“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. Matthew 5:13
We like sugar
If I put a pile of sugar on the counter and poured out a pile of salt next to it, you’d be hard-pressed to tell the difference just by looking. For years, we heard that salt was the root cause of all sorts of health problems. Now doctors and researchers are backtracking on some of that conventional wisdom, and they’re taking a closer look at sugar.
Too much sugar on your teeth causes cavities.
Too much sugar in your food causes obesity.
Too much sugar in your blood causes diabetes.
Too much sugar may also play a role in conditions as diverse as hyperactivity, addiction, and Alzheimer’s disease. Besides that, sugar in juice causes fermentation which is a fancy chemical name for rotting.
And I’m not bringing all this up because I’m anti-sugar. Quite the opposite. I really like sugar. That’s the problem.
We’re supposed to be salt
Not too long ago, I heard a preacher say that while we are supposed to be the salt of the earth, we’d much rather be sugar. We want to be well-liked. We don’t want to challenge or offend. We want to blend in.
That’s not our job. We are salt. Notice Jesus said, “are,” and not “will be,” or even “should be.” Are. We are the distinctive, purifying, and preserving influence in the world and the culture around us. Just like salt enhances and brings out the flavor of food, we are tasked with bringing out and enhancing the good.
If we look around and see that the culture is not particularly purified … maybe that’s a sign we’re way too sugary.