GRANULES OF SALT 2

MEMORY VERSE: Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Matthew 5:13

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 1 Kings 22-2 Kings 2

Matthew 5:13 says: ‘Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.’ Salt has various uses – over 14,000 to be precise. Asides the obvious fact that salt is used for seasoning, it is also used as a cleaning agent. Salt is an excellent cleaning agent, either on its own or in combination with other substances. If an iron pan is dirty, you scour it with coarse salt and then rinse well to clean it. Our responsibility as Christians is to become a cleaning agent. The earth is very dirty; there is a lot of uncleanness; viz., defiling practices like pornography, masturbation, fornication, oral sex, bestiality, etc. Wherever we find ourselves, we must discourage these practices. We must not judge those who indulge in them but with love, pray for them and lead them to Christ.

Another function of salt is to hold back corruption. In the days before refrigeration, people preserved meat by salting it. Likewise, it is our responsibility to hold back the forces of corruption – moral corruption, social corruption, political corruption – until God’s purposes of mercy and grace have been worked out for this world of ours. Now, suppose we fail in our function as salt –to give flavour, to clean and to hold back corruption. Listen to what Jesus said: ‘…..but if the salt have lost his savour…. It is thenceforth good for nothing...’ If we are not doing what we are supposed to be doing, we become good for nothing! We might expect ‘to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.’ How would you feel if that happened? It is a sobering fact that millions and millions of people across the earth’s surface today would count it their greatest privilege to trample Christians underfoot – particularly, the Christians of England, America, Nigeria, etc. God is not going to come down and trample us underfoot Himself, but He will turn us over to those who hate Christianity and all that it stands for. And the most bitter reflection of such a moment will be, ‘we deserved it. Jesus warned us. We didn’t listen. He said that if we did not serve as salt, we would be thrown out and trampled underfoot.’

PONDER: If you look all around the world, this is gradually beginning to happen. This is a wake- up call to every Christian.

Bro Samuel | Reaching the world for Jesus.

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