Salt of the Earth

You are the salt of the earth.
            —Matthew 5:13

Jesus described his followers as “the salt of the earth.” Food is bland without salt. Our lives—as salt—should paint Christianity as delightful, not distasteful; desirable, not disagreeable.

In Jesus’ day, salt was used primarily as a preservative; rubbed into meat and fish to prevent decay and rottenness. We—as salt—should be curative in a world gone bad; preservatives to stanch the decay of the day.

Jesus said, “[I]f the salt loses its saltiness . . . it is no longer good for anything.”

Salt can lose its saltiness; contaminated by mixture with impure elements so that it becomes useless.

When Christians become tainted by the impurities of the world they lose their saltiness, their influence; when they are indistinguishable from the world, they are useless.

A worldly Christian is an oxymoron.

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