Salt
is good and there is no doubt about it. Salt renders food pleasant and
palatable, and preserves from putrefaction (the process of decay or rotting).
But if salt has lost its savour, that is, if it has become tasteless, or has
lost its preserving properties, then it is good for nothing but to be thrown
away (Matthew 5:13).
You
may question: “Salt is salt. How can salt lose its saltiness?” When the Saviour
talked about salt losing its savour, He was talking about what happens when
salt is mixed with other substances: it becomes corrupted and therefore cannot be
used in the accustomed ways.
If
we go back and look at Matthew 5:13-16, we see Christ using salt and light to
refer to the Christian influences. He said in verse 16: “Let your light so
shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father
which is in heaven.” The good Christian life is the Christian’s influence
to win the world for Christ. Therefore, we must keep ourselves pure and
unstained by sin and worldly things and be rich in our Christian influences: “And
beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue
knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to
patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly
kindness charity” (2 Peter 1:5-7).
When
we fail in our duty to be good savours of men, we are as salt that has lost its
savour. Yes, our influence is important: we either are influence for good or
for evil. Peter mentioned that the unbelieving husband of the believing wife
can be converted by the good influence of the believing wife: “Likewise,
wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the
word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives” (1
Peter 3:1, ESV).
What
if the believing wife is a salt that has lost its savour? She is quarrelsome,
disrespectful, and uncaring. Do you think she can win her husband to Christ?
God
wants us to be a good driving force in society. People are won by the word of
God and by the lives of good Christians: “and glorify your Father which is
in heaven” (Matthew 5:16b).
Christ
said in Mark 9:50: “Have salt in yourselves.” God’s design for His
children is we be distinct and different from the world in our love, life, language,
and conduct. Titus 2:11, 12 reminds us that the grace of God that brings
salvation to mankind calls for us to deny “ungodliness and worldly lusts, we
should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.”
And,
a Christian who has lost his saltiness is one who gives in to worldly lusts and
is not living a life of godliness, righteousness and soberness. The world has a
way of wearing away the “saltiness” of Christians: “For Demas hath forsaken
me, having loved this present world” (2 Timothy 4:10). Demas is a salt that
has been corrupted by the world; it has lost his savour.
Over
time we can become more like the world and cease to stand apart as God calls us
to do. And like salt that has lost its saltiness, we become worthless when we
lose our Christian values, our teachings, our morals, our ethics, our
character, our integrity, and so on - we are worthless to God. Only a salty
Christian is useful in the kingdom of God: “If a man therefore purge himself
from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the
master's use, and prepared unto every good work” (2 Timothy 2:21).
Our
Lord warns us that if we do not serve the purpose God has intended for us, we
will be thrown away, just like worthless salt! Therefore, have salt in us (Mark
9:50).
Jimmy Lau
Psa
119:97 Oh how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day.
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