Matthew 5:13
Silence and stillness before God (2 minutes)
Scripture reading
Scripture reading:
Matthew 5:13
13 “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.
Devotional
Some of the smartest thinkers and theologians who have specialised in studying the Sermon on the Mount suggest that it is actually sequential. Jesus is teaching kingdom truth that once digested and embodied allows a disciple to move on to the next truth and the next and the next. Very much like learning a new set of skills which build upon one’s previous knowledge and competency.
Today we read about followers of Jesus being the salt of the earth. It is significant that Jesus has just taught in the beatitudes that anyone can enter the kingdom. The salty ones who make a difference are not just the super spiritual teachers of the law, or the rich, the popular or the powerful. If you know the king of the kingdom and the ways of the king, you can make a difference in the kings kingdom.
The Apostle Paul expands this idea of the kingdom being open to all with wonderful texts like Colossians 3:10-11. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. The Scythian’s were the barbarian’s barbarian but even they were welcome into the Kingdom through faith in Christ.
Matthew 5:13 makes it clear that we can be followers of Jesus and yet live our lives in such a way that we are unproductive. Believers can lose their saltiness, by not being sufficiently effected by the ways of the kingdom of the heavens.
Question to consider
How has God called me to be salty in my sphere of influence today?
Prayer
Lord God, it is hard to comprehend that you have entrusted so much responsibility to your church. How can we be the salt of the earth when we struggle so much with sin? Today, I thank you again for the sufficiency of the gospel to save and set free, to redeem and restore, to sanctify and satisfy our deepest longings. Help me today Holy Spirit to have eyes to see and ears to hear the opportunities laid out for me to be salty in my sphere of influence. Amen.
Conclude with silence (2 minutes)
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