"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.”
Job 6:6"Food is tasteless without salt there is no flavor in the white of an egg"
Many foods without salt taste horrible; they are not palatable. They have little enjoyable flavor without adding some seasoning. The good old days did not have the variety of spices we do today, so salt and pepper were the main ingredients. Salt adds flavor to many foods which are otherwise bland and insipid. We have way too much salt in processed food and acquire a taste using greater quantities and as a result many have high blood pressure.
The figurative expression calling Christians to be like salt is to bring out the best in situations and other people. It is to have a positive effect on our society. Jesús says that if the salt loses its flavor… “It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.”
Technically speaking, salt cannot lose its saltiness; sodium chloride is a stable compound, but in the part of the world where Jesus lived, salt was collected from around the Dead Sea where the crystals were often contaminated with other minerals. These crystallized formations were full of impurities. Since the actual salt was more soluble than the impurities, rain would wash out the salt, which made what was left of little worth since it lost its saltiness. When this happened, the salt was thrown out, since it was no longer of any value either as a preservative or for flavoring.
When the salt was leeched out it still looked like salt, but it had lost its taste. The essential difference can be leached out of a Christian’s life by the constant flow of the world’s values through our lives. When Mahatma Gandhi was the spiritual leader of India, he was asked by some missionaries, “What is the greatest hindrance to Christianity in India?” His reply was, “Christians.”
Salt, to be any good, must make contact with something. To keep from corruption and decay it must touch the fish to purify it, it must be rubbed into the wound for the cleansing; to taste good it must be sprinkled on the food. It is not worth much just sitting on a table.
Christians aren't much good sitting back, not making contact with others. We must have contact with our society on the earth to provide an effect on it. We are to be in the world, but not of it, but we must not be so contaminated that we are of no effect for then you might as well be thrown out and trampled underfoot by man. Mixture with impurities can make salt become useless and even dangerous according to chemists and nothing can be done to help it. If the salt loses its effectiveness, it alone makes everything else corrupted. Our mission, as believers in Jesus, is to save and influence this world. If we don't the world is lost.
Application: What type of influence do you have on others around you? Jesus reminds us you are the salt of the earth.
Prayer: Jesus, Thank You for showing me the way that I, too, can be the salt of the earth. Strengthen me with a boldness that can only come from You.
