Matthew 5:13

New International Version (NIV)

“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 underfoot.

For meditation

A tasty food owes every compliment it gets chiefly to one ingredient—salt. Without salt, the richest of foods is bland and difficult to enjoy. My grandmother loved me so much that she would not eat without me. However, I dreaded her invitations because they prepared her food without salt. As the Ashanti proverb goes, “When an old lady invites you to dine with her, it’s a struggle to enjoy the meal, yet it is offensive to pretend you’re full after one bite.” That’s how robust the flavor of salt is. But that’s not all.

Salt has been a preservation agent long before refrigeration, a constant companion of fisher folks on the high seas for days before landing their catch. The kitchen uses it for food preservation and other perishable essentials. It is also an excellent antiseptic and has helped treat wounds well before laboratory antiseptics.

Can you perceive the wisdom of God in making the sea so salty? With all the pollutants the world spews into the sea, could its water be made safe without the cleansing power of salt? Would the world survive for a day without a salty sea? That’s how priceless salt is, and we cannot deny God our thanks for it. All the above give context to Matthew 5:13, where Jesus calls believers “the salt of the earth.”

Believers have critical roles in preserving the earth and its sparkle. The world would become chaotic without the true church of Christ. That day will come when Christ raptures His church, but for now, she is indispensable for the moral sanity of this world. When we look back to the period of Noah and that of Sodom and Gomorrah, only the cynic and the fool would push back against the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The church cannot ignore this role in this sick and dying world. It has the gospel to proclaim (Matthew  28:19-20) and the testimony of its transformative power to give to all who will listen (Romans 12:2). We have a responsibility to maintain our saltiness for the sake of this Gospel agenda (1 Timothy 5:22; 1 John 5:21). The world has to taste God’s love displayed through Jesus to receive His mercy and grace for salvation (John 3:16; Romans 5:8).

Salt cannot be helpful by just sitting on the dinner table. Someone has to shake and sprinkle it on food to enjoy its flavor. For Christ’s sake, we have people around us to affect, but we cannot do that if we defile ourselves with the pollutants they live in already. The world cannot know and embrace eternal values if the lives of believers do not rise above the world. The trouble spots worldwide cry out for the peace only Christ, the Prince of Peace, brings, and you are His agent wherever He has you (Matthew 5:9).

So, maintain your purity and divine flavor despite the filth of this world because of the indwelling Holy Spirit. By making yourself valuable to the world around you, you can contribute to a better world through your life in Christ.

Shalom