him for Saul’s service [1 Samuel 16:18]: “I have seen a son of Jesse of Bethlehem who knows how to play the lyre. He is a brave man and a warrior. He speaks well and is a fine-looking man. And the Lord is with him.” The phrase “the Lord is with him” means that people associated him with doing things important to them and producing positive results. That is, he had a reputation of making positive impact in human interactions.
Regarding Joseph, the 11th son of Israel, people were drawn to him because of his positive reputation while he was a slave in the house of Potiphar in Egypt. Also, he had the same impact on people when he was in Potiphar’s jail.
First, as a slave in Potiphar’s house [Genesis 39:3–4]: “When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned.” The phrase “success in everything he did” provides testimony to Joseph’s reputation of doing things important to people and doing them successfully. That means he was attentive to the needs around him, did what he could to provide for the needs, and was successful.
Second, as a prisoner in Potiphar’s jail [Genesis 39:20–21]: “…But while Joseph was there in the prison, the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden.” Again, the passage means that the prison warden was drawn to Joseph because of Joseph’s positive reputation.
Summary of What We Learned
Through the salt and light teaching, Christ calls every person to build positive reputation by making positive impact in human interactions. God creates every person to do this, having granted them an intrinsic capability to represent his presence and impact in interactions with others.
The capability defines an intrinsic human value that Christ likens to the saltiness of salt and calls every person to apply their human value towards responsibilities to self and others. Thus, every person has an individual responsibility to build positive reputation by making positive impact.