Salt of the Earth

 SALT OF THE EARTH

JESUS NAMED US SALT OF THE EARTH. He didn’t say you must be like the salt of the earth, but “You are the salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13). 

Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride, a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt. Salt is present in large quantities in sea water. Salt is essential for life in general, and saltiness is one of the basic human tastes. Salt is one of the oldest and most ubiquitous food seasonings, and is known to uniformly improve the taste perception of food. Salting, brining, and pickling are also ancient and important methods of food preservation. What are the qualities of salt that Christians are expected to  emulate?

1. A SEPARATED LIFE:

Salt has to be separated from the sea water if it must be used. God cannot use us as long as we are part of the world. “The world would love you if you belonged to it, but you don't. I chose you to come out of it” Jesus states (John 15:19). He separated us from the sea of this world by shining His light on us. See 2 Corinth 4:6. The mark of a separated life is our holiness.  

A.W.Toser says a holy person is a powerful weapon in God’s hands. Let us dedicate us to an unblemished, holy life.

2. A SALTY LIFE:

It is its saltiness that makes salt tasty and valuable. How does God want us to be ‘salty’? It is by upholding Christian ethics, by possessing and practicing the qualities Jesus lists in the verses Matthew 5: 3-12 (called the beatitudes). If we are humble, forgiving, peaceful, joyous, holy, compassionate and faithful and practice justice, mercy and kindness, and love God and man with all our hearts, our minds and our strength, no power of Satan can overcome us. Coloss. 4:6 exhorts us “Let your conversation always be full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you will know how to answer everyone”. 

Jesus asks “if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?” and answers it too,  “It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men” (Matthew 5:13b). How does the salt lose its saltiness? This happens when it absorbs the moisture in the air or when it is thrown back into the sea. When we allow friendship with the world, lust and faithlessness overcome us, we lose our saltiness. “If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning” the Bible warns us through 2 Peter 2:20. Even though he was separated from the world and anointed, Judas Iscoriot still allowed his love for money to destroy him. His terrible experience should be a warning to every believer.   

3. A SPICY LIFE: The primary function of salt in life is to add taste to food.  Saltless food belongs to the garbage, says a Tamil proverb. As salt adds taste to food, Christians must be useful to others. Joseph was a fruitful tree, the Bible says:  Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine near a spring, whose branches climb over a wall (Genesis 49:22). He was a beloved of his father, he became a truthful servant at Pothipar’s home, he was useful to his masters and co-prisoners during his long incarceration and when he was moved from the prison yard to the Prime Minister’s chair, he used his power to feed the hungry citizens during a severe famine–always truly the salt of earth. “From the time he (Pothipar) put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph '' (Genesis 39:5). Do we bring joy and comfort to the people around us, are we a blessing to our neighbors, at the church, at work, to the society, through our saltiness?

4. A SAFE-GUARDING LIFE:  The preserving nature of salt has been  known to mankind since time immemorial and has survived into this century in the form of pickling, brining etc. God wants us Christians to protect our fellow beings from destruction. We should have the burden for millions who are perishing daily from lack of the saving knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

There are two ways to save them as salt of the earth. Firstly we must pray for them fervently. Abraham prayed desperately to save Sodom and Godom. God answered His prayer and saved Lot’s family (Genesis 18:20, 23-32). When God had decided to destroy the Israelites in the desert, Moses prayed for them earnestly (Psalms 106:23)  and God relented and agreed to preserve them and lead them. God says He looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before Him in the gap on behalf of the land so that He  would not have to destroy it, but to His dismay He found none (Ezekiel 22:30). You, me, the church, the society and the whole land should plead with God for the salvation of the perishing millions. 

Secondly, we must proclaim the Gospel earnestly. Everyone born in the world must know that “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). 1 Tim 1:15 asserts Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. This has to be made known to everyone born in the world. A little salt works its way through the food and stops it from decaying. A little servant girl was able to save the life of the powerful Syrian army commander Namaan by giving him information about “a prophet in Israel” (2 Kings 5:3-14). Jesus had made it clear that He was the way, truth, and life. Mankind suffering from the terrible disease of sin can be delivered only through belief in Him.

5. A SACRIFICIAL LIFE

In order to achieve its object, salt has to get out of the jar, dissolve into the food and disappear completely from sight. Our role model is Christ Jesus who sacrificed His life on the cross and secured us our salvation. Jesus proclaimed  “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (John 12:24, 25). 

The development we enjoy in this country today in education, culture, medicine, food, literature, arts, and living standard is largely the result of the unparalleled sacrifice of the missionaries who gave themselves to their service at a huge personal cost. They worked hard to eradicate numerous social evils like caste system, female illiteracy, infantile death, ‘satee’, polygamy, domestic violence, infectious diseases like leprosy, tuberculosis, malaria etc; they worked with the chronically neglected sector of the community, the poorest of the poor and destitute and set standard for governments to adopt. Many became victims of the very conditions they tried to eradicate.

In these evil days when the situation in the country is going from bad to worse, we must be alert and pray. Let us be filled to the brim by the saltiness of Christ, preach the Gospel and save the perishing souls through our sacrificial attitude. "Anyone who listens to my teaching and obeys me is wise…” Jesus reminds us (Matthew 7:24). You also must be ready all the time. For the Son of Man will come when least expected (Matthew 24:44). Let us not be caught napping, like the ‘foolish virgins’.

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