Let’s talk about salt. Salt is a peculiar substance created by combining a volatile alkali metal that explodes when it touches water and a poisonous gas that can also serve as a purifier. And yet, we eat the stuff—often way too much of it. Because when we combine these two extremely dangerous substances with the right ratio, we get something that is incredibly useful for a variety of purposes, not just flavoring your food or making it easier to float in the ocean.
I want to talk about salt, not because I like adding it to my fries, but because it’s been heavy on my heart that it appears to have become tasteless. Okay, you got me. I’m not talking about table salt here. I’m talking about the genuine, bona fide salt of the earth, the shining light of the world, the city on the hill. Us. We’ve lost our taste. And it’s about time we start fixing that.
Matthew 5:13 says, “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt should lose its taste, how can it be made salty? It’s no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled on by men.”
First of all, why are we, believers, salt? Well, that’s a fantastic question, and it breaks down so nicely into a wonderful metaphor.
To begin with, nonbelievers are not salt, they are one half of salt: Sodium. Much like the element, the unsaved are unstable because they do not have a firm foundation. Sodium, when isolated, is a highly unstable and reactive material; if it touches water, it explodes rather violently. I think it’s fair to say that, without Christ, people are very much the same. With the slightest disturbance, they can be thrown off balance and explode as the world crashes in around them.
The other half of the salt equation is Chlorine. You probably know this one from your local pool. It purifies the water and kills germs that can cause infection and death. Interesting that those two verbs can be used to describe God, right? He purifies our souls and kills sin, which leads to death.
Now, I’m not that great at math, but even I can do this simple equation. If nonbelievers are Sodium and God is Chlorine, when you put the two together, you get a believer: AKA salt! The chemistry, as I understand it, lends to the idea that the Chlorine atom serves to stabilize the Sodium atom, and in the reaction as the two mix, salt is formed.
It’s incredible how easily that lines up with our understanding of how God works with us when we choose to follow Jesus. He purifies our souls, kills sin, and stabilizes us as we interact with Him. Even more interesting to me is that when Chlorine combines with Sodium, it changes form to Chloride as it mixes with the Sodium. Chloride, then, fits the bill as the Holy Spirit, the person of God who lives within all believers.
Now that we know why we are salt, let’s discuss why it’s important. Why must we be the salt of the earth? Why salt, specifically? What is our job?
I can break this down a million ways, but the simplest answer is this: we are here to enhance what has already been made. Salt doesn’t really produce flavor of its own, it merely enhances the good things that are already there. It suppresses bitterness and adds punch to sweet, sour, and umami (meaning savory, it’s a flavor often found in broths, gravies, soups, and more. I liken it to that heartwarming feeling that comes with the thick, rich flavor of a good potato soup.) flavor types. At even higher concentrations, it suppresses everything but the umami type.
So, in relatively low concentrations, we, as believers, are meant to enhance and suppress. We are meant to be an additive that helps remove and eliminate bitterness—and I’ll spread out the metaphor here to include all evil—and bring out things that are sweet, sour, and savory. Our job is to stop evil and enhance the good things that life brings to the table for all of us.
But in a low concentration, there is still something not so great—sourness. And most people don’t like sourness. In this metaphor, sourness is not necessarily evil, but sadness, horrible things that happen, not because of someone with ill intent, but because the world is fallen, and consequences come from that.
But in high concentrations, we are meant to lessen the impact of even sadness, of even the consequences that beleaguer a fallen world. We are meant to reduce the reliance on a sickeningly sweet happiness that does not satisfy and enhance the satisfactory savory taste of a world that feels the love of the one true God.
We are here to show that this life experience we have been granted does not have to be one that is filled with pain and sadness and sorrow and hatred and evil. We are here to show that there is satisfaction in life, that there is love, that there is good. We are meant to enhance all the things that God said were good while simultaneously showing that the impact of evil can be lessened. We are meant to make things different.
But what if we’re not doing that? What if our food tastes just the same as a meal without salt? If we lose our taste because we are not relying on God as we are supposed to, how can we make the world salty? How can we improve it? What good are we? To nonbelievers, especially, we have this goal to be different because being different is how we show them who God is and what He does. If our food tastes the same as theirs—if our lives look the same as theirs—why would they need what we have? Why would they need God?
They wouldn’t. If we, as salt, are not making our lives salty, are not making our lives different, then we appear to be no good. What we stand for appears to be no good. Who we stand for appears to be no good. Who we stand for appears to be useless because it looks like it is the same as that without salt. And what happens then? We are thrown out and trampled on. Our God is thrown out and trampled on. And nonbelievers won’t recognize who God as and what He does.
That’s why we must continue to produce flavor. We must continue to rely on God. We must continue to be different, to make the world different. Because if we don’t, how can we show others that they need the God who saves?