Sodium is an extremely active element that always links itself to another element. Chlorine, on the other hand, is the poisonous gas that gives bleach its unpleasant smell. However, when sodium and chlorine are combined, the result is sodium chloride or, as most of us know it, salt – the substance we use to preserve meat and bring out food’s flavour.
Love and truth can be like sodium and chlorine. Love without truth can be blind to reality. On the other hand, truth without love can be hard and judgemental. But when truth and love are combined in someone then we have the sort of person Jesus was talking about when he said, ‘You are the salt of the earth’ – people whose lives not only preserve society from corruption, but also bring out the real flavour of a living faith.