“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).

Right after the Sermon on the Mount/the Beatitudes, Jesus tells us that if we live out the Beatitudes, if we live as Christ’s disciples who live out his kingdom vision, we are salt.

In the next several days we will be looking at what Jesus meant by that. What does it mean to be the salt of the earth?

Today, we will look at the most common uses of salt to see how we are to function in the world today.

Salt has multiple uses.

• Flavor enhancer – salt enhances the natural flavor of foods. You don’t believe me? Try eating your favorite dish without any salt. It is amazing how salt is able to bring out and enhance the flavors already in the food.
  
  In the same way, Christians who live out kingdom values bring out the best in the people and the environment around them.
  
• Preserver – not only does salt enhance the flavor in foods, salt helps to preserve foods. Long before refrigeration, people used salt to preserve meats from rotting and decay.
  
  Christians who live out kingdom values preserve what is true, honorable, loving, and right so that our world doesn’t rot and decay.
  
• De-icer – salt is used to melt ice. Every time it snows city maintenance trucks are out laying down salt and dirt to melt the ice on the streets.
  
  Christians who live out kingdom values are used by God to melt the cold hearts of men and women to soften and awaken them to the reality of a loving God.
  
• Thirst inducer – you know why bars give out free popcorn and nuts? Because they are salty. And salt causes people to be thirsty. Bars give out free popcorn and nuts because they want customers to buy more drinks.
  
  Christians who live out kingdom values cause people to thirst after eternal things; to thirst after God.
  
• Disinfector – salt can be used to treat and disinfect wounds.
  
  Christians who live out kingdom values bring healing to the world around them.

Jesus tells his followers, you are salt.

You get it? Those who live out kingdom values enhance, preserve, melt, causes thirst, and heals.

Be salty today.

“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:5).

“If you realized how powerful your thoughts are, you would never think a negative thought.”
– Unknown

“The life you have is often a reflection of the thoughts you think.”
– Craig Groeschel

“False teaching always leads to false living.”
– Martin Lloyd Jones

Thoughts just happen.

That is a lie. It is a lie that the devil would love for Christ followers to believe.

If you are wise, you take responsibility for what you think. Thoughts matter. Thoughts absolutely matter.

“We demolish,” “We take captive every thought.” Our verse makes it absolutely clear that Christ followers are responsible for our thoughts. Christians don’t just let thoughts happen. We take responsibility for what we think.

• When thoughts and belief systems that sets itself against the knowledge of God arise, we are responsible for demolishing such thoughts with the truth of God’s word.
• We take captive every thought we think to make it obedient to Christ.

You get a bonus verse for today: “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things” (Philippians 4:8).

Thoughts matter. Thoughts absolutely matter for followers of Jesus Christ. We are solely responsible for our thoughts. “Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.”

“Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience” (Colossians 3:12).

Have you noticed toddlers who take off their clothes the very first moment they can? These toddlers love walking around in their undies or diapers. They hate clothes.

What we clothes wearers have forgotten is how restrictive and uncomfortable clothes are. You see, after years of wearing clothes, we’ve gotten used to how clothes make us feel. In fact, after years of donning all our clothes, we feel naked without them!

Compassion. Kindness. Humility. Gentleness. Patience.

What a fantastic list! These are virtues every disciple of Jesus aspires to. These are all God-honoring, people-honoring virtues.

The million dollar question is how can we make these virtues our virtues? How can we live in such a way, these words describe our character and our lives?

The key phrase is “clothe yourselves.” The Greek verb is, enduo. It literally means to put on or clothe yourself. And, of course, it is an imperative. What is interesting is that this verb is written in the middle voice. What that means is that the subject acts both as the actor and the receiver/experiencer of the action. For instance, “Bob hurt himself playing basketball.” The “hurt” is in the middle voice.

What does all that mean? Great question.

First, compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, etc. are not things that happen automatically. They are not a part of us. These are virtues and qualities that need to be put on.

Second, the validity of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, etc. have nothing to do with how we feel. We might be feeling quite angry, frustrated, anxious, etc. And that is precisely the times we are to put on, and clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, etc. We need to put these things on precisely because we are feeling the absence of them.

Third, when we first try putting these virtues on, they feel restrictive and uncomfortable. It is much more natural to let our anger, outbursts, jealousies, frustrations to flow. It takes will and intentionality to put on these virtues.

Finally, when we choose to put on these virtues, we become the recipient/the experiencers of these virtues! The more we practice the art of putting on these virtues, the more natural they become. One day they become a part of us. So much so, that when they are absent, we feel naked.

Compassion. Kindness. Humility. Gentleness. Patience.

Go ahead! Put it on. Clothe yourselves.