Remain Salty

“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. ESV Matthew 5:13

The Essence – Salt

Salt is one of the five abilities that we have as taste. Salt as sodium chloride is so stable a compound that almost no natural element can turn salt into another compound.  Salt is needed in the body for survival.  Salt kills bacteria and can preserve meat for years.  As late as the 19 century salt blocks were used as currency in the country of Abyssinia now known as Ethiopia.  The first Roman Road was made for the Salt trade.

The Problem – Dilution

Water and other chemicals can dilute salt or contaminate it where it is no longer usable for consumption.  The life giving qualities have become useless and also harmful.  It will kill grass and all sorts of vegetation.  Hence it is to be thrown on the roads to keep them clean of vegetation and ease of travel. 

The Application – As a child of God, he compares our influence in the world as salt.  We need to guard against activities that would dilute our witness to the world as salt.  This means – wanting to be like the “world”, engaging in worldly thinking that influences our world view (music, tv, talk/ sports radio, reading materials, philosophies in education, pursuit of entertainment movies…most Christians can quote more movie lines and song lyrics than Bible verses.).  I am not saying boycott all forms of media…BUT how do you know when the spiritual salt in your life is becoming diluted? How can we guard against diluting the purity of the Jesus life in us?  Look at where you spend your time! If we lose our saltiness, we will NO longer be effective in leading people to Jesus for the eternal life that is needed.  SALT IS FOR OTHERS TO EXPERIENCE CHRIST!  Have we become tasteless and ineffective?

The Hope – We can walk humbly ask God to forgive us of the dilution that engagement in media has had on us.  And Jesus will forgive us!  We can ask for him to make us salty again so that others begin asking what makes us different.  We can ask for him to lead us to people that are thirsty to know about salvation.  In and through Jesus we can be made useful again….even when we have blown it from our perspective.  His grace upholds those who are broken and contrite in heart.

You Are the Salt of The Earth.