Applying the Bible Krystal Craven Christian Music

“Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” (Luke 14:34-35)

Jesus warned about the consequences of not continuing in a distinctive lifestyle of following Him, which He likened to salt that lost its flavor. This analogy illustrates a really important concept of maintaining ourselves in Christ in order to be useful in the mission of Christ.

Salt Is Distinct
Salt is distinct – it adds flavor, it preserves, and it purifies. BUT, if it loses its saltiness, it is ineffective and therefore useless.

You know how you can cook up some food and it just tastes bleh, but when you add salt, it’s a night and day difference in the flavor? We are called as followers of Jesus to be distinct, to stand out from the world; we are to be the salt that brings that night and day difference to a world that’s spiritually devoid of the flavor of Christ.

Salt has a unique effect, simultaneously causing a wonderful flavor while creating a desire for water. If we are being salt, we will be a wonderful flavor to a bland world in need of Jesus and they will in turn desire the water of the Word to quench the thirst we’ve helped create as salt.

Salt Must Be Pure
If we allow the saltiness of our faith to be corrupted or transformed into something else altogether, we lose our distinctiveness as salt – we lose our distinctiveness as followers of Jesus.

All of our actions, our character, our integrity, all that we say and do, should all reflect Jesus. If we start mixing in the world’s values like a spice mixture with our salt, then we’re no longer distinctive because we’d be something else entirely, having been conformed by the world instead of transformed by the renewing of our minds. That in turn results in losing effectiveness in sharing the message of the gospel.

Quick example - If you had a sore throat, we’d all agree that gargling salt water is a great method of helping your throat heal. But what if you replaced that salt with taco seasoning, would you still want to gargle with that? That sounds crazy, right? Taco seasoning has salt mixed with a lot of other seasonings and it would not be effective in treating a sore throat like pure salt water does. In the same way, if you’re mixing with the world, it’s like offering a throat gargle as taco seasoning and it’s useless to the one with a sore throat.

But Jesus took this even further because He said that if salt has lost its saltiness, it’s of no use and is thrown away. A flavorless salt is completely worthless because it doesn’t serve any purpose at all whatsoever. If one loses their essence of Christ-likeness in the way that salt loses its flavor, they’re not of any use in advancing the kingdom of God.

Maintaining Saltiness
If we want to remain useful and spiritually flavorful, we have to preserve the flavor of our faith by growing in our relationship with Jesus. This goes back to the words Jesus spoke from last week’s devotional – deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Jesus. This is an abiding relationship full of prayer, His word, and living a sanctified life obedient to Christ. This is living set apart, being distinctive in our faith, and being the genuine salt to a world so desperately in need of the flavor of Jesus.

In light of this, let’s maintain our saltiness by being in the word, in prayer, and obedient to God so that we will be useful in bringing taste, preservation, and purity to a world in need of Jesus, impacting lives and glorifying God through our distinctive Christ-likeness that makes others thirst for the Living Water!

Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:25-33)

As believers walking in our faith, we are called to love God above all else. This is literally the essence of the first commandment, to put God above everything in our life. But following Jesus is not without its hardships. It demands a radical devotion to Christ that surpasses even our deepest earthly relationships. As disciples of Christ, we are called to bear our cross and follow Him wholeheartedly.

The Cost
Jesus Himself spoke very clearly about the cost of discipleship. He said, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26). These words may initially sound harsh, but it speaks to the depth of our commitment to Him.

Being a disciple of Jesus means prioritizing our relationship with Him over every other relationship, even our closest family and friends. It doesn’t mean we don’t have love for our family; instead, it redefines it in light of our love for Christ. Jesus must occupy the throne of our hearts, with no rivals for that seat.

Choosing to follow Jesus demands a willingness to let go of anything that might hinder our devotion to Him. This could mean letting go of certain goals in life, worldly possessions, or even our own human comforts. It’s about surrendering all that we are and all that we have at the feet of our Savior, Jesus.

The Path
Following Jesus isn’t an easy path, but it is the best path and only path that leads to eternal life. It may lead us down places we never thought we’d go, and it may take sacrifices that are extremely difficult in being obedient to God.

Yet, through it all, there is a deep joy in walking in His footsteps and being refined through what we face, knowing it’s producing good things in us. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matthew 16:25).

And we can know and take comfort that our Good Shepherd is leading us down paths of righteousness for His Name’s sake. And even when we are walking through the valley of the shadow of death, we don’t have to fear because He is with us! (Psalm 23)

Your Identity
To be a disciple of Jesus is to identify with Him completely. It’s about taking up our cross daily and following Him, regardless of the cost.

There is no identifying with Him in the resurrection without identifying with Him in the cross. When Jesus was on earth, He followed the Father’s will perfectly even when it led Him to the cross to pay Himself as the sacrifice for us. To identify with Christ is to wholly embrace His teachings, His example, and His mission as our own.

Paul reminded the Romans about this identity when he said, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we

So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’” (Luke 14:21-24)


If you recall from last week’s devotional, Jesus is at a Pharisee’s dinner party that He was invited to and having spoken about hard topics, like pride and partiality, He is now telling a parable of a man who gave a great banquet and the people who had been invited are all making excuses to not come. So now we pick up with the rest of it where the servant tells the master the bad news and the master has the servant bring in all the outcasts he can find to fill his house for this great banquet.

Bringing in Guests
The master had the servant bring in the poor, crippled, blind, and lame. The poor, crippled, blind, and lame – this is us! Yes, this has an overarching truth that the Jews would reject salvation through Jesus at first and that the invitation would be opened to the Gentiles, but as a whole, we are all the poor, crippled, blind, and lame because our sin has made us this way.

In Revelation, we see how the Laodiceans thought of themselves and how God saw their state. “For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.” (Revelation 3:17-18) and Jesus also said in the Beatitudes, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3)

We may not be literally poor, crippled, blind, and lame, but in and of ourselves we certainly are spiritually in that state and if we realize that, we’ll go to God and inherit the kingdom of heaven.

There’s another side to this too, because these people would need to be helped into the banquet hall. Three out of the four listed here are ailments that would disable the people from coming in alone, and even if they could get there themselves, they’d need to be led by the servant to know the way, of which they had never been before. And the servant did just that to fulfill what the master had commanded.

The servant also reported there was still room. He wasn’t satisfied with the number of people now attending as guests because he knew his master’s desire was to fill his house and his master’s desire became his desire.

Compel People
The servant was instructed by his master to compel people to come in, but why not just ask them to come? Here’s the thing, if someone randomly showed up at your house and said, “The President of the United States is inviting you to a banquet”, would you believe them and follow them to Washington, DC?

That sounds crazy, right? In the same way, so many people don’t believe the call to salvation is for them at first BECAUSE they are outcasts in light of God. They don’t believe they deserve it, and they’re right they don’t but the invitation to come is in spite of us and in light of God’s work on our behalf. And God strongly desires for all to come to repentance and be saved so He instructs His servants to compel people to come.

2 Corinthians 5 gives very clear insight into this very thing: For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again… Now all things are of

When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to him, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” But he said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ (Luke 14:15-20)


Just to keep things in context here, we’re still in at the party – Jesus is a guest at a dinner party with the guest list primarily being Pharisees and lawyers. Jesus has been speaking to some pretty hard topics like pride and partiality and now someone at the table seemingly decides to break the huge amount of awkwardness in the room by saying, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”

The Invitation
What the man said isn’t wrong, he’s looking forward to the great feast in heaven with our Messiah one day, just as it says in Revelation 19:9, And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.” BUT Jesus answers him with a parable that will challenge whether he is ready to completely accept the invitation to that eventual feast.

The truth is that every single person is invited to come into the kingdom of God, but not every single person will accept that invitation and come when God calls.

When Jesus died on that cross and rose again all those thousands of years ago, His blood paid the price for every single person to be redeemed. Sin affected all of humanity through one man, Adam, and redemption comes through one man, Jesus. The invitation of salvation is freely given, but unless it’s received and accepted by the invitee, they don’t become a guest of the party in the house of the master.

Some Added Context
A side note here that gives great insight not only to the culture and context, but also to how it relates to salvation, is that back in that day when someone threw a great banquet they would send out invitations with an approximate time frame of the party date. It took time to plan and put together such a banquet so the guests would accept or decline the invitation and then wait for the master’s servant to tell them it was time for the party to start and then they’d go attend. It was considered extremely rude to accept an invitation and then not show up at the event.

In a similar way, the invitation of salvation is given in sharing the gospel with someone. One either accepts or rejects the initial invitation, but just because someone accepts it right away doesn’t mean they are attending the banquet. We see this concept in places like earlier in Luke 8 when Jesus told the Parable of the Sower and how seed falls on different grounds and it’s only the good soil in which that seed will actually grow and produce fruit – of which James tells us that faith without works is dead (James 2:14-26); as well as in places like Matthew 7:21 where it says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”

The Excuses
We see three men giving three excuses here. Keep in mind, these are men who have already accepted the invitation to the banquet who are now being told to come because the banquet is ready and are making excuses not to come.

Two of them are along the same lines – materialistic reasons, and the other makes his wife the excuse. But all in all, all their excuses come down to not actually wanting to come. In the first two excuses they both say they have bought things a

[Jesus] said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.” (Luke 14:12-14)


This turned out to be quite the dinner party in which Jesus has kindly confronted a lot of heart issues. In the previous sections, Jesus had addressed some heart issues of those invited to the party. In this section, Jesus ended up directing His words to the man who had invited Him, but His words are for more than just that one man at that one specific time.

When You Give
It was expected that people would host dinners or banquets and host people. In the Jewish culture, this was a regular thing. In our culture now, it’s kind of a thing, right? But let’s be honest, even without COVID restrictions, people don’t seem to get together at one another’s houses like they used to.

Having dinner with others is an intimate setting where conversation is had, where food and stories are shared, and where relationships can grow deeper among friends, at least when done among true friends. We saw this practice in the early church and it’s great.

So why does Jesus say not to invite your friends, brothers, relatives, or rich neighbors? And does this mean you should never invite them over? Nope, not at all. Once again, Jesus is speaking to a heart issue here, not a practical one.

Repaid by Others
When Jesus said not to invite friends, brothers, relatives, or rich neighbors, it came with a caveat – lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid.

This does not mean you shouldn’t share meals with friends, brothers, relatives, or rich neighbors; this means you shouldn’t invite those people and host them with the expectation of being invited in return. If an invitation to dinner has any motive beyond blessing them with a meal and enjoying a time of fellowship with them, then it’s a wrong motive.

We see evidence of this in situations such as politics or business. One party invites another over for dinner, may even lavish the guests with some gifts – all with the goal of getting something in return. This is the type of heart issue Jesus is addressing. If you’re giving anything with an expectation of selfishly getting something in return, then you’re not truly giving.

Repaid by God
Jesus gave instruction on how not to invite or give, then He contrasted it by giving instruction on how to invite and give.

Jesus said to invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind – BECAUSE they cannot repay you. Jesus really goaded the Pharisees and lawyers here who tended to view everything from how it appeared on the outside and directed them to look inward at their motives by giving an outward example.

But at the root of that motive to get something in return is pride. Who are we to expect anything?

And yet Jesus tells us that by inviting the poor, crippled, lame, and blind we’ll be blessed and repaid at the resurrection of the just. Some might wonder, isn’t that getting repaid too? What’s the difference in the two scenarios when both get repaid?

The difference is in the heart and how people are viewed. In the first situation, the host invites with an expectation to get repaid by those invited. The first type of host views people as a means to an end. In the second situation, the host invites knowing their guests cannot repay them. The second type of host views people as worth something simply because they’re people created in the image of God. And yet God in His goodness says He will repay them in heaven.

Remember when Jesus told us in Matthew 6, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”? If our hearts keep eternity in mind, we’ll be doing things down

Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 14:7-11)


Jesus is on a role here at this dinner party, wouldn’t you agree? He has just asked some heart challenging questions on selfish judgements when He healed a man who had dropsy and now He’s challenging their pride as He teaches them how they should act instead of how they were currently acting.

He Noticed How They Chose
The guests at this dinner party, which we saw from last week’s section was made up of at least Pharisees and lawyers, had chosen places of honor for themselves. In ancient Jewish culture, the places nearest the head of the table where the host sat were considered the places of honor. This is similar in current American culture, at least among politicians or corporate heads. If there’s an event, say a campaign fundraiser for example, the people of importance are the ones seated with the politician at the head table.

However, when you think of those types of situations in modern culture, people often seek to gain power or influence with or through said politician. So in those instances, they seek a place of honor for themselves for selfish reasons and it’s because of their pride that they feel entitled to it.

We all as human beings are capable of such pride and selfishness and in fact, it is more natural to us because of our sin nature. But we must fight our sinful flesh desires and strengthen our spirits in which we put on humility just as Jesus our Savior did.

When You are Invited
As Jesus tells this parable, He gives instructions to not honor yourself in your seat choice, but to place yourself in the lowest seat and let the host honor you. This may seem like just a rational idea or even a dummies guide to humility, but Paul also touched on this when he told the churches in Philippi to, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” (Philippians 2:3-4) as well as to the church in Rome to “not to think of [yourself] more highly than [you] ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.” (Romans 12:3)

One could simply follow what Jesus said on the outside and look humble, but in reality this is a matter that starts in the heart.

Exalted and Humbled
James gave clear insight to this when he said, “But [God] gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded…Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” (James 4:6-8,10)

The outside manifestation of this looks like exaltation of the humble and humbling of the self-exalted; however, the inside reality is that the humble who are being exalted have submitted themselves to God, resisted the devil, drawn near to God, cleansed their hands, and purified their hearts, humbling themselves before the Lord in which they receive grace from God.

A common Proverb, in which the context aligns with what Jesus and James said is, “Pride goes before