To Love The Lost, Stay Salty

Christ spoke of the savor of salt in Matthew 5:13 so I have to feel there is a focus upon taste and thirst–not that the other aspects of salt should be forgotten.

Nonetheless, common table salt is sodium chloride. Sodium is essential for heart function. Of course in our time there is an overabundance of sodium in many of our diets and we know too much sodium can be detrimental to one’s health. In our bodies, sodium has a tendency to draw water.

When I first worked in fast food I learned that salted food items were an “encouragement” for customers to buy soft drinks. If I remember correctly, more of a profit was made on the drinks than the food. Eat salty items and you will want something to drink.

I. Lead To The Water 

So, in Matthew 5:13 Christ rightfully terms the true disciple of His as the salt of the earth. 

“You are the salt of the earth:”

As such, we are to make those who are not redeemed by God to crave for true spiritual water which is Christ Himself. Consider this exchange between Christ and a woman: “‘Whosoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.’ The woman saith unto him, ‘Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.’”

If we continue to read, she does not immediately get that spiritual blessing. Christ has to first convict her of her sin of fornication with men who were married to another woman. And please do not accept the false notion that she was actually married to five different men. The Greek really does not support this fact and neither does its translation into English, provided you have a reliable translation.

The point is that she, a sinner like you and I, met the sinless Christ. When we surrender to Christ we die to self, being crucified with Him, and are resurrected with Him to serve the one true living God (Galatians 2:20).

Her encounter with Christ engendered a commitment to His Messiahship, and therefor Lordship in her life. He is the Word, which is a cleansing spiritual water unto our being (please read John 3:5, Ephesians 5:26 and Titus 3:5).

Christ’s saviorship becomes our spiritual savor to the world, especially those inclined to receive the Truth. Not all non-disciples like the savor Christ exhibits through us, but some will. 

Though we are not perfect, His life within us causes us to press on to that perfection which is not achievable by the world. So we grow in Christ to be different from the world. Some examples of how we should be different are found from Matthew 5 to the end of 7.

II. The Need For Watching

“but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted?”

In our time and in many nations some might ask how could salt lose its flavor. Back in Christ’s time insoluble compounds of minerals were often naturally mixed into the salt. If you left a pouch of salt outside and it rained enough, the salt would dissolve leaving a mostly zestless powder behind.

We know we are losing, or have lost, our spiritually vitality when we continually disobey Christ (John 14:21): “He that has my commandments, and does them, he it is that loves me:” The Authorized Version has “keep my commandments,” but the Greek {1} shows “keep” not only to mean “guard” but also to observe (do). As previously mentioned, this refers to both His written commands (The Holy Bible) and His spoken commands. We lose our savor when we become more like the world and, consequently, less like Christ.

So how to we get back or get more savor? We make sure we are dwelling in, and drawing from, the Savior. John 15:5 states, “I am the vine, you are the branches: He that abides in me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit: for apart from me you can do nothing. Some ways we abide in Him include praise, worship, prayer and studying the Word of God.

III. Heed The Warning 

“it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.”

Did you notice three warnings in one as to what happens if we lose our savor? First is the admonition that if such a thing happens we become good for nothing. Consider the last par of John 15:5, “apart from me you can do nothing.”

“To be cast out” means we indeed can leave, fall from, grace.  It is not that we are saved by works, but we are saved by Christ Who produces His works through us. If they do not occur, and increase over time along with a positive, godly, inward change, then we are not dwelling in Christ as he told us to do.

As noted above, we lose our savor when we become less like Christ and more like the world. We become “friendly” with the world. The world might even love us, but this is a love that chains us to the cycle of sin and damnation. The world, in being tolerant to sin, is trampling its friends deeper into its mire. If you love the world system it will eventually destroy you.

For us who know Christ as Savior may we draw closer to Him every day. If you are not in Christ, I encourage you to forsake sin, self, the world and surrender to Him now, asking Him to graciously forgive you, cleanse you and live in you.

Notes:

{1} From an electronic version of Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance by James Strong

This article is a form of a message (sermon) outline. God willing, you will find links to the actual message (sermon) sometime hopefully by March 1, 2013 at http://www.sapphirestreams.com/life/audioM.html#M235.

Unless otherwise noted, Holy Scripture is from the 1769 Authorized Version, but modified in some cases to update the language (e.g., “has” was “hath”) and to restore the Tetragrammaton in the OT as indicated.

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