Preservation

Preservation

Today's Three-minute Bible Study
Print, Study and Apply

Title: Preservation---------------------------------------- Date: 11/23/1999
Keywords: "earth" "preservation" "preservative" "salt"

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Passage: Matthew 5:13*

"You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how will it be made salty again? It is good for nothing any more, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men."

Questions

1. In ancient times, what was the primary function of salt?

2. Put this verse in your own words. What do you think Jesus is saying?

Practical help

One statement or story by Christ is like a zip file – as you begin to ponder it and more and more, instruction and understanding pours forth. The problem with familiar verses is that after a while we begin to read past them. We think we understand, when we haven’t even started to.

Salt in Bible times was primarily a preservative. It was mined from around the Dead Sea – thus the idea of "salt of the earth" and not "salt of the sea." The salt was placed into sacks and taken to market. If the sack were to get wet, the salt would leach out leaving another white mineral, gypsum – which is tasteless like chalk. If you went to preserve a piece of meat and it went bad, you didn’t blame the meat, you blamed the salt. So you would go back to the sack and throw the salt out – it was no longer good for anything.

Sad to say there are Christians who behave more like gypsum than salt. They have bought into the lies and allures of the world – like thinking that pornography is all right as long as you pray about it or ask for forgiveness later, etc. Their saltiness has been washed out. Their testimony and witness have lost the power to preserve what is good in society. The loss of Christians willing to follow the teachings and example of Jesus against the trends of the world results in a society sliding toward decay. Think about it.

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Copyright 1999 by eXXit
*"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLEŽ, Š Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission."