Matthew 5:13 “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.”
This week, Michael writes that many American Christians are vulnerable to the worldly philosophies of secular humanism, materialism, and hedonism. Gallop in “The Search for Faith in America” said, never before has the gospel of Christ made such inroads yet made such little impact on the culture and the ways people live. Jesus said, people will forsake true righteousness and instead choose the pleasures of the world over the calling of God. Their lust for material things would prevent them from becoming disciplined followers of Jesus Christ. Weak, watered down faith would cause false Christians to be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ and this would prevent God from continuing to bless them and their land. The sinful lifestyle of so-called Christians would discourage many from seeking the true light of Christ and seek a cheap counterfeit. Francis Schaeffer cited the crumbling moral foundations of the media, the government and education. He said Americans would prefer to seek material things and temporal happiness instead of the things of God. In short, it will get tougher and tougher to be a true Christian. This is an excerpt from the book “Idol Signs” co-authored by Barna and McKay in 1985.
The ways of the world are upside down from the ways of the beatitudes ... the beautiful attitudes of Jesus Christ preached by the Lord at the Sermon on the Mount. The values of the world are paradoxical to the values of our Heavenly Father. The world emphasizes self-confidence, self-preservation, self-actualization and self -aggrandizement, with the emphasis on self. These selfish priorities appeal to pride and self-sufficiency. They are the tools the devil uses to turn men’s and women’s hearts away from seeking God and His righteousness through Jesus’ sacrifice for sin on our behalf. However, the beatitudes emphasize humility in mourning over sin and poverty of the Holy Spirit. These blessed attitudes prioritize meekness to receive God’s instruction in righteousness ... to be blessed through the filling of the Spirit of Christ in us, for Jesus said, I am the bread of life and the fountain of living waters.
Those who embrace Jesus’ beatitudes are His peacemakers who deliver a peace treaty from the kingdom of Heaven to reconcile with our Heavenly Father through Jesus Christ those whom God has called. After Jesus taught the beatitudes, He said: you are the salt of the earth. Salt is a preservative that keeps food fresh by preventing decay and corruption. Salt represents truth. Salt preserves from degradation, decomposition and decay. The truth of Word of God makes us free from the rottenness of the fallen world. Jesus said, If you continue in my Word you shall be my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. Like salt, the truth of the Word of God (Holy Scripture) is the antiseptic and disinfectant to free Christ-followers from the sinful world’s corruption.
Recently there has been an emphasis on mental illness that has proliferated as our culture and society has turned its back on the truth of the Word of God. The battle field is in the mind and soul. As Americans have forsaken and forgotten true liberty in Christ, our country is increasingly succumbing to the consequences of sin that holds men and women captive. Without the full armor of God, there is no soundness of mind, for God has not given us (who are born-again of God’s Spirit) a spirit of fear, but of power, or love, and of a sound mind.
Let's continue Michael's message on being the Salt of the World in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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