Tasteless Salt Destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah

Matthew 5:13 "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."

The earth in this passage is pictured as a decaying piece of meat. Why would the earth decay? Simple, a lack of salt. Salt is used to preserve and enhance meat. We buy salt in order to introduce it to the meat. The problem we have today is that salt seems to be in love with the salt shaker. In other words:

Hi, I'm Salt. I'm going to hang out with Salt today in the Salt Shaker called my Church. We're gonna pray as salt, sing as salt, and just have a great time being Salt.

Salt is ignoring its purpose. It's too busy criticizing the meat. Saying how bad it is, how rotten its getting and even though salt has the power to fix it, it stays in its shaker. It basically becomes tasteless salt.

"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."

It's interesting that Jesus talks about Salt losing its saltiness because this is an impossibility. Salt is what is known as a solid compound. What makes up salt is the sodium (Na) Chloride (Cl) in Salt. These two elements form the solid compound we know as salt (sodium chloride or NaCl). So to take the saltiness out of salt, you would have to remove the sodium chloride in salt, but if you remove the sodium chloride in salt, you don't have saltess salt, you have no salt. So what is the meaning?

Back in bible times, the roofs of houses were not simply a covering for the house but they were flat and used as a "porch" to gather. Now the roof would get holes in it from the constant foot traffic so it would have to be patched. To patch the holes a pastes was made of gypsum, water, and salt. Once the salt was combined with the gypsum and water, it became tasteless because the gypsum was bitter and would overwhelm saltiness of the salt. The salt has appeared to lose it's saltiness. It has become tasteless salt. Good-for-nothing salt. The salt has lost its usefulness.

This is where many Christians are at today. They have become tasteless salt, just moving along with the flow, minding their own business, hanging out with other salt. They don't see the ramifications of there tastelessness. They do not understand Jesus left them in charge of being salt to the earth. If they don't do it know one will. This is so important to understand. Let me illustrate with my last point.

We all know about Sodom and Gomorrah. God knew of the evil that was going on and was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because of their wicked, decaying ways. Abraham came to God and said "what about the good people? Will You destroy the good along with the bad? That is not like You God." Then Abraham said "let me go down and find 50 good people in the city. If I find 50, will you spare the city for them?" God told Abraham that He would spare the cities if Abraham found 50 people. Then Abraham came back after having some trouble locating some good people and said "what about 40 people?" God said for He would spare the cities for 40 good people. Abraham went down and came back and said "What about 30?" God said all right, 30. Abraham went down and came back and said "What about 20?" God said all right, 20. Abraham went down and came back and said "What about 10?" And God said, find Me 10 people and I will spare the city. The only good person in Sodom and Gomorrah was a man named Lot. So lot was told to take his family and run because God was going to destroy the two cities.

Lets think about this, Lot had a wife, two daughters, and two sons-in-laws. If Lot would have been a useful Christian and brought his family to God, that would have been 6. If each one of them brought one person to God, that would have been 12. Therefore Abraham would have found 10 and Sodom and Gomorrah would still be on the map. So Sodom and Gomorrah wasn't destroyed for all the bad people in it, it was destroyed because the good people were nowhere to be found.

Let's not be useless Christians. Lets not be tasteless salt. Just as eating salty things makes a person thirsty, we should be in the world so our actions can create thirst in people. You can't expect someone to take water without being thirsty. We need to first be salt in the world before we can introduce people to the living water.  Let God salt the earth with you. It's time to get out of the salt shaker and into the meat.

Bringing people to Christ is all about God's work. We participate with Him.

1 Corinthians 2:4-5My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power. 

Romans 9:16 It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy.

I have a friend who was getting frustrated by the fact that his father would not listen to him as he gave him evidence for his faith. He had been quoting the scriptures and showing his dad all the reasons why he should become a Christian, yet after months of this, his father still would not believe. He said "I'm happy that you found something that works for you son, but it's not for me." My friend was at a loss. All he wanted was for his dad to believe in the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. 

Then he read this verse in 1 Corinthians. It is something he had read a hundred times before, but this time it spoke to him. Chapter 2 verse 5 says 

"so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power"

He realized that he was trying to do it all by himself. He got caught up in the "what-can-I-say-to-convince" mentality rather then saying in what way can I plant the seed so God can bring them to Him.


As Christians, it is our job to demonstrate the love and truth of Jesus Christ. We cannot bring others to Christ on our own, no matter how strong we are in our faith or how good of and apologist we are. It is God who saves.


I am not saying that giving evidence (apologizing) for our faith is wrong. On the contrary, we are called to be defenders of our faith. 

1 Peter 3:15 "But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect."

It is when we rely solely on our wisdom as the "saving factor" that we become a hindrance instead of a helper. Bringing people to Christ is all about God's work. We participate with Him. We are responsible for bringing the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ to the world, but God is the one who calls them unto Him. It's not through our power, but through God's love.

Reflecting the Light of the Son

John 3:21
But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

I was listening to a astrophysics lecture which spurred these thoughts.....

The moon cannot produce light on its own. It is dark, and cold by nature. It's only way to give light to others is byreflecting the light of the sun. 

Therefore, if something comes in between the sun and the moon, the moon is absent of light. It once again becomes cold and dark. 

Many times Christians let things come in between them and God. They build up walls that separates them from His light and over time they become cold. 
Until they knock down the walls they have built and realign their lives with God's plan, they cannot truly reflect His light to the world around them. 

Like the moon reflects the light of the sun, so I must reflect the light of the Son. 

All my ideas are nothing compared to God's ideas. Are the strangers, friends and/or my family I interact with on a daily basis taking away my wisdom or God's wisdom? My truth or God's truth? Are they experiencing my limited love or God's limitless love? Am I truly reflecting the light of Christ?