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Gary G. Hoag
“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
"That is the peculiar quality of salt. Everything else needs to be seasoned with salt, but once the salt itself has lost its savor, it can never be salted again. Everything else can be saved by salt, however bad it has gone-only salt which loses its savor has no hope of recovery. That is the other side of the picture. That is the judgment which always hangs over the disciple community, whose mission is to save the world, but which, if it ceases to live up to that mission, is itself irretrievably lost. The call of Jesus Christ means either that we are the salt of the earth, or else we are annihilated; either we follow the call or we are crushed beneath it. There is no question of a second chance."
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) in The Cost of Discipleship (New York: Macmillan, 1979) 131.
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This week Dietrich Bonhoeffer has shed light on what is needful for us to live a life of Christian generosity. In short, we need to be who God made us to be or else. Think about it.
Since "everything else can be saved by salt" and since "only salt which loses its savor has no hope of recovery" we are God's chosen ones for making know His love and grace to the whole world or we are worthless.
This should shake and sober Christians to who think their faith is something linked only to beliefs and disconnected from works as evidence of that faith. And this is not me or Bonhoeffer talking. It's Jesus.
Readers everywhere who profess faith in Jesus Christ: You are the salt of the earth. Just like salt adds flavor to food and preserves meat, add flavor to this world and preserve it through how you live, give, serve, and love.
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