Jesus said we “are the salt of the earth.” He didn’t say we might be salt, we could be salt, or even we can be salt. He says we “are” salt. You don’t have to pray, “Lord make me salty, help me to be an influence.” You are salt. You are an influence. Just shake it out! You need to become an inside out person.

Jesus also says that salt sometimes “loses its flavor.” Salt or sodium chloride is a very stable chemical compound. It never really “loses its flavor.” However, when it becomes contaminated with dust, sand or other impurities, you can no longer taste it. Jesus said such salt is “good for nothing” (We use that expression to describe a lazy person). It might as well be “cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.” Some churches lose their influence for Christ.

It is a recurring theme in scripture that we are to be God’s “light” and His “salt.” In fact, notice today’s verse. God is light and we are to reflect His light.

Psalm 119:105 says, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” Ephesians 5:8 says, “For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light.” I Peter 2:9 says we are God’s “peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

Jesus even gave His disciples examples of being a light. He gave His disciples, and us, this example. We are to be like a city that is set on a hillside and cannot be hidden. This church ought to be so inside out that people want to know what is happening. The light of God’s love ought to be so obvious that people ask you what happened.