My wife asked me recently what I wanted for supper. I
told her I’d enjoy a big pot of home-cooked pinto beans. She
quickly reminded
me that we were under strict orders to cut back on our sodium intake.
“The
doctor says high blood pressure and salt aren’t close
friends.” “They don’t
have to be close
friends,” I replied,
“just friendly acquaintances!” Cutting back is one
thing; cutting out is
impossible—especially
when you are a fan of pinto beans.
Salt was not considered a detriment in ancient
cultures. On the contrary, it was regarded as a highly prized
commodity. The
Greeks called it theon, which means
“divine.” Often, Roman soldiers were paid in salt
(that which they received as
wages was referred to as a salarium,
from which we get our English word “salary”), and
it was from that practice
that the expression “not worth his salt” came into
usage. In some societies,
salt was even more precious than gold. That’s something to
mull over when you
realize that the current market price for an ounce of precious yellow
metal is
just over $1,000. Remember that next winter when you are slinging that
25-pound
bag of rock salt over your icy driveway.
Salt was deemed valuable for at least three reasons:
First, it was a preservative.
Without
refrigeration, meat was especially subject to spoilage. Salt
“cured” animal
flesh and kept it from going bad. Second, it was a seasoning.
Historians tell us that the diet in and around ancient Palestine
tended to be
bland. Salt permeated food and gave it a distinctive, pleasant flavor.
Third,
it was a cleansing agent. Wounds
were
bathed in salt water in order to sterilize them. Infection was kept in
check by
the high salinity brine solution and helped promote healing.
Because we can purchase salt in such large quantities
for relatively little money today, we often lose sight of what Jesus
was
teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. We probably don’t give
much thought to
Bible doctrine when we are buying that navy blue, cylindrical box of
Morton’s
at the local IGA. However, when the Lord declared, “You are
the salt of the
earth...” (Matthew 5:13a), He was underscoring our great
value and influence in
the world. Faithful children of God have a preserving effect in a world
of
rampant spiritual decay (Genesis 18:23ff; Proverbs 14:34; 2 Timothy
3:13); they hinder and retard moral
decline. Christians add a divine tang or flavor to the local community
in which
they live. Once salt is added to a food, it permeates and changes it.
(Just a
smidgen of salt can enhance a big pot of pinto beans!) Then too,
believers
serve as a kind of virtuous antiseptic towards those wounded by the
effects of
sin.
On the other hand, Christians who wear their holy
designation on “Sunday only” have no
life-testimony—they neither preserve, season
nor heal. That’s what Jesus meant when He said,
“…But if the salt loses its
flavor…it is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and
trampled underfoot…”
(v. 13b). In New Testament times, salt was collected from around the Dead Sea where the crystals were
contaminated with other
minerals. These formations were full of impurities, and since the
actual salt
was more soluble than the impurities themselves, the rain often washed
out the
sodium chloride, which made what was left worthless since it literally
lost its
saltiness. This residual material was simply thrown into the yard to
destroy
the fertility of the soil (Deuteronomy 29:23; Judges 9:45; Psalm
107:34) and harden the path to the house.
George Barna, the church statistician, highlighted this
Bible truth-principle when he wrote, “The average Christian
in the average
church is almost indistinguishable from the rest of society. The
fundamental
moral and ethical difference that Christ can make in how we live is
missing.
When our teens claim to be saved, get pregnant and do drugs at the same
rate as
the general teenage population - when the marriages of Christians end
in
divorce at the same rate as the rest of society - when Christians cheat
in
business, or lie, steal, and cheat on their spouses at the same
statistical
level as those who say they are not Christians - something is horribly
wrong”
(Rom. 2:19ff). I hear both Jesus and Barna saying the same thing. That
which
makes Christians commendable and worthy of respect (James 1:27; Philippians 2:15) can be
leached out of their
hearts by the constant flow of the world’s values.
Minerals without salt were worthless. Pinto beans
without salt are not fit to eat. Likewise, Christians without
salt—to borrow
from old Kentucky
lingo—“ain’t no count.”
Would you please pass the salt? Oh yeah, and the
cornbread too!
Please
Pass the Salt