Today we are going to talk about salt.
Salt is used in greater quantities and for more applications than any other mineral. It has more than 14,000 known uses. Everyone uses salt, directly and indirectly. It is estimated that each American uses more than 16 tons of salt during their lifetimes, 402 pounds a year for each living American. Only a small percentage of that massive amount is ingested as food.
Salt is formed from a combination of two elements: sodium and chloride. All animals and humans require both sodium and chloride for life and health. Since the body cannot manufacture either, they are considered "essential" nutrients.
Uses for salt have been handed down over the years in many households and have stood the test of time.
Salt accents the flavor of meat, brings out the individuality of vegetables, puts "oomph" into bland starches, deepens the flavor of delicate desserts and develops flavor of melons and certain other fruits. No other seasoning has yet been found that can satisfactorily take the place of salt.
Salt is an excellent cleaning agent, by itself or in combination with other substances.
A solution of salt and turpentine restores the whiteness to yellowed enameled bathtubs and lavatories.
A paste of salt and vinegar cleans tarnished brass or copper.
Salt water poured down the kitchen sink prevents grease from collecting and eliminates odors.
Salt helps destroy moths and drives away ants.
A box of salt is an important item in many bathrooms.
A mild mixture of salt and water makes an excellent mouthwash, throat gargle or eye-wash.
Salt can be used to clean the teeth. It is an effective antiseptic.
Salt can be used to gently massage your face and improve your complexion.
Puffy areas around your eyes? Mix one teaspoon of salt in a pint of hot water and apply pads soaked in the solution. Want to sooth those achy feet after a long day of work? Soak those aching feet in warm water to which a handful of salt has been added. Rinse in cool water.
You can also soak your whole body in a solution of salt to reduce fatigue and to get rid of ash and itches.
Use salt to treat bee stings, mosquito bites and poison ivy.
Salt added to water makes the water boil at a higher temperature, thus reducing cooking time. (It does not make the water boil faster.) Boiling eggs in salted water will make eggs peel easily.
If you need to determine if an egg is fresh, place the egg in a cup of water to which two teaspoonfuls of salt has been added. A fresh egg sinks; a stinker will float.
I could go on and mention other uses such as drip-proofing your candles by soaking them in a strong solution for a few hours and then drying them well before using.
You can use salt to clean the inside of your fish tank. While cleaning your tank, let your goldfish swim around in a very mild solution of salt and water—I am told that they will love it!
A dash of salt added to the water in a flower vase will keep cut flowers fresh longer. Salt has also been used to "seed" clouds to produce rain in desert areas.
Why are we learning about the many uses of salt? Because Jesus told His followers that they were “the salt of the earth.”
"You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how will it be made salty again? It is good for nothing anymore, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.” (Matthew 5:13)
Jesus is saying to the Christian, “You are the salt of the earth.”
“You are the “essential nutrient” for the earth.”
“You are the cleaning agent for the earth.”
“You enhance flavor in the earth.”
“You can remove the “aches, pains and fatigue” experienced by those of the earth.”
“You are the agent that can be used to treat the stings, bites and poison of the earth.”
You see, salt preserves or inhibits decay; it facilitates healing; it creates thirst and it seasons or enhances flavor.
When Jesus uses the word, "earth" in Matthew 5:13, He does not mean our planet; nor does He mean land or the soil. When Jesus uses the word earth, He means man or humanity.
"You are the salt of humanity," says Jesus. “You are the ones who preserve humanity; you are the ones to create thirst in humanity; you are the ones who bring about a seasoning of humanity.”
Salt is one of the most important compounds in man's existence. Without salt the human body would cease to function. Without salt most foods would lose most of their flavor.
Long before freezers and refrigerators were invented and long before people were able to put meats, fruits, and vegetables into sealed jars, there was only one thing that kept food from spoiling: salt! Only salt kept vast stores of food from rotting. Only salt stood between people and hunger during the winter months or dry season.
Again Jesus says to His followers, “You are the salt of the earth.”
Salt preserves, creates thirst, and seasons and we are going to look at each of these properties of salt and make an application to the Christian life as we discover our evangelistic potential.
Salt Preserves
Salt preserves; salt prevents decay. There is historical and sociological evidence that the principles of Christianity and “salty Christians” change a culture for the good.
In his book, How Christianity Changed the World, Dr. Alvin J. Schmidt documents the evidence for the transforming power of the Christian faith. He shows how Jesus has the power to transform men, who in turn are able to transform society.
Dr. Schmidt shows that while women were oppressed in almost every culture prior to the coming of Christianity, Jesus changed the way women were treated. He exalted their status in society.
When Jesus came on the scene, a man's wife and children were little more than slaves, often treated like animals—Roman Law permitted this. Women had no property rights and faced severe social restrictions.
During a time when men did not talk to women in public, Jesus spoke tenderly to the Samaritan woman and compassionately to the woman caught in the act of adultery.
When it came to health care, prior to Christianity, the Greeks and Romans had little or no interest in the poor, the sick and the dying. But the early Christians…”salty Christians,” following the example of their Master, ministered to the needs of the whole person; they cared for the sick; they established hospitals all over Europe and beyond.
Earlier Christians were salt in other areas as well. The commandment taught in the Bible against stealing made people think and act differently when it came to private property and property rights.
The protection of workers and workers' rights also flows directly from the teachings of the Bible. Concerns for social justice in the society rose from the Judeo-Christian tradition.
When Columbus sailed to the Indies and stumbled across the Americas, he did so out of a conviction to be salty. His writings show that the primary thing that drove Columbus was the confident belief that God had called him and set him apart as a holy servant to bring the Gospel of Christ to the ends of the earth.
The concept of Western democracy at all levels of society, equality, human rights and various freedoms, all stem from Christianity, along with the precepts taught in the Old Testament.
The rise of modern science has been directly linked with the biblical understanding of the world. The many great achievements in art, literature and music stem from the great Christian artists, writers and composers who were “salty.”
Over the centuries, Christian missionaries have traveled to foreign lands, risking their lives to bring the Gospel to people pagans who practice such rituals as tsantsa, which is the shrinking of the head of an enemy. The shrunken head becomes a charm and trinket of power and strength to the possessor. Through the power of the Gospel brought by “salty” missionaries the native villages are transformed.
Even today “salty” Christians can have a preserving impact wherever God has them. Have you, as a Christian, ever walked into a room on your job and your coworkers were obviously talking about something crude or obscene—as you enter they stop talking?
“Salty” Christians have had a preserving impact in my life.
Both my wife Debbie and I grew up in broken homes and as two 22-year-olds tying the knot, we didn’t know much of anything about marriage. In the mid-1980s, God put us in a church that not only taught us from the Bible what marriage was all about, but put “salty” husbands and wives in front of us as models.
As a 23-year-old, God put older Christian men and women in my life at the place where I worked—a woman named Ellie, and two men—Willy Greene and Jim Johnson.
Ellie always seemed to radiate the “joy of the Lord.” She always seemed to have an encouraging word about Jesus. When she learned that I was listening to a Bible teacher named John MacArthur, she loaned me a cassette album of his teaching on the book of Ephesians. Over 25 years later I still have it!
Jim Johnson was a gentle-man from the south. He was the first man that I heard using the sayings, “too many irons in the fire” and “sending up my timber.”
Willie Greene was a deacon at Shiloh Baptist Church on Monroe Street. He is the brother that taught a zealous young Christian that writing the Gospel on the restroom stall wall was still graffiti and vandalism. He also taught me how to be an instrument in the Lord’s hand even at a very important union grievance meeting—while top management was in attendance—he opened up the meeting with prayer.
At our recent RPM Men’s retreat, we were discussing the impact absent fathers are having in the life of their abandoned children—some of the behavioral problems in school—the increase in gang participation.
I closed one of our sessions asking the men to consider the vision of going into one of our elementary schools and having each of our men assigned a young man to mentor. We could go through all the necessary background checks, etc. and develop an environment at GraceWay where we could have a transformational impact on a boy’s life. That’s being salty!
It reminded me of what James says at the end of his letter in the New Testament:
James 5:19 My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth, and one turns him back,
James 5:20 let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death, and will cover a multitude of sins.
Salt preserves; salt prevents decay. As salty Christians God wants us to be used as agents of change and transformation in someone’s life—as we all do this—as the Body of Christ in Baltimore rises up to be “salty,” the decay of the city and county will be on the decline.
Salt creates thirst.
Try going to McDonalds and ordering and eating a hamburger and fries without the coke.
Salt creates thirst; it makes people and animals want to drink fluids. Remember the old saying, “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.” Well, that is not exactly true because you can feed him salt. Salt creates thirst which is why bars serve peanuts or some kind of snack mix.
Christians should create a thirst for God in the world. Is there anyone in your circle of influence who is thirsty for God because of your influence?
In Psalm 63:1 David writes, “O God, Thou art my God; I shall seek Thee earnestly; My soul thirsts for Thee, my flesh yearns for Thee, In a dry and weary land where there is no water.”
My wife Debbie and I first met at Central Baptist Church on Baltimore and Pulaski Streets. I went to church to meet girls; Debbie went to church to meet God.
I observed in Debbie’s life a profound seriousness about her relationship with the Lord. Her devotion to the Lord was evident each Sunday as she made her way to church. You may be thinking, “Many people go to church and that doesn’t mean they have an extraordinary commitment to God.”
Getting ready for church on Sunday wasn’t an easy task for Debbie. She had two young children and one was severely disabled with Cerebral Palsy. Besides this, Debbie lived in the third floor apartment of an old row house on Reisterstown Road across from Mondawmin Mall. The steps are narrow and steep.
Debbie would hand-carry Precious up and down those steps Monday through Friday as she got our daughter ready for school. The stairs alone would have been enough for me to stay in bed on a Sunday morning but not Debbie. She would get Michael and Precious up for church each Sunday and make that trek to church—getting a ride or catching a cab.
After we got married I would observe how she would get up in the morning and have her quiet time with the Lord, reading her Bible and writing in her journal. God used my wife’s devotional life and walked with Christ to create thirst in my life for Him.
Just like “salty” Christians can bring about a decline of decay in the community, “salty” Christians can create a thirst for God in their communities.
The behavior of the unbelieving community is directly proportional to how well the believers in that community act like salt.
Listen to the words of Peter in 1 Peter 2:11-12: “Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.”
Peter says, “Live such good lives among the pagans (those who do not follow Christ.)” Today news reports frequently tell of church leaders who are having moral failures—running off with the sisters in the church; extortion of church funds; fleecing the sheep. Church and ministry leaders are abusing kids.
Besides this, Christians are taking each other to court. The church continues to ignore 1 Corinthians chapter six that warns us against taking our disputes before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the church.
A couple of months ago a deacon came by the church and wanted to know if we could let his church use our building for services because they were locked out of their church by the pastor and some of the other members.
Rather than being “salt” in society that creates a thirst for God many Christians are like pepper and are driving people away from God.
In Jesus’ day, salt was as valuable as gold - a rare delicacy and often used as a medium of exchange. We still say a hardworking man is “worth his salt.”
As a Christian, are you worth your salt? Salt preserves, creates thirst, and thirdly, it seasons.
Salt Seasons
Salt gives flavor to our foods. Not too long ago we ran out of the butter-flavored seasoning for our popcorn so I picked up a container from the store. After popping some corn I sprinkled some of the seasoning on the popcorn and tasted it. I sprinkled some more and the popcorn got very yellow from the powder but the flavor didn’t change much at all.
I read the ingredients and found that it had all kinds of stuff in it including dextrose (sugar) which I do not like in my popcorn. I wanted some salt! There is nothing worse for me than bland tasting popcorn.
Salt causes flavor to come alive. Salt seasons food and makes it palatable. How does this relate to the Christian? Paul says in Colossians 4:6, "Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned, as it were, with salt."
The Christian’s words ought to bring life to a conversation. Oliver Wendell-Holmes once said this: “I might have entered the ministry if certain clergymen I knew had not looked and acted so much like undertakers.”
When Hollywood portrays the Christian on television or in the movies, many times we see a character that is smug, depressed, with no joy—is that how they really see us in real life?
Are you the kind of Christian that wakes up and says, "Good morning, God!" or "Good God, it's morning!"?
The Bible says, “The joy of the Lord is our strength” and our speech should reflect the joy of the Lord. This is not to say that we should walk around each day with a Chessy cat smile on our faces—it should be genuine.
In referring to how a Christian speaks, the Apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 4:29, “Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, that it may give grace to those who hear.”
In other words, Christians should be the most encouraging people on the planet. The word “edify” means “to build up.” It is easy for us to utter words that tear people down and many of us have been torn down by the words of angry parents and others. But Christians should be people who build up others.
The Christian’s speech should never be foul and corrupt because what we say communicates what is in our heart at the time we said it. If you are walking with the Lord and are filled or controlled by the Holy Spirit, rare should be the time, if any, when we use unwholesome words.
You can’t cut someone down and then come back and apologize and say, “I didn’t really mean what I said.” Yes you did or you would not have said it.
Jesus says in Matthew 12:34, “For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.”
In the New Testament letter of James, James talks about the tongue. He says it's a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. He calls the tongue a fire, the very world of iniquity. James says it is untamable, a restless evil full of deadly poison, used both to bless God and to curse men.
In Psalm 39:1 David says, "I will guard my ways, that I may not sin with my tongue; I will guard my mouth as with a muzzle." We usually focus on the other parts of our body as instruments of sin, but not our tongue. David says "I will guard my mouth."
In closing let me say that salt is meant to be sprinkled. Have you ever eaten food that was over salted? Perhaps when the food was prepared a clump fell into the mix unnoticed.
A clump of salt (Christians staying in a “holy huddle”) is a negative influence on the world. Salt is meant to be sprinkled, not clumped.
There are some people who collect saltshakers—big ones, small ones, unusual, fancy saltshakers. But salt is meant to stay in a fancy salt shaker, no more than a Christian is meant to stay in the church building. In fact, it is a frustrating thing to have the salt stuck in the saltshaker.
When Mahatma Gandhi was the spiritual leader of India, he was asked by some missionaries, "What is the greatest hindrance to Christianity in India?" His reply was, "Christians."
You know from taking one sip of your soup, or one bite of your dinner, whether it's been salted or not - don't you? The question is: when people come across us, do they taste Christ?
Salt prevents decay; salt creates thirst and salt seasons. But this is not the end of Matthew 5:13.
Jesus says, “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how will it be made salty again? It is good for nothing anymore, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.”
Jesus says there's such a thing as useless salt. He says, “if the salt becomes tasteless.” Today’s salt that you have on your dinner table, chemically speaking, has been refined so many times that it's impossible for it to lose its saltiness - it's an extremely stable substance, it can't become tasteless. But in Palestine the type of salt that they had could be diluted or even adulterated.
If you came along and mixed water in the salt it would not be able to preserve meat. There may have even been some sand mixed in, or soil, or dirt, mixed in with the salt and it wasn't pure and would lose its preserving properties.
Someone has said: “If we are not affecting the world, the world is affecting us.” Are we exporting or are we importing? Are there greater influences coming into the church than going out of the church? If we are not salting the world, do you know what it means? The world is rotting us!
Matthew Henry said: 'Salt is remedy for unsavory meat, but there is no remedy for unsavory salt'. Jesus says, “If the salt has lost its saltiness, it is good for nothing anymore, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.”
Why does He say that? Because if the salt is adulterated or diluted - the purpose of the salt to fight decomposition, if it has been decomposed itself—its purpose is lost! Thus the salt is useless.
Someone said, “Most Christians are on a “Salt-Free Diet.”
As Christians, you and I have no right to complain about the decline and decadence of our communities if we are not being salt and preventing the decay of our communities.
As Christians, you and I have no right to complain that people no longer have a desire for God if we are not being salt and creating a thirst for God in them.
As Christians, you and I have no right to complain that all we are seeing in our culture is despair and hopelessness if we are not being salt and seasoning where we live and the people around us with our gracious speech and encouragement.
