Articles
Saltiness
In Mark’s last verse of chapter nine the Lord tells us to have salt in ourselves. Please note. "Salt is good, but if salt loses its flavor, how will you season it. Have salt in yourselves, and have peace with one another." MARK 9:50 (NKJV)
Jesus said a similar thing in His mountain sermon. We have the thought in Matthew 5:13. "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men." Christians are the salt of the earth. Their purpose is the salvation of mankind. By their lives and teaching they preserve those with whom they have contact.
Jesus said, "Salt is good, but if salt loses its flavor, how will you season it?" This reflects a heart that is salted by our own spirit of self-sacrifice, a spirit patterned after the Lord's. As we give up worldly affections, we salt our lives as a sweet sacrifice to God and improve our saltiness for the preservation of those whose lives we touch. It is imperative that a disciple of Christ not lose that saltiness.
If our saltiness is lost, of what use are we? Jesus reminds us that when salt loses the peculiar chemical property which makes it salty, it is useless. There is no way to regain that property. You cannot restore it with another more powerful salt. You cannot treat it with some other chemical. It is good for nothing! We also, as the salt of the earth, will be good for nothing but to be thrown out if we fail in the great cause of saving souls.
In view of the context beginning at verse 38, verse 49 is probably speaking of the trials of life which each believer must face. Listen to Him. "For everyone will be seasoned with fire,.." Fire purifies. Temptations and trials of life are a fire, testing and proving our faith.
Now let's add the rest of the verse. "For everyone will be seasoned with fire, and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt." Under the Law of Moses, sacrificial offerings to the Lord were seasoned with salt. (Leviticus 2:13) Salt is both a flavoring and a preservative. In this Christian age, Jesus Christ is our offering for sin, but you and I are also sacrificial offerings. Romans 12:1 says, "...present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God,.." If I am the sacrifice, what then is the salt with which I am seasoned. The overall context suggests that it is those things I have given up to remove sin from my life. No matter how good my life, it can never be a sacrifice worthy of God. But, as I give up things of this life I hold dear, things which might divert me from godly service, my life is seasoned with grace, made more acceptable as a sacrifice to God.
Can we learn the importance of laying our lives before our God, a sacrifice seasoned to His taste? Can we realize everything we are and do rises to God's nostrils as an odor either of a pleasing sacrifice, or of the rottenness of sin. Which are you?
