Matt. 5:13 You are the salt of the earth.

Matt. 5:13  “You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it useful again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless.”

Salt is useful for a lot of things. It adds flavor to otherwise bland food. It preserves food from spoilage. It creates a thirst in us for water that we need to sustain life. It can also aide in healing when the body is injured (However, when salt is put on an open sore, it burns. The pain is real, but in the end the pain goes away and the wound is healed.). In some cultures salt is deemed to be so valuable that it is used as a form of currency. It also is used to get rid of unwanted and dangerous snow and ice.

The body of Christ is the salt of the earth. When we are functioning properly, we have a huge impact on the world. When we quit acting like Christians and blend in with the world, we lose our saltiness. We no longer are of any eternal value to the world. Once we lose our ability to be salt, we become of no good at all to the cause of Christ. We need to be careful so that we don’t lose our saltiness.

By the way, salt left in the salt shaker is no good either. We may be the best salt in the whole world, but if we don’t get out of the shaker and get into the world, we are no good at all. The Lord sends us out into the world, not into our holy huddles. Food does not enter into the salt shaker to be salted.

Salt can be ruined if it is not properly cared for. If you water it down, you can no longer use it. If you let it get contaminated by foreign objects, it loses its natural qualities. We must be careful that we protect ourselves from those things which might destroy us or render us useless.