Salt has other uses. Salt is used to preserve food. It keeps it from rotting. Sin has corrupted this world and God has chosen to stop the corruption by empowering us to be free of sin’s power. We become the salt of the earth to preserve it from further corruption.
Our big task is not to become a catalyst for a degrading culture. This is what Jesus means by salt that loses its flavor. The word for flavor here can also mean fool or becoming a simpleton. A simpleton is a ninny, a blockhead, a numskull who is ignorant and foolish. When we lose contact with the world by ceasing to influence the world, we become without flavor. This is how the church is trampled.
How does this happen? When we spend more time telling people not to do something without giving them a viable second option, we look foolish to them and ignorant of their needs. Salt makes contact. We should also make contact and understand the needs of people and show them how only God is sufficient enough to meet those needs and how they can approach Him. I have heard this said many times, “People do not care how much you know until they know how much you care!” Be the salt, make contact, and care!
This brings us to being a light to for the world to see. Pay close attention here. Sin immersed the world in darkness. Jesus is empowering us to be a light so the world can once again see. This means we have to be visible to the world! A city on a hill cannot be hidden! It is made to be seen. Jesus is telling us that we must be visible and that is very dangerous for many because true visibility means vulnerability and transparency.
Hiding a light under a basket is very ineffective if not mean and deceptive. Christians are not supposed to be this way. We have something the world needs and hiding behind our faith will not bring people to God. Faith is supposed to be an outward expression of God’s love through us. Showing God’s light in this world means we have to be vulnerable enough to set ourselves up for people to hurt us (emotionally and unfortunately at times physically). A city on a hill cannot be hidden and neither can one’s faith if it is true.
We should not hide our good deeds. This doesn’t mean we flaunt them for all to see. It means we do not deny them and point our reasons for doing them back to God within us. We become the example to follow. (Here is a good place to start in influencing the world - http://www.reclaim7mountains.com)
- How can you become more involved in influencing the world around you?
- Love at times hurts. Have you allowed God to prepare you to become vulnerable enough to be hurt?
- How visible are you and your church?
- How can you become more like salt in your interactions with others?
- How can you heighten the intensity of God’s good news to the world (without going overboard)?
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