You are the Salt of the Earth (Matthew 5:13)

Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ the Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 10 Apr. 2011

Intro: Salt

Salt is an essential part of our diet. According to the following unverified sources, our bodies use salt to:

· “regulate fluid intake [which] directly affects the PH of your body,”
www.naturalhomecures.net/.../causes-of-digestive-problems-symptoms-solutions

· “regulate blood volume,”
www.blurtit.com/q1465556.html -

· “balance blood sugar levels by clearing mucus and phlegm from the lungs,”
fullspike.com › Bodybuilding › Bodybuilding Diet

· “make calcium and potassium,”
www.alkalineliving.info/Salt.html

· “make the enzymes that digest food,”
www.communicatingcauses.com/agnl/flu_season_handout.pdf

· “make the enzymes that digest invading microbes and parasites,” and
www.bantpractitioners.com/TakingCareOfYourFamily.html -

· “hold on to water when it is not getting enough.”
books.google.com/books?isbn=0809229536...

· In other words, “Without salt, we die.”
www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/.../when-salt-loses-its-savor.html -

What about Ice cream salt? Mom says, “don’t eat it.” Why? It isn’t pure salt. It has impurities that weren’t designed for human consumption. It is low-quality salt only intended for lowering the freezing temperature of water so you can get the water in your ice cream bucket colder and freeze your ice cream faster.

Jesus said (Translation)

13. It is y’all who are the salt of the earth.

Now, if the salt should happen to be made sub-standard

in what way could it be made into salt?

It is good for nothing anymore

except to be thrown outside to be stepped on by people.

“Y’all are the salt of the earth” (5:13a) ῾Υμεῖς ἐστε τὸ ἅλας τῆς γῆς

Salt in scripture

Jesus talked about salt on multiple occasions throughout His ministry:

It is mentioned here in the sermon on the mount early in His ministry,
then later on while He was in Capernaum after his disciples had had a run-in with some other people trying to do miracles in Jesus’ name: Mark 9:49-50 "For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if the salt becomes unsalty, with what will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another."
and later on in Perea[1] while lecturing about counting the cost of becoming a Christian:
Luke 14:34-35 "Therefore, salt is good; but if even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned? "It is useless either for the soil or for the [compost] pile; it is thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
But what did He mean? He wasn’t just talking about table salt; He was trying to teach a lesson to people! How was salt used throughout the rest of the Bible?

References to the Dead Sea and environs – termed in Hebrew “The Salt Sea” and the “Valley of Salt” where some of the salt used by Israelites was mined or evaporated: Gen 14:3, Numbers 34:3 & 12, Deut. 3:17, Joshua 3:16, 12:3, 15:2-5, 15:62, 18:19, 2 Sam. 8:13, 2 Kings 14:7, 1 Chron. 18:12, 2 Chron. 25:11, Psalm 60 epigraph.
(There are also contrasts between salt and fresh water in James 3:12 and Ezekiel 47:11)

A) Used for flavor enhancing:

Job 6:6 Can something tasteless be eaten without salt, Or is there any taste in the white of an egg?

This was figuratively applied to pleasant speech in the New Testament:

Mark 9:50 Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.
Colossians 4:6 Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.

B) Used for sterilizing

Genesis 19:26 But his wife, from behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
Deuteronomy 29:23 'All its land is brimstone and salt, a burning waste, unsown and unproductive, and no grass grows in it, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in His anger and in His wrath.'
Judges 9:45 Abimelech [the son of Gideon the judge] fought against the city all that day, and he captured the city [Shechem] and killed the people who were in it; then he razed the city and sowed it with salt.
Job 39:6 I gave the wilderness for a home And the salt land for his dwelling place?
Psalms 107:34 A fruitful land into a salt waste, Because of the wickedness of those who dwell in it.
Jeremiah 17:6 "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.

Zephaniah 2:9 "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. The remnant of My people will plunder them And the remainder of My nation will inherit them."
Luke 14:34-35 "Therefore, salt is good; but if even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned? It is useless either for the soil or for the [compost] pile; it is thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

Ezekiel 16:4 As for your birth, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water for cleansing; you were not rubbed with salt or even wrapped in cloths.
2 Kings 2:20-21 [Elisha] said, "Bring me a new jar, and put salt in it." So they brought it to him. He went out to the spring of water and threw salt in it and said, "Thus says the LORD, 'I have purified these waters; there shall not be from there death or unfruitfulness any longer.'" – I think this was actually a miracle and that Elisha used the salt as a symbol.
Mark 9:49 "For everyone will be salted with fire. "
Calvin comments that this is: “a different use of the same idea. When Christ spoke in Mark of eternal fire, He was urging His people by contrast, rather to offer themselves now to God as holy sacrifices for the seasoning of fire and salt, than let their sins drag them into that fire which is never extinguished…. Inasmuch as salt and fire share the same function of purging and refining, Christ applied the same word to each. Notice… that the faithful should not refuse to be put through fire and salt, as without this treatment they could never be God’s saints. He alludes to the precept of the Law (Lev. 2:13) where God expressly forbids any oblation being made without salt. He now tells us that the faithful should be salted with the Word of the Gospel that they may find sanctification.”

C) Used on every sacrifice

Leviticus 2:13 'Every grain offering of yours, moreover, you shall season with salt, so that the salt of the covenant of your God shall not be lacking from your grain offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt.
Numbers 18:19 "All the offerings of the holy gifts, which the sons of Israel offer to the LORD, I have given to you and your sons and your daughters with you, as a perpetual allotment. It is an everlasting covenant of salt before the LORD to you and your descendants with you."

2 Chronicles 13:5 "Do you not know that the LORD God of Israel gave the rule over Israel forever to David and his sons by a covenant of salt?

Ezra 6:9 (From the decree of King Darius) "Whatever is needed, both young bulls, rams, and lambs for a burnt offering to the God of heaven, and wheat, salt, wine and anointing oil, as the priests in Jerusalem request, it is to be given to them daily without fail,
Ezra 7:22 (From the decree of Artaxerxes) even up to 100 talents of silver, 100 kors of wheat, 100 baths of wine, 100 baths of oil, and salt as needed.

Ezekiel 43:24 Speaking, I believe, of the sacrifices which Joshua and Ezra would start back up after the exile: You shall present them before the LORD, and the priests shall throw salt on them, and they shall offer them up as a burnt offering to the LORD.
This is carried on today in the koshering procedure of covering meat with kosher salt. Koshering uses the natural process of cell osmosis to draw more blood out of the meat before eating it, because God told the Jews not to eat meat with blood still in it.
However, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is using salt figuratively. What does it mean “the salt of the covenant”? One thing that is common to the Numbers and the Chronicles passages is the concept of perpetuity – it signified that something would be everlasting. Obviously, the sacrifices were not everlasting because neither the Jews nor Christians have continued offering animal sacrifices. Is there something about the animal sacrifices that is everlasting? Yes, it is the provision of God for salvation from our sins. We are reminded over and over again in Psalm 136, that it is God’s covenant love that endures forever! Based on these Old Testament passages, I believe that “salt” in the Bible generally represents the eternal saving relationship God has with His people.

Now let’s go back over these three uses of salt in the Bible:

a) Salt brings good flavor to food

Job 6:6 "Can something tasteless be eaten without salt, Or is there any taste in the white of an egg?

“Salt… sharpens and defines the inherent flavours of foods and magnifies their natural aromas. Salt unites the diverse tastes in a dish, marries the sauce with the meat, and turns the pallid sweetness of vegetables into something complex and savory. Salt also deepens the color of most fruits and vegetables and keeps cauliflower white. Salt controls the ripening of cheese and improves its texture, strengthens the gluten in bread, and can preserve meat and fish, while transforming its texture. Cooked without salt, most dishes taste dull, lifeless, and lacking in complexity.” ~ Jeffrey Steingarten, food critic for Vogue magazine, from his book, The Man Who Ate Everything

In 1999, Karen McMahon, a Faculty of Biological Science at the University of Tulsa did an experiment to see why salt makes food taste better. She had a set of volunteers taste a set of solutions, some made bitter with urea and some made sweet with sucrose, then added salt to each solution and had volunteers explain the change in taste. She found that the “bitterness is no longer detected when the salt is combined with urea” and concluded that “Salt is shown to make food taste more palatable by suppressing unpleasant flavors.”

We like the taste of salt because God created us with a set of taste buds on our tongue which detect for saltiness, and when we eat salt in moderation, those taste buds are positively stimulated. Our bodies were made to like the taste of salt because our bodies need salt to live. Likewise, the world needs Christians spiritually because God has entrusted us with carrying the good news of eternal life, and those whom God has decided to save will experience us being the salt of the earth like salt-sensing taste buds are excited at the taste of salt. 2 Corinthians 2:15-16 For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life…

Not only is salt necessary for life and make food taste better by suppressing unpleasant flavors:

b) Salt keeps bad germs out

“In Scripture, mankind, under the unrestrained workings of their own evil nature, are represented as entirely corrupt.

Thus, before the flood (Gen 6:11-12 “… all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth.”);
after the flood (Gen 8:21b “…the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth…”);
in the days of David (Psa 14:2-3 “…There is no one who does good, not even one.”);
in the days of Isaiah (Isa 1:5-6 “…you continue in your rebellion… From the sole of the foot even to the head There is nothing sound…”);
and in the days of Paul (Eph 2:1-3 “…you were dead in your trespasses and sins… and were by nature children of wrath…”).

The remedy for this, says our Lord here, is the active presence of His disciples among their fellows. The character and principles of Christians, brought into close contact with it, are designed to arrest the festering corruption of humanity and season its insipidity.” ~ Commentary on the Old and New Testaments by Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown

c) Salt is a symbol of a covenant with God without which there is no saving relationship (v.13b) ἐὰν δὲ τὸ ἅλας μωρανθῇ, ἐν τίνι ἁλισθήσεται;

In the 2^nd half of v.13, we have the situation of salt losing its flavor or becoming unsalty.
The Greek word is μωρανθῇ - Literally “become moronic” – substandard, not having properties it should have.
Vincent’s Word Studies Of the New Testament: The kindred noun (μωρός) means “dull, sluggish;” applied to the mind, “stupid or silly;” applied to the taste, “insipid, flat.” The verb here used of salt, “to become insipid,” also means “to play the fool.”
Everywhere else in the Bible, this word is used to describe people being stupid/ foolish/ substandard in wisdom and intelligence: (KJV texts are used in this section)

o Deuteronomy 32:5-6 They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children: they are a perverse and crooked generation. Do ye thus requite the LORD, O foolish* people and unwise?..

o 2 Sam. 24:10 And David's heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. And David said unto the LORD, I have sinned greatly in that I have done: and now, I beseech thee, O LORD, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly*.

o Psalm 94:6-8 They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the fatherless. Yet they say, The LORD shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it. Understand, ye brutish among the people: and ye fools*, when will ye be wise?

o Isaiah 19:11 Surely the princes of Zoan are fools*, the counsel of the wise counsellors of Pharaoh is become brutish*: how say ye unto Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?

o Isaiah 32:5-6 The vile person* shall be no more called liberal, nor the churl said to be bountiful. For the vile person* [fool] will speak villany*, and his heart will work iniquity, to practise hypocrisy, and to utter error against the LORD, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.

o Jeremiah 5:21 Hear now this, O foolish* people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not:

o Jeremiah 10:14 Every man is brutish* [stupid] in his knowledge: every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. (|| 51:17)

o Matthew 5:22 But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool*, shall be in danger of hell fire.

o Matthew 7:26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish* man, which built his house upon the sand:

o Matt. 23:17 Ye fools* and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold?

o Matthew 25:2-8 And five of them were wise, and five were foolish*. They that were foolish* took their lamps, and took no oil with them… And the foolish* said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.

o 1 Corinthians 1:25-27 Because the foolishness* of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men… But God hath chosen the foolish things* of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty… 3:18 Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool*, that he may be wise… 4:10 We are fools* for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised.

o 2 Timothy 2:23 But foolish* and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes.

o Titus 3:9 But avoid foolish* questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain.

If salt has lost its flavor/ become tasteless/ is substandard because it has so many impurities, you don’t want to use it on your food, right? [Would you want to pick up road salt off the pavement behind a snowplow and use it on your food?]
What Jesus applies to salt is obviously speaking of humans: if a person becomes substandard they become useless on the job. The job we have as Christians is to salt the earth, to bring out God’s goodness and stop evil throughout the world:

o If we become substandard in setting the stage for God’s goodness and fighting evil, because we tolerate a whole bunch of sinful habits and impurities in our lives, then God does not find us as useful in accomplishing His purpose of advancing His kingdom.

o Secondarily, if we become substandard in distributing ourselves throughout the entire world – if we clump up because we are all wet and don’t want to go out through the holes in the saltshaker, then, it doesn’t matter how pure we are, God does not find us as useful in accomplishing His purposes. He wanted us to “go into all the world” and be a “witness to all peoples.”

Trampled under people's feet ἔτι εἰ μὴ βληθῆναι ἔξω καὶ καταπατεῖσθαι ὑπὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων.

· To be cast out and used for pavement is not a positive thing. The word for “trampled/trodden underfoot” is a concept from the O.T. where the word is used about 30 times to indicate being conquered, being humiliated, being robbed and pillaged and crushed, and dying an ignoble death. Here are few examples:

1. Judges 20:43 Thus they inclosed the Benjamites round about, and chased them, and trode* them down with ease over against Gibeah toward the sunrising.

2. 1 Samuel 23:1 Then they told David, saying, Behold, the Philistines fight against Keilah, and they rob* the threshingfloors.

3. Psalm 7:5 Let the enemy persecute my soul, and take it; yea, let him tread down* [trample] my life upon the earth, and lay mine honour in the dust.

4. Isaiah 10:6 Woe to Assyria… I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down* like the mire of the streets.

5. Isaiah 28:3 The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden* under feet:

6. Isaiah 63:3 I have trodden* the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread* them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment.

7. Isaiah 63:18 The people of thy holiness have possessed it but a little while: our adversaries have trodden down* thy sanctuary.

8. Amos 4:1 Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush* the needy, which say to their masters, Bring, and let us drink… 5:12 For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict* the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.

9. Malachi 4:3 And ye shall tread down* the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts.

Dr. Thompson (The Land and the Book) describes a merchant who imported a bunch of salt from Cyprus into Lebanon and stored it in barns to sell over the course of several years. However, he noted that these barns had dirt floors, and within a few years, the salt next the ground was entirely spoiled. He said, “I saw large quantities of it literally thrown into the road to be trodden under foot of men and beasts. It was 'good for nothing.'”
“The salt from the marshes and lagoons or from the rocks in the neighborhood of the Dead Sea easily acquires a stale or alkaline taste because of its mixture with gypsum…” ~ Hendricksen
There was a species of salt in Judea… called bituminous salt, easily rendered vapid, and of no other use but to be spread in a part of the temple, to prevent slipping in wet weather.

~ Schoettgenius, Horae Hebraicae

Application

Jesus is not commenting here on whether we can lose our salvation when He speaks of salt degrading. “The question is not: Can, or do, the saints ever totally lose that grace which makes them a blessing to their fellow men? But, What is to be the issue of that Christianity which is found wanting in those elements which can alone stay the corruption and season the tastelessness of an all-pervading carnality? … Since living Christianity is the only “salt of the earth,” if men lose that, what else can supply its place? … It is not the mere want of a certain character, but the want of it in those whose profession and appearance were fitted to beget expectation of finding it.”

~ Commentary on the Old and New Testaments by Jamieson, Fausset and Brown

“The apostles were the salt of the whole earth, for they must go into all the world to preach the gospel. It was a discouragement to them that they were so few and so weak. What could they do in so large a province as the whole earth? Nothing, if they were to work by force of arms and dint of sword; but, being to work silent as salt, one handful of that salt would diffuse its savour far and wide; would go a great way, and work insensibly and irresistibly as leaven, Matt. 13:33. The doctrine of the gospel is as salt; it is penetrating, quick, and powerful (Heb. 4:12); it reaches the heart Acts 2:37. It is cleansing, it is relishing, and preserves from putrefaction. We read of the savour of the knowledge of Christ (2Cor. 2:14); for all other learning is insipid without that.”

~Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible

You are a sweetening and preserving influence on the world, even though the world, as we saw in the last beatitude, hates and persecutes you for it. Sometimes you don’t even have to say a word:

Have you ever walked into a room and noticed the conversation die out because people are ashamed to talk about vulgar things in your presence?
Why is it that soldiers who would normally use profanity freely suddenly start apologizing and cleaning up their speech when they visit my home?
“God alone knows how far more corrupt [the world] would be without the restraining example, life, and prayers of the saints (Gen. 18:26ff).” ~ Wm. Hendricksen

Conclusion

1. Don’t let your salt become substandard by getting filled with impurities!

· Like ice cream salt or road salt!

· ILLUSTRATION: Compromise asked of Allied soldiers in the movie, “The Great Escape” – The German Luftwaffe Colonial told the British RAF group leader to discourage his men from trying to escape from the prison camp. In return, the Allied soldiers would not be treated harshly or be killed. The British leader’s response was challenging: “Sir, do you not know that it is the sworn duty of our Allied officers to try to escape and to cause as much trouble as possible to the Nazi officers?” Compromise and complacency was not an option for the imprisoned Allied officers; to be an Allied officer necessarily meant that they had to try to escape and cause trouble for the Nazis. Likewise, religious compromise and preoccupation with our own pleasures is not an option for the Christian. To be a Christian is to be the salt of the earth.

· Let us seek God with a pure heart, unadulterated by reliance upon ourselves, and untainted by indulgence in sinful rebellion against God.

o 1 Timothy 1:5 But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

o 2 Timothy 2:22 Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

You are the salt of the earth. If you are too impure to represent God’s everlasting love, God will not honor you. Keep fighting sin in your own life by delighting in God’s salvation and love for you.
“Ever so many people who never read the Bible are constantly reading us.” ~Wm. Hendricksen

2. Let us bring out the goodness of God through being salty

Let your Speech be gracious, seasoned with salt (Colossians 4:6)
Talk about the gospel and praise God in prayer and song during everyday life. Just as this symbolic salt was part of every sacrifice in the temple worship of the Jews, so the remembrance of God’s covenant of love with us - epitomized in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ - must be a pervasive part of Christian worship today. It should never be forgotten or left out.

3. Don’t allow your salt to get all wet and clumpy so that it cannot cover the earth

Toddler sucking on the saltshaker syndrome - clogged.
Gen. 12:3 (to Abraham) and 28:14 (to Jacob) I will bless you… and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
Gen. 18:18 & 22:18 (to Abraham) and 26:4 (to Isaac) And in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.
Exodus 9:16b that My name may be declared throughout all the earth
Isaiah 56:7b My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples
Matthew 28:19a Go therefore, and make disciples of all the nations
Luke 24:47 repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name unto all the nations
Mark 11:17 My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations
Mark 16:15 Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to the whole creation.
Acts 1:8 … you shall be my witnesses … unto the uttermost part of the earth
Whenever you recognize the attitude in yourself that you do not want to share the good news of Jesus with someone else, ask God to forgive you for prizing your comfort over His will and ask Him to give you the courage and strength to take His goodness beyond where you’ve been before.
“Christ is encouraging His people to preserve that vigor of faith which rubs off on others too… You must take care not only to be well-savored within, but to give savor to others. But as salt has a biting edge, the use of it must be so restrained that peace is never disturbed.” ~J. Calvin

[1] according to the reckoning of A.T. Robertson, in his Harmony of the Gospels