Salt of the Earth (Part I of II)
When we are stressing someone’s solid worth and usefulness, we say, “People like that are the salt of the earth.”
Where did that expression originate and what exactly does it mean, within a Christian perspective?
Matthew 5:13 (Jesus speaking), “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trodden under foot by men.”
In the ancient world salt was highly esteemed. Nearly 1,500 years before Christ, salt was an important and valuable item. Leviticus 2:13, (God speaking), “And every offering of your grain offering you shall season with salt; you shall not allow the salt of the covenant of your God to be lacking from your grain offering. With all your offerings you shall offer salt.”
From early Jewish history, salt was essential to their faith and worship. Besides the monetary and religious values of salt, Jesus could have had in His mind these concepts when He used salt to teach this spiritual lesson.
Salt was connected with purity, no doubt its glistening whiteness made the connection easy. The Romans said that salt was the purest of all things because it came from the purest of all things, the sun and the sea (Barclay). Salt was indeed the most primitive of all offerings to the gods of the pagans and, as we have already read, salt was even used in the Jewish sacrifices, partly because of its perceived purity.
If Christians are to be the salt of the earth, they must exhibit an example of purity in their everyday living. Christians cannot, and should not, withdraw from the world, but Christians must not become contaminated by the world, but continually keep themselves unstained by the world to be an effective witness for the Gospel. Like pure salt.
In the ancient world, and even in the not so ancient world, salt was the most common of all preservatives. Likewise, members of God’s Kingdom must function as preservers of the divine doctrines as found in the Holy Bible. Christians are to hold back the corruptive forces of life, to restrain the advance of the destructive elements of society, just like salt when it restrains the spoiling of meat.
One of the characteristics of this nation in which we live is the lessening of standards. Standards of honesty, standards of excellence, standards of diligence in work, standards of conscientiousness, moral standards, all tend to be deteriorating to a lower and lower level. Christians, however, must defend and preserve (like salt) the standards of absolute purity in speech, in conduct, and even in thought.
How incredibly rotten this nation would be if there were no Kingdom of God to preserve all that is holy, decent and good, therefore preserving from total corruption our society. If the Christian is to be the salt of the earth, the Christian must not only exhibit purity in his daily living to be a credible Christian, but also defend and preserve the holy standards of life as found in God’s Word, the Bible.
Next time: The “salting” of society by Christians, considered, in the conclusion to “Salt of the Earth.”
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Chris Voss is a pastor at First Christian Church, 317 S. Main, Donna.