Jesus said, “If you lose your saltiness, how will people
taste godliness?”
—
Matthew 5:13
(Msg)
Disingenuousness has its roots in
fear within social constructs where approval is a more powerful need than
telling the truth.
Even at Bible study
groups and other Christian community events, our needs of approval, perhaps in
getting to know others, are far more powerful, oftentimes, than saying
something right because it’s the truth.
Truth is what Jesus
is talking about; but it’s only half the picture. Add to truth the value of
grace and we suddenly have a great deal of saltiness in view. But, as Helmut
Thielicke might say, salt bites. Very often the saltiness of the gospel message
is an unsavoury one. We know this, again, by the amount of times we fall short
of dealing truthfully in hard interpersonal situations.
***
Salt is a cleaner.
It cleanses and corrodes. Salt erodes what is not pure from the pure thing so
that, by chemical reaction, the pure thing may be all it was supposed to be.
Salt facilitates integrity. Where integrity is broken down is where the
saltiness is lost.
Chemically, being of
related numbers so far as the ions (electrical properties) are concerned means
salt has a broad-ranging effect as a cleaner: to bring things back to their
original integrity.
As Christians, it’s
God’s will that we be salt – “You are
salt,” Jesus said – in all our circumstances. We need to exemplify the cleanly
godliness of Jesus as his followers.
Of course, we will
fall short and then it’s up to the humility of our integrity to confess our
sin. Paradoxically, we gain respect from believers and non-believers when we
confess our wrongs and do what we can to right them.
The commitment to
live a life of truth is the sign of our saltiness.
***
Being a ‘salty’
Christian is about as big a challenge as any disciple of Jesus could be faced
with. It requires courage, because the threat of rejection is ever present. It
requires wisdom for discerning when and how to pipe up. It requires humility so
we don’t appear judgmental. It requires honesty so we don’t fall into the trap
of hypocrisy.
***
QUESTIONS in REVIEW:
1. To be a ‘salty’ Christian is
obviously a recipe for potency. What could be the possible ways we might overdo
being salty?
2. How do you find it hard to
communicate truthfully in your relationships? Or, do you communicate ‘too much’
truth, or truth in unpalatable ways?
© 2015 S. J. Wickham.
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