Salting Up The Earth

“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.” - Matt. 5:13

From one of our Lord’s greatest sermons comes this most intriguing of statements. How were the disciples of Jesus to be like salt? And why did He use an innate worldly element to describe how Christians were to behave in the world?

First of all, we need to understand the value of salt in Jesus’ time. Today, salt is an everyday, readily available commodity that is found in virtually every home in the western hemisphere. However, in Jesus’ day, salt wasn’t as available. In fact, salt was so valuable that it was often used to pay the wages of the Roman soldiers. We get our English word salary from the ancient practice of paying with salt. Slaves in Jesus’ time were often bought with salt, thus the phrase “worth their salt” was used to determine the value of the person being purchased. The disciples would have understood the implication of Jesus’ comments in calling them (and us) “the salt of the earth.” Being the salt of the earth represents several things in the Christian life:

1) Salt’s ability to enhance flavor — Just as a little salt on our food enhances the flavor, so the Christian’s life should bring out the best in the people around them. Those in darkness should be able to recognize that there is something different about us that helps to bring out good in people as we live among them. “. . . they were marveling, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus “(Acts 4:13).

2) Salt is pure — Germs cannot live in salt. When God instituted the Law Covenant, he instructed the Israelites to sprinkle all the grain offerings with salt to symbolize the purity of what they were offering (Leveticus2:13). Likewise, God’s people are called to purity. As the “salt of the earth,” we are to present our lives as a living and holy sacrifice (Romans 12:1). Everything we do should project purity - our hearts (1 Timothy 1:5), our work (Proverbs 21:8), our thoughts (Phil. 4:8), our consciences (1 Tim. 3:9), even our religion (James 1:27).

3) Salt creates thirst — Christians are to set a positive example by the message we preach and the life we live. As people see us respond to life’s adversities in a profoundly different and godly way than how the rest of world does, it will cause them “to see your good

works and glorify your Father in heaven.”. Is our personal example creating in people a thirst to know more about God, His plans and purposes for our lives? Or do they grow to despise Christianity because of us. Mahatma Gandhi once professed that he admired the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. When asked why he didn’t then become a Christian he responded, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” How does the world see you and me?

Jesus said, “If salt loses its flavor, how will it be made salty again?” The question Jesus asked is a rhetorical one. The implication is it can’t. If it could, the only thing it would be used for was to be thrown down and trampled under foot. How does the Christian lose his saltiness? To answer that, one needs to know a little about salt.

Salt is a unique mineral. Deposits found in salt mines, thousands of years old, still retain their flavor.

Salt cannot spoil. Even if stored for extended periods of time, salt will still retain its flavor. Salt may become hard and lumpy but it still retains that salty quality. If we dissolve salt in water, the quality of the salt remains - just taste the water.

Salt is very enduring. It will melt at 801 degrees Celsius (1474 degrees Fahrenheit), yet it will still retain its chemical composition.

So how does the salt lose its saltiness? Only when it reacts chemically with some other substance will salt lose its flavor. In other words, when it is contaminated by an outside influence, it becomes compromised and useless. What implications for the Christian life!

Jesus reminds us that though we are in the world, we are not to be of the world (John 17:14-15). John warns us that we are not to “love the world, nor the things in the world, if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15). God has called us out of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of His beloved Son. Just as God separated light from darkness in Creation, so He admonishes us to be separate from the world’s atmosphere (2 Cor. 6:14-18).

There is nothing sadder to see than a worldly Christian, who has no positive impact on a dark and dying world because they have themselves become part of that world system. Jesus told the parable about the Sower and the Seed, and said, that “the worries of the world, deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in, choked the word and they became unfruitful,” undistinguishable from those that they dwelt among. They lost their unique flavor and were not even fit for the soil or the dunghill (Luke 14:35).

For those who are faithful, however, their lives become like a sweet smelling aroma of loving sacrifice to our Father in heaven. Let’s keep on passing the salt!

D. Gorham