The Salt of the Earth

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


If you spend much time around church people you will inevitably hear mention of Christians being "salt and light." We talk about that and proclaim it, but do we really understand what it means? How can Christians possibly represent salt to this world? What does the statement say about the world, and about our lives? Let's consider these questions.


Historically, salt has had three purposes: It is used to purify, preserve and give taste. If Christians are to be salt in the world then we must accomplish one, or all, of these three things. I would contend that the purpose of Jesus' statement deals with the issue of preservation and purification since it would be completely inaccurate to claim that we are to make a sinful world palatable.


Before anything else this verse implies the need of the world. If we are salt then the world is in need of what salt provides. It is in need of purification and preservation. It is difficult to dispute that the world is in a decaying state. We need look no further than the morning news to see the sinful things that are taking place around us. Our societies are driven by sex and materialism, and decisions are made by governments for the self-preservation of their politicians. Just when we come to the point that we do not feel the world could get any worse we are always unpleasantly surprised by the ways man conceives to sin.


When we consider the call to be the salt of the earth we must do so against this context. In days gone by salt was used as a means of purifying. It was used on wounds to clean them and protect from infection. It is no mistake that this verse comes directly after the last of the beatitudes, which says, Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you (Matt. 5:11, 12).  


To answer the call to be salt is to bring persecution on ourselves. We use the term "rubbing salt in a wound" today as a negative thing. But this is what was once necessary to clean and protect a wound. As the world decays it is necessary that salt be applied to it. What the world needs is a cleansing agent. Something that will help stop the decay. If Christians are to do this they must look and act different than the rest of the world. When we look at the church we too often see gatherings that are not much different from the world. We neglect the biblical mandate to live a holy life; sue one another in secular courts even though Scripture says we're already defeated when this happens, and many times we even do whatever is necessary to look as much like our sinful world as possible. The world does not need such a church.


What the world needs are people who will model the character of Christ. People who will be faithful witnesses, and display His love to all. People who will stand in truth and will not allow the decay of this world to drag them down. That's what it means to be salt. There is no compromise in the call of Christ. If salt loses its saltiness how will it be restored? It won't! Salt cannot lost it's inherent properties. It can only become corrupted and impure. Salt that is not pure is of no use to the work of Christ. It is good only to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.


In light of the call to be the salt of the earth, where does the church stand today? Are we useful to the purifying, preserving work of Christ? We could go even further. Are we personally living in a way that allows Christ to work through us? Are we really salt?

The Necessity of Fellowship

"Then the Lord God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him."  -Genesis 2:18

Adam was the pinnacle of God's creation.  Created in the very image of a holy God.  He lived in the place that God had created for him and lived in harmony and fellowship with God.  In spite of all this, God still saw a need for man to have someone else.  Someone with whom he could share his joys and all the things of life.  God created man with a need for fellowship.

So often I hear people say, "I don't need to go to church to be a Christian." Where does this idea come from?  What makes us think that we do not need relationships with the people of God?  God had looked at all that He had created and proclaimed it to be good.  But for man there was something even better.  It was a relationship with others.  It was fellowship.

We sometimes look at fellowship as simply having a meal together or spending a little bit of time together.  It is so much more.  God created us to share with one another our joys and our burdens.  Our sorrows, trials and triumphs.  God has put us all here together to pursue Him alongside of each other.  We are not alone as we seek to know Him.  We are always accompanied by other people who are in pursuit of the holiness of God just as we are.  Too much of the Christianity of our day is focused on "what God can do for me" and not living in a fellowship of holiness together.  As I search Scripture for the meaning of the fellowship that God has given us, I become increasingly convinced that it is so much more than what we often experience.  God has placed us here so that we might experience holiness together.

"But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another..." -1 John 1:7

Is Sin Really So Bad?

Over the past few weeks I have taken notice of a lot of the sin around me. I've been watching as I see people (even within the church) live as though there is no such thing as sin. Worse yet, they live as though there is no consequence for sin. The Bible tells us, "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, AND DEATH THROUGH SIN, and thus death spread to all men..." (Romans 5:12) The consequence of sin is death. Spiritual death. Separation from God. Could God have given us any more clarity on the issue through His Word? Over and over throughout the inspired word we read that SIN IS BAD! Yet we act like sin is alright.

The divorce rate among the church is as high as that of the world. Despite what some of us seem to think, the Bible does indeed teach us that divorce is not the will of God. We expect it from sinners, but it happens among professing Christians, and even in some instances clergy. Professing Christians are just as guilty of fornication, and gossip and other sins as anyone else. Notice that I said "professing Christians" and not Christians.

In spite of our ignorance (often willful ignorance) of God's Word, it still teaches that we are to live above these things. "Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be DONE AWAY WITH, that we should no longer be slaves of sin." (Romans 6:6)

The point is this. The Spirit of God does not dwell in darkness. Too often those who claim to be the church dwell in darkness. We condone it by teaching that "we're all sinners." When we do that, we're condoning something that brings death. When we condone it within the church we're bringing death to the body of Christ. There are thousands of people who claim to be Christians who will not give up their sin. They still want to continue to look at pornography, they want to drink, or gossip, or control a church that is God's. They want to live like the world. You cannot be a worldly Christian. Those terms are mutually exclusive. If we are ever going to see revival in the church it will be because we have become serious about seeking holiness "without which NO ONE WILL SEE THE LORD." (Hebrews 12:14)