Sugar or Salt?

Does my life...

• create a hunger and thirst for God in the lives of others?  
• Am I being used of God right now to preserve and maintain the truth?

Let me tell you why you are here. 

• You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. 
• If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? 
• You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.

The Message  Eugene H. Peterson

You  the salt of the earth. 

• But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? 
• Can you make it salty again? 
• It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless.

Matthew 5:13

Some teachers today seem to think our Lord said, “You are the sugar of the earth,” 

• meaning the ideal of the Christian is gentleness and winsomeness without any curative discomfort. 
• But our Lord’s illustration of a Christian is salt, 
• one of the most concentrated things we know, 
• something that preserves wholesomeness and prevents decay.

The man who is wrong with God is like an open wound...

• and when “salt” gets into him, it causes annoyance and distress—
• he becomes spiteful and bitter. 
• The disciples of Jesus today preserve society from corruption; 
• the “salt” of their presence causes irritation, which leads to their persecution.

How are we to maintain the healthy, salty tang of saintliness? 

• By keeping our right relationship to God through Jesus Christ. 
• In this present age, Jesus says, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation. . . . 
• For, indeed, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:19, 21).
• Christians are called to live out Jesus’ teaching in a culture that will not recognize Him...

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount

Oswald Chambers