Stay Salty!

 by Macy Johnson

“You are the salt of the earth.

But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?

It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.”

(Matthew 5:13 NIV)

 

I recently joined a weekly Sermon on the Mount Bible Study group. While reading Matthew 5:13, I remembered visiting with my sister in Pensacola this past summer. She presented me with a shirt that displayed a new slogan for the beach: Stay Salty. Being salt-like took on a fresh new meaning.

 

Martyn Lloyd-Jones in his book, “Studies in the Sermon on the Mount,” provides insights into our call to be salty believers:

-      Life without Christianity is tasteless, lifeless, and bland.

-      The earth is rotten, polluted, foul, and offensive.

-      Salt inhibits moral decay.

-      Christians must be unlike the world, aiding in the prevention of putrefaction.

-      Salt makes life more palatable, creating thirst for God’s living water.

-      A little salt goes a long way to influence others.

 

Old Testament priests and kings were given a Covenant of Salt to remind them of God, their Provider. The New Oxford Annotated Bible’s explanation of salt suggests these covenants were deemed perpetual, “because of the use of salt as a preservative."

 

Salt, while costly in early Biblical times, was also common and could lose its effectiveness. Produced from dehydrated water from the Dead Sea, salt was often accidentally diluted and left to evaporate, leaving behind only dirt and sand granules.

 

The word salary gets its root from the word salt, a connotation of its value and worth. Found in human blood, sweat, and tears, salt helps prevent infection in ways similar to light shining in darkness, driving evil away.

 

I will seek to stay salty and make others thirsty for God today. I hope you will, too!