“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot” (Matthew 5:13).
For the past three days we have been studying what Jesus meant when he called his disciples and his church the salt of the earth.
Salt has many uses: salt flavors, preserves, melts ice, causes thirst, and disinfects.
We studied the chemical makeup of salt: sodium chloride.
Finally, we will look at what makes salt salty.
In order for salt to be salty to flavor the world around it, preserve the truth, melt the hearts of men and women, cause people to thirst for God, and disinfect, salt must dissolve. It must change shape. It must die.
If the grains of salt refuse to change its shape, if the grains of salt refuse to melt away and die, “if the salt loses its saltiness…it is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.”
Do you know what we call salt that doesn’t dissolve? Dirt. When you salt your food and as you’re eating, you bite into an undissolved grain of salt, what do you do? You spit it out!
The only way for salt to be salty is for it to change shape and form. The only way for salt to be salty is to dissolve.
The only way for disciples to be salty is for the disciples to dissolve and die. We die to our old self, to our old hopes and dreams, to our old ways. Only when we are willing to change, can we function as salt.
Are you ready to be salty today?
Allow God to change you and renew you so that God can use you to be the salt of the earth.
Praxis: Faith in Action 