JIM HARRIS·FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2019·
My wife tried an experiment year ago and brought home some coffee she had bought in one of those coffee shops. It was a “flavored” coffee (though, flavored with what, I don’t know). There was only one problem: It had so much “flavoring” in it, it did not taste like coffee. Now, I know how real coffee is supposed to taste (most preachers do), and I want my coffee to taste like coffee. This stuff had lost its distinctive “coffee” taste by being mixed with so many other ingredients.
This incident reminded me of what Jesus said to His church in the Sermon on the Mount. “Ye are the salt of the earth.” Salt has a distinctive flavor, and all of the “lite” salts and salt substitutes in the world cannot match it. Can you imagine someone tampering with the flavor of salt, adding “extra” ingredients, in order to make it taste better? All they would do is cause it to taste like something other than salt.
I believe something similar is happening to the Lord’s churches and to the truths they are to preach. Men are trying to change the flavor. “Let’s not make church seem like church, and let’s try to sweeten those doctrines which taste so bitter to the lost and religious world” seems to be the attitude of the day. In other words, “Let’s try to change the taste of the salt.” Also, many churches have become so mixed with other ingredients that they have lost their distinctive flavor. (Sadly, it seems that some do not want the distinction that standing firmly for the truth will give them.)
By the way, I poured the “flavored” coffee out and made some coffee that tasted like the real thing. Jesus said of the salt that has lost its distinctiveness, “It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.” And, I believe the Lord has done and will do the same with churches that refuse to stand for Him and the truth of His Word. May God bless us and grant us grace so that WE do not “lose our flavor.”
In Spirit and In Truth The Word 