GO BE THE SALT OF THE EARTH! -- Devotional for March 6, from "Goods Seeds"

Salt is good for seasoning. But if it loses its flavor, how do you make it salty again? You must have the qualities of salt among yourselves and live in peace with one another. (Mark 9:50)

Jesus told His followers, “You are the salt of the earth…” He compares us to salt both in the general teachings of the “Sermon on the Mount” of Matthew 5, and in the “Dire Warnings” of Mark 9. Common salt is a crystalline compound, NaCl = sodium chloride. It is in bountiful supply in nature, both on land and sea. It has many uses: for food – a preservative, and a flavor enhancer; and for health – a cleansing and healing agent. If God insists on comparing us to sheep, with all the weaknesses of those dismal creatures, I’m glad He also elevates us by saying we can be like salt. He doesn’t call us diamonds: rare, precious, expensive, exclusive. No, we’re salt! What could be more common than salt? And yet with words and deeds that are “seasoned with salt” (Colossians 4:6) the Lord can work through us to enhance the lives, preserve the souls, cleanse the hearts, and heal the wounds of others, whenever we come in contact with them. Jesus doesn’t want such attitudes and behaviors to be the exception, but the rule! It is certainly the rule with salt: wherever it is, whatever it touches, it does its life-enhancing, life-preserving work. That’s why is it so strange that our Lord would suggest a scenario that, to my knowledge, has never happened: salt losing its flavor. But what He is saying, I believe, is that it is as unthinkable for a Christian NOT to have these salt-like qualities that cleanse, heal, inspire, and bring out the best in others, as it is for salt to lose its saltiness. But if salt ever did stop being salty, it would stop being salt, at least as far as its usefulness, and start being an element of the earth even more common than salt – EARTH! (Its only use then would be for paving footpaths). Jesus said salt could lose its flavor, and Paul said a Christian could lose his usefulness: “I discipline my body lest I should become disqualified – a castaway” (I Corinthians 9:27). I don’t want to be former salt – a “has-been Christian!” If we’re of no further use on earth, Jesus may as well take us home. Hey, going home to heaven is not so bad! But wait, don’t we want to finish our course first? That means staying in the fight and keeping the faith (II Timothy 4:7). I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to receive a dishonorable discharge from my earthly tour of duty. There’s a crown of righteousness awaiting those who never lose their saltiness. I want that crown. Do you? Okay, then just go be “the salt of the earth” – for your particular corner of it!