July 15, 2024, 8:00 AM
“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 by men.”
I asked a person from Eastern Europe what were some of the cultural surprises she experienced coming to the U.S. She was amazed, if not appalled, at the mammoth selections of food and so many brands of the same thing in grocery stores and so many places to buy food.
We are very choosy as to what we want to eat and purchase, given the price is right. With concerns on diet, we evaluate food choices to lower cholesterol, salt, sugars, fats, and calories. We have choices of light chips, light pop, light puddings, light soups, light on salt and light on sugars. Many of these products have additives and imitation substitutes.
We also have light Christians with a lot of imitation things added.
There was a musical entitled Godspell. The story is loosely from life of Jesus. One of the lyrics to a song is, “You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its flavor it ain't got much in its favor. You can't have that fault and be the salt of the earth. So let your light so shine before men, let your light so shine, that they might know some kindness again."
As we looked the last couple of weeks at the Beatitudes, we noticed happy people are God's people. The people of God are depicted as poor in spirit for they find their richness in God; they mourn, they are meek, they hunger and thirst after righteousness, they are to be merciful, pure in heart, and they are to be peacemakers. Because we follow Jesus we will also be persecuted.
Jesus is teaching that our righteousness is more than the outward acts that we do; it includes the motives behind those acts. It is not the business of the church to adapt Christ to the world, but rather the world to Christ. We do not change spiritual truth; we are instead to be changed by Jesus who is the way the truth and the life. Love Him or leave Him.
Jesus is trying to teach His disciples not only the path for happiness, but also how they might influence others around them for Christ. He uses salt and light to illustrate His point. This is for us as well.
Application: How do you influence others for Christ?
Prayer: Lord help me to be salt to the Earth, so that when other see me they see you
