“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.” Matthew 5:13
Did you know that salt is not only a flavoring element within food, but is also a preserver of food? Salt has been one of those ancient ways in which people have used to prevent food from rotting. So when Jesus told those gathered there that they were salt of the earth, he chose a topic with which the people would understand. Still today food is of epic importance to our survival as people. We can last for a long time without it, but food nourishes us, sustains us and provides us with the appropriate vitamins and nutrients. Without those vital components in life, we will eventually perish.
Jesus brought his message home to those who would listen that this world is perishing. All things have an expiration date…yet what will preserve us? What will make us last a little longer? What will inject much needed flavor into our world? The answer is simply those who will follow after God’s own heart!
This world will eventually pass away, and sometimes we may think it may be in our life time when we see unspeakable horrors and violence, humans turning on other humans, death and destruction…our world is a violent place. Yet, the preserving element of life is God who is the author and sustainer of all things. When we align our hearts, body and soul to Him, we find that the outpouring of this faith is love, peace, hope and joy…something this world desperately needs more of!
When we display love without strings attached, a joy without ulterior motives other than for others to find this same joy as well, we will inject our worlds with just a little bit of God’s epic flavor.
So how about it? Are you prepared to be God’s preservationist? Are you prepared to offer a dying world hope in the eternal one? Being salt to a flavorless and empty world is what we ought to strive for!
Another interesting notion in this passage of scripture for us to grasp is that typically all of the salt that was utilized in Israel at the time of Jesus was brought up from the Dead sea, which as you may know is extremely salty. But there is also something else about the salt content of the Dead sea that you may not know. The salt deposits within this body of water is full of impurities and often, after time, will lose its flavor.
Jesus instructed, perhaps even pleaded with this audience that we should never lose our flavor. If we are to provide a flavorless world with the undaunted grace and richness of God then we must be mindful to always draw from His source of power and might. Because if we stop drawing from Him and instead begin to rely on our own merits and flavor, we will lose the very essence of His character and love to a world so desperate to find hope.
Be flavor and a preserver to this world through the power of the One who sent us out into it! Never let this hope diminish or lose its flavor!
Pastor's Ponderings 