The Salt Of Your Environment

  You are the salt of the earth.

But what good is salt if it has lost its flavour?

Can you make it salty again?

It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless.

Mathew 5:13

  

The dictionary defines salt as: An element that gives flavor or zest. A sharp lively wit

The usage of salt in the Biblical times:  

• As a symbol of covenants and good will. Salt used as a symbol of covenant is described in Numbers 18:19 ... a covenant of salt forever before the Lord with you and your descendants with you. It's usage in covenant with God is also shown in Leviticus 2:13b, it reads ”Season all your grain offerings with salt to remind you of God’s eternal covenant. Never forget to add salt to your grain offerings". In Colossians 4:6, salt is used as a symbol of good will, and it reads "Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one".

• Adding flavour to food: This we see in job describing in Job 6:6, it reads "Don’t people complain about unsalted food? Does anyone want the tasteless white of an egg"?. 

• As a disinfectant: Salt was used to protect wounds from being infected. Ezekiel 16:4 explains this and it reads “On the day you were born, no one cared about you. Your umbilical cord was not cut, and you were never washed, rubbed with salt, and wrapped in cloth". It is also used to disinfect or heal the land of evil as we read in 2 Kings 2:20-21. which reads "20 Elisha said, “Bring me a new bowl with salt in it.” So they brought it to him. 21 Then he went out to the spring that supplied the town with water and threw the salt into it. And he said, “This is what the Lord says: I have purified this water. It will no longer cause death or infertility.

The usage of salt in the New Testament:

• The main usage of salt according to the New Testament is to influence (make sweet, enrich, heal or make right), its immediate environment. Jesus explains this in Luke 14:34, which it reads "Salt is good for seasoning. But if it loses its flavour, how do you make it salty again?" In Mathew 5:13, Jesus call us 'The Salt of the Earth'. Mathew 5:13 reads "You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavour? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless".

From all these, what does it mean to be 'The salt of the earth, I hear you ask?'.   This means as salt we are meant to impart the characteristics of salt to our immediate environment, such as love, healing, sweetness, solutions, compassion and direction.  

As salt, we are to make have a positive effect to our environment; to infuse the flavor of God's living word into its very centre.   As salt we are to add the intricate flavor of God's word into homes, schools, work places, businesses, youth centres, hospitals and on the streets.

As salt, we are to transform our cities, countries and continents; healing the land from sickness, disease barrenness and strongholds.

With all these in mind, my question to today is thus: 

Are we the salt of the earth that Jesus confirmed us to be?
Are we living out the intricacies of the salt, or are we the opposite, a pollutant to our environments?

Do you arrive on the scene, and mood swings, bitterness, complaints and unfriendliness trail in after you, or does relief, peace and love, displays the presence of God in you?

Salts of the earth are solution implementers

Today, I encourage you all, that wherever you find yourself in life; on the bus, train, home, work or a station, let the characteristics of the 'Salt of the earth that you are' be evident for all to see. Live it out and let the benefits be manifested in that environment. Do all you can to stay in God's presence and will, thus, not loosing your flavour, but living to dispel out its realities; whilst making God famous along the way.

Much Love

Remi Banjo 

 ***Pictures by photobucet ***