Introduction
One of my professors in seminary constantly stated that the problem with modern Christianity is boredom with the gospel. According to him, modern preachers will preach all manner of things but the simple undiluted gospel. People are interested in high-sounding philosophy while others are interested in addictive miraculous spirituality! But our generation is not alone, look at what Paul wrote about his time.
“Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.”
1 Corinthians 1:22-25 NIV
The simple question I want us to revisit is this: if the salt loses its saltiness how can it be made salty again?
- It is my conviction that real salt cannot lose its saltiness. If this is so then Jesus is using a hypothetical situation in Matthew 5:13. In other words, He is saying that if the salt loses its saltiness (which is impossible) then what can be added to make it salty again? The problem of turning on and off our confession of faith has made us confuse genuine faith with false faith. Genuine faith remains steadfast as expressed in the sermon on the mount. False faith falters and goes up and down. As a pastor, I have also observed the category of growing faith. Where someone is focused on Christ but has obstacles he is overcoming towards maturity. My prayer is that we will be careful with the quality of our faith. True faith does not change. Today let me end this section by giving you some texts to read: Matthew 6:1-8, 7:15-23; John 14:23-24, 1 John 3:1-10.
- It is also my conviction that you cannot add anything to salt to make it saltier! This is the same with Christianity you cannot add anything to “ grace through faith” to make a person “more Christian.” We are simply Christians if we trust in Jesus to be the Lord of our lives and not just an insurance against going to hell. The character of true faith is that it does not look around for confirmation through other eternal means it is satisfied with the knowledge of the cross of Christ. It is only the cross that has all that we require for life and righteousness. “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” 2 Peter 1:3 NIV. So even if circumstances change our faith remains steadfast and will not waver. Whether we are alone or in a congregation our faith remains steadfast and resolute.
- It is also my conviction that saltless salt needs to be thrown out because it serves no use. What is the value of a hypocrite? Who wants to have a hypocrite for a friend? So it is with Christ! Hypocrisy has no place in true Christian witness. While in our days we want to tolerate evil for convenience’s sake, the Bible clearly teaches that sin and righteousness cannot coexist. Sin disappears when true righteousness appears. The test for a true believer is hatred of sin. A Christian who mixes the two then is not worth the name and should be shunned by all who love the truth till he/she has a confession of the truth. Now here is where it gets tricky, in our days it is the true believer who will find himself/herself isolated! Be it as it may, let us stand firm and call hypocrisy for what it is. Salt that has lost saltiness is worth nothing!