Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity – Monday
Ye are the salt of the earth. – Matthew 5:13.
Salt keeps meat from decay and ruin, and makes it eatable. The Savior has prepared and appointed His Christians to be the salt of the earth. One of their purposes is to keep precious souls from spiritual decay and spiritual ruin.
How and by what means are Christians to be the salt of the earth?
By bearing faithful witness, first of all, to the Law of God, “for by the Law is the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20). The Law of God is the Holy Ghost’s tool to work in souls “a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart” (Psalm 51:17). Where God has worked such shame and regret over sin, we Christians have the privilege, secondly, to bear witness to the good, marvelous, and wonderful message of the Gospel, which “is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth” (Romans 1:16).
Such witnessing is the exalted and glorious calling of the Christians here on earth. Jesus clearly announces to them wherever they live: “Ye are the salt of the earth.” However, the Savior also gives this warning to His followers: “But if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it he salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of men” (Matthew 5:13). Oh, we, God’s mouthpieces (I Peter 4:11), need to remember that we are “witnesses” (Acts 1:8) in this wicked world for our dear Savior; we are “the salt of the earth.”
In gratitude for our gracious God’s everlasting mercy and undeserved goodness toward us in Christ Jesus, let us more and more “show forth the praises of Him who hath called [us] out of darkness into His marvelous light; which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God; which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy” (I Peter 2:9-10).
PRAYER – Lord Jesus, Thou art my Vine; I am one of Thy branches. In John 15, I have Thy precious words to me and all other branches: “I am the Vine; ye are the branches; he that abideth in Me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without Me ye can do nothing” (v. 5). Help me more and more, as “the salt of the earth,” to faithfully sow the seed of Thy Word whenever I have the opportunity, both to help my fellow believers and also to truly help the unbelievers with the one thing needful for them (Luke 10:42), that they may know and receive Thee as the only Source of freedom from the curse of the Law and as the only Way to heaven. Hear me, O my merciful Savior! Amen.
If Thou, merciful Redeemer, hadst not saved us from this plight; in like darkness we should languish, hopeless, helpless, in sin’s night.
Lovingly Thou, Lord, didst seek us, in the beauty of Thy grace; now with joy we freely serve Thee, we, Thy blessed chosen race
(TLH, Hymn 498, 3).