Try the latest Words of Life as Spotify Podcasts.

Tip: To see latest Words of Life, use Refine Search to list by Year. If using Mobile device, Refine Search may be located at end of page.

We know that salt today is still an essential part of our daily life, particularly in cooking, that we take for granted. Most of us have experienced some time in our life, receiving a plate of hot porridge or other food, where it was forgotten, to put in that small amount of salt during the cooking process. The result of course is that it is so tasteless, and no matter how much salt is added, it still does not improve, with the final result, it usually is thrown away. This in part shows us what Christ was trying to tell us in our text, on how we should lead our daily life.

To fully understand the meaning, we must however, analyse it in the light of the Jewish beliefs and habits of that day. Salt to Jews was not only a part of their daily life, but also their religious life. Under God’s instruction in their law (Lev. 2:13) all meat offering sacrifices had to be seasoned with salt. This was to be known as “the salt of the Covenant of thy God” and salt became the symbol of any covenant or agreement amongst the people.

In our day we often refer to an agreement being set by a handshake, but the Jews broke salt as the means of agreement. The meaning from the law seems to be “That as salt, with its power to strengthen food and keep it from decay, symbolized the unbending truthfulness of that self-surrender to the Lord embodied in the sacrifice, by which all impurity and hypocrisy were replaced.”

Most of the salt in that area was mined from the ground and was graded according to use. The best salt full of savour was held for this covenant and religious use, the next for family and home use, and then the inferior types were used as a fertilizer or to add to dung heaps to help with the decomposition, down to the lowest form which became a problem to dispose of, as it still had impurities that were detrimental to the land. The Jews found that the only place it could be put where it would do no damage to their crops, was on the roadways as patching material and thus trampled underfoot. In this light, we begin to see more clearly the teaching Christ was giving to all future Christians.

He has referred to us as the salt of the earth, or as we can clearly see, the children of the new covenant. When   we declare our faith to Christ, we then become partakers of this new covenant as declared in Hebrews 8:6, “But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.” On making our commitment to follow that mediator and share in the better promises, we then must become as that top grade salt, and set our life to fulfil those purposes of the original, “salt of the Covenant of thy God”, to use the gifts given to us by the Lord to strengthen this covenant in our lives and the lives of others, to use the workings of the Holy Spirit through us, to stop any decay from starting to erode the true word of the Lord, so necessary to sustain this covenant. To be truthful in our calling of self-surrender to the Lord, as we sacrifice ourselves by killing our ways of the world and replacing them with the fruits of the spirit, and to rid ourselves of all impurity and hypocrisy.

These we are called on to fulfil in our daily lives, in our thoughts, words and deeds, and the Lord has given the warning of what would happen if we do not strive to remain as that top quality salt, but allow ourselves to drop to that last group. We see that task and warning set for us by our Lord, but each of us will soon learn why it is a better covenant with better promises, as we all will at some time, feel we are being trodden underfoot by man, and at that time we can heed the word of our Lord in Isaiah 41:10, “Fear thou not: for I am with thee; be not dismayed: for I am thy God; I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with my right hand of my righteousness.”