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
Jesus tells us in Matthew chapter 5 that as Christians, we are to be salt and light to the world. Last week we talked about how we can be light to the world. This week we will look at the command to be salt and just what that means. Salt can literally transform any recipe from bland and tasteless to flavorful and savory. How can we as Christians transform this world?
Salt seasons, flavors and gives pleasure and quality to that which is flat
or tasteless. Food is tasteless, flat
and insipid without a little salt. Salt puts a flavor or taste in food that
makes it palatable. Sometimes Christians portray a flat, tasteless, and
unseasoned life. Oliver Wendell Holmes
said, "I might have entered the
ministry if certain clergymen I knew had not looked and acted so much like
undertakers." The joyful and radiant Christian should be the normal,
not the abnormal, in life. It is the Christian who has found the source and
fullness in life which gives him the capacity to be happiest of all. They put flavor and taste into an otherwise
vapid and insipid world. Life in this world might have its glamorous moments,
but overall it would be drab, flat and hopeless without the wholesome influence
of the Christian point of view. It is only through Christianity that real peace
of mind is experienced. It is the tone of Christianity that puts hope into life
and reveals the silver lining to the dark cloud. This is our responsibility in
the world—to put meaning, flavor and hope into an other-wise dismal existence.
Like salt is a SPICE that adds zest, so should we!
Christianity is to life what salt
is to food.
Oliver Wendel-Holmes once said this:
'I might have entered the ministry if certain clergymen I knew had not looked
and acted so much like undertakers', and
Robert Louis Stevenson said once, in his diary after going to church, and
it seemed to be an extraordinary phenomenon - he wrote: 'I have been to church today and I am not depressed'. The
perception of the world is that we are the opposite of salt upon life, isn't
it? The perception seems to be that we are not the savor and the flavor of
life, but we are that insipid tastelessness, and unsavoriness of life. We seem
to hinder everything that is pleasure, but all the Lord is saying to us is: You
are the salt of the earth, and you must discover once more that lost radiant flavor
of the Christian faith. He is saying: 'In a worried world the Christian may be
the only one who remains peaceful. In a depressed world the Christian may be
the only man or woman who remains full of joy!
The responsibility of the Christian is not to judge, criticize,
evaluate, condemn or denounce...but to give seasoning and purity to the world
about him.
How much salt does it take to flavor food? Only a little can make a great
difference. We are called to be that
grain of salt that can make our world a better place to live. Do you have a savoring
influence on those around you? Do you have a positive influence? Do you exude
aura that life without Christ is insipid and is dull? That's not what our
culture teaches us, our culture attempts to numb itself with pleasure and with
drugs, and with a pleasure-mania - and people are literally dying of boredom
around us! They are seeking to fill the void in their life – trying to fill it
with all the wrong things. The entertainment industry thrives on making life
look better, on making it more fun and luxurious - and good within it is often
portrayed as evil, and evil as good. Evil is seen to be more exciting than
good, isn't it? But that is a lie from Satan.
He makes the evil look good and when people chase after it seeking to
fill the hole in their lives, they are left even emptier than before. We can help them to see that Jesus is what
they need. Our lives, the spice and zest
from Christ in our lives we can exude, can help them to see what they really
need.
“You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.” Psalm 63:1 (NIV)
