03/09/2019

Matthew 5:13

“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.

I once worked for a company whose main products were caustic and chlorine. The source for these products was salt. We had salt ponds and salt mounds. I am familiar with salt and some of the products you can get from it.

Salt changes the taste of food. It is a preservative. It is abrasive and it is corrosive. And these are not the good features of salt. It can lose its ability to flavor and preserve, but it never loses its ability to destroy. Salt changes any environment--either for good or for bad. But even after it is no longer beneficial it is still destructive.

Christ's statement is that the believer is salt. Whether it is as flavor, or as preservative, or as abrasive, the Christian's responsibility is to change their environment and that for good. The recognition of the abrasive quality is but a recognition that the change we bring is not always appreciated.

Whether it be salt or light, with the introduction of this element a change has occurred. Change will most likely meet resistance. But the faith of salvation is the cross.