Are you salt?
Since my last blog post, I have spent a considerable amount of time thinking about the time that we live in and how we are called to respond as Christians. With clear direction/commandments in God’s Word, I am concerned that we as Christians are not fully capitalizing on this very unique opportunity. We find ourselves presented with a society that is extremely polarized and fearful.
As part of Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount, He draws attention to the fact that Christians are supposed to be different from the secular world. In Matthew 5:3-11, Jesus gives a description of what a Christian looks like. While this passage of Scripture, also known as the Beatitudes, gives a sobering view of what the believer can expect to face in this earthly life, it also provides very encouraging and comforting promises.
First and foremost, Jesus repeats the fact that those who trust in Him are blessed. Even though they are poor in spirit, they mourn, and they are meek, they are blessed. Jesus then proceeds to give a description of how believers should act and treat others. Believers are to be merciful, pure in heart, and they should desire to make peace, even though He says that they will be persecuted and reviled.
Once Jesus is finished illustrating the description of how a Christian is to live and act, He then addresses how they are to compare in relationship to the world. To make this comparison, Jesus uses the analogy of salt. There are two aspects of salt that are applicable. First is the most obvious and familiar aspect of salt, which is the fact that salt is an excellent flavor enhancer. There is a lot of chemistry surrounding how and why salt does what it does when we put in on or in our food. One way that salt enhances the flavor of food is that it blocks the taste buds from registering bitter tastes in the food you are eating. Another way that salt improves taste is that it brings out certain flavors that compliment the overall taste of the food. Second, salt is an excellent preservative and has been used for centuries to assist with food storage and it was even used as a disinfectant by rubbing it on newborn babies. With that, I have exhausted my knowledge of the chemistry surrounding salt, so if you want to know more I invite you to do some further research.
Now that we have considered a little bit how salt works and how it has been used, we can better see what our Savior was illustrating. He begins by saying that those that he had just described i.e. those who believe, are “the salt of the earth”. With that alone we can make a very obvious conclusion and one that should guide our biblical worldview. This first conclusion is that we are different. We should not “taste” like the world or to say it another way, there should be a clear contrast between believers and non believers. Secondly, a believers life should be one that enhances or improves the environment around them. Lastly, Christians should act as a preservative by not succumbing to the sin and influence of the world and holding fast to the truth of Scripture and putting our faith in Christ and ultimately God the Father.
Jesus then proceeded to explain that there is no use for salt that has lost it taste. Its only use at that point is to be thrown out and subsequently walked on. It is important to remember the lens in which Christ is looking. His concern and focus is on eternity because this life is but a twinkling of an eye or as we see in Ecclesiastes, life is vanity of vanities. So, if Christians are not going to be different than the world and be of the world, then they have no eternal significance and would argue that there is a very real risk that they do not have a saving faith in Jesus Christ. This idea is illustrated by Jesus in 1 John 2:15-17.
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (1 Jn 2:15–17). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
Do you see? If you are a Christian, you have the love of the Father which means you do not love the world. When we do the will of the God, then we abide in eternity and our viewpoint should be on heavenly things.
When we begin to consider the love of the Father and the fact that as Christians we will be in our eternal home, a home that will be perfect and last forever, all of the trials of this life will begin to look different. Viruses, the economy, our jobs begin to take on a different level of importance. The things that used to cause us anxiety and stress loose their “power” and affect on us.
So how should we behave? First and foremost our only hope is in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He bore the full penalty for our sins and we must repent, turn away from our sins, and accept His saving work! We then begin studying and meditating on Gods Holy Word because we KNOW that He is our Father in Heaven. We should meditate on His sovereignty, magnificence, and love. It is also important that we honestly judge our hearts and our intentions and if we are becoming stressed and focused on the news, social media posts, our careers, or our life circumstances then we must realign our focus. This is especially true if all of these things are crowding out our worship and obedience to God. Remember, that as the Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 11:36 that God is over all things and that all glory should and will go to Him.
36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Ro 11:36). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
Since God sent His only Son to die for our sins, and we know that ALL things come from God, and ultimately return to God, what do we have to worry about? Nothing can happen without God first initiating it and allowing it to happen, so we can rest in His sovereignty. All of this makes it possible for us to be a flavorful enhancement to those around us in this ever changing time that God has chosen to place us.
In Him,
Aaron