MATTHEW 5:13
I have been reading a book that I have read many times. It is called SALT IN THE BIBLE. I have always enjoyed reading this book. There are many applications of salt. But here, in the Sermon on The Mount, Jesus applied it to Christians. In the very next verse he talks about us being the light of the world. I find it interesting that He should take the most common commodity and apply it to His children.
Jesus is speaking primarily to His own disciples. Not very many followers with Him. Yet they were to go out and spread the gospel.
When we want to describe such a character we hear : "HE IS THE SALT OF THE EARTH." That is a compliment. Then sometimes we hear, "HE'S NOT WORTH THE SALT THAT GOES IN HIS BREAD." Worthless! So we see a positive side and a negative side to salt.
CHRISTIAN CHARACTER IS THE POSITIVE SIDE. Salt is something that cannot be ignored. Especially in food! If it is present we recognize it, If it is absent things are bland. "PASS THE SALT, PLEASE!" If salt is a positive something, it gives taste to whatever it touches. "SALT IS A LUXURY". It gives taste to whatever we eat." IT IS A POSITIVE NECESSITY". We can get along without a lot of the material things we have. Carpet floors, pictures on the walls, high powered cars, things that we feel we must have. But there is one commonplace something that we cannot get along without. THAT SOMETHING IS SALT.
Salt is somewhat like the air we breathe, the coal or wood you burn,an automobile or the weather. It has been around so long and used so much that it s taken for granted and sometimes loses it's glamour.
Isn't it the same with the Christian? Sometimes we just take church for granted. And things get common place. It is up to those who profess to be Christians not to let things get common place in our hearts, our home, our church. Be a seasoned Christian!
If we stop and think we will discover what salt means to use personally.
How many times have people taken a little baking soda for indigestion?
It is in our water. Did you ever brush your teeth with baking soda. We used that a lot when I was growing up. Your shoes are leather. Salt preserved the hide of an animal. Then it was used in the dye and tanning.
The table salt. The average use of salt per person in the US is about 200 pounds per person. Six pounds of that is in our food. Did you ever make pickles? You used a salt brine! It is in dry cereal used for flavor and fermentation control to give you bread, biscuits, and rolls. The dairies use salt for sterilizing equipment. It is in cheese, butter. We had a cow when I was growing up. Mom would skim of the cream on the top and save it until we had enough to make butter. She just took a gallon glass jug and had one of us kids to shake it up and down until the butter started forming. When it was ready it did not taste the best until Mom put salt in it. Salt is in the newspapers, varnished floors, rubber tires for your vehicle, the glass in the windows is 15% salt. Salt is used to put on roads during ice or snow. I think that is enough to let you see that salt plays an enormous role in your everyday life.
The Christian, as well, plays an important part in preserving this world.
In the Old Testament, in all the sacrifices salt was used. Not leaven, which is a type of sin. Leaven is the symbol of which is fermenting and decaying, while SALT IS THE SYMBOL OF THAT WHICH IS PURIFYING AND PRESERVING. Every sacrifice was to be seasoned with salt. Something with flavor.
Although we live in a different dispensation, all our sacrifices should be seasoned with salt. Colossians 4:6 "Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man."
Salt - not mustard or vinegar!. Some people put vinegar in their speech, it is full of sharpness and bitterness. It is to BE ALWAYS WITH GRACE SEASONED WITH SALT," ALWAYS ACCEPTABLE TO GOD, AND ALWAYS PROFITABLE TO MAN.
There shouldn't be anything in our speech that destroys peace. Our conversation is not to be taste-less and worthless. Take care of your speech that it always be seasoned with salt.
Our sacrifice of praise, as well as our sacrifice of speech. I wonder how much of our singing in worship service is mechanical. Did you ever do anything mechanical? I have found myself reading the a Bible and suddenly realized that I did not know a thing I read. I would start over and this time I was aware of what I was reading. How much salt was in your private devotions this morning? It is only as we pray in the Spirit that our sacrifices of prayer will be seasoned with salt.
Our sacrifice of giving must also be seasoned with salt! Is it a privilege to give for the work of the Kingdom? Or do you put in the less you can to get by?
Jesus passed by the priests and philosophers and scribes. But He looked at that little handful of disciples and said, "YE ARE THE SALT OF THE EARTH: You are the men and women who are to prevent decay, who will go out and save society." Notice, HE DID NOT SAY YE ARE THE" SALT SHAKERS", go and shake a little salt. No, He said YE ARE THE SALT.
This world needs a little spice and seasoning. Does your presence add something holy and wholesome to the community, church, or place of employment? If you desire to salt the world, you must begin with yourself.
If you have lost your flavor, get in the prayer closet and pray. God wants to use you each and everyday to salt someone out there that needs a little flavor added to their life. You may be the means that God uses.
So go out this week and bring a little flavor the a lost and dying world.
This is only the positive side. Lord willing, I may get to the negative later.
