THURSDAY May 18th
Matthew 5:13
‘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.’
As I have looked at this verse this week, I trust that what I have shared concerning the need for us to be SALT within this world that we are living in has been a
challenge in some way.
Tomorrow we will look at the next verses which talk about us being light as well, but to end v13, I will go back to an illustration I mentioned earlier this week about the way that I used to have to mix paint to get the exact colour needed to paint a car.
It was done by weighing the base colours on precision scales, right down to a point of a gram. A formula had to be followed that had already been provided by the paint manufacturer, it was essential to follow it exactly as it was written down!
In the same way, God, our Creator has produced an exact formula that we need to follow to ensure that we can truly be the Salt (and as we will see, the light) that we are called to be. It is a command or instruction that was first given in Leviticus 11:44 to the Children of Israel, but is repeated for us in 1 Peter 1:15-16 ‘but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy”’ And how do we follow these instructions? The answer is given us in Psalm 119:9 ‘How can a young man (or anyone) keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word.’ We follow God’s instruction exactly as he has written them down for us.
And we need the help of the Holy Spirit to help us weigh up the things that we need to either a)add to our lives or b) take away or off from our lives. You will
remember when we looked at 2 Peter we considered the various virtues we need to add to our faith (see 2 Peter 1:5-7), and Peter says adding these virtues will keep us from being ineffective or unfruitful. In other words they will increase our saltiness, enabling us to be the salt of the earth.
But as well, often in Scripture we read of the things we need to put off, or die to, for example Colossians 3:5 ‘Put to death therefore what is earthly in you’, Paul then lists a number of things we need to put off, then in verse 12 he gives a list
of things we need to put on. Here is the challenge, it’s personal for each one of us, as God weighs up our thoughts, actions, behaviour, the places we frequent, etc, would he see us as salt that is usable or would he see us as salt that is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under
people’s feet.
May God help us to do all we can to live up to his exacting standards, to be fit for purpose as salt that can be effective in this unsavoury world around us.