Network Discipling Ministries

ARE WE WORTH OUR SALT?

“Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another“  – Mark 9:50

Read First: Matthew 5:13; Luke 14:34, 35

“You are the salt of the earth.” When Jesus uttered these words, His mountain-side audience sensed their vital importance, but probably failed to connect with the real breadth and depth of their meaning as that related to the kingdom which Christ was talking about. Salt was a very precious commodity in the economy of the Mediterranean world during that time. Its many uses—as a sacrificial motif (Leviticus 2:13; Numbers 18:19; Ezra 6:9; Mark 9:49), a food preservative, a flavoring additive (Job 6:6), a sterility-inducing agent and healing potion (Judges 9:45; Jeremiah 17:6; 2 Kings 2:20-22), and even as roadway paving material (Matthew 5:13)—made salt a very invaluable medium of exchange among Jews and Gentiles alike.

Thus, when Jesus told His disciples that they were the salt of the earth, He was communicating a very powerful and far-reaching kingdom analogy. Notice, Christ did not say, “you are like salt;” but rather, “you are the salt.” There is a huge difference between being compared to salt, and that of being salt, itself. Just what salt is to food or anything else, for that matter, so are Christ’s disciples to the inhabitants of the earth. Just like leaven (yeast) in a large lump of dough, so is the kingdom and, by extension, its citizens in the total fabric of this world. “Salt is good,” Jesus said—just like the kingdom and all those who belong to it. However, this goodness of salt lies in its (salt) ability to perform its various functions on account of its inherent properties. Whenever, salt has lost its innate saltiness, it becomes very worthless. In the time of Jesus, useless salt was either thrown away, or used to pave walkways, sidewalks and cover the roofs of houses.

As the salt of the earth, kingdom citizens must exhibits their sacrificial, preserving, flavoring, and healing influence among all the inhabitants of the earth. They must be willing to spend and be spent for the good of humanity. In their presence, human heartaches and brokenness must find a sense of peace, comfort and healing. Their love and actions must exert a righteous pressure that stems the flow of evil in the world, and creates an environment that makes it amenable for individuals to be good and feel safe.

Our world is in desperate need of an abundance of “salt” to retard its moral decay, decadence and destruction that seems so at home among the human family. No longer do we have to steel our nerves for the reports that are rolling forth from the many news agencies all around the globe. We have become more surprised when violence and crime numbers go down, rather than up; for our moral sensibility have become somewhat numb on account of the tides of evil that increasingly surge against us. Where is the “salt of the earth?” Have the salt gone south, or are we losing our saltiness? One Christian author (Pippert) says that Christ’s disciples need to get out of the comfort of their salt-shakers (religious communities) and into the fabric of the world.

WE, WHO PROFESS TO BE FOLLOWERS OF KING JESUS, ARE WE AS GOOD AS WE PROFESS TO BE, OR AS OTHERS SAY WE ARE? ARE WE REALLY WORTH OUR SALT? WHAT SORT OF INFLUENCE ARE WE EXERTING IN, AND ON, OUR WORLD?

Note:

1. Rebecca Manley Pippert, Out of the Saltshaker and into the World (Downer Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1999).