Oct 16, 2023
As Jesus opens The Sermon on the Mount, his first metaphor to
describe what it means to be a citizen of the Kingdom of God
is that of salt. A Kingdom Citizen is to be like salt?
"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
In Jesus' day salt had two main purposes:
1. Preservative. In a world with no
refrigeration, salt was a valuable commodity in preserving food.
Much the same way, Kingdom Citizens are preserving influencers of
culture by pointing people to God and modeling for their neighbors
in word and deed the Gospel.
2. Flavor Enhancer. Salt has always been used
to improve the flavor of food. In a similar way, Christians
influence culture by enhancing it with Kingdom values and ethics,
such as demonstrating how to love neighbors, forgive enemies, serve
the marginalized and work for justice. By living in such a way, a
culture can literally be changed...enhanced.
Here is why being "salt" matters. According to Jesus,
these roles are not optional. If you are devoted to the Kingdom of
God, you ARE salt and influencing culture is what you do.
Being "salt" in our culture is incredibly difficult. Often, we find ourselves living in this tension of alignment: Am I going to be devoted to the culture of Babylon or am I going to be a representative of Kingdom Culture? Daniel chapter two provides a very helpful example of how we can leverage our influence and boldly represent God and His Kingdom. Simply put, how we can be "salt" while living in Babylon.
To learn more about how this can work for you, make sure and listen to part two of Life in Babylon.