Salt for a Tasteless World
“Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another.” — Mark 9:50
Alton Brown, the television chef, once made an interesting observation about salt: “Salt makes food taste more like itself.” That may sound like a simple culinary observation, but it captures something important about the nature of salt. Properly used, salt doesn't make a steak taste like salt. It makes the steak taste more like a steak. It brings out what was already supposed to be there.
There is a wonderful spiritual application in that thought. God has left Christians in this world to make this world taste more like the world He originally intended it to be.
This world is fallen. Sin has distorted God's creation. Truth has been replaced by error, holiness has been replaced by corruption, love has been replaced by selfishness, and peace has been replaced by conflict. Yet God has placed His people here. He has not called us to withdraw from the world, nor has He called us to become like the world in order to influence it. He has called us to live as His people in the midst of it.
Jesus said, “Ye are the salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13). Those words give us a picture of the influence Christians ought to have wherever God has placed them.
But there is something we need to understand before we consider what it means to be salt in the world. In Mark 9, Jesus says, “For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.”
Before we can be salt to the world, we must first be salted by God.
Salted by God
The language Jesus uses in Mark 9 points us back to the Old Testament sacrificial system. Salt was associated with covenant, sacrifice, and consecration. Leviticus 2:13 says, “And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering; with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt.” Ezekiel 43:24 likewise describes salt being offered with the sacrifices.
When Jesus says, “Every sacrifice shall be salted with salt,” He is drawing our attention to that familiar biblical picture of sacrifice and consecration. He then adds, “For every one shall be salted with fire.”
The believer's relationship with God begins with God's work in the believer. John the Baptist spoke of Christ as the One who would baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire. The believer has been salted with fire through the saving work of Christ and the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.
This is important because Christian influence does not begin with our efforts. It begins with God's work in us. We are saved by grace, indwelt by the Spirit, made new creatures, and separated unto God. Jesus then says, “Have salt in yourselves.”
There is a progression here that is easy to overlook. God puts something in us before He expects something to come out of us. Our usefulness to others begins with our relationship with Christ.
That gives us a question worth considering. Has Christ changed me? Before we concern ourselves with how much influence we are having on the world around us, we should examine whether the transforming work of Christ is evident in our own lives. We cannot effectively influence the world for Christ if Christ has never changed us.
Salt Is Good
Jesus says, “Salt is good.” There is something inherently useful about salt, and Christians ought to be good for something in this world.
One of the things salt does is add flavor. This brings us back to Alton Brown's observation that salt makes food taste more like itself. In a similar way, Christians ought to help the world see something of what God intended life to be.
God intended marriage to be faithful, and Christians ought to demonstrate faithfulness. He intended the family to be loving, and we ought to demonstrate love. He intended speech to be truthful, and we ought to tell the truth. He intended work to be honest, and we ought to work honestly. He intended humanity to worship its Creator, and we ought to worship Him. He intended people to love their neighbors, and we ought to love our neighbors.
The Christian should make righteousness more noticeable wherever he goes. Our lives should give people around us some indication of what life looks like when it is lived according to God's design.
Salt also has a preserving quality. Historically, salt has been used to preserve food from corruption. The Christian should likewise stand as a preserving influence against the corruption of sin.
We cannot stop the world from being sinful. We live in a fallen world, and Scripture has already told us where this world is headed. But we can refuse to give sin our full cooperation. We can preserve truth. We can preserve righteousness. We can preserve biblical morality. We can preserve godly families. We can preserve reverence for God.
There is another simple characteristic of salt that provides a helpful picture: salt creates thirst. A salty meal makes you thirsty. There ought to be something about a Christian's life that causes people to thirst for what he has.
This doesn't happen because Christians are impressive or perfect. It happens when Christ is evident in us. The world ought to see something in the Christian that makes them want to know more about Christ.
Our lives should make people curious about the Savior we claim to follow.
When Salt Loses Its Saltiness
Jesus follows His statement about the goodness of salt with a warning: “But if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it?”
Salt can become useless. That warning ought to get our attention because the Christian's effectiveness depends upon his distinctiveness.
We cannot influence the world by becoming indistinguishable from it. Romans 12:2 says, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
The world doesn't need Christians who simply blend in. It needs Christians who are recognizably Christian.
That doesn't mean being obnoxious, self-righteous, or unnecessarily argumentative. Distinctiveness isn't an excuse for bad behavior or an inflated sense of spiritual superiority. It means that there should be something noticeably different about the way we think, speak, live, work, worship, and respond to the circumstances of life.
We should be recognizable as people who belong to Jesus Christ.
Sin also compromises Christian usefulness. A Christian can still be saved and yet become spiritually ineffective. Lot was saved, but his testimony in Sodom was practically worthless. Samson belonged to God, but his compromise destroyed his usefulness. David was God's man, but his sin brought tremendous damage to his testimony.
Salvation does not make us immune to spiritual uselessness.
That is why Paul said, “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection...” (1 Corinthians 9:27). Paul understood that his usefulness in ministry required discipline in his own life.
This gives us another question to consider. Am I useful?
It is possible to be saved and yet live in such a way that our Christian testimony has little practical influence. God has called us to more than simply possessing a profession of faith. He desires our lives to be useful for His purposes.
A Christian should never be ashamed of being different. Different doesn't mean strange for the sake of being strange. It means distinctly Christian. Our lives should retain the qualities that identify us as followers of Christ.
Salt and Peace
Perhaps one of the most overlooked statements in this passage comes at the very end. Jesus says, “Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another.”
Jesus connects salt with peace. A Christian ought to be one of the greatest influences for peace in the world, and that peace begins within. Before I can bring peace to others, Christ must have His way in me.
A Christian who is constantly angry, bitter, quarrelsome, contentious, and offended is not displaying the character of Christ. We have enough people in the world looking for a fight. Christians ought to be looking for opportunities to make peace.
Jesus then directs His disciples to have peace “one with another.”
The immediate context makes this especially significant. Just a few verses earlier, the disciples had been disputing among themselves about who would be the greatest. Jesus was dealing with their competition and pride. His instruction to have peace with one another was a call for them to stop competing and start being useful for Him.
There is something terribly wrong when Christians are fighting one another while the world around them needs the Gospel. Philippians 2:3 says, “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.” Humility and peace among God's people are part of the Christian testimony.
That peace should also extend to the people around us. Romans 12:18 says, “If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.” This does not mean compromising truth. Jesus was not a compromiser. John the Baptist was not a compromiser. The apostles were not compromisers. Biblical peace is not the absence of truth; it is the presence of righteousness without unnecessary hostility.
We can stand for truth without being hateful. We can disagree without being disagreeable. We can be firm without being foolish. We can be courageous without being contentious.
There is a way to hold convictions firmly while treating people graciously. The Christian should be one of the clearest examples of what biblical peace looks like.
What Kind of Salt Are We?
Salt is a small thing, but it can have a noticeable effect. That is part of what makes Jesus' illustration so fitting. Christians may sometimes feel insignificant in a world filled with powerful voices, massive institutions, and widespread corruption. Yet Christ has intentionally placed His people in this world to have an influence.
The world around us is full of anger, and our lives can bring peace. It is full of dishonesty, and we can bring truth. It is filled with impurity, and we can demonstrate holiness. It is marked by selfishness, and we can practice sacrifice. It is burdened by despair, and we can bring hope. It is surrounded by darkness, and we can bring the light of Christ.
God has put us here to make this fallen world taste more like what He intended it to be. That influence begins with allowing God to work in us. It continues as we remain distinct from the world, useful to God, and committed to peace with others.
Mark 9:50 gives us a searching place to examine our own lives:
“Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another.”
Perhaps the question we need to ask ourselves is simply this:
Am I still salty?
God has salted us with His Spirit so that we might be salt in His world. May we remain useful to Him, distinctly Christian in our conduct, and peaceable in our relationships.
There is a tasteless world all around us.
Let's be the salt God has called us to be.
