81. Get Out Of the Salt Shaker and Into The World

Matthew 5:13

Key Verse: "You are the salt of the world.” 

Matthew 5:13 A

With today's emphasis on healthy eating, it may be hard for some of us to understand that Jesus is actually saying a good and positive thing here.  In the guidelines for healthy eating, we've been told by modern nutritionists that salt is bad.  People who have a problem with either high blood pressure or water retention are told to cut salt out of the diet altogether, or at least as much as possible.  Knowing this about salt leaves us with the question, "How can being compared to salt be a good thing?” 

In Jesus’ day, salt had some interesting uses.  Part of a soldier's wages would be paid in a salt allowance, or "salarium,” from which we get our word "salary.”  I say this to explain just how valuable salt was in Jesus’ day.  Jesus was ascribing great value to His listeners. 

A not so positive use of salt was when armies would use it to scatter over a field, rendering the field useless for growing crops.  It was a way of starving the people.  You see, salt destroys the soil.  It destroys the nutrients and the healthy bacteria needed to feed the seeds and help them to grow. 

However, because salt destroys bacteria, it was also used as a means of preserving meat.  Remember, there were no refrigerators or freezers in Jesus' day.  Leftovers couldn't just be stored in a Tupperware container for later.  Instead, salt was rubbed into raw meat and fish, or fish especially was stored in a salty brine to keep it useful for longer.   We still do pickling today!

By saying, "you are the salt of the world,” Jesus is saying, "you are the preservative.”  Your job is to help keep elements that would be harmful in society at bay.  Your job is to prevent ungodliness and selfishness from taking root.  Your job is to preserve the world and keep it useful. 

In Leviticus 2:13, God told His people, "Season all your grain offerings with salt.  Do not leave the salt of the covenant of your God out of your grain offerings; add salt to all your offerings.”  Why?  Salt represents flavor, purity and a preservative from decay.  "You are the salt of the world.” But you need to be in the world in order to be the salt of the world. You will do the world no good if you don't get out of the salt shaker (the church building) and get into the world (your neighborhood). 

What then would losing your saltiness look like?  Losing your saltiness happens when you stop living like Jesus and stop being useful to him.  It's when you allow yourself to be distracted by the things of the world, when you stop fighting against the harmful elements and allow them to be of more concern to you than the things of Christ.  You lose the ability to preserve godliness when you yourself are no longer living the life that God originally called you to live.

Woe to you if this describes your focus.  "If the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?”  Only with Jesus.  Otherwise, “you are no good for anything, (in Him), except to be thrown out.”  This will never be God's will or plan for you.  He calls you to be salt.  With His help, you can.

Hymn: "A Charge to Keep I Have"

  
A Charge to Keep I Have  (A very different flavor!)