Being Salt

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

BEING SALT

Luke 14:34-35

34 "Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? 35 It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out. "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." 

NIV

It is interesting that Matthew records Jesus said that we are the salt of the earth and then goes on to include that salt is good, but if it loses it saltiness. Here is where the rubber meets the road for us believers who follow Jesus, as our Lord and Savior. We cannot speak to every person for we do not know the heart of other people, only the Lord sees our hearts. But we can look at the outside, and we can make some assessment of the evidence of a person’s lives. If we are to be the salt of the earth, we first must conclude what salt is used for, at least in the time of Jesus. We mostly use salt to today as table salt to enhance the flavor of our foods. However, in the time of Jesus as they did not have refrigeration to keep foods fresh, salt was used to preserve food and to purify wounds. If this is the case, then the spiritual significance symbolizes that we are to be a preservative to the world and act to purify the wounds of sin. That means we may also enhance the taste of the world to God. However, that would imply that we must be engaged in the world, have an effect upon the world. We cannot simply be Christians that separate ourselves from the sinfulness of the world, having no contact with people that do not know Jesus, and are acting out their own evil desires, much in the same we did before submitting to the convicting power of the Holy Spirit. We suppose there are believers who were born a believer, and never acting according to their sinful desires. But then why did God inspire those words to be written that we all have fallen short of the glory of God, that there are none that are righteous, for all have sinned. Nevertheless, whenever we became a child of God by accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior we became the salt of the earth. But what if we are not salting the earth? What is we have separated ourselves, isolating ourselves within the community of faith, only making friends with other believers, and if we do have to walk outside our little circle of believers, we remain silent, so that no one knows what we believe? Have we lost our saltiness if that is the way we live? Maybe we think all that is up to the evangelist, or the missionary or even the pastor, and as long as we give them money, we are still being the salt of the earth. However, we cannot escape the fact that apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, as gifts to the church for the perfecting og the saints for the work of the ministry, which would include being really salty people in the world, having an influence on the taste or flavor of the world. Salt we are and it is salt we will stay.