Is it just my observation, or does it appear that we’re not salty enough? I am referring to those of us who profess to be Christian. Have we lost our saltiness? I keep looking at our world, and all that’s happening, and am left wondering who’s influencing who?

We appear light years from the time when the Ten Commandments were the guide for living; even though, our obedience to it was far from perfect.  Businesses used to be closed on Sundays. Sunday used to be recognized as a day of worship in our mostly Christian nation. Sins used to be hidden, done in the dark, but now everything is out in the open. In fact, sin isn’t sin anymore. We now say it’s either a sickness, disease, an affair or simply a choice.

What happened? Have Christians lost their saltiness? Is it that we believe we gain more by being like-minded? Are we afraid of being peculiar? Are we afraid of being rejected? The Apostle Peter reminds us:

But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: I Peter 2:9 KJV

We are a people who have been called out of darkness by the grace of God. Our lives must reflect that.

Jesus said in his Sermon on the Mount:

Ye are the salt of the earth, but if the salt have lost its savor, with what shall it be salted? It is thereafter good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under the foot of men. Matthew 5:13 KJV

Jesus is saying that if we have lost our purpose to influence those we live around by how we live which also helps to preserve society from degradation; we are good for nothing.  Christians are the spice to life.  When we live our our lives for Christ, we demonstrate to the world that we submit to a higher calling and point to Christ.  Tony Payne, stated it this way in his book, The Thing Is:

Whatever we do in this new life – in our family, in our workplace, in our neighborhood, in our church, in our society – we are to do it in honour of Jesus: to imitate him, to obey him, to rid ourselves of anything that dishonours him, to clothe ourselves in his character, to spread the knowledge and fame of him wherever we go.

That higher calling that we submit to is not limited to our life within the church walls, but extends everywhere we go. We must always submit to living by God’s standards. Our standard for living is what God says it is, and he lays it all out in his word, the Bible. It’s solid. It’s sure. It doesn’t change with time or culture.

To abandon God’s higher calling is to lose our influence, to lose our saltiness. We must remember our calling. We are made his people, at the cost of his Son’s life, death and resurrection, to point people to the way of Jesus Christ.

Are you clothing yourself in his character? Are you ridding yourself of anything that dishonors him? Are you bringing honor to Christ in everything you do?

We are the salt of the earth. Salt influences. Salt preserves.

Be salty!