Good morning to you my precious friends
Matthew 5 verse 13 says "You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavour? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless."
How does salt become "unsalty"? That's a logical question for folks who get their salt out of saltshakers and primarily use it for seasoning. In Jesus' day, salt was an essential preservative. If salt were to lose its saltiness, then it would be only good to act as weed killer on the path where people frequently walked.
Salt had two purposes in the Middle East during the first century. Because of the lack of refrigeration, salt was used to preserve food, especially meat, which would quickly spoil in the desert environment. Believers in Christ are preservatives to the world, preserving it from the evil ingrained in the society of ungodly men whose unredeemed natures are corrupted by sin.
Second, salt was used then, as now, as a flavour enhancer. In the same way that salt enhances the flavour of the food it seasons, followers of Jesus stand out as those who “enhance” the flavour of life in this world. Christians, living under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and in obedience to Jesus Christ, will inevitably influence the world for good, as salt has a positive influence on the flavour of the food it seasons. Where there is strife, we are to be peacemakers; where there is sorrow, we are to be the ministers of Christ, binding up wounds, and where there is hatred, we are to exemplify the love of God in Christ, returning good for evil (Luke 6:35).
As believers we have an important role to play because we are the salt of the earth. Salt preserves and Christians help preserve what is good in the culture. In the ancient world, salt was very valuable: The Greeks thought it contained something almost divine, and the Romans sometimes paid their soldiers with salt. A soldier who didn't carry out his duties “was not worth his salt.”
Believers are a seasoning agent. In a sense, you can bring the distinctive flavour of God's values to all of life. We can make life palatable.
For salt to be effective, it must be in contact with the meat or fish it is to preserve. To be effective, we must be involved where we work and where we live.
The job description of a Christian is not only to maintain personal holiness, but also to touch the lives of everyone around us. At work and school, we touch many people who do not encounter Jesus in church. It may be our most effective place to witness for Christ.
Only by remaining focused on our Lord Jesus and being obedient to Him can we expect to remain salt and light in the world. Jesus said, “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”
Helen Ewing, from Scotland, was saved at a young age and gave her life completely to the lordship of Christ. When she died at age 22 it is said that all Scotland wept. She wanted to serve God as a missionary in Europe and became fluent in Russian. She was not able to fulfill that dream as she had no obvious gifts such as speaking or writing, and she had never travelled far from home. By the time she died she had been used by God to win hundreds of people to Jesus Christ. Countless missionaries mourned her death because they knew that a great channel of their spiritual strength was gone. She rose at five am to study God’s Word and pray. Her diary revealed that she regularly prayed for over three hundred missionaries by name. Everywhere she went the atmosphere was changed. If someone was telling a dirty story; they stopped if they saw her coming. If people complained, they would become ashamed of it in her presence. An acquaintance reported that while she was at Glasgow University she left the fragrance of Christ wherever she went. In everything she said and did she was God’s salt.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones said: “Christian people, we are living in the midst of men and women who are in a state of utter darkness. They will never have any light anywhere in this world except from you and from me and the gospel we believe and teach. They are watching us. Do they see something different about us? Are out lives a silent rebuke to them? Do we live so as to lead them to come and ask us, “why do you always look so peaceful? How is it you are so balanced? How can you stand up to things as you do?
Believers alone are the light of the world today. Let us live and function as salt and as Children of light.
Let us pray:
Heavenly Father, I pray that I may be a worthy witness and be salt in this world to Your glory. I pray that my words and actions and all that I am will be seasoned with salt and that You would use me to witness to the goodness of God and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ - Who gave His life as the ransom for many - this I ask in Jesus name, AMEN
Much love from Maurice and Margaret
