Genuine Character Leads to Influence: Does Your Life Make People Thirsty?

When Jesus encountered the Samaritan woman at the well in Sychar, their conversation about water quickly became a conversation about thirst. Her life was leaving her thirsty, and even though she was the person holding the water jar, she realized that Jesus was drawing from a well from which she had never drawn. His words, his questions, and his face turned toward hers were winsome, and his life only intensified her thirst.

Later, when Jesus traveled to Jerusalem for the Feast of Booths, he found himself speaking to a crowd that comprised eager learners who had come for truth alongside somber judges who had come to argue. Already, he was laying down clues that pointed to his mission of redemption. He would be “lifted up,” he had come from “the Father.” “I am the light of the world,” he declared. “Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Jesus’s interactions with people here on the ground were weighty, life-changing, and influential. Reading them against the backdrop of my study in the Sermon on the Mount, I see that Matthew 5:13-16 is nothing less than a call to Christlikeness:

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:13-16)

Character Leads to Influence

Christ embodies the qualities he pronounced as “blessed” in the Beatitudes. As a result, his life awakened a thirst for God and radiated the light of God’s holiness and love in a dark time.

His marching orders to us, the church, his present-day disciples are clear: we are to be people of influence based on our Christ-like character. Salt and light must come into contact with the world to be effective. This calls for a level of vulnerability and exposure that may be uncomfortable—or even dangerous! Notice the final Beatitude about “persecution for righteousness sake.”

As salt, we preserve God’s way of living—even as traditional values and biblical worldview foundations are being maligned and discredited in many venues. We prevent the spread of decay by serving in quiet obedience. And we persevere despite the salty sting for we long to embrace God’s faithfulness and steadfastness as our true identity in this world.

As light, we illuminate the truth of the gospel in our lives and in our deeds. We work hard to keep the “basket” of harsh words and fringe arguments from obscuring the true light. We long to reveal what is hidden and to illuminate what’s good so it can grow.

Praying Together: May We Be Salt and Light

Lord, we read your words and we read your life and the two are inseparable. You embodied your teaching and people were drawn to the truth. Help us, by your Spirit, to demonstrate the blessed life you outlined in the Beatitudes. May we make people thirsty for ultimate meaning for their lives and a relationship with someone who can tell them “all that [they] ever did,” and loves them anyway. Help us as lights in a dark world to shine our light on the pathway to the true light of life.
Amen

Let’s continue this conversation:

• Is there a specific situation in which God is reminding you of his calling to be salt and light?
• Reading through Jesus’ words about salt and light, which metaphor is the most compelling to you?