How is your Salt?

Matthew 5:13

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.”

You are salt, Jesus called His followers salt, is it something anyone other than Jesus has ever called you?  So if your Creator referred to you as salt, the question must be ask, is it sea salt, table salt, or kosher salt?  Why has He, who is all knowing, called us who follow him salt? 

In my search for truth I went to many sources, and found this summary on Salt in the Bible from Wikipedia, this free encyclopedia will help us understand more about salt. “The role of salt in the Bible is relevant to understanding Hebrew society during the Old Testament and New Testament periods. Salt is a necessity of life and was a mineral that was used since ancient times in many cultures as a seasoning, a preservative, a disinfectant, a component of ceremonial offerings, and as a unit of exchange. The Bible contains numerous references to salt. In various contexts, it is used metaphorically to signify permanence, loyalty, durability, fidelity, usefulness, value, and purification.”  All of that statement is true, but Jesus is referring to the very last word in the definition, purification when He called us salt.

If we look at how salt is used in the Old Testament it is often used as a purifying agent, as found in the book of Leviticus 2:13, “You shall season all your grain offering with salt.  You shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be missing from your grain offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt.”  And do you recall when Elisha is in Jericho and the people of that city told him they like the city but the water was bad and the land is unfruitful?  This was his reply: “He said, “Bring me a new bowl, and put salt in it.”  So they brought it to him.  Then he went to the spring of water and threw salt in it and said, “Thus says the Lord, I have healed this water; from now on neither death nor miscarriage shall come from it.” 

So if we look at being the salt Jesus tells us to be, we must examine our lives to see if we are living a life of purity, not only before man but also before God.  The culture we live in is far from pure, and often leadership of the church is far from pure, but the issue is, are you pure, am I pure, or have we become like our culture?  Has your witness lost its effect on those who know you best, has your salt lost it taste, are you a lover of stuff more than a lover of God?  If you have been polluted by this present darkness that we live in, run to Jesus for he has promised this; “If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice