“Salt of the Earth:” the Good…and the Bad! (Part 2 of 2)
This blog is a two-part series. To read Part 1, click HERE.
We often don’t grasp the magnitude of Messiah Jesus’ statement declaring us “salt of the earth.” The value of salt in Jesus’ day is important to understanding His use of the phrase.
Salt today is a cheap commodity. But it was not so in biblical times, when it was used for healing, preserving, and even as a monetary medium. Our English word “salary” comes from the Latin “salarium” with “sal/salis” (salt) as its root. An allotment of salt was part of a soldier’s pay in ancient Rome.[1] This usage as payment also gave birth to the phrase “worth his salt.”
Here are other uses of salt:
Disinfectant – “Pouring salt into a wound” carries a negative connotation today but has long been used to facilitate healing. Saline solutions, administered externally or intravenously, are commonly used in modern medicine.
Preservative – This was extremely important prior to development of refrigeration.
Religious ritual – The Israelites were commanded to include salt in their grain offerings.[2]
Legally binding agreements – Scripture references a “covenant of salt.”[3]
For Jesus to say we are “salt of the earth” is an amazing statement of our intrinsic value!
Yet there’s a troubling aspect to the statement I’d never considered until I saw these verses:
“All its land is brimstone and salt, a burning waste, unsown and unproductive, and no grass grows in it…”[4]
“Abimelech fought against the city all that day, and he captured the city and killed the people who were in it; then he razed the city and sowed it with salt.”[5]
“For he will be like a bush in the desert and will not see when prosperity comes, but will live in stony wastes in the wilderness, a land of salt without inhabitant.”[6]
“’Therefore, as I live,’ declares the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Surely Moab will be like Sodom and the sons of Ammon like Gomorrah – a place possessed by nettles and salt pits, and a perpetual desolation….’”[7]
“A fruitful land into a salt waste, because of the wickedness of those who dwell in it.”[8]
Whoa! These verses highlight the really corrosive nature of concentrated salt. As “salt of the earth,” believers cannot escape or ignore the caustic attribute of salt.
The final attribute of salt – and the most important one for us to note – is its use as a “seasoning.”[9] Some of us are so diluted by the world we are “tasteless.” Some of us live our lives completely separated from the world and collectively we’re corrosive. Both salt extremes, highly diluted or highly concentrated are “good for nothing.”
God intends us to live our lives in the middle ground. Our churches are to be mining, refining and distribution centers, sending us into the world as “seasoning.” Our fellowships are not to be enclaves hiding from a sinful world.
Our Lord intends for us to be in (but not of) the world,[10] a moral and ethical “preservative” of God’s truth and a flavorful “seasoning” drawing the world to the Messiah. Who are you to graciously “season” today?
“Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.”[11]
Written by Steve, LIFE Administrative Staff
Footnotes:
[1] “Roman historian Pliny the Elder, stated as an aside in his Natural History's discussion of sea water, that ‘In Rome. . .the soldier's pay was originally salt and the word salary derives from it.’” http://www.ancientpages.com/2016/06/29/the-word-salary-has-roots-in-ancient-rome-and-history-of-salt/
[2] Leviticus 2:13; see also Ezra 6:9 & 7:21-23.
[3] Numbers 18:19; 2 Chronicles 13:5.
[4] Deuteronomy 29:23.
[5] Judges 9:45.
[6] Jeremiah 17:6.
[7] Zephaniah 2:9.
[8] Psalm 107:34.
[9] Job 6:6.
[10] John 15:19; Romans 12:2; 1 John 2:15.
[11] Colossians 4:6.