Salt of the Earth

Matthew 5:13 (KJV 1900): 13 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

Background

We have all heard “salt of the earth” messages and lessons We have heard how salt preserves organic matter from decaying or putrefying Salt doesn’t contain water

Water is what allows algae, microbes, and fungi to grow and live But when salt is placed on a certain food, it takes the water out allowing that food to last longer. Pure salt doesn’t really go bad.

Salt is a natural mineral that has lasted in our earth’s crust since creation. It hasn’t gone bad yet. The table salt we have in our cabinets now-a-days is not pure salt.

It’s either iodized salt or refined salt.

The salt itself isn’t going bad but the stuff is combined with it has an affect on it that changes it.

So the iodine and anti-caking agents in our salt degrade over time causing our current salt to go bad.

Our iodized and refined salt is said to have a shelf life of about 5 years.

Which is interesting…If we add stuff from this world, we may not see an immediate change in ourselves but we will soon be completely worthless over time.

Sin is slow acting. It is likened to yeast or leaven.

But salt was very different in the time Jesus was living on the earth

They obviously did not have packaged and processed foods.

Interestingly, though, salt back in New Testament times often did lose its “savor.”

In those days, salt was generally not pure.

It contained multiple other compounds, most of which held up to humidity better than sodium chloride.

So, if the salt was exposed to the typical humidity of a place like Israel, the sodium chloride would eventually evaporate while the other compounds wouldn’t, leaving behind a white substance that appeared to be salt but had none of its flavor.

We must view salt as those in Jesus’ day viewed salt.

If left out, their salt would lose its savor and usefulness.

And to them, salt was USEFUL.

Pliny, Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, who lived from AD 23-79, said “without salt human life cannot be sustained.”

Salt was extremely important in this economy, culture, and lifestyle.

We use salt for convenience and pleasure. Makes things taste better.

They used it out of necessity.

So when Jesus was saying that those who were to be his followers were the salt of the earth, it was a big deal.

Not the best correlation, but it’s like saying we as Christians are the refrigerators of the world.

What would you do if you did not have a refrigerator? How would keep your milk from going bad? Your chicken? Your cheese? Your yogurt?

In a certain Rabbinic writing, it is said, “The world cannot endure without salt.”

So valued was salt that in different cultures it was sometimes used as a form of money.

No doubt you have heard the phrase, “So and so is not worth his salt.”

The saying has its origin in workers being paid at least a portion of their wages in salt.

If someone is not worth his salt, he is not worth what he is being paid.

We have a reminder of this historical fact (salt as money) in our word “salary,” which comes from salarium, the Latin word for salt.

Salt was required in all the meat sacrifices

Lev 2:13 “And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering: with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt.”

You are the salt of the earth.

You preserve the world from its moral decay

The believer is vital to wellbeing of the world. I think of Lot in Sodom, when Abraham pleaded to God to spare Sodom for 10 righteous people

The righteous have the ability to preserve

Imagine America without one Christian. I understand we aren’t a moral country as it is, but the believers have kept and preserved some moral decency in our communities by we how act and deal with those around us.

You can point them to the Life

You can share how their decay doesn’t have to end in death

We heard some incredible preaching on how powerful Christ’s resurrection truly is!

Nothing is more powerful than that We have that as we are used of God to point them to Christ.

But if the salt has lost its savor…

It is good for nothing

When the sodium chloride is out in the elements.

Humidity Physical and chemical weathering

It loses its effectiveness

The salt loses it savor when it’s been in contact with the earth.

It sucks the brine right out of it It has been corrupted

When we are compassed and surrounded with the world and all its philosophies it sucks all our usefulness out of us and we swallow its lies.

When our walk and our talk looks no different than the world

When there is no difference between the salt and the dirt surrounding it, we are good for nothing in terms of the kingdom of God

It is unlikely that the world will listen or be influenced by us for good when we are the same.

Something that is not different cannot produce a change.

Jesus says the believer who has lost his savor is good for nothing

This is serious

As kids I thought authority was mean because they punished us when we did something wrong. But obviously, they are not being mean.

Don’t lose your savor

Application

Where we live, surrounded by people who are occupied with material things and earthly considerations, we are to be salt.

We are to have an arresting effect on the general corruption of society.

We are to be the medium through which the heavenly side of things exerts its influence on the earthly side of things.

We are to live as a heavenly people in an earthly environment.

Just as salt adds tang and flavor to food, we are to exert our godly influence in a pungent, attractive way.

When you are considered good for nothing, you have lost your testimony and influence (not loss of salvation)