Doubt & Devotion

To be salt of the earth means to be the opposite
of what the world expects of you to be.

Matthew 5:13 You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.​

As the world continues to change its values and priorities, Jesus’ invitation of His followers to be “salt of the earth” is more relevant than ever. Salt preserves, purifies, and enhances. It quietly transforms its surroundings without calling attention to itself.​

What does it mean to be salt of the earth? Matthew 5:13-14 reminds us that we, as Christians, can reshape culture not by impressing loudness and visibility, but rather through consistency of character. We simply need to be who Christ wanted us to be.

You Are The Salt Of The Earth

First, let’s answer the question “Who was Jesus addressing?” Who was Jesus referring to when he said, “You?” One thing we need to understand is that when Matthew uses the word “you,” he means to say “the disciples of Christ.” With Luke, it’s different. Usually, it includes the crowd. In the case of Matthew, Jesus was speaking primarily to his disciples. The crowd was there, but Jesus couldn’t refer to non-followers as “salt.”

I love what English preacher David Pawson has to say about this. He said that we are salt not by a lot of saying or a lot of doing but simply by being. As Christians, it’s very difficult to balance rhetoric with praxeology or action. It’s easy to get trapped with too much rhetoric, but it’s also easy to get trapped with doing too much without proper theory. But as disciples of Christ, we are salt not by doing too much of either.

Salt affects its surroundings simply by being salt, right? I am the salt of the earth, not because I teach God’s Word. You are the salt of the earth, not because you are serving in a local church, or because you are a missionary, or because you are observing some form of spiritual discipline.

All these things are good, but they are not the reason you are salt of the earth.

What Is This Salt That Jesus Was Talking About?

You’ve probably heard many sermons talking about being salt of the earth as being a Christian who adds flavor to society. This is understandable since our experience of salt is always in relation to food and its culinary uses.

Did you know that salt is addictive? When I was around 9 or 10, I remember putting a tablespoon of salt inside my pocket whenever I went outside to play. I just loved snacking on rock salt. And one reason we love eating salty food is that salt triggers the release of dopamine in our brains. It makes us feel good. But it’s addictive.

Salt in ancient times was used for several things and not just for preserving food.

Matthew doesn’t explain what the meaning of this expression is, but Luke does. In Luke 14:34-35, Luke writes, “Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?  It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away.”

Here, we can see that salt has two uses.

First, salt was used to fertilize the soil.

Thus, “salt of the earth.”

The word “earth” in this expression does not mean “society” but “soil,” and the people who heard Jesus understood the imagery.

In our context, we would say, “fertilizer of the soil.” Salt was used to make things grow. It was added to the soil in certain amounts to make the ground more fertile.

In this sense, when Jesus said you are the salt of the earth, he was saying that you are supposed to make good things grow. Whether in your family, in your workplace, in your schools, you are supposed to promote the growth of good things.

But how does salt do what it does? Simply by being salt. Not by talking. Not by doing. But by being. You don’t become an influence in your workplace by always talking about God or by doing Christian stuff.

In his book Pastoral Care: An Essential Guide, Pastor and author John Patton writes, “Wisdom in pastoral care involves learning to talk seriously about life with or without always having to talk about God.”

I always say this, “Whenever I discuss something in relation to the church, theology, or Christianity, you have to assume that God is already a given.” God is already in the equation.

There’s no need to use Christian language to emphasize my being a Christian.

What do I mean by this? When you put salt on fish, you don’t put a heap to ensure that it becomes flavorful, especially if it’s a saltwater fish. You only put a certain amount, and the salt simply has to be in contact with the fish long enough for it to work.

Not by a lot of talking. Not by a lot of doing. But by BEING.

Second, salt was used to disinfect dunghills.

We may no longer be able to relate to this since we already have modern toilets and sewage systems. But in Ancient Israel, they didn’t have access to such things and did their business in the backyard. Some suggest that salt was used to mask the smell of manure and prevent the spread of bacteria. Others suggest that salt was added to the manure to mask its smell while it’s being used as fertilizer.

In that sense, when Jesus says we are the salt of the earth, he was saying that we are supposed to stop harmful things from spreading.

Others say salt was mixed with manure used to fuel fire. The chemical reaction made the fire burn brighter.

But in order for salt to work…

#1 It has to come into contact with dirt.

Are you coming into contact with dirt? Or are you protecting yourself from dirt?

Sending your children to a Christian school can be a double-edged sword. On one hand, it ensures that your children are taught Christian values and are surrounded by the right influences. However, Christian values are to be taught at home, and not in school.

On the other hand, sending your children to a Christian school implies that you want to protect them from the world. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. And I’m not saying that there are no opportunities for evangelism in Christian schools. My point is that self-preservation should be the least of our concerns if we are the salt of the earth. I’m not saying that you should pull your kids out of the Christian school they are in right now. I’m not saying you should leave your corporate job and become a pastor or a missionary.

Jesus never condemned any profession. So if you are working in the bank right now, it’s because God has placed you there. If you are working in some office right now, it’s because it’s God’s will for you. As present-day disciples, we are not being called to abandon our fields of endeavor but to sanctify them and make them godly.

#2 An adequate amount must be applied.

There has to be a certain amount of salt for it to effectively do its work. It also has to be pure salt. Or else, it’s not going to work well.

Let me give you an illustration. I used to breed ornamental fish as a hobby. These fish are very tiny when they hatch and require live food that could fit in their mouths if they are to survive.

The best food for them during their first two weeks is artemia, a microscopic shrimp known as brine shrimp. Now, you have to hatch thousands of these in a one-liter bottle of water. They are in suspended animation until they come into contact with saltwater, and water salinity has to be around 35 parts per thousand per liter of water. After 18-24 hours of contact with saltwater, the eggs will hatch.

Artemia can survive ten years and will only hatch once they come into contact with saltwater.

In the same manner, those who are in “suspended animation,” so to speak, will come alive when they come into contact with us, who are the salt of the earth. But an adequate amount must be applied. There has to be some consistency.

But If Salt Has Lost Its Taste

It is really unheard of that salt could become tasteless. Why did Jesus say that salt that lost its taste is to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet? Does this talk about losing your salvation? No, it doesn’t.

100% salt could never lose its taste. It’s a scientific impossibility. Sodium chloride is a very stable substance. The only way for it to lose its saltiness is for a chemical reaction to occur. For salt to lose its taste, it has to first be contaminated.

In ancient Palestine, it was not uncommon for sellers of salt to mix sand with salt so that it would weigh more. In this manner, the salt is no longer pure. It will have lost its taste, and it will have been thrown to the ground where it came from and trampled upon by the feet of men.

Once, I bought some rock salt for my artemia hatchery. I wondered why the eggs never hatched, even when I used the right amount. I realized I did not use pure rock salt. When I checked the label, I saw that I bought iodized rock salt instead, and that mixture made all the difference. A little bit of contamination, and salt loses its usefulness.

Does losing your saltiness mean God cannot use you anymore?

The truth is that it has more to do with how the world will respond to us than what God will do to us. God’s love cannot be reversed. The warning here is not that God will stop loving you. The warning here is that men will no longer give importance to us to the point that they will no longer bother to persecute us. They will do something even worse; they will dump them out and go on about their business.

It has nothing to do with how God is going to treat us. It has everything to do with how men are going to treat us if we lose our saltiness. We don’t have to be relevant for the world to notice us. We only need to be consistent.

The problem is that the world cannot actually cope without salt, and society cannot cope without Christians. Society thinks that it can, that’s why it tries to get rid of Christians, but the truth is, it cannot.

What Does It Mean to Be Salt of the Earth in Contemporary Society?

To be salt of the earth means to be the opposite of what the world expects of you.

The world wants us to be self-satisfied rather than be poor in spirit.

Western culture has taught us to be individualistic. That’s why many Christians today love Mega Churches. They can come to church, sit at the back, and then leave when the service is over. No commitments.

The world wants us to be assertive rather than be meek.

Men nowadays dream of becoming Alpha males. Society tells you that in order for you to attract a mate or become successful in your career, you need to be an Alpha male and not just a Beta male. There’s also the nonsense called Sigma male. And this is the opposite of meekness. Interestingly, studies show that the best way to attract mates if you are single is to be assertive yet kind. Lovingkindness makes a man attractive (Proverbs 19:22).

There’s only one Alpha male, and his name is Jesus.

Have you noticed that most of the tensions in our society today are centered around individual rights?

“We have a right to free speech!”

“We have a right to own guns!”

The sad thing is that the church also expects to be granted such rights.

Many Christians have a sense of entitlement. They think they are supposed to be blessed and favored because they are disciples of Christ. But as salt of the earth, we don’t really have rights. We only have mercies.

We are alive and well right now because of the mercies of God. None of us is not entitled to the oxygen that we breathe. Oxygen is mercy from God, not a privilege.

The world wants us to be party-goers rather than be sober-minded people.

We live in an era where people no longer have any patience with boredom. We constantly want to be entertained. Unfortunately, even the church has started to believe that entertainment is a good method to attract people to the gospel. Many churches have “Disneyfied” the gospel.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Cursed are those who love to be entertained. Soon, the party will be over.

Finally, the world applauds those who do not have any hunger for God.

If you want to know whether you are truly a Christian or not, ask yourself whether or not you have a hunger for God. Ask yourself whether you have a genuine love for God. I’m not talking about being a nice person. I know a lot of non-Christians who are very nice.

But being nice is different from being good. Being salt of the earth means being so hungry for God and righteousness that people couldn’t help but notice. Not by a lot of talking and doing, but by your response to circumstances. It could mean having a profound sense of peace in the midst of chaos.

Cursed are those with no hunger or thirst for God, for they will never find fulfillment.

The lesson of being salt of the earth is that followers of Christ will only influence the world if it is different from it. We are called to be different; we are called to be credible.

Disciples of Christ are needed as moral guides in the socio-political and cultural life of every community. They are supposed to encourage what should be encouraged and denounce what should be denounced.

As salt of the earth, the disciples must be meek, must hunger and thirst for righteousness, be merciful, must remain pure in heart, must be peacemakers, and must be honest. In short, we have to be Christ-like everywhere we see ourselves.