John MacArthur in his Matthew commentary says regarding this verse that the Lord is telling us our function in the world, as believers. Reduced to one word, that function is influence.
The world needs salt because it is corrupt and decaying. Paul warns Timothy that "evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived." (2 Tim. 3:13) The world cannot do anything but get worse because it has no inherent goodness in itself. Year after year, the world's system of evil becomes more corrupt and more decayed. That is just the nature of sin. It wasn't very many generations after the Fall that the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Because wickedness was so great, God destroyed every person but eight with a world-wide flood. A few generations after the flood, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah became so rotten from the offspring of those eight that God destroyed them with fire and brimstone. Another day of judgment is coming, the day of the Lord, when He will pour out His wrath on the evil men and impostors, after the church is raptured, at the opening of the sixth seal. In the meantime, however, those who find God's favor, are salt. Pastor Kennedy said that when Jesus spoke these words, He had in mind that we are a preserving influence. At the time of Christ, salt would be packed into the fish that were caught, to keep them from decaying, as they were transported. As salt, believers prevent the entire earth from degenerating even faster than it is, because they are clothed in the beauty and righteousness of Christ.
John MacArthur tells the story of Helen Ewing in his Matthew commentary. Her story is an example to us of being God's salt in the world. Helen was a young girl in Scotland who gave her life to the lordship of Christ. Her dream was to be a missionary in Europe but she was not able to fulfill that dream. She died at the age of 22. By the time she died she had won hundreds of people to Jesus Christ. It was said that all of Scotland wept upon hearing of her death. It was her practice to rise every morning at five to study her Bible and pray. Her diary showed that she prayed for over 300 missionaries by name. Everywhere she went the atmosphere was changed. If someone was telling a dirty story, he would stop if he saw her coming. If people were complaining, they would become ashamed of it in her presence. An acquaintance said that while she was at Glasgow University she left the fragrance of Christ wherever she went. In what she said and did, she was God's salt.
The Lord's salt shakers come in different shapes and sizes. Helen Ewing was a rose bred without thorns. Sin is ugly and Jesus got right into the face of the self-righteous Pharisees. Sometimes we have to get harsh, as salt. False teachers and hypocrites need to be exposed. The Lord uses all kinds of different personalities to be an influence in a sinful, decaying world.
Believers cannot lose their salvation, but they can lose their influence. We cannot be used of God to retard the corruption of sin if our own lives become corrupted by sin. When we allow sin into our lives, we lose our influence. How do we prevent that from occurring? By being in the Word, just like Helen Ewing was. When we hide God's Word in our hearts, it can keep us from falling into sin and losing our ability to be an influence in a corrupt and decaying world. What do we do if we have sinned? We confess it and then we turn from it. We put off the sin, we renew our minds in the Word, and then we put on right living...a practice we must be diligently and relentlessly involved in until we are rid of these fleshly, corrupted bodies.
God chooses His salt shakers and then His salt shakers choose to be in the Word...so they can be a preserving influence, for the glory of Christ.
(My pastor also gave this charge, have a friend who will influence you to pour your life into the Word...good advice...)
1 comment:
I certainly need to be more salty!
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