As I pointed out in a previous post about Matthew 5:13, three properties of salt stand out to me.

1. Salt makes a person thirsty
2. Adds flavor
3. Works as a preservative; it fights decay

It seems to me that all three aspects of being salt need to be in operation.

But salt also stings when it gets into wounds.

“If salt gets into a wound, it hurts, and if God’s children get amongst those who are “raw” towards God—every immoral person is an open wound towards God, their presence hurts.” – Oswald Chambers

I was trying to recall the name of the red/orange stuff that got put on scrapes when I was a kid. The internet reminded me that it was called Mercurochrome. Hopefully, its power to disinfect was in proportion to the amount of sting it inflicted because the sting of the cure seemed as bad or worse than the scrape you got in the first place.

Are Christians called to be Mercurochrome for the society around us? I’m not so sure that we are. Yes, we have the Truth in Jesus. Yes, Scripture speaks to the issues of the day, but I don’t see Jesus adding to the sting of the hurting people around him. Or, going back to the idea of salt, I don’t see Jesus rubbing salt in the wounds he encountered.

I don’t think that I can overemphasise the fact that hurting people, sinners, the dregs of society loved Jesus and Jesus loved them. Jesus did not compromise on the truth to get the people to love him. Nor did Jesus allow them to remain in their mess.

So if we use Jesus as our example of what it means to be salt and light, I think that we will have a better handle on what Jesus told us in Matthew 5:13.

I am reminded of how Jesus described his ministry in Luke 4:18-19:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (ESV)

These verses should inform our idea of what it means to be salt in the world. Do we work for economic justice? Do we work to liberate the oppressed? Do we work to bring physical and spiritual healing to those we encounter? Do we proclaim the good news of Jesus?

Yes, the church has done these things throughout the centuries, but we have also done our share of finger wagging and condemnation of those around us. We have also at times poured salt into wounds and causing more hurt than healing.

Perhaps if we did more of the things that Jesus speaks of in Luke 4:18-19 (quoting from Isaiah 61: 1-2) we would be more attractive to those outside the church.

I heard this phrase recently and thought I would share it. I can’t remember who said it but in speaking of the relationship between grace and truth he spoke of:

Truth tempered by Grace, grace fortified by Truth.

As flawed humans, we struggle to have both grace and truth operational at the same time. This is the reason why I like the phrase highlighted above.

If we speak the truth and allow grace to temper how we say it, the truth is more likely to be received.

On the other hand, we need to have truth fortify our grace. Grace without truth is a mushy acceptance which does little good in the long run.

John 1:14 tells us that these two words characterized Jesus’ ministry. He was full of both grace and truth. In other words, no more grace or truth could be contained in Jesus. We have the record of Jesus’ life and ministry, as recorded in the Gospels, to show us what the interplay of grace and truth should look like.

Truth that is not tempered by grace may turn out to be only a half truth. When I say this, I have in mind the type of preaching that is long on condemnation and short on hope. Jesus never preached that way.

The whole truth is that we are like the woman caught in adultery in John 8. Apart from Christ we are trapped in our pride, selfishness and idolatry. Jesus acknowledges the truth of the accusation but offers forgiveness and tells us to “go and sin no more.” By his completed work of salvation, Jesus offers us the freedom and the  power to accomplish this command.

May we all look to Jesus as our example of how to speak truth which is tempered by grace and offer grace which is fortified by truth.

My experience is that if you have been in the church for any length of time, it becomes easy to play a role and do “churchy” stuff and just go with the flow. We can put on our game face, come to church, sing three songs, give some offering, listen to a sermon and plan our lunch during the closing song. Thankfully, this may not be our experience every week or even most weeks, but there are times when I do religious stuff out of habit and not as a true act of worship.

“Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.” (Joel 2:12–13, ESV)

I think that God is saying through the passage in Joel that we need to be mindful of where our hearts really are and make sure that the religious outward expression is an accurate reflection of the inward reality. The point is that you cannot fake it ‘til you make it in the presence of God. He knows when the worship is genuine or when it is just habitual activity.

The desire of God is that all of us return to him with all our affection and desire. Jesus tells us that the great command is to love God with our entire being (Matthew 22:37-38). God isn’t something we add on to have a fulfilled life.

The first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism tells me that my chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. But to do this we need to return, we need to repent.

It is not by accident that the first words of John’s preaching are the same as the first word of Jesus’ preaching, “Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2, 4:17). The literal meaning of the word translated repent is a change of mind. To truly repent is to see things in a new way, in a different light, from a different perspective.

If we return to God with all our heart, he will give us the perspective that we need. If we rend our hearts and not our garments, he will show us how deeply flawed we really are but also how deeply loved we are.

Repentance is not a popular concept right now, but it remains an important one.

I have to admit my discomfort with John’s approach to speaking to the Pharisees and Sadducees. Beginning a sermon with “you brood of vipers . . . “ does not seem to be a good idea; it’s not the way I am wired to approach people.

But that is exactly what we have recorded in Matthew 3:7-10 which quotes John the Baptist as saying:

“But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Matthew 3:7–10, ESV)

Jesus was also hard on the Pharisees, so the lesson I learn from this is that God has a low tolerance threshold for religious hypocrisy.  He doesn’t like it whether it is in the Pharisees of Jesus’ day or in you or me.

The antidote to hypocrisy is a deeper understanding of how deeply we are flawed and how deeply we are loved. Hebrews 12:1-2 tells us:

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (ESV)

The “joy set before him” is you and me and everyone else who believes. Jesus wanted a relationship with you so badly that he was willing to endure the Cross to have it. That is very strong love.

In the assurance of the strength of Jesus’ love we can find the strength to face our deepest flaws. It is by facing them and helping others to face theirs that we can avoid hypocrisy.

Would John the Baptist address your church with the opening words, “you brood of vipers . . .?” Would he address you that way?

If you are like me, there are times when he would rightly do so. We are all works in progress.