The Salt of the Earth

Matthew 5:13
Salt and Light
“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.

As it is common to heard it been taught about this verse that salt is a preservative, I can agree with that. Yet take note, that in the context of preservation the concept of taste does not matter. Notice that Jesus raises the question of ‘but if salt has lost its taste?’. Taste is a matter of consuming, and should have its place in the context of what we can draw out of this text.

The question that is raised by Jesus here ought to get us think a bit about how can people consume or taste us as we are the salt of the earth? Some time ago I heard a concept being taught through the ministry of Living Waters in their Way of the Master evangelism training program that captured the idea that people in trying to get horses to drink water they would salt the horses’ oats, so that when the horse ate the salty food the salt would stir a thirst in order to get the horse to drink water.

Similarly, the lives of those that have access to the Living Water found in Christ Jesus, ought to be lived in a manner that salts the oats of those that get to taste or observe our lives. This is for the purpose that such people who observe such lives would indeed thirst for that Living Water that those in Christ Jesus have.