YOU ARE THE SALT OF THE EARTH

 

    Jesus told His followers in the Sermon on the Mount, “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.”

            We are to be salt for the here and now on this earth that we live in. Salt is an important commodity. It is important now and it was in the past. I started wondering about the offerings in the Old Covenant where God required the sacrifices to be offered with salt. So, I searched them out, and discovered that salt is figurative of God’s eternal covenant. Salting the sacrifices was a type or example of preserving one’s covenant with God. If we lose our saltiness, we are disloyal to our part of the covenant.

            What is our part of the covenant with God? It is total surrender. That’s what Jesus said was required. We are to give our lives to follow Him. And He will keep His covenant with us, which is total redemption. Without His Spirit in us, empowering us, we cannot keep our part of the covenant. Both parts of the covenant are necessary. God has actually invited us to come and work alongside Him. Being the salt of the earth is a tremendous job that can only be accomplished when we are in agreement (covenant) with God.

            But if the salt has lost it flavor, it is void of spiritual life and therefore useless. If meat has no flavor, you can get the salt shaker and give it some. But if the salt has no flavor, there is nothing left to give flavor to the meat, or in our case to season the lives of others. There is nothing that can salt this world but those who are salt. That is why Satan works so hard to make us flavorless, powerless, useless. He tries to make us break our covenant with God.

There are numerous passages in Scripture that speak of salt regarding the Covenant. 2 Chronicles 13:5 says God made a “covenant of salt [a permanent pact, extending to each generation of Israel]”. Numbers 18:19 says “All the offerings of the holy things, which the Israelites offer to the Lord I have given to you [the priests] and to your sons and your daughters with you as a continual allotment. It is an everlasting covenant of salt [that cannot be dissolved or violated] before the Lord to you and to your descendants with you.” Salt was symbolic of the preservation and permanence of God’s covenant”. Salt was also considered as a symbol of loyalty and durability. As long as we are loyal, we can impact this world. If we break our covenant with God, we are of no use. We have lost our purpose in the kingdom of God.

In the Old Testament, they offered the required sacrifices and literal salt offerings, keeping their covenant with God perpetual. Under the New Covenant, we have seen we are to give all to follow Jesus. Romans 12:1-2 says “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” This is the sacrifice we present to God. Not a dead bull, lamb, dove, or goat. We present ourselves. But we can’t just present part of ourselves to God. It has to be all of us, our bodies included. God is specific in what is required.

There were only certain animals that God would accept from the Israelites as a sacrifice to Him and they had to be perfect – no blemishes. And they all had to be offered a certain way. Our sacrifice has to be holy – not conformed to this world but totally transformed and proving out in our lives what is good, acceptable and the perfect will of God. Everything we offer to God must be offered with total commitment to Him. We are called to be that which is holy and acceptable to Him. This sacrifice of ourselves that we offer up to Him is living. It is ongoing.

            How can our bodies be living sacrifices to Him in this covenant relationship? Jesus once said that “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” So, He knows our weaknesses. But we are to keep our bodies in subjection to our spirit. Paul put it this way, “But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway (outcast). We are to be committed to holiness inside and out. So we have to be careful what our mouths say, where our feet take us, what we allow our eyes to watch, and what we do. Everything we do and say should be reflective of the New Covenant we have through Jesus Christ. This was required in every sacrifice offered by the Israelites. “You shall season every grain offering with salt so that the salt of the covenant of your God will not be missing from your grain offering. You shall offer salt with all your offerings.” (Leviticus 2:13)

This covenant is the basis of our lives. It is our foundation. And that should be evident as it flows from us. If we lose our saltiness, we are untrue to our part of the covenant. This covenant includes our redemption through Jesus blood, our righteousness, our source of Life, our new heart with a new Spirit and our purpose. All of this comes through Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for us. His part of the covenant enables us to keep our part of the covenant.

At the Last Supper, Jesus introduced the New Covenant. He “took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me. Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.” (Luke 22:19-20) 1 Corinthians 11:25 says, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” We are to never forget our covenant with Jesus. We are to never forget the price He paid to make this covenant with us. We are to always remember that a covenant has two parts and we are to be faithful, even as He is Faithful and True.

            Let’s look at the properties of salt that can help us see how we are salt in this earth.

Salt Preserves - When there was no refrigeration as we know it today, my mother’s daddy would cure hams with salt. Covering them with salt would preserve them for a long time. If we are salt, then we are the ones who can preserve the Word of God, the work of God, the will of God and the power of God in a world that has rejected Him and is decaying. This world needs salt! We can let other people know about it by living as covenant people - fully surrendered. It’s important to preserve the Word of God by speaking it and living it so this generation can hear it and see it. Then it can be passed down to the next generation. That is our purpose on this earth, to preserve God’s Word. We need to hold on to our purpose.

Salt Makes People Thirsty - If we have a real, vibrant relationship with Jesus, we can bring others to Him, too. Our example as a believer can draw people to Christ when they see love, joy, and peace in action. It can make them thirsty for the Living Water. Most people are thirsty for something in life but don’t know what it is. They can find it in Jesus, and we can be the vessel used to point them to Him. We can make them thirsty for Jesus.

 Salt Can Be Used to Cleanse Newborns – (See Ezekiel 16:4) That was news to me, so I researched and found that they put salt on their skin to protect the infant against foreign agents. Another source said it was to toughen the skin. I’m not sure how it was done, but I do know the New Covenant of salt with God will keep a newborn believer in the faith by teaching them and cleansing them from the wickedness of this world.

Salt Can Melt Ice to Prevent Slipping and Falling. - The ice on frozen hearts can be melted so they can receive Jesus. As we spread salt all around, we can offer them His firm foundation to keep them from losing their footing and from slipping and falling into this world’s traps. Jude 24-25 let us know there is One Who can keep us from falling. “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling or falling into sin, and to present you unblemished [blameless and faultless] in the presence of His glory with triumphant joy and unspeakable delight, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

            In Mark 9:50, Jesus said, “Salt is good and useful; but if salt has lost its saltiness how will you make it salty? Have salt within yourselves continually, and be at peace with one another.”  

After I had taught on being the salt of the earth in Bible study, my mother asked me how salt could lose its flavor. I had no idea, so I looked it up on Google, and this is what I discovered.

Salt never ‘goes bad’. And it has no expiration date, regardless of what is on the package. You can use it indefinitely, perpetually. BUT there are some ways it can lose its flavor. It can lose its flavor if it is infiltrated with chemical impurities. When that happens it becomes a mixture of manmade elements and salt. In other words additives have been mixed with it and it is no longer pure. When we cease to live and share the Word of God as it is, we lose our saltiness. When we begin to add this world’s elements to God’s Word, we lose our saltiness. When we break our covenant with God, we lose our saltiness. Nobody gets thirsty when we spread weakened down, impure salt.

Another way salt can lose its flavor is if it absorbs moisture, evaporates and leaves behind a substance that looks like salt but does not taste like it. Once we absorb this world’s elements, we will only be a shell without the Spirit of God in us. We may look like salt, but we are not the real deal and have nothing of the Spirit of God to offer. We are empty inside. If it’s not pure salt, it has no flavor. Salt can only lose its saltiness when it is infiltrated by a foreign substance. We need to be careful not to be infiltrated by this world or the lies of Satan. If we lose our saltiness, how will this earth be preserved, made thirsty, set on a firm foundation, cleansed from sin? We are the salt of the earth. Are we still flavorful?