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.
Scientifically, sodium chloride (salt) does not lose its taste. How then can the words of Jesus apply to us today?
We must understand the uniqueness of the purity of our salt today. In first-century Palestine, salt was quite impure. The salt that was mined had other elements intertwined. It was possible for that salt to leach out, leaving only the other non-salt elements. This resulting mass of useless waste lacked the power to function in the way that genuine salt does.*
Salt heals wounds. Salt improves the taste of foods. Salt preserves. If the salt leaches out or “loses its taste,” wounds are not healed, life is left bland, and decay takes over. Such is the condition of the world if believers do not live as God invites in the beatitudes.
Before we get caught up in trying to do things to be salt, notice the words of Jesus: “you are.” The words of Jesus in this passage, like in the beatitudes, speak more into what we are than into what we do. Only the believer who receives the grace of the King to live the lifestyle of the kingdom will live as salt and avoid being thrown out.
Inside this passage also exists the invitation to invite the refining of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The prayer of my heart is that God would refine me such that if the salt of my life fades there would be nothing left of me to behold: O Lord, that you might refine us so that only salt remains.
Today, take a step.
Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to invite His refining. Perhaps you realize that you have allowed your salt to leach out and the impurities that remain fail to function as God intended in this world. Maybe the witness that Jesus is calling you to be has as much to do with who you are as what you are trying to do.
Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.
Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus. Take a step today… just one is fine.
sign up just below for a daily reminder of the one step devotional. click here to return to devotional list.
*Leon, Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew. Pillar New Testament Commentary (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1992), 103-105, and Keener, C. S., Matthew (Vol. 1, Mt 5:13–16) (InterVarsity Press, 1997).