Salt [then] [is] good, but if the salt also has become savourless, wherewith shall it be seasoned?
Jesus has just set out what it costs to follow Him. He ends the appeal with a picture from the kitchen table. His closing question is a frightening one. If the one thing that makes salt worth having drains away, what is left to work with?
The saying is not stray wisdom. It closes the Lord's terms for following Him, and it names the worst ending of all.
First He insists on a thorough break with nature, and next that this shall continue. So in His illustrations He shows the need of purpose, and the danger of taking on such a task. Otherwise a man is sure to leave the work undone... The moral of all this is that man is not enough in himself. Only God can enable a man to leave the world for Christ and to keep following after Christ. The worst of all is to renounce Him after bearing such a name — salt that has lost its savour.
The Lord calls salt good. The contrast with leaven shows why.
Salt, which the Lord calls "good," stands opposed to leaven, the type of corrupting evil. Salt keeps things pure without any violence, and that use among people fits such an application... The salt of the covenant was God's pledge of a savour that never passed away. On our side there is the need of a holy separating energy toward God, to keep us from corrupt words and ways.
Commentators put the accent differently. Kelly stresses purity that resists decay. Darby stresses separation to God, and he names a surprising cause for the loss.
"Salt" is grace in spiritual energy. It means the saints are witnesses in the world of the power of holy love, instead of selfishness. Salt is the setting-apart principle of grace. If that is gone, what is left to preserve? Salt is grace seen as holy separateness to God, more than as kindness and meekness... Whatever weakens attachment to Christ destroys power. It is not gross sin that does it — that of course will be met and judged. It is the little things of everyday life that we are apt to choose before Christ. When the world creeps in, the salt has lost its savour, and we show that a rejected Christ has little power in our eyes.
The Lord asks how salt could ever be re-salted. Kelly draws out what that missing answer means.
By His question and comment He showed that the true and holy savour, once lost, could never be repaired. Grace may still work in one person, or in a few here and there, but nothing can restore the pure position. Salt is itself. Nothing outside can give the saltness that disappears.
That is the loss of the position. For the person, Darby leaves a door open.
Mercy may indeed recover us. But as saints we should have the savour of Christ.
Salt with no saltness is good for nothing. Applied to a person, the loss cuts two ways.
What in the world is as useless as salt that has lost the one property people value it for?... So with the disciple who ceases to be Christ's disciple. He is not suited for the world's purposes, and he has abandoned God's. He has too much light or knowledge to join in the empty pleasures and sins of the world. And he has no enjoyment of grace and truth to keep him in the path of Christ.
The danger is not always open scandal. It can be truth known but held at arm's length.
The very highest truths of God have become the topic of the world's conversation. Many believers hold them in a way that loses their edge and power. They join worldly talk and behaviour to a head knowledge of these same truths.
So how do we keep the savour? It starts inside, and then it shows in what we say.
Among the children of God, self-judgment and peace are to rule within. Outside, gracious speech (kept by the truth), wisdom and zeal are to mark them. We need the salt of the covenant of our God to keep peace inside and to show divine grace outside. We must apply it to ourselves first, and then let it give savour to our speech.
- Good — Salt holds back decay. It stands against leaven, the picture of corrupting evil, and carries God's pledge of a savour that never fades.
- Savour — That savour is grace in living energy: hearts set apart to God, not to self.
- Lost — It leaks away through small daily choices, not through gross sin. The world creeps in, and Christ comes second.
- Irreparable — Nothing outside can put the saltness back. Mercy may still recover a person, but the pure position is gone.
- Useless — The disciple who quits fits nowhere: too much light for the world's pleasures, no enjoyment of Christ's path. So keep the savour: judge self inside, season your speech with grace outside.
It is proper neither for land nor for dung; it is cast out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Jesus is teaching the crowds who follow Him. He ends with a picture from the kitchen: salt that no longer tastes of salt. The question is not whether salt is good. It is what remains of a follower who keeps the name and loses the thing itself.
Why salt? One writer takes it as grace at work with energy, holding a life apart for God.
"Salt" is grace in spiritual energy. That is, the saints are witnesses in the world to the power of holy love, instead of selfishness. Salt is the consecrating principle of grace: if that is gone, what is to preserve? Salt stands for grace as holy separateness to God, more than as kindness and meekness. Of course, kindness and meekness cannot be separated from grace either.
Salt has one property people want it for. Lose that, and it has no other use — and the same holds for the person it pictures.
What is there in the world so useless as salt when it has lost the one property for which it is valued? "It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away." It is worse than useless for any other purpose. So with the disciple who ceases to be Christ's disciple. He is not suited for the world's purposes, and he has forsaken God's. He has too much light and knowledge to plunge into the empty pleasures and sins of the world. And he has no enjoyment of grace and truth to keep him in the path of Christ. Salt that has lost its taste becomes an object of contempt and judgment.
Kelly adds that the wording never names who throws the salt out.
Modern table salt cannot go flat, which can make the image feel unreal. The salt of that region could.
Eastern salt was different from the salt we use now. It was not pure sodium chloride. It also contained plant and earthy material. Sun and rain could wear it down until it turned tasteless and useless.
The warning lands on people who carry the name of follower. One writer traces the same failure back through Israel's history.
But tasteless salt — what use is it? Just as little is discipleship without reality. Israel had been, in God's thought for her, such a purifying salt for the nations of the earth. It had become tasteless; and God's new good news had not succeeded in giving back to it the quality it had lost. It could only be cast out. The same would be true of anyone who now has only the label of discipleship without the reality.
We expect the danger to come from scandal. One writer points somewhere far more ordinary.
Whatever weakens attachment to Christ destroys power. It is not gross sin that does it; that of course will be met and judged. It is the little things of everyday life that we are apt to choose before Christ. When the world creeps in, the salt has lost its savour and we show that a rejected Christ has little power in our eyes.
The Lord asks what could ever make flat salt salty again. He leaves the question hanging. One writer presses that silence:
His question and His comment showed that the true and holy savour, once lost, could never be repaired. Grace may still work in one person, or in a few here and there. Even so, nothing brings back the pure position. Salt is itself. Nothing outside can give the saltiness that disappears.
Commentators differ on how absolute this is for the individual. In the same passage, Darby allows that mercy may still recover us. He also holds that as saints we should carry the savour of Christ.
The closing line is not decoration. It turns the whole warning into a personal question.
If the disciple compromises he becomes like salt that has lost its savour, and he is fit for nothing. What a word for us! Grace has called us, and has set our feet in the path of discipleship. Are we meeting its solemn conditions, so that we are disciples indeed? May we indeed have ears to hear!
- Salt is separation. It stands for grace working as holy energy, keeping a life set apart for God rather than absorbed into self.
- Salt is useful. That is its one value, and a disciple's one use is to carry the savour of Christ into the world.
- Salt can go flat. Salt in that land held earth and plant matter, and sun and rain could leave it tasteless. A profession without reality goes the same way.
- Flat salt fits nowhere. Not for the soil, not for the manure pile: too much light to enjoy the world, too little enjoyment of grace to walk with Christ.
- So hear it now. The loss comes by small daily choices, not by scandal. The Lord's closing call puts the warning to each conscience.