You are the salt of the earth

I recently ran across some writing that got me to wondering just how useful
I am to Christ. In Matthew 5 Jesus give a lot of different ideas concerning
what it is to be pleasing to God or what it is to find true joy. He also
spends some time dealing with the mission of those who would represent him
to the world. In verse 13 he says, "You are the salt of the earth. But what
good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will
be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless." (NLT).

The article I mentioned earlier was from Dr. Thomson's book "The land and
the book" (written around 1900), was a look at the history of the Holy
Lands. He wrote of this passage in history: "A merchant of Sidon having a
large supply of salt filled sixty five houses in a mountainous district with
it. These houses had merely earthen floors and the salt was next to the
ground. In a few years the salt next to the ground was entirely spoiled.
This salt, becoming insipid and useless, effloresced and turned to dust, not
to fruitful soil. It was not only good for nothing itself, but it actually
destroyed all fertility wherever it was thrown. This is the reason it was
thrown into the street. So troublesome was this corrupted salt that it was
carefully swept up, carried forth and thrown into the street."

I was reading another book on how to survive a disaster recently and it
emphasis the need to store up some salt as necessary to our survival. Salt
is important, not just for adding a little flavor, but for the preservation
of life. That is why Christ chose this illustration at the time. People were
familiar with problem and were familiar with how important salt was to their
lives.

I think in our modern times we have lost the understanding of how important
salt really is. It comes cleaned and packaged for us and is always
available. We never really think about it, we just reach for the salt shaker
and it's available to us. A few years ago we decided we would try and cut
back on our salt intake and bought a product called, "no salt." One thing
about it is that you can't fault that company for false advertising, it
didn't taste a thing like salt and I decided it was only good to be thrown
out (personal opinion).

The point of all of this is that Jesus said, "You are the salt of the
earth." The question is then, are you? Are you something that gives flavor
to life that enhances the taste people have for Christ or would they rather
throw you out when they see you coming? There is an old saying that goes
something like this, "If you aren't good for something, then you are good
for nothing!" What are you? Maybe it's time you take a good, close, hard
look at your life and consider how you flavor the lives of others!

Russ Lawson