A Seasoned Christian

A Seasoned Christian

Salt is good, but if the salt loses its flavor, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace with one another. - Mark 9:50

There are many Christians in our world today. And as Christians, we are called to show compassion, kindness, and love. We are to find favor for both God and men. But has trying to gain the favor of men caused us to lose our flavor? Today let’s meditate on the scripture verse in which Jesus said, "Salt is good, but if the salt loses its flavor, how will you season it? What good is salt if it has lost its flavor?

An ancient king once asked his three daughters how much they loved him. One daughter said she loved him more than all the gold in the world. One said she loved him more than all the silver in the world. The youngest daughter said she loved him more than salt. The king was not pleased with this answer. But the cook overheard the conversation, so the next day he prepared a good meal for the king, but left out the salt. The food was so horrible that the king couldn't eat it. Then he understood what his last daughter meant. He understood the value of salt.

In the ancient world salt was a valuable and rare spice. It was so valuable that some countries used it as a currency. During an invasion of Ethiopia, in the late 19th century, Italian soldiers found salt blocks stored in bank vaults along with other familiar forms of currency. The scripture portion we will meditate on is when Jesus was talking to his disciples. He was paying them a high compliment when he called them salt. He was calling them valuable and rare.

But Jesus also asked, "What good is salt if it has lost its flavor, if it no longer seasons food?" Luke 14:34. There's no particular food value to salt on its own. It is only used to season food. Indeed, too much salt is dangerous as doctors tell us. But what value would salt have if it has lost its flavor? If it cannot season food anymore?

Consider the flavor-enhancing properties of salt. What are french fries without salt? They are very bland. In Biblical days, friendship and loyalty are sealed with salt. Why salt? Because the essence of salt is simple - it does not change. This is why salt symbolizes a long-lasting friendship and relationship between people. It is also a symbol of God’s everlasting love for us! “His love endures forever” - Psalms 136:1

Jesus is saying to his followers, both his disciples 2000 years ago as well as to us, "What good is it to be a follower of mine if there is nothing distinctive about your life? If you are not different from the world? If by following me you make no real contribution to separate yourself from the world, if there is no redemptive power flowing through your life and actions, what is the use of calling yourself my disciples?" Dear children of God, have we gained favor from men and lost our flavor? Let us meditate on three important elements that we must not lose christian flavor; our values, love, and faith.

I. Seasoned Values

Let your speech [be] always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man. - Colossians 4:6b.

If our values are no better than our neighbor’s, then of what value is our faith? Because of how the world has changed, the lifestyle and line between being Christian and of this world has become more and more blurred. How many Christians in this country wake up for Sunday Service in the morning, and on the same day go out at night to get drunk?

There once was a sign on a church door that read: "The Ten Commandments are not multiple choice!" One sin does not have a greater or lesser value than the other. Let us read the verses that our Lord Jesus has given us. In order to preserve our flavor and our saltiness: "If your hand offends you; cut it off. If your eye offends you; pluck it out. It's better to go into heaven with one eye and one hand than into hell with both hands intact and both eyes intact."- Matthew 5:29-30. Jesus taught His disciples that the righteousness He called them for was far greater righteousness that exceeded that of the Pharisees. (Matthew 5:20). The righteousness that He has called us for is far greater than the pleasures of this world.

One pastor told a story of a neighbor whose barn had burned down. The entire community gathered to help rebuild it. The owner and some other men were told to fix the roof. They first cut a piece of roof tile and then traced around it with a pencil. They traced the second piece with the first piece, and they used the second piece to trace the third piece. The third piece was used for the fourth piece, the fourth piece was used for the fifth piece and so on. What they didn't take into account was the width of the pencil mark. Each piece was one pencil mark wider than the one before. And as they continued their tracing pattern, after a while, this added up to quite a difference. By lunchtime, they looked at the barn and discovered it was going up at a very strange angle and was starting to tilt. Although the pencil's width was very minute, it slowly caused a large difference in the end.