Matthew 5:13

"You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men" Matthew 5:13

We studied this verse in Sunday school a few Sundays ago. I learned a lot about salt through preparing for this lesson. What is the big deal about salt? Salt preserves, it was a valued commodity in the past, wars were fought over it, economies were based on it. Salt creates thirst.

What does that have to do with anything especially being a Christian?

Preservative - the world is rotting a decaying. Just look at the news, our country is going to hell in a handbasket. There is no morality anymore, okay there is some but its getting harder to find. Every day it seems like there's another big moral dilemma in the news from a boy joining the boy scouts to abortion to gay marriage. What do we do with it all? How do we make sense of it? I'm not really sure, but I do know that it's our fault, as believers, that this has happened. We have stopped standing up for what is right in fear of being ridiculed, persecuted, etc. Salt preserves. We are the salt. We should keep the world from rotting by our moral stances, but because we didn't and don't, the world hasn't been preserved.

John Stott: And when society goes bad, we Christians tend to throw up our hands in pious horror and reproach the non-Christian world; but should we not rather reproach ourselves? One can hardly blame unsalted meat from going bad. It cannot do anything else. The real question to ask is: Where is the salt?

I think we have failed to be the salt, which is sad because it isn't a challenge. It's a command. You ARE the salt of the earth. Salt cannot become tasteless, it's a dumb analogy which just drives in the fact that we HAVE to be the salt. We have no other choice, yet we choose to follow the world and bend to it instead of preserving the world.

Thirst - salt makes us thirsty. Our presence around others should make them thirsty and ask us why we are the way we are. But we have to make sure people can see this and that there is a difference between us and non-believers.

Are we using our money like Christians? Talking like a Christian? Leading our families like a Christian? What do we do with our leisure time? How can we stand out? Do we stand out?

Healing - Salt in a wound kept it from festering, but it was also painful. Christians are to stand for the truth, but there will be opposition 1 Peter 2:12. Salt can heal,but it's not going to be easy. It's challenging in this modern day.

I hope thinking about being salt is challenging. It's causing me to be more bold in telling people why I do what I do. To not shirk back from the fact that I served on the overseas mission field when they ask why I was in Germany. I know my husband's coworkers when they knew we were about to leave, they were very curious. That's good. I want people to ask us why we went, not so we look awesome but to see that there are Christians who sacrifice their "American" lives for the sake of the Gospel.

We need to be different. Salt has a distinct taste, so we need to have a distinct taste. We don't need to wear non-modern clothes like the Amish, but I do believe we need to not conform to this world. We need to make a distinction on why we do what we do and not be afraid to tell people. Bold and salty. You are the salt of the earth. Go and make people salty.