Investigating the Bible: Being like salt

By DAVID CARLSON PASTOR

Jesus told his followers: “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 trampled under people’s feet.” (Matthew 5:13, English Standard Version used throughout). In the first century, salt was used to improve the taste of foods, to illustrate purity, to preserve foods, and may have been used as money.

Jesus’ first and often neglected lesson of comparing his followers to salt, is application. He did not say, “You are the salt for the church.” Believers are salt when spread into the world, into families, into the workplace, into society, into every corner of life.

Salt improves life. The apostle Peter wrote: “Though you do not now see him, you believe in him, and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory… .” (1 Peter 1:8). William Barclay noted that some in the church have done the opposite. He quoted Oliver Wendell Holmes, who said, “I might have entered the ministry if certain clergymen I knew had not looked and acted so much like undertakers.”

Salt preserves. Salt draws out moisture from meats and vegetables, reducing bacterial growth. Likewise, Christian actions preserve society. French citizen Alexander de Tocqueville toured the United States in the early 1800s and is known for writing about the American “experiment.” He sought the source of America’s greatness in its abundant natural resources, in its thriving commerce, and in its constitution, and each time found it was not there. He said, “Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”

Salt is pure. The apostle Paul wrote. “For we are not like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God in the sight of God, we speak in Christ.” (2 Corinthians 2:17). The Greek word “sincerity” means literally “tested by the sun.” The quality of marble statutes was measured by placing them in hot sunshine. Any mistakes hidden by wax were exposed as wax melted in sunshine. And in a believer’s life come tests. Recently, Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika, shocked many with her words about the alleged murderer of her husband. She said at his memorial service, “Our Savior said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.’ That young man … I forgive him,” she said through tears. “I forgive him because it was what Christ did, and it’s what Charlie would do.”

Salt was valuable. Today, salt is abundant. In the New Testament world, salt was rare and expensive. The Latin word for salt is the root of our word salary. Roman soldiers may have at times been paid with salt. Jesus meant his followers will have difficulties requiring costly actions, and sometimes sacrifice.

In Alice Gray’s “Stories for the Heart,” David Needham wrote of a little Johnny whose younger sister, Mary, needed a blood transfusion. She was ill from the same disease the boy had battled and beaten. They had the same blood type. His blood had life-saving antibodies. The doctor asked Johnny, “Would you give your blood to Mary?” Johnny hesitated and trembled. He finally said, “Sure, for my sister.” The two children were wheeled into the hospital room. Johnny smiled at his pale and weak sister, but when the nurse inserted the needle in his arm and he saw the blood flowing down the tube, his smile faded. When enough blood had almost been collected, Johnny asked the doctor with a shaky voice, “Doctor, when do I die?” Only then did the doctor understand why Johnny had paused. He thought giving his blood would mean giving up his life.

David Carlson Pastor (yes, that is his last name, not his profession) lives in Oregon and is a graduate of Bethel Theological Seminary in Minnesota (M.Div., M.Th.).