“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.” - Matthew 5:13 ESV
We’re continuing our look at the sermon on the mount (Matthew 5-7). Jesus tells His disciples that they are the salt of the earth. We get lots of health warnings about the amount of sodium we eat, but the right amount of salt is a good thing. Salt is a flavor enhancer. If you’ve ever tried to cut salt completely out of your diet, you know this. Salt also preserves food by drawing out moisture that organisms, which cause spoilage, need to live.
So how are Jesus’ disciples the salt of the earth? We can be flavor enhancers by the way we live. When we live in a way that honors Jesus, people can be influenced to want to learn more about Him. Among other Jesus-followers, we can influence them to make better choices, like spending more time reading their Bibles and applying it to their lives. And through that influence, people can find the assurance of salvation in Jesus, preserving their souls and receiving His eternal life.
Jesus is warning us in this verse not to lose our saltiness. Salt can lose its saltiness if it has chemical impurities or if it is exposed to too much oxygen or water. We can lose our saltiness, our effectiveness in influencing people for Jesus, when we’re exposed to too much worldly thinking and let our hearts become impure. We start to think that things the Bible calls sin might not be so bad because our culture accepts and encourages these behaviors. When we compromise like this, the world is influencing us instead of the right way around. Not where I want to be.
Here are a couple of suggestions for how we can keep our saltiness. You’ve probably heard these before, but good lessons bear repeating. First, let’s prioritize spending time in prayer and in Scripture every day. Second, we can work on building strong relationships with fellow Jesus-followers so we can help one another stay on track.
Think About: Are you salty for Jesus?
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