#1221 Matthew 5 Part 6 Salt Life

 

13 “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.

14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.  Matthew 5: 13-16 ESV

Matthew 5: 13

…3as you pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4Pray that I may declare it clearly, as I should. 5Act wisely toward outsiders, redeeming the time.…

6Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. 7Tychicus will tell you all the news about me. He is a beloved brother, a faithful minister, and a fellow servant in the Lord. 8I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know about us, and that he may encourage your hearts.… Colossians 4: 3-8

…11No grain offering that you present to the LORD may be made with leaven, for you are not to burn any leaven or honey as an offering made by fire to the LORD. 12You may bring them to the LORD as an offering of firstfruits, but they are not to be offered on the altar as a pleasing aroma. 13And you shall season each of your grain offerings with salt. You must not leave the salt of the covenant of your God out of your grain offering; you are to add salt to each of your offerings.… Leviticus 2: 11-13

You are the salt of the earth - This is written as a declaration, not something to attempt, but to be, and those who have believed in Christ, who have been regenerated unto life, granted repentance, they now embody the beatitudes we read before this. This is part of the same sermon, "so now, having considered all these things from verses 1-12, what kind of people ought ye to be?" Remember, the beatitudes were all in opposition to this present age. They declared people blessed who knew they were spiritually bankrupt, dying and in the dark. So let's consider a few things about salt:

1. It is a flavor enhancer. You know immediately when it's lacking.
2. It is a preservative.
3. It makes you thirsty. Our lives should make others thirst for what we have. It reminds you of the beatitude, blessed are they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness.

But if salt has lost it's taste - I had a very concise plan for these 4 verses, but then I listened to a J Mac sermon on the way in today, so now I am scared and overwhelmed. His sermon only covered verse 13, but let me share a little story that I think will shed light on at least two of the ideas about salt in this passage. I remember my Great Grandmother very well, and she was certainly not without her faults, but I have worked with plenty of different people over the years, and I know few grown men that could match her week. She was in her 80's and 90's when I spent the most time with her, but I remember being at her house and you would wake up to the smell of fresh biscuits, coffee she made in a pot, red eye gravy, some bacon, sometimes fish, but always either sweet ham, tenderloin, sausage and country cured ham, oh and grits, don't forget the grits. She would have already been to her garden, talked to some of her tenants, and the washer would be finishing up a load. She got up and started working before light, and wouldn't really rest much until dark. She made everything from scratch, but one thing I can't remember her doing was pointing out what she did, how much she contributed, and at 80 years old. She still owned and maintained orange groves in her 80s, and if you compared her to all the rest of us, we would have come up short even collectively. Her work wasn't glamorous, mostly thankless, hard, back breaking, but it stood out so much to me that I could recall it when I didn't remember other things during that time. Another thing tied to this was how she ate, and she ate like a teenage boy but had no fat on her body. She salted everything, even her watermelon, and I remember the first time I asked about the country cured ham. I thought it must be good, it has the word country in it, like country living and country cooking, gravy, fresh preserves and buttermilk biscuits. She handed me a piece and I took a big old bite of it, and in an instant my mouth turned into a desert, it burned, and there was no mistaking that this seemed more like a block of salt then a hunk of meat. She was smiling as she chewed a piece, and so I asked, "why is it so salty?" It seemed like someone had made a mistake and not screwed the top on the salt shaker. She explained to me that refrigeration and freezers weren't something they had when she was a girl. They used a spring, a smoker, canning and lots of salt to preserve things. You see, entropy is at work on everything, every living thing is dying, but when you kill something, then the processes speed up, decay sets in, flies are waiting to put their eggs on spoiled meat, so that their maggots can eat the rotting flesh. When there is no more life in the body then the processes of cell replacement, your immune system, breathing and blood transferring nutrients from what you ate, those things all come to an end, and now everything is going sceptic and foul. So, they would use salt to retard the process of decay, to slow it down. When Jesus is giving this sermon He is seeing a world dead in it's trespasses and sins, a world that is rotting and in the dark. So salt has a definite taste, and we know when something is lacking salt, that is like a life that has no good, impactful influence, it's like saying I am a Christian, but without any evidence, not reflecting the beatitudes, fruitless. 

…16If one of you tells him, “Go in peace; stay warm and well fed,” but does not provide for his physical needs, what good is that? 17So too, faith by itself, if it does not result in action, is dead. 18But someone will say, “You have faith and I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.… James 2: 16-18

It is no longer good for anything - The salt around the area of the Dead Sea is quite interesting, and I will leave some notes from Precept to consider, but remember what happened to Lot's wife? Her husband was like salt in an open wound to the people of that city, for he warned them about God's view on the sins they were committing, and Abraham, Lot's uncle, got God to agree not to destroy the city for the sake of 10 righteous, but they could not be found. So God removed the salt, He took away Lot, his wife and two daughters, but Lot's wife looked back. She looked back and God physically turned her into a pillar of salt, and He purified that whole valley, destroying everything. Lot's wife had more positive impact in her death than in her life. While she lived she was being more and more conformed to the image of the world, a world that is waiting for God's final judgment.

LITTLE does the world think how much they are indebted to those very saints whom they “revile and persecute for righteousness’ sake.” (Mt 5:11) The extirpation of them (which is so much desired by many) would leave the world an entire mass of corruption, without any thing to heal its disorders, or to stop its progress towards utter destruction. Were they removed out of it, the rest would soon become as Sodom and Gomorrah (Is 1:9). The representation given of them in the text fully justifies this idea. They are called “the salt of the earth.” This, of course, must be understood of those only who have the spirit of religion in them: for all others, whatever they may possess, are as vile and worthless as the real Christians are good and excellent.

The words before us will lead us to consider, the worth and excellence of truly spiritual Christians— The use of salt, as intimated in this expression of our Lord, is to keep other things from putrefaction and corruption. This is the office that has been executed by all the saints of old— [View them from the beginning; and they will all be found active in their generation, and zealous in benefiting the world around them. Noah preached to the antediluvians an hundred and twenty years, indefatigably exerting himself to bring them to repentance. Lot, in Sodom, “vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds,” and strove to turn the people from their horrible abominations. All the prophets in successive ages laboured in the same blessed work, using all their efforts to lead their hearers to the knowledge of the only true God, and to an obedience to his holy laws. How the Apostles acted in relation to this, it is needless to observe. They lived for no other end, but to make known the way of life, and to “turn men from darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan unto God.” (Read the entire sermon - Matthew 5:13 Christians the Salt of the Earth) - Charles Simeon from Precept Austin commentary

Pure salt cannot lose its savor ("saltiness"), but the salt commonly used in the ancient world was rock salt, containing various impurities (especially gypsum). As the true salt was leached away, or otherwise removed, the so-called "salt" could indeed lose its savor and become tasteless. When those who profess to be Christians cease to be different from the world, we cease to be useful as retardants of decay. Jesus emphasized that our ability to preserve the world in order that it may see Christ in us depends on our being different. It is dangerously easy for Christians to lose their salty, preserving influence in the world. Remember that many people who never read the Bible are constantly reading us! If our conduct is untrue to our calling, our words will avail very little. Gospel preaching without holy, supernatural living is futile. - Precept Austin

…4It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age— 6and then have fallen away—to be restored to repentance, because they themselves are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting Him to open shame.… Hebrews 6: 4-6

…19They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves to depravity. For a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him. 20If indeed they have escaped the corruption of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, only to be entangled and overcome by it again, their final condition is worse than it was at first. 21It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known it and then to turn away from the holy commandment passed on to them.… 2 Peter 2: 19-21