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 by men."
Jesus likens his followers to salt in today's verses. In the pure sense, salt is a seasoning, a preservative. In a literary sense, salt represents zest, spirit, vitality, sparkle. We even use the word salt to describe someone who uses strong language as one who is salty in their speech. The ability to discern the presence of salt is one of our basic tastes along with the ability to detect sweet, sour, and bitter. Jesus may have been thinking of all these things in his use of the word. Certainly, Christians should bring flavor to life, and we should be agents who protect and preserve the gospel. Likewise as we shine for the Lord, we bring a healthy new spirit into every room we enter; we bring energy, joy, and excitement for life as we show forth the person of Jesus. When we meet such a believer, we feel more alive, more on fire as their spirit seems contagious and inspires us to go deeper into Christ's love.
So how do we lose our saltiness? In our busy modern world, many activities, thoughts, and ideas contend for our interest. One of Satan's most effective tools is distraction, getting us off track. If we lose sight of our true purpose as believers to grow in our faith and to share the "good news," we can easily become spiritually dull and tasteless without the life-giving flow of the Holy Spirit directing and teaching us. We can become like the church at Laodicea described in Revelation. Because these people were lukewarm in their faith, the Lord said He would spew them out of his mouth. In Psalm 34, we read, Taste and see that the Lord is good. That same goodness should emanate from our lives as God brings forth a harvest of the fruit of the Spirit to feed hungry souls. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control help make up our saltiness, our essence, our testimony of life and growth in Jesus.
Salt is essential to all living creatures including humans because it not only adds flavor and zest to life but it regulates the fluid content in a living being. Jesus surely had this in mind when He called us the salt of the earth. As salt and life, we have an important role in God's kingdom, so vital that if we lose that element of our being, we are no longer effective in the body of Christ. Jesus says if we lose our saltiness we are no longer good for anything, a harsh judgment. Yet his words make sense because we are not meant to be inert, bland, or stagnant in our service to the Lord. God calls us to be light and life in a dark and dying world where people hunger for food that satisfies, the Bread of Life. Once when I made bread, I forgot the salt. The lack of such a small ingredient made the bread not rise as it should, and it tasted more like sawdust than my usual delicious homemade bread. Just as salt is essential to the baking of good bread, salty Christians are needed in God's economy where people taste of the Lord by partaking of what we offer, our personalities and our faith.
We stay salty by staying in the Word, by praying, by giving the Holy Spirit complete control of our plans and our activities. As part of the body of Christ, each of us has work to do, exciting and purposeful work in God's kingdom. To do the King's bidding, we must be full to overflowing with his goodness and love; we must be aware of God's purposes for our lives and committed to fulfilling his desires. Every day God presents opportunities for us to be salt: to season, to preserve, and to bring vitality to others. Yet none of us can make ourselves more salty through our own human efforts. We need to sit at the feet of Jesus and learn of him. We need to focus on God's will, not our own. As we grow in grace and the knowledge of the Lord, yielded to the Holy Spirit's control, we will see God's hand extended to us and through us. God does not want any of his children trampled or destroyed; He wants us alive and functioning for him. If God finds us salty and full of him, He will use us for his glory. We are a privileged people. May we bring honor to our Father by allowing him to enrich our lives, making us the salt of the earth that will preserve, protect, and enliven those we meet.
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