Disinfectant

 

You are the salt of the earth.

—Matthew 5:13a

What flies off the pharmacy and supermarket shelves faster than any other product during this pandemic? Based on panicked reports earlier in the year, we might be tempted to say paper products. But, I believe disinfectant products have probably gone faster and remain the most sought after necessities. We all want to use something that will kill 99 percent of all germs and other pathogens, thus effectively protecting us from this dreaded COVID-19 coronavirus.

Thousands of years ago in Bible times, people used salt to kill impurities and stamp out the effects of lingering poisons, particularly on food. As stated in the verse at the beginning of this blog post, Jesus used salt to illustrate the role of Christians in an ungodly culture.

We know from Scripture that every human being carries the stain of original sin into the world, inherited from Adam and passed down to us from our parents. To allow that sin to fully germinate would mean that the total depravity of human society would remain unabated. Only the blood sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross can cleanse and purify us from our sins and transform us into a people acceptable to the holiness of God. This grants to us two important roles in life.

First of all, in Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount”—found in Matthew 5, 6, and 7—He tells us that we believers in Christ and in His sacrifice have a function in this world of permeating and disinfecting the culture from total ruin. Reading from Rev. Dr. D. Martin Lloyd-Jones on this subject, he writes:¹

What does being the “salt of the earth” imply? It clearly implies rottenness in the earth; it implies a tendency to pollution and to becoming foul and offensive… It is fallen, sinful and bad. Its tendency is to evil and to wars. It is like meat which has a tendency to putrefy and to become polluted. It is like something which can only be kept wholesome by means of a preservative or antiseptic… The world, left to itself, is something that tends to fester. There are these germs of evil, these microbes, these infective agents and organisms in the very body of humanity, and unless checked, they cause disease.

Secondly, Christians, like salt, also possess other functions. Similar to a pleasant-smelling disinfectant in the air, and a savory shake of salt on food, God expects us to emit His winsomeness wherever we go. Also, as citizens of a particular country, we can indirectly affect the culture through our work, through our loving and caring for our neighbors, and through innumerable other ways.

Yet, in the “Sermon on the Mount,” Jesus didn’t stop after merely telling us how He expects us to fulfill our God-given role. In the remainder of verse 13, He also shares His concern, as follows:

“But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.”

Would a manufacturing company that produces a disinfectant proudly put out a product that no longer had the qualities for which it was created? If the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) could no longer verify that the manufacturer’s liquid would kill germs, would they allow it to advertise its benefits against this COVID-19 coronavirus?

Likewise, Jesus is concerned that His people potently serve Him as a deterrent to sin in this wicked world. If we, as His followers, look like white crystals of spiritual salt, but have no power to benefit society, we miss the mark in serving Christ. God truly expects those of us who faithfully follow His precious Son, Jesus, to serve as a disinfectant against the soul-damaging ravages of sin in our world.

Dr. Lloyd-Jones continued:²

May God give us grace to examine ourselves in the light of this simple proposition… Let the individual Christian be certain that this essential quality of saltness is in him (of her), that because he (or she) is what he (or she) is, he (or she) is a check, a control, an antiseptic in society preserving it from unspeakable foulness, preserving it perhaps, from a return to a dark age… Is not our whole generation going down visibly? It is you and I and others like us, Christian people, who alone can prevent that. God give us grace to do so. God stir up the gift within us, and make us such that we shall indeed be like the Son of God Himself and influence all who come into contact with us.

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1 Lloyd-Jones, D. Martyn. Studies in the Sermon on the Mount. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co./Inter-Varsity Fellowship, 1971. Pp. 151-158.

2 Lloyd-Jones, D. Martyn. Ibid. Pp. 151-158.