2. Matthew 5:13-16.
Discuss: What does Jesus mean about salt? About light?
What lessons is he teaching us here?
How are we supposed to be salt and light to the world? Why?
How should we as a fellowship or small group be salt and light?
3. Other verses (optional)
Discuss what some of these verses tell us about how to be salt and light to others.
4. the gospel.
Are you familiar with how to share your testimony, share the gospel, or share your faith with
others? If not, refer to the
ICCF Bible study materials on evangelism
from Spring 1999.
5. New student outreach.
Discuss:
How familiar are you with the new student outreach, and year-round outreach?
In what way will you participate?
How do you establish contact with non-Christians, and invite them to our fellowship?
How can you do so in a non-threatening way?
For what purpose do we cultivate friendships witn non-Christians?
Is our friendship conditional upon them becoming Christians? What if they refuse to believe in Christ?
6. Conclusion.
You should talk about what the fellowship and your language group is planning to do for new student
outreach, and even use this time to do further planning with your small group members,
in order to get them involved. Get each member (excluding non-Christians who may be there) to
get involved and commit to some aspect of new student contact and outreach, both for the
official outreach period of September and August, as well as beyond. They should be aware that
this is an on-going need throughout the year, involving outreach to friends, new students, and to
whomever they have contact with, and that it's not just the job of the evangelistic Bible studies
or EBS coworkers.
7. Prayer and sharing.
Pray for the new student outreach, and for each member's commitment and involvement in this work.
Here are some specific suggestions1.
1. Matthew 5:13-16.
2. Rev. 3:14-16.
8. Notes.
Leader's notes: Pick whatever is relevent from the above items for your Bible study,
adding whatever material of your own you feel is relevent and helpful.
This should be more like a mini-Bible study / refresher course, plus specific discussion
about new student work. Be sure to spend plenty of time on prayer afterwards.
Text notes.
v13. salt. Generally in ancient times, salt was used to flavor and preserve food during
its storage. The Romans also used it to pay soldiers, but to the Jewish audience here, the
preservative and flavoring purposes of salt are most relevant. The salt used in Israel came mostly
from the Dead Sea, which was full of impurities, causing it to lose some of its flavor.
v14. city on a hill. E.g., Jerusalem, or other similar cities; this is not only an ideal location
for a city in this time and culture, but an obvious location that couldn't be missed.
v15. lamp. Ancient Jewish people used small clay lamps. Part of the lamp rim was
pinched together to form a spout on the top. The inside of the lamp contained olive oil, and a wick was
placed in the spout into the oil. The wick fed by the oil was burned, much like oil lamps of
other cultures. Lamps were often placed on a metal pedestal with a ledge on top to hold the lamp.
bowl. A bowl that held about 8 liters of ground meal or flour.
In ancient times and today, Turkey (a.k.a., Anatolia, Asia Minor) is famous for its natural springs and
spring baths. In the first century, Laodicea was famous for its textile industry, banking industry, and
for its spring baths, as it had many natural springs in the area. People valued hot spring baths, because
the hot water with its minerals were considered to have medicinal or healing benefits. But people
also valued the cold spring baths for their refreshment. If you sit for a while in a hot spring bath, after
a while you will go to the cold bath for refreshment (you can try this in areas with spring baths, like in
Turkey or Japan). For a bather, a lukewarm bath would be useless; it would have no curative value
or refreshment.
Likewise, we Christians are supposed to be a source of healing and blessing to the world.
If God is unable to use us for this end (say, e.g., due to our spiritual lukewarmness, sins, unholy lives,
prayerlessness, lack of concern, spiritual weakness, etc.), we are useless in the kingdom of God.
1 Thanks to Elbert for these prayer items.