Pass the Salt

Recently, I had the privilege of preaching in chapel at the Bible college I go to. The title of my message was "pass the Salt." This post is the basics of the message I shared.

Let me ask you this question: "Is your salt, salty?" Matthew 5:13 says, "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." Typically, when asked, "What is salt good for?" the most common responses I hear or think of are "to add flavor/to season" and "to preserve." But, there's another purpose of salt - it makes you thirsty. That got me thinking - if we, as Christians, are truly living as the salt of the earth, then the people around us should be thirsty for the Living Water. If the people around you are not thirsty, not noticing what it is that's different about you, then you're living too much like the unflavored world. It's time to stop saving all good seasoning for ourselves, and pass the salt.

Perhaps the reason people are not thirsting for Living Water is because we are only around other Christians. Are we in a position where we can pass the salt? And, if we are around those who need Living Water, are we holding it back and keeping it to ourselves because we're embarrassed by our faith, or afraid of what others might think of us? Or are we freely giving what has been freely given to us? Jesus is the Living Water (see John 4) and people should be thirsty for Him.

I've been thinking a lot about how salt affects the cells of our bodies. The ideal situation for a cell is an isotonic state. This is when the salt concentration is the same on the inside and outside of a cell. When this happens, water can flow easily in and out of a cell at the same rate. However, if there is more salt inside our cells than in the environment around them, the cells will take in water from their surroundings, swell, and possibly burst. This is called a hypotonic cell. And, just the opposite, if there's more salt on the outside than the inside, the water will flow out of the cells faster than it can come in, causing the cells to shrink and shrivel up. This is called a hypertonic cell.

Relating this back to Christians, I came to understand that if we keep all of the salt inside of us (if we never share God's Word and our faith), we become swollen, "stealing" the water from the environment. Furthermore, if we put so much salt out there, that all the water leaves us, our spiritual life shrivels up. However, if we allow the salt to saturate equally between us and the environment, we will live in a state where Living Water both leaves us and fills us. We need to be like isotonic cells and find the middle ground between sharing our faith and building our faith.

What kind of Christian are you? Are you hypotonic, swollen with yourself and your own righteousness? Are you hypertonic, shriveling away, concerned so much with others that you forget to build your own spiritual walk? Or are you isotonic, allowing God's living water to flow both in and out of you? Let's live as God intended us to, and pass the Salt!!