Gtcotr/ss032022
Both history and our individual experiences testify to the fact that people generally enjoy a little variety and flavor in most arenas of life. One of the more common complaints of both the young and the not so young is that of boredom. People often get bored with the bland elements of life.
Nothing typifies the desire and perhaps even the need for a little flavor more than the ionic compound (NaCl) sodium chloride, which is more commonly known as salt. A little salt can change an almost inedible or unenjoyable meal into a tasty treat. People even add something that’s a little salty to sweet things to heighten both flavors.
When you come to think about it, salt is pretty awesome. It preserves, it cleanses, it has some healing properties, and it makes savory dishes.
Leviticus 2:13 Season all your meat offerings with salt to remind you of God’s eternal covenant. Never forget to add salt to your grain offerings.
God even required salt to be a part of the meat and the grain offerings people brought to the altar for sin and other special sacrifices.
By the way … speaking about meat and grain offerings. I know many of you are busy going through your daily Bible reading again this year. I choose a different plan each year but predictably each one normally takes me through the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers at some point early on in the year. Some of the genealogies along with the descriptions of all the sacrifices and offerings can seem a little repetitive at times.
This year I chose the Chronological Bible to be the base of my daily Bible reading. So, as with many of you, this past month has been fairly filled with descriptions of the sacrifices and offerings God commanded of the Children of Israel. Recently I realized that perhaps some who are reading through these instructions for offerings might imagine that people brought their tithes, their sacrifices, and their offerings to the Temple where the priests just took them and burned them up on an altar before the Lord. But that’s not what they did and not what God intended for the offerings.
Have you ever wondered why God said to bring your tithe, or the first-born bull or sheep, or the first fruits of your field, or a sin offering, or a free-will offering to the Temple and give it to the priest who ministers along with so much flour, so much salt, so much oil, and so much wine? Well, it was never intended to be burned up on the altar, but rather to be given to the priest for him and his family to eat. (Exodus 29:40)
God had no intent for the priests to burn the flour, salt, grain, meat, oil, or wine as a sacrifice to Him. Only certain parts, some organs, the blood, or a representative portion of the grain was either poured out or poured on the altar or burned before the Lord to sanctify the rest. The priest ate or stored and distributed the rest of it to the poor, the orphan, and the needy.
The priests were then required to tithe a tithe of the tithes and the offerings, and then the rest was counted as increase to the priests in the same way a harvest was for those who brought these things to the Temple. Giving God His prescribed first portions sanctified the remainder and made God a partner with each one who honored Him with their substance and with the first fruits of all their increase. (Proverbs 3:9)
At any rate … Salt was a commanded accompaniment of each offering made to God by the people. Salt was meant to benefit others by making things, even the things belonging to God, more savory to God and others. Even Job in the midst of all of his other problems said:
Job 6:6 Can flavorless food be eaten without salt? Or is there any taste in the white of an egg?
Job had lost everything and was sitting in ashes with boils all over his body and even in that condition, he despaired to eat bland and boring food. Bless his heart, if things weren’t bad enough, even the food needed salt. (Of course you realize I am taking a little liberty with the account of Job here …)
Fast forward to the New Testament, specifically the Gospels, and we find three times that Jesus said, “Salt is good!”. He said every sacrifice must be seasoned with salt. (Mark 9:49) He also said:
Matthew 5:13 “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.”
With these things in mind, let’s turn to our text for today which we will find in Colossians 4. This morning we are going to discover how we are to become a well-seasoned offering to God, and what it means to be the salt of the earth in today’s practical terms, so that we can be used in a greater way by God. And by the way – Salty does not imply or excuse being rude, critical, demanding, judgmental, or feisty. Let’s go to the Word together.
The Apostle Paul wrote this Letter from Prison to the Church while he was under arrest and awaiting trial in Rome in about the year AD61 or AD62. By then Paul was a well-seasoned 58-year-old preacher who was winning more souls and influencing more people than ever before in his life. He had evidently learned how to be a successful witness even while under arrest.
Colossians 4 NKJV
5 ¶ Walk in wisdom toward
those who are outside, redeeming the time.
6 Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.
Since
we who are Born-Again Believers represent Jesus and as such are God’s offering
to a lost world, it is important to know what God desires and requires from us
towards those who are outside of the faith. The time is short, and God intends
for us to make the most out of each encounter we have with a lost person. First,
the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to tell us to:
·
Walk in wisdom
when it comes to dealing with people who don’t know Jesus as Lord and Savior
and who may not have any personal frame of reference as to what you feel about
Jesus; the experience you had Sunday at Church; why you don’t gossip or lie or
cheat or cuss or get drunk or do drugs or complain about the boss … whatever
you’re doing that they don’t understand why you do it.
o
Be wise … don’t forget they don’t know what
you know … they don’t feel what you feel … they don’t see things God’s way …
§ No doubt God is dealing with them … help God reach them – we are fishers
of men … fish with wisdom
o
Don’t make them turn you off because you are
such an odd ball
·
Let your speech always be with grace
o
Please don’t be judgmental, critical, or
condemning
o
Be courteous and agreeable (have grace for
others)
o
Not faking sincerity or happiness or
perfection
o
Please no flattery (21 times in the Bible,
all negative)
§ People see right through flattery and the Bible says it does more harm
than good (1 Thessalonians 2:5)
§ Be sincere and be responsibly honest – not irresponsibly honest
o
Again … be wise and let your speech always be
with grace …
·
Seasoned with salt
o Don’t try to win
people with religious talk
o Don’t be bland in your
demeanor or delivery
o Give your testimony in
a way that is palatable and enjoyable to the listener.
o There is no taste in
the white of an egg …
§ If it does not burn in
you it won’t burn in those who hear you.
o Your life has flavor …
God made you with flavor … don’t be an old stick in the mud about Jesus – share
your excitement
o Don’t be sour about or
distasteful to sinners …
o Talk about Jesus … a
little controversy is not off limits – Don’t be afraid to say Jesus!
o You are an offering
from God meant to bless and lead them to a relationship with Christ.
o You never need to
compromise your faith or your virtue to be nice and kind to sinners.
o Be honest … don’t lose
your salt … but don’t be rude or sassy.
·
So that you may know how you should answer each one
o Every person is
different …
o Don’t just say the
same thing to everybody …
o Each person is an individual
… everyone is different, and each one deserves personal attention and a
personal invitation
o Asked the Holy Spirit to guide you each time and you will, in time, become a well-seasoned witness for Christ.
Remember
our goal … our goal is to share the love of Christ with a lost and dying world
so people will see our heart, hear our words, and be saved.
