The Salt Within

Posted on April 6, 2021 by Catey Stover in Freedom Fighters

“Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.” Colossians 4:6 (NKJV)

 

Salt is essential for life. It’s recommended that folks should consume about 5 grams of the stuff a day because the sodium in this NaCI chemical compound serves as an electrolyte and an osmotic solute (you’ll have to figure that one for yourself, I’m clueless). However, the funny thing about that is too much salt and your blood pressure could go up. I did read somewhere about the benefits of Pink Himalayan salt and honey, so I tried it. Thought it was pretty tasty, we’ll see.

 

Salt was also used as currency. During the days of the Roman Empire, soldiers were sometimes paid in salt, which was said to be worth its weight in gold. It was one of the reasons the Romans built their roads. The Via Salaria (where we get the word salary) was used to transport salt from the salt pans along the river Tiber at Ostia Italy to Rome. And to go further back into time, we can see what happens to a person when they don’t do as YHVH has instructed them to do. Sodom and Gomorrah are being destroyed, Lot and his family are allowed to flee, “But Lot’s wife looked back as she was following behind him, and she turned into a pillar of salt.” (Genesis 19:26) So there’s that. Anyway…

 

Nowadays we’re hearing a lot of, what I like to call, salty language goin’ around. But it isn’t Biblical salt, au contraire mon frère, it’s more like folks have taken road salt, blended it with pancake syrup, served it up to us and have tried to tell us it for our own good. This is a far cry from my previous recipe of Pink Himalayan salt and honey, which, at the very least, sounds more beneficial. But I’ll digress here and emphasize what our Bibles have to say about salt.

 

Though the Old Testament contains its purposes for salt, for example, “Season all your grain offerings with salt to remind you of God’s eternal covenant. Never forget to add salt to your grain offerings” (Leviticus 2:13) it’ll be what Jesus has to say about salt that we should really be paying attention to. The Sermon on the Mount, which was a discipleship message spoken to anyone who wanted to hear good preaching, Jesus will say to folks, “You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless.” (Matthew 5:13)

 

In Marks Gospel Jesus will say, “Salt is good for seasoning. But if it loses its flavor, how do you make it salty again? You must have the qualities of salt among yourselves and live in peace with each other.” (Mark 9:50) Now in both cases Jesus wants us “to be a moral disinfectant in a world where moral standards are low, constantly changing, or non-existent.” A guy named R.V.G. Tasker said that and I agree with him, after all, salt is also used as a disinfectant. John Stott would say “that, when each community is itself and is true to itself, the world decays like rotten fish or meat, while the church can hinder its decay.” Salt is also a perseverative, guess this is why Jesus chose to use salt as His illustration for how His disciples are to be.

 

But ultimately Jesus will show His concern with what comes from within His disciples. “It’s not what goes into your mouth that defiles you; you are defiled by the words that come out of your mouth.” (Matthew 15:11) As much as we can be careful with what we put into ourselves (as we should, they do say garbage in, garbage out) is as careful with those that come out. In Secularland that ain’t happenin’ all that well so they are now classifying speech into categories and handing out punishments if you don’t stay in the lines. In a way, they’re finally catching up with Christianity.

 

“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5)

 

Ya see, we already know that if we have the mind of Christ, our words will come out of us as a seasoning that encourages those around us but if we got that reprobate mind, eh, might as well be a pepper. It’s funny how words can disinfectant and persevere a community, guess it depends on what seasoning they use and we’re seeing that played out right before our eyes. I guess the question is, which do you wanna be, Pink Himalayan salt and honey or road salt and pancake syrup? The choice ends up being yours. Amen?

 

Written by Chris Hughes: Chris is a husband, a father, has an education in Biblical doctrine and is a graduate of The Colony of Mercy. He has been a Freedom Fighter contributor since 2008. You can email him at cphughes515@verizon.net


Think About This: “For effectiveness, the Christian must retain his Christlikeness, as salt must retain its saltiness. If Christians become assimilated to non-Christians and contaminated by the impurities of the world, they lose their influence.” – John Stott

The Daily Bible Reading: Hebrews 6| You can download our 2021 Daily Bible Reading Plan by clicking here. 

This Week’s Verse to Memorize: “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many [a]mansions; if it were not so, [b]I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. –John 14:1-2

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