A Preserving Factor

In the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth . . . ” His listeners would have immediately understood what He was saying: “You are a preserving factor in the culture today.”

Salt not only was a valuable commodity in the first century, but it also was used as a preservative. In the absence of refrigeration or ice machines, salt would be rubbed into meat to keep it from the process of putrefaction. Also, meat would be sliced into slender strips, dipped into a saline solution, and thereby preserved until a later date.

In the same way, Christians can act as a preservative in the culture. As a representative of Jesus, you, as a believer, can change the dynamic of a room. That very tension says that you are a representative of Jesus Christ, and people know it. Your presence makes a difference.

But we can’t sting the world’s conscience if we go against our own. We cannot be an influence for purity in the world if we are compromised in our purity. We cannot be used by God to stop the corruption of sin in others if it has corrupted us. Jesus said, “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 underfoot by men” (Matthew 5:13).

It is the Christians who stand up for what is right. It is the Christians who speak out against what is wrong. It is the Christians who are always at the front line of every effort around the world to help people who are hurting, regardless of whether they have faith. That is what Christians do. We are the salt of the earth.