Matthew 5:13 “You are salt for the Land. But if salt becomes tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except being thrown out for people to trample on.”
Mark 9:50 “Salt is excellent, but if it loses its saltiness, how will you season it? So have salt in yourselves — that is, be at peace with each other.”
“The way in which we can act as salt in the earth at a time like this. It is not something to be done by the Church in general; it is something to be done by the individual Christian. It is the principle of cellular infiltration. Just a little salt can affect the great mass. Because of its essential quality it somehow or another permeates everything. That, it seems to me, is the great call to us at a time like this. Look at life; look at society in this world. Is it not obviously rotten? Look at the decay that is setting in amongst all classes of people. Look at these horrible divorces and separations, this joking about the sanctities of life, this increase in drink and pilfering. There are your problems, and it is obvious that men by passing Acts of Parliament cannot deal with them. Newspaper articles do not seem to touch them. Indeed nothing ever will, save the presence of an increasing number of individual Christians who will control the putrefaction, and the pollution, and the rottenness, and the evil, and the vice. Every one of us in our circle has thus to control this process, and so the whole lump, the whole mass, will be preserved
“May God give us grace to examine ourselves in the light of this simple proposition. The great hope for society today is an increasing number of individual Christians. Let the Church of God concentrate on that and not waste her time and energy on matters outside her province. Let the individual Christian be certain that this essential quality of saltness is in him, that because he is what he is, he is a check, a control, an antiseptic in society, preserving it from unspeakable foulness, preserving it, perhaps, from a return to a dark age. Before the Methodist Revival, life in London, as you can see in books written at the time and since, was almost unthinkable with its drink and vice and immorality. Is there not a danger that we are going back to that? Isn't our whole generation going down visibly? It is you and I and others like us, Christian people, who alone can prevent that, God give us grace to do so. God stir up the gift within us, and make us such that we shall indeed be like the Son of God Himself and influence all who come into contact with us.”
The purpose of salt is two-fold: preserve and add/enhance flavor.
Meat begins the process of decay almost instantly. Salt can be used to slow the process but it can’t eliminate it. It can only slow it down long enough for you to enjoy the meat at a later date.
The world is in a serious state of decay and people’s lives are crumbling all around you. While you don’t have the power to stop it completely, you have been tasked with slowing it down so perhaps their lives do not become putrid and rotten.
When used for the purpose of preserving, large amounts of salt are required. And the culture requires a large amount of salt.
Job 6:6 Can food without flavor be eaten without salt? Do egg whites have any taste? 7 I refuse to touch them; such food makes me sick.
Salt itself has a unique characteristic in that it can take whatever is there and bring its natural flavors to the surface. It isn’t the salt itself that gets the attention, it’s the food on which it was added. In fact, too much salt causes people to reject even the most succulent foods. Finding the perfect balance between under- and oversalting is often left to the most highly trained chefs in the world. We must become like these professionals, knowing the exact amount that is necessary to bring to life the most vibrant tastes contained within everyone else.
When used for enhancing flavor, the amount of salt matters greatly. And individuals require the perfect amount of salt.
(note: The salt itself gets no special attention when a dish turns out beautifully. It sits in the background and takes no credit whatsoever. After all, it was the Master Chef that was responsible for using you in the proper way. Just yield to the Chef and trust He really is the best in the world.)
As you go out into the earth today, seek ways to slow the decay in the world. Also, look for ways to add flavor to the lives of others in order to bring out their absolute best.
Be warned, however, if your salt has lost its flavor, it is only good for being trampled. And you can rest assured you will be trampled.