I really enjoy a good BBQ. I love a rack of ribs, done to perfection, meat almost falling off the bones, not too spicy. Forget the side dishes, I could just eat the ribs until I was almost sick. Luckily, I don’t. My heart would be fully clogged and my belly modeled after a starving child, bloated and distended.
I have never been to a BBQ competition, but I think it would be fun to sample all the different styles. But then again, my heart and belly won’t allow it. There is a real art and science to getting the ribs just right. But I am too impatient to do it myself in a smoker. We have used a Crockpot to make them, and they were perfect. Wow, they were good.
But what if you put all the right ingredients into the sauce, did all the smoking, and in the end your ingredients brought no flavor to the meat? What a disappointment. The ingredients are supposed to bring flavor to the meat. That is why there are so many different kinds of BBQ sauce. Each kind brings its own set of flavors to the meat. So if the sauce had no flavor, what a waste.
Salt is an ingredient that is essential to so many BBQ flavors. It brings out the best in the various flavors. Without salt the flavors would just not be the same.
In the ancient world salt was often used as currency. It had so much value that it was often traded as a commodity. It was the main food preservative. It would be rubbed on meats and fish to dry them up during the curing process. Salt had to penetrate through the meat, completely through, or the non-salted portions would rot, ruining the meat.
The Kingdom of God must penetrate us completely, making a direct impact on our choices and lifestyle. We can’t allow anything to get in the way of our eternal destiny. Nothing, hand, foot, or eye, should hinder us. So if we claim Kingdom membership, but aren’t willing to make the hard choices, then the Kingdom has lost its impact. The Salt no longer does its work.
And part of that work involved our interactions with each other. We need to be spurning each other on to love and good works, as Paul wrote. Our lives should reflect the Kingdom not only in our outlook to the world and its inhabitants, but also in our walk with each other as Jesus-followers.
And one of the outcomes of the Kingdom’s work in our collective lives will be peace. We should be able to get along with each other. Various sectors of the Body should not be fighting and taking potshots at each other. We shouldn’t be shooting at the World either.
The Arnold Journey 