The Salt of the Earth

Matthew 5:13


We now come to a new and fresh section in the Sermon on the Mount. In verses 3:12 our Lord and Savior has been delineating the Christian character. Here at verse 13 He moves forward and applies His description. Having seen what the Christian is, we now com to consider how the Christian should manifest the Beatitudes, or, if you prefer it, having realized what we are, we must now go on to consider what we must be.


The Christian is not someone who lives in isolation. He is in the world, though he is not of it; and he bears a relationship to that world. The Christian is told that he must be other-worldly in his mind and outlook; but that never means that he retires out of the world. You will notice that in the second chapter of his first Epistle, Peter says, "Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light."


It is exactly the same here. We are poor in spirit, and merciful, and meek, and hungering and thirsting after righteousness in  order, in a sense, that we may be "the salt of the earth." We pass from the contemplation of the character of the Christian to a consideration of the function and purpose of the Christian in this world in the mind and the purposes of God.


"Ye are the salt of the earth". Now that is not only a description of the Christian; it is a description by implication of the world in which he finds himself. It really stands here for humanity at large, for mankind which is not Christian. What, then, is the biblical attitude towards the world? There can be no uncertainty with regard to the biblical teaching on this matter. It is a tragic century, and it is tragic very largely because its own life has completely disproved and demolished its own favorite philosophy.


"Ye are the salt of the earth". What does that imply? It clearly implies rottenness in the earth; it implies a tendency to pollution and to becoming foul and offensive. That is what the Bible has to say about this world. It is fallen, sinful and bad. Its tendency is to evil and to wars. It is like meat which has a tendency to putrefy and to become polluted. It is like something which can only be kept wholesome by means of a preservative or antiseptic. As a result of sin and the fall, life in the world in general tends to get into a putrid state. The world, left to itself, is something that tends to fester. Our outlook with regard to the future must be determined by this.


What does this have to say about the Christian who is in the world? It tells him he is to be as "salt; "Ye and ye alone are the salt of the earth." What does this tell us? We are to be unlike the world. Salt is essentially different from the medium in which it is placed. As our Lord puts it, "If the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is henceforth good for nothing, but to be cast, and to be trodden under the foot of men." The Christian should be a believer who is essentially different from non-believers. He is as different as the salt is from the meat into which it is rubbed.


The Christian is not only to be different, he is to glory in this difference. He is to be as different from non-believers as the Lord was clearly different from the world in which He lived.


Now, what is the function of salt? It is to prevent petrifaction. The principle function of salt is to preserve and to act as an antiseptic. Another function of salt is to prevent food from being inspiid. Life without Christianity is insipid. Does not the world today prove that? Look at the pleasure mania, the deception, the loose morals of today. Take Christianity out of this world, and what an insipid thing life becomes. It is utterly tasteless and men have to drug themselves in various ways in order to emotionally survive.


I suggest therefore, that the Christian is to function as salt, a purifier of his surroundings - individually and together, as in the church. He does so by his individual life and character, by just being the person that God has made him in very situation he finds himself. For instance, a number of people may be talking together in a rather unworthy manner. Suddenly a Christian enters into the company, and immediately his presence has an effect. He does not say a word, but people begin to modify their language. He/she is already acting as salt, he/she is already controlling the tendency to putrefaction and pollution. Just by being a Christian, because of his/her life and character and general deportment, and he/she does so in every situation.


I think it is true to say that during the last 100 years the Christian church has paid more direct attention to politics and to social and economic questions than the whole previous hundred years. But what is the result? The result is that we are living in a society which is much more immoral than it was fifty years ago. The main trouble here is that there are far too few Christian people who are not sufficiently salt. The trouble is that the salt has lost its saltiness  in so many instances; and we are not controlling the spread of evil by being "salty saints" in the way we should. But if you have a Christian who, whether at work or play, and whose life has been saved and transformed by the Holy Spirit, it does affect others all around him. It is true, just a little salt can affect the great mass.


May God give us grace to examine ourselves in the light of this simple proposition. The great hope of society today is an increasing number of individual Christians who are certain that this essential quality of saltiness is in him/her, that because he/she is what he/she is, he/she is a check, a control, an antiseptic in society, preserving it from unspeakable foulness, preserving it. It is you and I and others like us, Christian people, who alone can prevent the devastating ills of unbelief. God stir up the gift within us, and make sure that we shall indeed be like the Son of God Himself and influence all who come into contact with us! Amen


~Martyn Lloyd-Jones ~