Jewish sacrifices were offered with salt. “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 thy offerings thou shalt offer salt.” (Lev. 2:13.) 

“All the heave offerings of the holy things, which the children of Israel offer unto the Lord, have I given thee and thy sons and daughters with thee, by a stature forever; it is a covenant of salt forever before the Lord unto thee and to thy seed with thee.” (Numbers 18:19) 

“Ought ye not to know that the Lord God of Israel gave the kingdom over Israel to David for ever, even to him and to his sons by a covenant of salt.” (2 Chron. 13:5.)

Lot’s wife was turned into a pillar of salt when she looked back to Sodom. (Gen. 19:26.) Immediately following Jesus’ words, Remember Lot’s wife, He said, “Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.” (Luke 17:32-33.)

Salt is connected with purity. If we are going to be the salt of the earth, we must be an example of purity. One of the traits of our world is the lowering of moral standards. We must live by high standards of ethical and moral conduct. Every Christian needs to understand that when we lose our saltiness and when we cease to function as salt in the world, then we too have become good for nothing. We can most certainly lose our usefulness to the Lord and to His work. When this happens, we have become something to be trodden upon and treated with contempt! When we are living for the Lord, men may not like us, but there is often a certain respect for the stand we take and for the testimony that we possess. When we allow our testimony to become tainted by sin and the world, then men will walk upon our testimony and we become absolutely useless to the Lord as a vessel of witness.

Salt is a common preservative. So Christians are preservatives in society. You are the salt of the earth. This means that Christians should have a powerful influence upon the world. The influence of ten righteous people could have saved Sodom and Gomorrah. Solomon wrote, “Righteousness exalts a nation but sin is a reproach to any people.” (Prov. 14:34.)

“Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt that you may know how ye ought to answer every man.” (Col. 4:5-6.) Jesus said, “Salt is good, but if salt has lost its saltiness, wherewith shall ye season it? Have salt in yourselves and have peace one with another.” (Mark 9:49-50.) 

Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:13-16 are not found in isolation in the Bible, but rather they are a continuation of teaching from the Old Testament. Salt has been a part of every covenant God has given. It is a salt covenant. God’s covenant with Abraham, Moses, David, Israel and with us is a salt covenant. That is the nature of it. Salt is used in every covenant; literally as with the animal sacrifices and symbolically with us today.

Paul’s words are a good commentary on Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount. “I beseech you brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present yourselves a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your spiritual service; 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, acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Rom. 12:1-2.) This sacrifice must be offered with salt too.

Mural Worthey