Slugs and Cockroaches

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"You are the salt of the earth...You are the light of the world..." - Matt. 5:13-16 (NASB)

     Anyone in the youth group we served several years ago should remember this. We were studying the afore-mentioned passage of Scripture and trying to understand what Jesus was saying when I asked the question, "What does salt do?" After a few moments of interesting discussion, an unexpected answer came forth from the group: salt kills slugs! After the commotion settled down, the follow-up question, "What does light do?" generated a similar response: light causes cockroaches to scatter! Needless to say, the Sunday School lesson derailed for a while. However, the more I thought about those answers, the more I realized that there is truth in them, no matter how "icky" the illustration.  The church, living by the Word of God,  can "kill" sin and "preserve" life, "scatter" darkness and "illuminate" truth. 
     In this passage Jesus was showing the disciples that they, as the church, transformed by the power of Christ and the Word of God, could easily change the environment in which they lived. They could alter the spiritual environment on earth by His very presence in their lives. That is, as long as their message remains pure. Jesus noted that once the salt losses it "saltiness", or the light it placed "under a bushel," neither is of any value. The same is true for the Christian today: once the pure message is lost, the inherent power is lost too. When we compromise biblical Christianity and the Biblical message in order to make it acceptable to current culture, we are in great danger of losing the very power which can affect change. Culture and society will never welcome the Word of God, so why do we keep watering it down? Let us proclaim the pure, unaltered message of the Gospel, from our pulpits and in our lives, and watch how those around us will be affected for eternity. Many will be offended, but many are lost and looking for the truth. Let's give it to them.

Comments

  1. AnonymousNovember 7, 2013 at 8:54 AM

    "When we compromise biblical Christianity and the Biblical message in order to make it acceptable to current culture, we are in great danger of losing the very power which can affect change."
    VERY powerful indeed. Needs to be remembered!

    ReplyDelete

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