May 26, 2009
Luke 14:34 "Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?"
Salt is salty. There is no way of getting around it; or so you and I think. You reach for the table salt to add flavor to your food and you get what you expect, salt. And it is certainly salty. There is no way you can reach for that salt and have it taste like anything else. You can just remember the time you made the mistake of putting a teaspoon of salt on your food when you thought it was sugar. You were surprised when it hit your taste buds. It made your lips pucker and you reached for a glass of water. There is no mistaking salt for anything else. So, how then can salt lose its saltiness?
Salt cannot lose its saltiness. If salt lost its saltiness, it would not be salt. The chemical composition of salt is NaCl. It is a chemical bond that is very, very stable and very tight. It is difficult to separate the Na from the Cl in Salt. If pure NaCl were to be separated by a chemical reaction, it would not be NaCl anymore. When Jesus spoke of salt losing its saltiness, He was not referring to a chemical reaction; He was actually referring to a mixture that contained salt. In the time of Jesus, the salt they used was either evaporated salt from seawater or crude, impure rocksalt. Both forms of salt in His day contained other substances, foreign to the purity of saltiness. It was possible that the salt portion of the impure rocksalt was used up, leaving useless rock particles.
Jesus was making a parallel to you and I with this crude, impure rocksalt. Sure we might have the light of Jesus inside, be we are human, full of so many other particles that are impure to salt. Jesus was saying that if the salt in your life, the flavor of Jesus, is used up and not replenished, then you would be useless. Christian, you are useless in this world without Christ in your life. You are called to be the salt of the earth, the flavor of Jesus to everyone you meet. If you do not have the flavor of Jesus in your life, then you are useless, good for nothing, and should be tossed aside.
If you lose your saltiness, your identity as a Christian, you will be tossed aside by the Lord, to be trampled on by men. This seems harsh, but Jesus was very clear when He made His remarks. He was sure to point out that if you lost that zeal for the Lord, that passion, that burning flame inside of you, then He has limited use for you. God wants you to maintain that flavor He put inside of you, to impact everything you touch, just like salt. Salt has so many uses, and it only takes a little bit to affect so much.
Christian, you are that salt in this world. But if you lose your salt, your zeal for the Lord, your ability to impact the world for Christ, you are useless. Determine right now to get that flavor back into your life.
1. When in your life were you "salty" for the Lord?
2. Where in your life did you lose your saltiness?
3. How can you get that saltiness back into your life?
Add. Scriptures for Study: Matt 5:13, Mark 9:50