Proverbs 7:1 reads: “My son, keep my words, and treasure my commands within you.” Why has a large swath of the American church ceased to fulfill its purpose, to be the light that leads the dying to salvation? Much of the church has lost her saltiness because many of her members simply do not treasure the Word of the Lord. They do not fear the Almighty God, as evidenced by their teachings and their actions. Their lives look no different from those who do not acknowledge the Lord, leaving the questioning outsider with only one logical conclusion: God is not necessary. So the world perishes in the absence of light.
The church was intended to be “the salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13), “but if the salt has become tasteless, how will it be made salty again?” If we undermine and discredit our own witnesses, then how can people put their faith in the gospel that we carry? If salt loses its saltiness, then “it is good for nothing anymore, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.” God is willing and able to forgive those who repent and call on Him, but the truth remains that, in the eyes of man, our witnesses can be tarnished, dragging the name of the Lord with us, when we compromise the gospel by our unfaithfulness.
As God’s people, called by His name, we must treasure His Word above all else. The church has to stand on and preach the Word of the Lord. Absolutely nothing else we could possibly do will matter if we have compromised His Word.
How then shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? -Romans 10:14