If salt loses its saltiness

“Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?” (Luke 14:34)

 

Believing in Jesus means same to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Jesus’ disciple is the one who absolutely follows Jesus, believing in Him. He who rightly believes in Christ can operate a daily life wisely with the right judgment according to the teaching of Bible. Salt is a natural substance that has a salty taste. But if it loses the original taste, it cannot be already salt. The content of this Bible text might seem to be illogical a little. But there are three key messages in the verse. If it is equipped properly with these three things: absolute faith, faith with wisdom, and life practicing the duty of faith, they, as disciples of Christ, will be able to win praise from God.

 

The Bible says that anybody could not become Jesus’ disciple unless one denied one’s parents, wife, siblings, and even one’s own life. In common sense, we wonder if there could be such an ignorant and inhumane thoughts. In general, it is rather normal to regard in that way strange. But to walk on the path of Jesus’ salvation, that principle is an important thing that must be followed. About the common misunderstanding of the text, we need to go forward after solving that. The identity of Jesus Christ is Jehovah the Lord of all the created, and there isn’t anything in the world to be comparable to Jesus equally. Nevertheless, parents and children are the most precious beings in the world, although they cannot be compared to God. The lesson to do respect and love one’s family can be found in the Bible as many times.

 

The faith in Christ must be absolute. If you believe as much as yourself want or accept God’s word in a compromising manner, it’s like a transaction between people, not a faith in Jesus. Many modern Christians have that attitude of faith. Many martyrs who appeared in church history sacrificed their lives to protect their absolute faith. By shedding the blood of martyrdom, the gospel was delivered to the ground, also the Korean church grew. It was built on the foundation of sacrifice, but because it failed to inherit the absolute faith that followed Christ, the churches of this time have been going to wither and sickened. Just as salt is a substance that is fundamentally salty, faith in Christ is the way to realize Creator and be saved through Jesus. If you don’t know that meaning, faith is like losing its taste and had died.

 

In order to explain the life of wise faith, Jesus said these two cases: a man who wants to build a watchtower, and a king who wants to fight against enemy. If you’re willing to build a watchtower, you should budget it accurately according to the size and duration of construction. Also for war, a king has to plan carefully in order to win the enemy by attacking. If it would be going to fail, it is better rather never to start. We have to know that the faith that follows Jesus has to be carried out in actual life, as well as with the absoluteness. Some person who attended the revival meeting of church was moved and confessed his faith, and accordingly, he gave a prayer of a promise toward God for something. But before passing several days after finishing the revival meeting, he showed an exhausted appearance of something limp. That is because it was difficult to carry out what he had oath to God, so he was wandering with looking away the faith.

 

There is a saying that if you stop on the way, it’s not better than you haven’t go. However, even if you stop and give up several times, there are benefits to have through the process of trials. The Lord loves and guides people even taking into account that regard. In various places, including James 1:2~4 and Peter 4:12~19, Bible teaches to receive willingly all the hardships given. In case of Job, who went through the extreme of suffering, Job gained greater comfort and joy after suffering. Anyway, Christ’s faith is not just a theory. In some cases, it might be needy a theoretical explanation of faith, but the theory itself is never a faith. Faith has to be a living itself. To speak again, faith is a living to practice the realized, by reading, hearing, meditating the word of God.

 

Just as salt should be salty and sugar should be sweet, Christians should display the identity of the Christian faith. Faith in Jesus, in short, is the absolute. For Christians, the flexible way of life is only for wisdom needed in daily life, not compromise on absolute faith. Accordingly, Christians must live rightly in real wisdom. Wisdom in awe of Jehovah, wisdom in living, wisdom on history and reality, these are all of wisdom needed for Christian people. And they have to fulfill their life mission according to one’s talent given from the Lord in faith in Jesus.

 

(Written by Koonoh, Pastor of JDO Presbyterian Church in Korea, on Sept 4th 2022)