Tag Archives: salt

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – BE LIKE SALT

Bible Study, ,

BE LIKE SALT

42 “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea. 43 If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. [ 44 ] 45 And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. [ 46 ] 47 And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, 48 where
“‘the worms that eat them do not die,
and the fire is not quenched.’
49 Everyone will be salted with fire.
50 “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with each other.” Mark 9:42-50

There are two ways in which to hinder a potential disciple from connecting with Jesus and living in vital union with Him. The disciples’ action against the man who was casting out demons is one way. There is an even more ungodly way of causing offense, by actively opposing the person whose faith is simple and incomplete.

Jesus regarded such action in such a serious light that He recommended that that person be drowned in the sea rather than be permitted to carry on. He made a radical statement that illustrated the way God views it when one harms the simple trust of a “little one” in Him. One should rather amputate an offending hand or foot or enucleate an offending eye than continue with such destructive behaviour that it lands one in hell.

What is the refining fire He is talking about here? Is He talking about offenses that bring painful emotions to  of the offender being exposed by the very offenses he causes other people? Perhaps it is both.

Jesus’ counsel is to be at peace. Peace within a person’s heart is the measure of confidence in God that doesn’t need to compete with anyone else, that doesn’t need to force one’s beliefs and convictions on others, that is completely secure in who he is and who God is. When peace like that is in control of a person’s heart, he can give other people room to be themselves, to make their own choices without interference, to influence people by the power of love and by accepting them fully just as they are in the full confidence that the Holy Spirit is at work in them.

The disciples had a long way to go in learning to let their own will and opinions go and to rest in their confidence in God and in His passion for the well-being – shalom – of all people, not only them.

Jesus’ use of salt as an illustration had a profound meaning for the disciples. Some of them were fishermen. They lived in a hot climate which made preserving their catches imperative. Without refrigeration, the only way was to pack the fish in salt. So, for them, salt was a precious and useful commodity. Like the salt that kept their fish from spoiling, they were to be like salt to one another. They were to nurture and build one another up by their attitudes and actions instead of destroying each other by competition and criticism.

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – ARE YOU LISTENING?

Bible Study, ,

ARE YOU LISTENING?

“Salt is excellent. But if the salt goes flat, it’s useless, good for nothing.

Are you listening, really listening?” Luke 14:34.

Apart from its preserving and flavouring function, salt plays another important role in the rituals of Jewish religious life. The salt ceremony is part of a Jewish wedding. Bride and groom each bring a small amount of salt which is poured into a bag and shaken together. These words are spoken as the salt is shaken, ‘What God has joined together let no man separate,’ symbolising the unbreakable union between husband and wife.

Perhaps Jesus was referring to both of these functions when He mentioned salt in His teaching. In the context of what He was talking about, an ‘unsalty’ disciple is one who started out with Jesus, found the going difficult and pulled out after a while because he had not really taken time to count the cost. He lost his flavour and became unprofitable in the kingdom of God.

But what about the union that had been forged between him and Jesus, as binding and unbreakable as a marriage covenant? Perhaps this is the heart of the issue Jesus is talking about here. Divorce may dissolve a marriage legally but it never obliterates the union of two people, contracted by their vows and consummated by their physical union.

In the same way, when a person becomes espoused to Jesus through a faith-union that is consummated by the power of the Holy Spirit, he enters into an unbreakable covenant with Him, sealed by His blood shed on the cross. To renounce that covenant and to break that union is to become as worthless as unsalty salt.

The writer to the Hebrews recognises how futile such a life becomes. “It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance because, to their loss, they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting Him to public disgrace.” Hebrews 6:4-6 (NIV).

And so Jesus pleads, ‘Are you listening, really listening?’

How easy it is to ‘sign on’ when the preacher paints a rosy picture of ‘sins forgiven and a free passage to heaven’ but neglects to tell the whole story. There is an attitude that pervades both the world and the church – ‘no fear of God,’ said the Apostle Paul. How seriously do we take Jesus’ words? Isn’t that the essence of fearing God?

God is invisible but real. His presence fills both heaven and earth. He is here, now, always, but how seriously do we take Him and what He has written? The Jews of Jesus’ day chose to ignore His words and found, to their terrible loss, that He was right and they were wrong. In AD 70, Jerusalem was overrun by the Romans, reduced to rubble and burnt to the ground because they chose not to listen.

And so Jesus says to you and to me, ‘Are you listening, really listening?’  It pays to listen. If Jesus was wrong, we lose nothing. If He was right, we lose everything. If He was right about His own death and resurrection, is there any reason to doubt Him when He warns us that we cannot be His disciple on our own terms?

But the alternative is unthinkable. Not to follow Jesus is to consign ourselves to the eternal trash heap because ‘He who has the Son had life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.’ 1 John 5:12 (NIV). Bottom line!

But the choice is still yours!