'the salt of the earth'

I'm fairly sure you will have heard someone describe a friend as 'the salt of the earth'. What does that expression mean? After all, aren't we frequently told (I am, when I add salt to my food!) that salt is bad for you? Is it a compliment, to be called 'the salt of the earth'?

The expression comes from Matthew 5.13 where our Lord says, 'You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men', NASB. Salt has a number of uses - preserving, healing and flavouring.

In the days before fridges and freezers, food needed to be preserved from going off, rotting, and one of the ways in which this was done was to salt it. Good salt used to be a valuable trading commodity in days gone by. I was advised this week that, when we butcher our sheep, we can either freeze the meat or put the joints into brine. My advisor told me to fill a bath with water and add salt to it until a raw potato floated to the top. When that happened, we are to put the joints of mutton into the brine and leave them there for a while. When they are removed, they can be kept out of the freezer for up to a year before they begin to decay. This is salt in its preservative use. I expect we have all heard or even eaten salted fish, salted meat (beef jerky or biltong) or even salted vegtetables.

He also added, salted mutton tastes fabulous! We add salt to meat, fish, vegetables etc when we cook and we also add it to food when we eat. I am frequently told not to put extra salt on my food as it is not supposed to be good for me and it also implies the chef has not done his work properly. The third use of salt is to heal. We put sore feet into a bath of salty water. I remember years ago being fed up with someone who kept on complaining about a mouth ulcer. 'O, just go and put salt on it!' I said. The next day when I met her she gave ma clip around the ear. 'What's that for?' I asked. 'I did as you said', she replied. 'I went home and put slat on my ulcer and I hit the roof with pain'. 'Well', I replied. 'How's your ulcer?' The answer was, 'Gone, but that's beside the point!' In my defence, I didn't expect her to do it and wouldn't recommend it either, but it worked!

So salt is used to preserve, to flavour and to heal. You can imagine, therefore, that salt that has lost its saltiness is good for nothing. It's just grit. In calling believers 'the salt of the earth' our Lord was meaning that one of the ways in which we ought to act is as a preservative in the ungodly society in which we live. Although we should not get involved in politics, we should have a good influence where we live. Our godliness, our testimony to the Lord and our protestations against wickedness around us should have the effect of reducing the influence of the wickedness around us. Believers over the years have had a profound effect for good on our society. William Wilberforce and John Newton in the UK worked to abolish the slave trade, Mueller, Shaftesbury and Barnardo opened orphanages in Victorian Britain, Griffith Jones taught illiterate Welsh people to read through the Bible and saw thousands converted as a result, others opened hospitals and clinics, some were involved in prison reform, and some preached in such way that revivals caused pubs to close down. Do we have that preserving effect on the society in which we live? Do people apologise for their blaspheming whenever we are around? Do they apologise for their blue jokes? Do they change their behaviour? Whether you think that is hypocritical of them or not, your presence is lessening evil for that moment. Or are people so unaware that you are a believer that it doesn't even occur to them to change their ways? If so, you have lost your saltiness.

'Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt,' Colossians 4.5 & 6. To be 'the salt of the earth' means we must be honest, reliable, upright, of great worth. Are we?