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
I began to ponder this scripture, and how it would be possible for salt to lose its flavor… and more importantly, what was being implied by this characterization of Christians as salt. Here are some thoughts I’ve arrived at through studying this out:
Salt (NaCI) cannot actually lose its flavor. If it did, it wouldn’t be salt anymore. What it can do, however, is lose its ability to be effective by becoming either diluted or contaminated
If this is the case, the only way to get more, “salty” would be to remove the impurities (if it is polluted) or to remove the water (if it is diluted).
We become diluted when we water down the doctrine, and we become polluted when we mingle too much with worldliness.
Another interesting thought… we are truly only lights to the degree that The Light is in us. Could it also be true that we, being agents of change in our world, are truly only salt-like when The Agent of Change (Jesus) is in us? I think so.
Here’s another interesting thought… three places in the OT refer to a, “covenant of salt” between God and men. God used salt to signify his covenant with men. Are we, as the salt of the earth, the agents being used to declare God’s covenant with men? Acts 1:8?