"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses it saltiness, how can it be made salty again?" 

                                                                                                                       -- Matthew 5:13

Sodium is an extremely active element which always links itself to another element. Chlorine is a poisonous gas. When combined, chlorine stabilizes sodium and sodium neutralizes the poison of the chlorine. The result, sodium chloride, is common table salt, a highly stable substance used through the centuries to preserve meat, enhance flavor and, prior to modern medicine, help clean and heal wounds.

For a Christian, love and truth can be like sodium and chloride. Both are essential elements in a believer's life, but pursuing one without the other can be unmanageable and even dangerous. Love without truth is flighty and sometimes blind. It can be tossed to and fro on a sea of emotions. On the other hand, truth by itself can be offensive, sometimes even poisonous. Spoken without love, it can turn people away from God. It can wound a person's longing for the nurturing presence of our God.

When truth and love are combined in an individual or a church, however, we have what Jesus called "the salt of the earth." We are able to heal those with spiritual wounds, preserve and encourage the best in one another, and bring out the personal zest and unique gifts of each person.