Today Jesus gives his disciples a compliment. If we live by our faith we his disciples will become the salt of the earth and the light of the world. But the compliment comes with a warning! If the salt loses its taste it is worthless, and if we hide the light underneath a bowl it fails to serve its purpose. Sounds silly doesn’t it? Why on earth would we go round hiding lights underneath bowls, yet we do it all the time!

We deny the salt and hide the light every time we keep our faith to ourselves. You often hear people claim that their faith is strictly a personal thing  …..  something just between themselves and God. But what use is a belief that doesn’t   impact on those around us? What good is a faith that does nothing to make the world a better place? We deny the salt and hide the light every time we keep quiet instead of speaking out. It isn’t fashionable to be a Christian nowadays. It’s all too easy to keep quiet in the face of uncomfortable issues such as racism or poverty. It’s far easier to side with the gossip and turn a blind eye to petty pilfering in the workplace. It’s too easy for us to laugh at an unkind joke or let our children watch programmes that promote values contrary to our Christian  belief.

Remember today somebody in your life who Jesus might have described as the ‘salt of the earth’. Remember how that person inspired, motivated or impressed you. Remember how you admired that person for being true to themselves instead of bending to the fashionable point of view. Somebody once said that Christianity is infectious, when we see a shining example we want to emulate it. Could we too become shining examples of Christianity? Could Jesus give us the same compliment as those original disciples? Light of the world. Salt of the earth.