Too Much, Not Enough, Just Right

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March 3, 2002 - Matthew 5:13-16

Open It

  1. What is your favorite spice?
  2. What are the top five moral problems our country is facing?

Explore It

  1. To what valuable substance did Jesus compare his disciples? (Matthew 5:13)
  2. What is salt, a substance or a metaphor? (Mark 9.49-50)
  3. Describe the content of gracious speech, as revealed in Colossians 4:5-6.
  4. What is an essential characteristic of salt? (Matthew 5:13)
  5. How did Jesus imply that a Christian's positive influence can wane or disappear? (Matthew 5:13)
  6. What happens to salt that loses its flavor? (Matthew 5:13)
  7. If believers live as they are supposed to live, how will others respond toward God? (Matthew 5:16)

Get It

  1. What did Jesus mean when He called His followers salt?
  2. To be salt means to do what? (Influence or preserve?)
  3. What sort of effect does salt have on food?
  4. How do salty things affect us?
  5. How can a Christian lose his or her saltiness?
  6. What specific behaviors mark the life-style of a salty, Christian?
  7. In light of your gifts, abilities, and interests, what specific problem in our world can you counteract as a representative of Christ?

Apply It

  1. What phone calls or letters would you be willing to make or write this week in order to be salt in a decaying, dark world?
  2. To whom in your neighborhood, family, or workplace can you be salt this week?
  3. How can you be salt to the people God has placed in your life?

NOTES

If a seasoning has no flavor, it has no value. If Christians make no effort to affect the world around them, they are of little value to God. If we are too much like the world, we are worthless. Christians should not blend in with everyone else. Instead, we should affect others positively, just as seasoning brings out the best flavor in food. (1)

If as it has been suggested that salt is also a preservative then the illustration hold true that the Christian helps to preserve the world from evil. The more salt there is the more preservation there is. The less salt there is the more corruption there is. So if one Christian is not salty it has a real and immediate impact on the preservation of morals and values in the whole world. (2)

"Let all discourse be discreet and seasonable, as becomes Christians. Though it be not always of grace, it must always be with grace. Though our discourse be of that which is common, yet it must be in a Christian manner. Grace is the salt which seasons our discourse, and keeps it from corrupting. It is not enough to answer what is asked, unless we answer aright also." (3)

1. Taken from LESSONMaker © 1992-1996, NavPress Software, Used with permission.

2. Ibid.

3. Matthew Henrys Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible Electronic Edition STEP Files Copyright © 1998, Parsons Technology, Inc.

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