“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.” Matthew 5:13 (ESV)
The first thing we always need to consider when studying any verse of the Bible is its context. This verse comes from the book of Matthew, which is one of the four gospels that detail Jesus’ life and teachings. Matthew, one of Jesus’ disciples, wrote this book in the first century, about 64-70 AD (which stands for After Death) – and the person speaking in this passage is Jesus. He is speaking to His believers, to Christians.
What is Salt?
In Matthew 5:13, Jesus tells Christians that we are supposed to be the salt of the earth. So, what is salt? More importantly, what was salt used for in the first century when this verse was written?
Salt was used as a seasoning for flavor. Just as you add salt to enhance the taste of food, Christians should enhance and enrich the lives of people in our circles. We do this by making sure the words we use are seasoned with the love of God and the truth of the gospel.
Salt was also used as a preservative. Just as salt preserves meat from rotting, Christians should preserve the presence of God in our lost and dying world. However, Christians must be preserved in order to be a preservative.
Just before this verse, Jesus was explaining the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12), which tell Christians how they are to live by being merciful, peacemakers, and living in repentance.
His presence in our lives should permeate all that we do. We should be glorying God in our daily lives to preserve God’s goodness and prevent more evil from spreading in the world. The Reformation Study Bible says, “Disciples are to hinder the world’s corruption.”
The Reformation Study Bible is one of my favorite Bible study resources. Not only does it include expansive study notes, but it also includes commentaries, creeds and confessions, church history, and much more.
You can get it here: https://a.co/d/eU9Yiee
Also, in Jesus’ day, salt was very valuable and our influence in our inner circles is also very valuable. Christian lives should be the seasoning that preserves the goodness of God in our society and we can make a real difference in a lost world if we remain to be salt.
Being salt should come naturally in the lives of Christians who are filled with the Holy Spirit and are living humbly in obedience to God’s commands.
Losing Saltiness
Matthew 5:13 says if salt loses its taste, it’s no longer good for anything. Christians serve a godly purpose in the world simply by living out their beliefs, but we stop serving that purpose when we stop living for God.
The Reformation Study Bible also says, “The salt deposits along the Dead Sea (where people mainly got salt in Biblical days) contain not just sodium chloride but a variety of other minerals as well. This salt can become good for nothing when the rain washes out its saltiness over the years.”
Our loss of saltiness occurs when we stop taking up the cross. When we start living for ourselves. When we stop following Jesus with our whole hearts. When we start believing more in our own power to make a difference than His. And if we lose our saltiness, we are no longer serving our purpose in the kingdom of God.
Focusing on worldly things is how we become like the world. But Christians are commanded to focus on things above and be unchanged by the world.
We should not be wasting the lives that Jesus gave His life for. We should be a valuable witness to the goodness of God in a wicked world. That’s what it means to be salt.
I do want to mention here that Jesus is using salt as a metaphor. Salt cannot actually lose its flavor, just as we cannot lose our salvation.
Staying Salty
Living a life aligned with God’s will salts the earth and gives others the chance to “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8).
Christians need to be a savory seasoning in the lives of unbelievers around us and act as a preservative of God’s light and goodness in a putrefying world.
Now, let’s answer Jesus’ question, “If salt loses its taste, how should its saltiness be restored?”
If you’ve found yourself being flavorful in the wrong ways or preserving the world’s standards more than God’s, you can change that. The first things to do are pray and repent. Then, let the Holy Spirit guide you to making decisions that glorify God and be salt to the earth.
One more thing:
Salt cannot flavor or preserve anything if it’s kept in the shaker. Jesus wants us to be salt. He wants us to enhance and enrich the lives of others around us. He wants us to preserve His teachings and be obedient to His commands.
Be salt to the earth.
Dawn Zauner 