Daily Devotion For Tuesday, September 10, 2024

Guess what? You guessed it – Terrific Tuesday is back. If you have been following these devotionals, you know we are making our way through the most famous and best sermon ever preached or given. This would be Jesus’ Sermon On The Mount found in Matthew chapters 5, 6, & 7. Currently we are looking at Matthew 5:13-16:

“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men. (14)  “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; (15) nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. (16) Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (NASB).

Jesus talks about light and darkness and salt and taste. As I wrote yesterday, our world is not evolving into something better, it is devolving into something worse. I read somewhere in a magazine that Americans tend to see themselves as saints and less as sinners. The problem today people, especially this younger generation, is that when they denounce and protest against evil, they assume it is something that can be controlled, fixed or medicated. While they are right to condemn evil and evil acts, they fail to take into consideration where evil and sin originate. At times they even seem to give the impression that they never commit evil, but that it is an older generation that does. Sin and evil are inherent in every human being and only the Light of Christ can turn that darkness into light.

In our text, syntactically, the pronouns “you” are what are called in the Greek language emphatic – meaning, whoever reads these words by Jesus, the “you” is you. Jesus is not referring to just pastors or ministers or missionaries, but to every single person who is a Christian. New Testament scholar Willaim Barclay writes this about salt:

• First, salt in Jesus’ day represented purity. This was due to its glistening whiteness. The Romans said that salt was the purest of all things, because it came from the purest of all things, the sun and the sea. Salt was indeed the most primitive of all offerings to the gods, and to the end of the day the Jewish sacrifices were offered with salt. So, if the Christians are to be the salt of the earth, they must be examples of purity. One of the realities we experience today is the lowering of standards even by Christians. We are called to be holy, godly, righteous and pure and yet many times, many Christians are no different from non-Christians in purity. 

• Second, salt was used as a preservative. It would keep meat from rotting and become unstable to eat. If salt is to preserve meat for example from corruption, then Christians are to be God’s preservative that slows down corruption in this world. Christians must be the cleansing antiseptic in any society in which they happen to be; they must be the ones who by their presence defeat corruption and make it easier for others to be good. In Jesus’ days, fishermen would put their fish in salt to preserve them. Butchers would do the same. As Christians, if we preserve and live out our doctrines of holiness, godliness and righteousness, then we preserve what is eventually attractive to the world. By preserving these, we help preserve the world and rescue the perishing. 

• New Testament scholar Leroy Lawson writes this: “Our word salary comes from the Latin salarium, salt. Before refrigeration, salt preserved food. In arid Palestine, meat could not have been kept without salt. It meant the difference between life and death. So important was it that salarium literally meant “salt money,” which Roman soldiers received as part of their pay” (Source: LeRoy Lawson, Unlocking The Scriptures For You, “Matthew,” p. 68).

• New Testament scholar Douglas Sean O’Donnell says: “Jesus said that if salt has become tasteless, it is useless. Jesus is saying, `There should be no diluted disciples.’ Jesus doesn’t command us to become salt; He said we are salt. We had flavor and taste to this world. But when Christians start adding other ingredients to what I call “the soup of our life” other than the salt we get diluted and we appear to be hypocrites and fakes. Other ingredients such as sexual immorality, lust for money, materialism, pride, telling or sending crude or vulgar jokes or laughing at them, and etc., then our witness is diluted and useless.” (Source: Douglas Sean O’Donnell, Preaching The Word, “Matthew,” p. 118).
• Third, salt lends flavor. Food without salt is not tasty and unsavory. As Christians we are to add flavor to this world, not take it away or out. The American judge Oliver Wendell Holmes once said: ‘I might have entered the ministry if certain clergymen I knew had not looked and acted so much like undertakers.’ When Christians live lives that seem joyless and worried, the world has no reason to believe that Jesus Christ makes a difference. Nehemiah 8:10 says, “The joy of the Lord is my strength” (NASB). In fact, joy is one of the Fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23, We need to discover the lost radiance of the Christian faith. In a worried world, Christians should be the only people who remain serene. In a depressed world, Christians should be the only people who remain full of the joy of life. There should be a sheer sparkle about Christians, but too often they dress like mourners at a funeral” (Source: William Barclay, New Daily Study Bible Commentary, “Matthew,” Vol. 1, pp.137-139).

Questions To Consider

1. Would Jesus Christ say that your salt is pure and that you live a holy, godly, righteous and pure life? If not, then you are useless. If so, how?
2. Do you help preserve the Christian faith by being a cleansing antiseptic in your lifestyle before the world? Why or why not?
3. Where in your life are you as diluted salt? If not, how do you keep this from happening? Are there any other ingredients you add to your life that dilutes your salt such as dishonesty, lying, anger, grudges, resentment, bitterness, being judgmental, TV shows that glorify sexual sins or “soft porn” or conceit, complaining, or profanity, and etc.?
4. When others see you, do they experience the joy of your salvation, a worry-free life and a trust in Jesus Christ that astounds them? Why or why not?
5. As salt, do you look or act as if you’re an undertaker or the MC of a celebration? 

Scripture To Meditate On: Mark 9:50, “Jesus said, `Salt is good; but if the salt becomes unsalty, with what will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another’” (NASB),

Prayer To Pray: “Dear Jesus, I do not want to be diluted salt. I want when people see me, to experience the joy of my salvation from You to me and then to them. I want them to say what the unnamed disciples on the Road To Emmaus (on Easter Sunday) before they realized it was Jesus who was talking to them in Luke 24:32. 'Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us.’ Help me to be useful for You. I love You Jesus. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”

I love you Southside!--Pastor Kelly