Salt and its saltiness Luke 14 34 35, Mat 5 13

Salt is good. In ancient world, salt was often used as catalyst for burning fuel such as cattle dung. The salt at the time was impure & could lose its strength over time, becoming useless. However, Jesus’ point here is that the same is true of a salt-less believer. Ie if a believer’s love for godliness at any giving time fade-away then such one needs to rekindle the spark; otherwise that one is on the way of losing their saltiness.

Most salt comes from the Dead Sea and contained impurities like (camailite and gypsum). If the salt is not processed properly, it would have a poor taste and would be worse than useless, being unusable for food and creating a disposal problem. If the conditions of discipleship as mentioned (in verse 26-27, 33) are not kept, the disciples likewise will become less than worthless. (see Rev 3:15-17.)

Brothers and sisters before now we were once like grains of sand but were transformed by Christ redeeming grace and Salvation, making us different and something distinctive in taste, texture and aroma from the other lost piece of sand. Just as salt is good and essential to life; so is the church of Christ in this bland world. The church give purpose and meaning to life; in the person of the Holy Ghost through Jesus Christ. The church of Christ offers solution to all kinds of problems or crisis; it gives direction to living a life full of love. So is the salt, it add flavour, it preserve, it purifies etc.

Christ intension for using salt and it saltiness is for us (belieers) to add the flavour of love, kindness, humility, compassion, forgiveness, mercy and grace to people’s lives; How: e.g. in our interaction with people, we should add value in their life’s, we should encourage them in all godliness and let people be glad for having us around rather than for them to find ways of avoiding being in our company. And also, others should be able to speak well about us in our absence. What do people say about us in our presence and in our absence?

As followers of Christ, we are like moral antibiotic to our world by us being restraining influence on the society and speaking truth; ie the church must speak-up if the world is taking a wrong direction. Since God has given His church as a sanctifying influence over the world as seen in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians saying ‘the believing spouse acts as a sort of salt in their marriage and because of her saltiness her children are called holy’ (1 Cor 7:14). The growing of pathogens & spoilage organisms in hindered when salt is present.

But as believers, if we lose our saltiness, we are therefore like the rest of the world for whom we are chosen to show a lifestyle of love. For the Love of God, we must not lose our saltiness because if we do, then we will be good for nothing, worthless, without value and useless (Matthew 5:16b); only good to be trampled underfoot.

Our saltiness can by lost by the following ways

• By contamination: Sodium chloride is a stable chemical compound which is resistant to nearly every attack, but it can be contaminated by mixture with other impurities. If this happens, the sodium chloride becomes useless, desalted and not fit for purpose.

Worthless salt was used in the Roman Empire for roads showing that good for nothing salt will only be trampled underfoot. As children of God, we lose our saltiness when our hearts become harden with sin. How this happens is this: when we lose our saltiness, we will become breeding ground for the devil to use, causing our hearts to be harden and as such, our actions will be no different from that of unbeliever’s. The trampling underfoot is expressed in 6 ways like this; once our saltiness is lost, those who may have once hold us in high esteem will now have the opportunity to talk to us carelessly, without regards or respect.

• When we start taking delight in wrong doing or rebellion against God; in the name of normal life and finding pleasure only in worldly desires, then such one has lost his/her saltiness. A good example is what happened with Lot’s wife in Genesis 19:1-26. In verse 26 we are told Lot’s wife turned to a pillar of salt because of her disobedient and a heart of worldly vanities.

When Lot and his family left Sodom, they were told not to look back; when the Lord tells us something, we must trust and take Him by His words because He is not a man that he should lie nor a son of man that he should repent. No one of us should be like Lot’s wife because anyone who is in Christ and keeps looking back to worldly desires is not fit for the Kingdom of God (Lk 9:62). Yes Lot was a very rich man in his day, yet he served God; but his wife could not let go of the vanities she had in the world, forgetting that all things comes from God in the first place & the wonders and amazement of that which is in God. So she looked back and perished just like the vanities she was holding unto.

• We lose our influence of the saltiness when we contaminate ourselves with satisfying the flesh. Therefore if our life style is not different from that of an unbeliever, we will have no credibility to make any impact to their life. Hence for us to be effective in our faith, we must constantly possess Christ-like character in our daily living. That being said, we must retain Christ-likeness as the salt must retain its saltiness.

When salt gets wet and then dries, nothing is left but a tasteless residue. Many Christians blend into the world and avoid the cost of standing up for their faith in Christ (the distinctiveness of our saltiness). Jesus said that the distinctiveness of a believer is our faith in Him, so if one lose it, they become worthless. Just as salt’s flavour preserves food, we are to preserve the good of the world.

For us to keep and preserve the good of the world as God intended, it will requires careful planning, willing sacrifice & unswerving commitment to Christ Kingdom. Being a salt is not easy but Christ never promised it was going to be easy, He says ‘count your cost or carry your cross and follow me. Friends if we fail in the function of being the salt then we fails in represent Christ in the world. The question you and I should be asking ourselves all the time is how salty are we?

As salt is beneficial in a number of ways; (as a preservative, seasoning etc.) so are believers who must influence the world for good. Therefore, my beloved in Christ to maintain our saltiness, we must focus only on Jesus Christ who is our anchor, above all, we must learn to trust and obey Christ as we carry our daily cross and follow Him wholeheartedly.

Song: keep ploughing ahead and never looks behind eh 2x

For one who holds the plow and keeps looking back is not fit for the

Kingdom of God eh…