flavor

There is a distinct difference in feeling the need to "tell" someone, and desiring them to perceive.  When it finally comes out, truth is obvious to anyone practicing a reasoning process, and cannot be effectively refuted.  If I can motivate someone to use a reasoning process, i.e., think, there will be no need to "tell."  The truth is most people refuse to be "told."  But, if by way of reasoning, they can perceive a truth, step by step, or rather "precept upon precept," they are much more ready to own it and to activate it in their lives.

Jesus of Nazareth revealed truth in this manner.  As the Son of God, He could have just dropped glory bombs and demanded to be worshipped as King of the universe.  Instead, he did not consider His Godness, but, interacted with people on their level as just a dude.  He didn't have to drop glory bombs because His words to the masses moved their souls.  His mere prayers usually ended in something utterly supernatural.  But as He taught, He brought to them precept, adding precept, helping His listeners to engage in the reasonable process...  thinking.

The words, of what has become known as the Sermon on the Mount, paint a portrait of what a true follower of Elohim (God) looks like.  It begins with precepts we now call the Beattitudes.  These are human attitudes that attract God's attention and blessing.  If one is mournful, meek, peaceful, highly desirous of goodness, God is drawn to these things inside you.  And because of these attitudes in you, He marks you as blessed, blesses you, and blesses others because of you.  These qualities that are so worthy of God's blessing create in us a certain projection to the world around us.  The attitudes and the blessing create a very tranquil and loving flavor in our personalities and our hearts.  Continuing His teaching, Jesus compares these attributes to the functions and taste of salt, then introduces the truth- that these qualities do ebb and flow in us.  This is not a disqualifying statement, but a warning:  "If the salt loses its saltiness, what is it good for?"  With these "beatitudes," we are effective in the world in the way God has purposed us to be.  Without these "beatitudes," we are not merely ineffective, we are worthless.  God wants us to be flavored with right attitudes and His blessings so that we can season (affect) the lives that touch ours. 

Nowhere in this passage or any other is it communicated that Christians should be brazenly offensive for the sake of being offensive, like some big brother wielding authority over weaker siblings, abusing them into compliance.  But, I get the feeling many Christians feel the need to "tell" the good news, and it comes across as coarsely as a Brillo Pad on a wound.  In Pious exuberance to save the world from itself, we succeed, rather in putting a bad taste in their mouths.  This is absolutely NOT congruent with the portrait of the Sermon on the Mount that Christ painted.  

Jesus gave us these teachings to help us deal with ourselves.  It is a sermon for you to learn how to judge yourself, NOT for you to try and pressure or coherse others with.  As He moves through all the sins of the mind and of the flesh that we deal with, the underlying point is EVERYONE falls short of God's glory, even long-time Believers.  When Jesus was sharing a meal with a very famous sinner, some religious leaders of his day were making inferences about Him befriending sinners within earshot of Him.  Jesus perceives what is in their hearts and He clarifies the portrait He had just painted with these words:  "I desire mercy, not your sacrifices."  They are words for the bigoted ultra-religious then and now; they are words to the Ekklassians, the Church of today, the called out ones, to you and to me.  God is not impressed with what we give up "for Him."  He is very impressed when we truly realize our own sin, and we mourn it, and it makes us humble before Him, which makes us humble before men, which causes in us a hunger and thirst for righteousness in ourselves, which activates us, etc...

The process of following Christ begins with God's mercy upon His angry and wayward creation.  The process is solidified in us as we learn His mercy and give it away.  Its not OUR mercy, WE HAVE NONE!  Its His and we can't give it away until we have profoundly received it from Him!  Mercy tastes salty because it is a mixture of the reality of the harshness of our sin and the sweetness of His salvation and preservation.  What flavor are you?  Have you lost your saltiness?  Get back in touch with that sweet savor that creates in us a wonderful flavor!!

Matthew 5-8