How can salt become tasteless? Well, in the ancient world, the salt people used was often impure, mixed with all sorts of other chemical elements. Over time, and with exposure to the weather, the true salt – the sodium chloride – could leach out of this mixture, leaving a substance that looked the same but that had none of the properties of true salt. It was, therefore, a counterfeit: saltless salt.

And fake salt just couldn’t do the things that make true salt so desirable and helpful. For in the ancient world, salt was one of the principal methods of preserving food, keeping meat from spoiling. And just like today, salt added zest to the dinner table, making foods more flavorful.

And Jesus sends Christians into the world for similar reasons. As we follow His commands and His example, denying ourselves in order to love each other and seeking to remain pure from self-centered sin, the Church tends to build cultures based on mutual respect and trust, cultures that are more healthy and more attractive than those founded on envy or greed or lust: cultures that thus preserve human life. Moreover, over the last 2000 years, the Church has also had the joyful task of blessing the world with art and music and literature, all the things that bring spice to life.

But the problem comes when the church turns its focus inward, putting a basket over the light of Christ instead of continuing to reflect His glory and His truth and His love into the unbelieving world. For when we become more interested in institutional preservation than we are in evangelism and mission, we not only shirk our duty to a lost and dying world. We also lose the ability to perform our sacred task, as the salt of faith leaches out of us, leaving us unable to stanch the wounds of sin or counteract its hideous odors.

So, as the stench and decay of sin rise all around us, will we remain in our salt-shakers, only to lose our power to help others? Will we seek to hide our God-given light from an increasingly lost and needy world? Or will we rub our salty selves into the world, speaking the words of truth and doing the deeds of love that will counteract sin’s destructive power? Will we let the light of Christ shine, showing and sharing His gracious truth with those who need Him as desperately as we ourselves do?

Matthew 5:13-16 (NASB)

13 “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how will it be made salty again? It is good for nothing anymore, 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 do men light a lamp, and put it under the peck-measure, 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.