“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.” (Matthew 5:13)
I had a mentor tell me some years ago as I was going through my seminary journey, “Shon, it’s not the smokehouse that makes the ham, but it only enhances its flavor!” Those words of Rev. Dr. Leonzo Lynch have stuck with me throughout my service in ministry and stand as a hallmark to the Christian service that I attempt to live and execute. Dr. Lynch is correct now as he was then, learning the Word of God in the smokehouse, academy, seminary, or even the church does not make us better in and of itself. The “marinating” if you will takes the learning and makes it applicable to the countless situations that life will so easily test us with.
Every believer will be tried by the numerous whims of Satan and his entourage to make us become bitter to the world we are trying to reach for Christ and even to ourselves. When we safeguard our hearts from the intents of the evil one we are placing a multi-layered security fortification over the place where our most precious flavors are stored. A padlocked spiritual pantry! Our flavor does not have to be placed on display where everyone and everything can tamper with it and thusly taint it.
Being the salt of the earth as Jesus commanded us in Matthew 5:13 presupposes that we have a flavor that makes situations better, that makes people better, and that adds to the wholesome base of Jesus’ teaching and accents it. For the mere fact that we are Christians, we have the flavor to bring out the best tasting result of even the most difficult and precarious circumstances. When people insult us, we are called to be salt. When the government of our country is moving away from God’s voice and our leaders ask for us to be “politically correct”, we are called to be salt. When innocent lives are taken by those who are called to “serve and protect”, we are called to be salt.
As Christians, we are called to have flavor which often times translates to us going against and speaking against what is popularly accepted even though it is contrary to the will of God. In Genesis 19, Lot’s wife turned into a “pillar of salt” and thusly became salty (ie having no flavor) because she desired the evil contained in Sodom and Gomorrah more than she desired to be flavored by the richness of God.
The question becomes, “Are You Flavorful or Are You Salty?” God will judge you based on how you spiritually “accent” your surroundings. Peace and blessings.
~ Rev E. Shon Hagwood
