Matthew 5:13 “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.”
This last Sunday, Pastor Obie preached on what it meant and means today to be the salt of the earth. He is confident that this sermon today is the message that God intended for you to hear, because when the enemy comes after you while preparing a biblical teaching for the church, then you know that you are going in the right direction. In the name of Jesus, we bind any actions of the enemy and no weapons formed against us can prosper. May this message, through the Holy Spirit, speak to your heart.
Jesus told us in Matthew 5:13 (above) that we are the salt of the earth. But, what did he exactly mean by “salt of the earth” and what does it mean for us as Followers of Jesus in our culture today? The meaning is incredibly timely, relevant and has tremendous implication for us as Disciples of Christ being the salt of the earth as Jesus meant it.
It is always important to read the Bible in its context, so Pastor Obie gives us so background to the Matthew 5:13 text for understand it fully. Jesus spoke this immediately following the famous “Sermon on the Mount”. To understand what it really means to be the “salt of the earth”, we have to understand what Jesus and the people of that time understood salt in that day. Salt was extremely valuable in Jesus’ time of visitation, because it was a rare and precious commodity. I was so valuable that Roman soldiers were paid with salt. It is said to be from this that we get the word soldier – ‘sal dare’, meaning to give salt. From the same source we get the word salary, ‘salarium’ (which literally translates as “salt pay”) and where the expression ‘worth his salt’
originated. At one time, an ounce of silver and an ounce of salt were worth the same amount. So, when Jesus was saying “you are the salt of the earth, it had incredible weight and significance to it.
Some of the use cases of salt helped change the world and shape civilization. Pastor Obie talked about three specific attributes of salt that speak to what Jesus was talking to His Followers then and us today. The first attribute of salt is that it is a cleaning and healing agent. Roman would use salt as an antiseptic to clean and disinfect to wash out impurities. The Roman word for salt, "sal", is derived from the word “Salus”, the goddess of health and wellbeing. The ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, found that salt had medicinal healing and reparative natures. This is similar to what Jesus does in our lives also. Jesus pours out his holiness and righteousness, which is pure and white as snow … or salt, over all our filthy sinful life, and because of that, we can be clean and holy – this is the “great exchange”. Jesus is the only one who lived a perfect, pure life; the only one to live a spotless and sinless life. Because of Jesus, we can be clean in the eyes of the God.
2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
Jesus exchanges His righteousness for our sinfulness. Christ poured out His holiness is clean the filth and grim of our sin, so we could be clean and holy. This is the first step to be salt. To be part of the family of God, you have to accept His Jesus’ cleansing sacrifice. When Jesus is talking about “salt”, He is talking about Kingdom of God people. In order to be a citizen of Heaven, you have to see and repent of your sin, accept the sacrifice of Jesus for your sins and accept Him as the Lord of your life. This is the “Great Exchange”; His righteousness for our sinfulness, so that you can have that righteousness, being clean and holy (whole, entire or perfect, in a moral sense. Hence, pure in heart, temper or dispositions; free from sin and sinful affections. Hallowed; consecrated or set apart to a sacred use, or to the service or worship of God).
Now, for us to be salt, we need to be agents that clean the filth and heal the injured. Wherever you go, be the source of “good” (Having moral qualities best adapted to its design and use, or the qualities which God's law requires; virtuous; pious; religious; applied to persons, and opposed to bad, vitious, wicked, evil). Be wholesome in your words and actions, and helpful to others. For 1 Thessalonians 5:15 says, “See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all.” And 2 Thessalonians 3:13 encourages us, “But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary in doing good.” There are people that you will come across, whose lives are a filthy mess, and they need people to help them clean them, to heal their hurts, and come beside them; they need “salt people” in their lives to help them get on their feet again. We are forever grateful for the Christians that came alongside us and pulled us out of our sinful filth. Be the salt of the earth.
Let's continue pastor Obie's message on being the "salt of the earth" in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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