Are You Salty?
Scripture:
Matthew 5:13 ESV: 13 “You
are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its
saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown
out and trampled under people’s feet.
Devotion
Today we look at a familiar passage
from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s gospel. Salt was very familiar to the
people of Bible times. It was used both as a seasoning for food, and as a
preservative for food (since refrigeration did not exist.) The major source of
salt for the Jewish people was the Dead Sea. It is ironic that the same salt
(along with other impurities) which made the sea unfit for life, could have so
many uses for the people who lived near it.
So, what exactly does Jesus mean when
he tells his followers to be “the salt of the earth”? What does it look like
for a person to be salty? Jesus was pointing to his disciples here and saying that
they were to be agents of preservation in the world. We are not to be useless
but useful in arresting moral decay in the culture around us. Commentator Craig
Blomberg says it well in his commentary on Matthew.
“Believers who fail to arrest corruption become worthless as agents of
change and redemption. Christianity may make its peace with the world and avoid
persecution, but it is thereby rendered impotent to fulfill its divinely
ordained role. It will thus ultimately be rejected even by those with whom it
has sought compromise.”[1]
It is very clear that in the United States and in most of the western
world that the church is being rejected for this very reason. Is there then any
hope for the church and the disciples that remain in her to regain their saltiness
and begin to act as a preservative for Christ in the world? I believe that it
is up to us to repent of our loss of saltiness and begin to assert ourselves as
a preservative in the world.
As Jesus says in the book of Revelation in his address to the church
at Ephesus in chapter 2:4-5 “But I have this against you, that you have
abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember then from what you have
fallen; repent and do the works you did at first.” (NRSV) This could be written
to the church today. We tend to follow the ways of the world rather than follow
the Way of Jesus. Our love for Jesus has grown cold and needs rekindling. Let
us pray for a new fire to burn in our hearts for God. If we don’t, we may be in
real spiritual danger. Let us pray that we may be restored in our love and
devotion to our savior.
Dear Lord Jesus, please help us to repent and be restored to the love
we had when we first heard the good news of your salvation. Grant us zeal to
pursue loving you with all passion. May your name be glorified when the watching
world sees how we love Jesus and our neighbors. Amen.
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