We Must Be the Salt

Rev. Lonnie C. Crowe

Matthew 5:13. "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.

Salt, symbolically, pictures permanence, loyalty, value, healing and purification.

2  Chronicles 13: 5.  "Should you not know that the Lord God of Israel gave the dominion over Israel to David forever, to him and his sons, by a covenant of salt? Because salt is a preservative, a salt covenant is a perpetual, a forever, covenant.

Leviticus 2:13.  `And every offering of your grain offering you shall season with salt; you shall not allow the salt of the covenant of your God to be lacking from your grain offering. With all your offerings you shall offer salt.

Salt represents the purity in our offerings to the Lord.  Our offerings include good works, good attitudes, obedience and faith as well as money.

Salt is anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial.  It is healing.

2 Kings 2: 19-22:  Then the men of the city said to Elisha, "Please notice, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees; but the water is bad, and the ground barren.'' And he said, "Bring me a new bowl, and put salt in it.'' So they brought it to him. Then he went out to the source of the water, and cast in the salt there, and said, "Thus says the Lord: `I have healed this water; from it there shall be no more death or barrenness.' ''  So the water remains healed to this day, according to the saying of Elisha which he spoke.

Just as the salt in the water healed the water, the river of living water that is to spring from our innermost being is to bring healing into the spiritual chaos swirling around us.

Caution:  If we lose our saltiness, our testimony becomes worthless and is trampled over by others.

“Progressive Christianity” is Christianity without salt and light. It is a form of godliness that denies the power of godliness.  Paul cautions us to stay away from this. (2 Timothy 3:5)

Franklin Graham: “I would say the exact same warning applies today to the advocates of progressive Christianity. They deceitfully promote and proclaim what I believe is clearly a “different gospel, which is really no Gospel at all.

“When the topic of justice is discussed, progressive Christianity is primarily concerned with the issues of social and racial justice (which the Bible does address), but most often neglects the far more fundamental issue of God’s justice—how a holy and just God deals with sinful and wicked men.

“And when it comes to the matter of personal sin, progressive Christianity most frequently fails to see the ruinous consequences of mankind’s depraved, sinful state. Biblical teaching on the precious blood of Christ, the sacrificial, substitutionary, atoning work of Christ’s death on the cross, is too often neglected or distorted.

“To reject the deity of Christ is to deny Christ and doom yourself to an eternity spent in hell. To love darkness more than light will end in an eternity in hell.

“To hope that good works alone will earn salvation, while rejecting the gift of everlasting life through faith in Christ alone, will lead straight into the eternal abyss.

“To deny the fullness of the Trinity—God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit—can risk a person spending their eternity separated from the glory and splendor of God Almighty.”

From Progressive Christianity Can Lead You to Hell.

1 Corinthians 15:1-4:  Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,

To be salt means to be a positive influence and to preserve what is good spiritually, materially and emotionally. People must see the unconditional love of Jesus through our words and our actions.

Colossians 4:6: 6.  Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.