Harris: Let us be salty for the Lord

Of the forty-three times we find salt in Scripture; the most remembered time in the Old Testament is when Lot’s wife looked back at Sodom and Gomorrah as she and her family were being led away by angels of the Lord. She was told by the angels not to look back, but she did, and she was turned into a pillar of salt. “But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.” (Gen 19:26, KJV). What a lesson for us in obedience!

Most often used in the Old Testament, salt was to be put on meat offerings as an outward sign of the covenant between God and His people. “And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering: with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt.” (Leviticus 2:13). Here we have a lesson in acting in a manner that shows the world that we are His people.

Elisha also healed the barren land by throwing salt in the water. “And the men of the city said unto Elisha, Behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord seeth: but the water is naught, and the ground barren. And he said, Bring me a new cruse, and put salt therein. And they brought it to him. And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there, and said, Thus saith the LORD, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land. So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the saying of Elisha which he spake.” (II Kings 2:19-22). The lesson being, that God is able to do all things, and when we pray for guidance — we then must listen for instructions.

Job reminds us that salt is significant for taste. “Can that which is unsavoury be eaten without salt? or is there any taste in the white of an egg?” (Job 6:6). We need the yolk for flavor and nutrients, just as we need to stay steeped in Scripture to maintain our flavor for the Lord.

All of the Old Testament usages of salt are to set the tone for understanding Christ’s meaning when, after giving us the Beatitudes, He said, “Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.” (Matthew 5:13). The salt in this passage symbolizes the Holy Spirit within us. Once saved, we are to be led by the Spirit in our actions and deeds. To ignore the Spirit and be of the world means we become unfruitful/silent witnesses of Jesus. We are the salt—the emblem of Christ’s Salvation. Our words of encouragement, our kind manners, our helping hands in times of need — all are part of showing Jesus to the world — the salting of good savour — the good will He intends toward men and women. To lose our salty savor is when we are too timid in today’s times to tell the Biblical truth about someone’s sinful actions. When we would rather be silent than remind others of what God says about a subject, we are worthless as a witness for Jesus.

Whatever our gifts are, when we fail to use them to promote the Gospel (the Good News of Jesus), we are allowing our saltiness to become bland. Jesus asks us who will tell of Him if we don’t. If we are ashamed of Him and allow ourselves to become “good for nothing”, we should be cast out and allowed to be trodden under foot by this world — just like salt that has lost its savour.

Likewise, Paul reminds us in Colossians 4:6, “Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.” We are to always be tempered with a moderate manner, but not allow our compassion for the situation hinder us from speaking the truth of God’s Word. Salt prevents corruption and decay. As the salt of the earth, we provide the words, the good deeds, the almsgiving, the justice, the help, the mercy, the love of Christ to and for the world. We are living witnesses of John 3:16. Let us therefore be SALTY for our Lord!