Jesus tells us we are to be salt and light to the world.
Matthew 5:13 & 14
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt should lose its taste, how can it be made salty? It’s no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled on by men. You are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden."
Often, I've been chastised by fellow believers who get bristled by my personal brand of salt and light, and I'm admonished to tone it down, or be more loving, or not to discuss certain things publicly. Now, I'm not writing this in response to anything recent - but tonight as I was enjoying a lovely and quiet drive home from visiting family God just popped this teaching in my head and I have to share it.
This teaching is long, so I'll split it in two.
First, let's talk about SALT:
If I had a dollar for every time someone said something like "salt makes things taste better, so if we are to be salt in the world, we should enhance the world around us..." well, I'd have at least
ten bucks.
But what else does salt do? How is salt supposed to behave?
Salt is a preservative - if you cure meat in salt, it will keep for a very long time, even without refrigeration. The meat's value is maintained, and it is kept useful and edifying to the body because it was treated with salt.
Salt is a purifier - one of the main ways that salt preserves meat is by killing the bacteria that would naturally devour it. It also is so powerful, that it makes unclean meat able to be consumed safely - how else are we able to eat pork and pork products? The bacteria that naturally live in pork meat could kill a person. Curing it in salt kills the bacteria, and viola - bacon. It takes what was detestable and not good for the body and makes it acceptable and able to be used.
Salt is a protector - say you were lost in the woods with nothing but your leftover McDonald's breakfast bag and you got cut on barbed wire from an old broken down part of a fence. You could tear open that little salt packet you didn't use earlier from your fork & knife package and pour it in that cut, and your chances of developing a nasty infection before reaching civilization and some neosporin and a band-aid will be next to zero. In the moment that an invading army of potentially flesh-eating microbes entered your system, salt protected the body against a serious and possibly deadly threat.
Salt is painful - did I forget to mention that you'll probably cry like a baby when you pour that salt on that cut? The healing properties of salt carry with them one mean sting, but it's a small price to pay for your life. The pain that salt brings to an open wound is the signal that healing is taking place and that the wound is being purified.
Salt is powerful - It's a basic building block of our planet. Did you know that if the salt in the sea could be removed and spread evenly over the Earth's land surface it would form a layer more than 500 feet thick, about the height of a 40-story office building? Salt is foundational to life in our oceans, and our water cycle in general. If that salt all of a sudden wasn't "salty" anymore, life on this planet would literally die off. Salt dissolves in the oceans and interacts with other minerals to create an environment that is life-sustaining.
Salt is poison - As much as God used salt in the Bible to purify and protect, He also used it to ruin fertile ground - think Sodom & Gomorrah, and a half a dozen other instances as well. In the ocean, massive amounts of salt are the mainstay of life...but on the soil, massive amounts of salt are deadly poison. The same is true in the body. If you consume too much salt, your heart will suffer and you may even die. Salt in heavy concentrations is poisonous to the body, and to the land.
So, while salt does make things tasty...it has other purposes too. Putting salt on our food to enhance its flavor is just part of salt's important role in the world. If we are to be the salt in the world, besides making life more vibrant and interesting, we have other jobs too.
Christians as preservatives - what are we to preserve? We are to preserve justice. Isaiah 56:1. We are to preserve the Gospel. Galatians 2:5. Another word for preserve is "keep." We are to keep Jesus' commands. John 14:21.
Christians as purifiers - what needs to be made pure? We are to purify our hearts. James 4:8, 1 Timothy 1:5, 2 Timothy 2:22, 1 John 3:2&3. We are to purify our minds. Philippians 4:8.
Christians as protectors - God is our protector, but what can we protect? We are to protect the ones we love. 1 Corinthians 13:6&7. Another word for protect is "guard." We are to guard ourselves from hypocrisy. Luke 12:1. We are to guard against greed. Luke 12:15. We are to guard against sin becoming accepted in our midst. Luke 17:3. We are to guard our doctrine, guard those under our spiritual care, and guard against false doctrine. Acts 20:25-31. We are to guard the gift of salvation and the understanding of the Kingdom. 1 Timothy 6:20, 2 Timothy 1:14, 2 Peter 3:17. We are to be on guard against the enemy. 1 Peter 5:8.
Christians causing pain -when is pain an act of love? Salt causes pain when it is applied to an infection that is growing in living tissue. The infection in the Body of Christ is sin. When we rightly deal with sin, it may cause pain, but it will preserve the Body. If sin is not dealt with quickly, and appropriately, and the infection is allowed to spread, Body parts can get gangrenous and need to be removed entirely. That is never God's desire. Better the pain of discipline and healing, than removal. Matthew 5:30, Matthew 18:8, 1 Corinthians the entire 5th chapter, Titus 3:10, Ephesians 5:27.
Christians with power - What Christians have is foundational to life - eternal life. Sharing what we have makes us a life-sustaining powerful force that can offer rescue to the world from death. The good news of the Gospel is what we have, and what we must share to bring life to the world. If we spread out and cover the most territory possible, we can be as effective as the sea at making sure the whole world not only hears the gospel, but sees it lived out through our lives and testimony. Our tides can change generations with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Matthew 11:5&6, Acts 5:42, Acts 8:4, Romans 15:18-20, Ephesians 2:17.
Christians as poison? - There are two ways to look at this - God used salt as a punishment for ungodliness, so from time to time God may still use salt (Christians) to bring a punishment to pass. But don't confuse punishment for judgement. A father disciplines those He loves. Revelations 3:19, Proverbs 3:12. (Praise God that He disciplines us gently, as opposed to how He deals with the world. Deuteronomy 29:23)
However, you can look at it another way, and that is that if we are to be salt in the world, we should probably strive to be be salt in the ocean, all spread out and salient, instead of on land, all piled up and killing things. Yet - what do we see happening in the Church today? Statistics show that large churches are getting much much larger, and small churches are getting much smaller, and closing their doors. Instead of dotting our map with mega-churches, wouldn't it seem more biblical to have a unified network of smaller churches covering the entire map, communicating and working together to fill gaps, and capitalize on strengths and weaknesses? Imagine if all the salt in the ocean was balled up in salt-pockets. Mark 16:15, Romans 10:15.
On a more personal level, like the heart - as we are salting the world around us we should be careful not to over-do it and clog the arteries so to speak of those we are witnessing to. When trying to reach the lost - think sprinkles, not spoonfulls. John 4:36-38.
Phew - I told you this would be long...but also an exciting and important lesson. Don't let anyone misuse popular Scripture quotes in an attempt to condemn you or shut you up. If you are rightly dividing the Word of God and being SALT in any of the ways that SALT is supposed to behave, then you just keep on keeping on. Be encouraged - so that you won't lose your saltiness.
How can you lose your saltiness? By not behaving like SALT is supposed to behave! We'll talk about how LIGHT behaves another day. Now...go have some pretzels or something...you know all this salt talk has kicked up your cravings.
No comments:
Post a Comment