Mark 9.50 encourages have salt among yourselves.
The modern translation of God’s admonition to have salt in ourselves might be, ‘suck it up buttercup,’ or ‘cowboy up,’ or ‘man up,’ or any of a number of sayings that mean stop being a sissy and own the solution to whatever problem we are facing. The wussification of the current culture is over the top.
Everyone has a malady, no one is responsible for their problems, blaming others is common and looking to big brother for meeting our needs is the new norm. Our grandparents shake their heads at us as they endured the great depression, rationing of basic necessities and the effects of two world wars.
Our unwillingness to have salt in ourselves is causing us to lose ground in the work of redeeming our culture for the glory of God.
Its not true that everyone is this way for sure; our elite soldiers are awesome warriors who demonstrate courage, sacrifice and commitment but they are among the few. Certainly we see this same salt in some of our fire and police members too but overall the Church could use a swift kick in the salt shaker so that we begin to carry our cross, deny ourselves and truly follow Jesus.
So what would it look like to live as ‘salty’ people?
First, it would mean a passionate pursuit to know Jesus. Like the disciples who surrendered their business and reputation to walk daily with Jesus our daily walk with Jesus should come before we engage business and with a reputation as lovers of Jesus. If we cant find time to read the Bible, pray without interruption and connect to fellow followers we are not serious about obeying God.
Second, at work it means doing the best possible job with the utmost integrity. Our work ethic should be second to none because we work for the glory of God and not the approval of men.
Third, among the culture we should be known by what we do not by what we are against. We should be identified by our sacrifice and service for the welfare of others no matter who they are, where they are or what they are. God’s means of winning people is to overwhelm them with love, compassion and kindness.
At a minimum this should be what characterizes the Church and to live this way will certainly take a whole lot of having salt in ourselves.
The world increasingly needs true Christians who love God more than themselves and love their neighbor as they love themselves.
