"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 by
men." (Matthew 5:13)


Salt was extremely important in the ancient,
Mediterranean world. The Romans had a
proverb about salt: 'There is nothing more
useful than sun and salt.'

Salt was especially useful as a preservative:
a vital commodity in hot countries such as
Israel. It was used to keep meat from going
rotten, as it was in our own culture before
the days of refrigeration.
It was also used as a type of "filler" like our
modern-day "poly-filla", that is, it could be
turned into a kind of paste which you would
use to fill in cracks with, and strengthen
them, and hold things together with.

So when Jesus described his disciples as
disciples as 'the salt of the earth', he was
saying that Christians naturally act as a
preservative of all that is good in society
and, in fact, that we would improve it and
make it better, filling in the cracks of
injustice, where they appear, and that
society would benefit from it.
There are many outstanding examples of
these that will be looked at more closely in
some of our later articles. (see "How is
Jesus opposed today?")

A Christian is to be the kind of person who
makes it difficult for those around him to be
evil, and easy to be good. But salt has
another valuable quality: it brings out the
flavor of food.
Like salt, Christians should make a positive
difference to the quality of life for those
around them. Although we do not have all
the answers to the difficulties of life, we
should be able to bring hope and peace to
the confused and despairing, and show the
attractiveness of God in our character -
through compassion, through laughter and
through the enjoyment of all that God has
given us. We should also be a challenge to
those who are deliberately involved in evil.

Jesus' words about salt also contain a
warning. If salt loses its unique qualities,
then it is completely useless and will be
thrown out. Jesus was saying that those
disciples who did not do the work God had
prepared for them in the world would
similarly be useless to him.

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• Prayer & Pics for military
• Pumpkins
• Redneck Love Poem
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• Salt
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• Teenager's view of Heaven
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