What did Jesus mean when He described His followers as the salt of the earth?

Salt is the righteously preservative principle. It is sharp rather than sweet, but guards from impurity and decomposition. It gives fixity to what is good and wholesome. It proves all things, and holds fast the right. It keeps aloof from every form of wickedness. When then the disciples are called the salt of the earth, the Lord designates them as set apart to God the Father, and in patient continuance of good work seeking for glory and honour and incorruptibility at Christ's coming. They obey the truth, and are to hold fast what they have till then. If they lose the good savour, it is fatal. Saltless salt (and such a change was familiar in those lands) cannot be restored. It is not fit for anything but to be trodden down on the streets, as it often was.

The salt of the earth is a different thing from the light of the world. The earth, it appears to me, expresses that which already professed to have received light from God — that which was in relationship with Him by virtue of the light — having assumed a definite shape before Him. The disciples of Christ were the preservative principle in the earth. They were the light of the world, which did not possess that light. This was their position, whether they would or no. It was the purpose of God that they should be the light of the world. A candle is not lighted in order to be hidden.

"Ye are the salt of the earth." Salt is the only thing that cannot be salted, because it is the preservative principle itself; but if this is gone, it cannot be replaced. "If the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted?" The salt of the earth is the relation of the disciples here to that which already had the testimony of God, and therefore the expression "earth," or "the land," which was specially true of the Jewish land then. If you speak about the earth now, it is Christendom — the place that enjoys, either really or professedly, the light of God's truth. This is what may be called the earth. And this is the place which will finally be the scene of the greatest apostasy; for such evil is only possible where light has been enjoyed and departed from. In Revelation, where the closing results of the age are given, the earth appears in a most solemn manner; and then we have the peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues — what we should call heathen lands. But the earth means the once-favoured scene of professing Christianity, where the energies of the mind of men have been at work, the scene where the testimony of God had once shed its light; then, alas, abandoned to utter apostasy.

"Ye are the salt of the earth" — they were the real preservative principle there: all the rest, the Lord intimates, were good for nothing. But, let us note, He gives a solemn warning that there is a danger that the salt should lose its savour. He is not now speaking of the question whether a saint can fall away or not. People go with their own questions to Scripture, and pervert the word of God to suit their previous thoughts. The Lord is not raising the question whether life is ever lost; but He is speaking of certain persons who are in a given position; and among them there may be persons who take it heedlessly, or even falsely, and then comes the fading away of all that they had once possessed. He announces their judgment — a most contemptuous one — to be passed upon that which took so high a place without reality.

In persecution for His sake His disciples were to be blessed, and they were to recognize this and rejoice. Naturally we shrink from persecution but history proves the truth of these words. Those who are identified with Christ fully and boldly have to suffer, but they are sustained and recompensed; whereas those, who try to avoid it by compromise, miss all the recompense, and are miserable. And further, it is when the disciple is persecuted by the world that most definitely he is "the salt of the earth," and "the light of the world." Salt preserves, and light illuminates. We cannot be like healthful salt in the earth if we are of the earth. We cannot be as a light lifted up in the world if we are of the world. Now nothing more helps to keep us distinct and separate from the earth and world than persecution from the world, no matter what form it takes. Persecuted for Christ's sake, the disciple is real salty salt, and he also emits a maximum of light. Does not this word of our Lord reveal to us the secret of much of our feebleness?

The Lord now uses two striking figures to show what His own should be in His absence. "Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it gives light to all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven" (vers. 13-16). "Ye are the salt of the earth." Now salt is preservative, it preserves from corruption. When the saints are taken out of the earth there will be nothing left but the dead carcase of a Christless Christendom, nothing but corruption. Salt answers to righteousness. But "Ye are the light of the world," gives another thought. Light answers to grace. Salt merely preserves things pure from corruption, but light is aggressive, it drives out the darkness. So grace goes forth outside and seeks. "It gives light."

Note that the poor in spirit, (the opposite to "a man of spirit" in the world,) who does not stand for his rights, will be a mourner in such a world, pushed aside and downtrodden, suffering at the hands of the world. But thus exercised and tried there will be meekness, and not only the Kingdom of Heaven their portion, but the earth in a day that is coming. They sought not this but hungered, etc., after righteousness and shall be filled, satisfied. It is man's place before God in the world as it is, in man's departure from God, and leads into possessing it when Christ gets His place here. The three last belong more to the expression of the divine nature of God to man: only verse 8 is essential to this and inseparable from it; verse 7 leads into it — dwelling in love we dwell in God is the full principle of the connection: in the active exercise of what is according to His own nature, mercy; the heart dwells in Himself and is purified in having such an object ("purifying their hearts by faith") and leads into the full enjoyment of it for ever — "They shall see God." Meanwhile in such a world peacemakers are characteristically His sons. Verse 10 then sums up the first four — theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. But 11-12, depending upon the last three, identifying us with Christ (Who was the perfect expression of them — indeed of the first four too: in Him man's place before God is seen in its perfection, as well as God revealed to man, God in Christ) more directly put us into His place ("for my sake") of rejection, and the reward is commensurately greater, being directly in heaven. (Cp. 1 Peter 3:14 et seq., and 1 Peter 4:13-14.) Thus He has set His disciples to be both the salt of the earth and the light of the world: the salt — in the holy energy of faith that separates to God, the only preserving (and preservative) principle in the earth — sanctifying the Lord God, or Christ in the heart (what Peter connects with righteousness, 1 Peter 3:15 and 14): if this characteristic of the disciple, this separation to God, be lost nothing is left — for nothing can salt salt; it is good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot. The light is more the positive testimony of what God is — hence connected with (2), and (note) light of the world, i.e. the sphere under testimony from God. A light is lit to give light or shine; even so (ver. 16) "Let your light shine before men" (not as A.V.) "that they may see your good (kala) works" and know the source to connect them with — not be occupied with the good works or the good men, but "glorify your Father which is in heaven."

Thus the positive part of our Lord's teaching embraces the promises (as v. 5) for the earth, and for the heavens the verses already referred to. Others apply generally to the spirit desired by God, which, at bottom, is the character of Christ Himself. The disciples were set as the salt of the earth (of that which was in relation with God) in contrast with every corruption, and as the light of the world, the testimony of God to those who lay in the dark outside. Their testimony ought to be clear enough for men to know to what they should attribute the fruits manifested in them. The place of the disciples was thus sketched clearly, the remnant called by grace.

Salt speaks of the preservative element of righteousness. For example Col.4:6, "Let your conversation be always of grace, seasoned with salt". However gracious we should be (and we always should be if moving rightly), we must never surrender the claims of God in divine righteousness. Christ said "Ye are the salt of the earth" (Matt.5:13), that is, the antidote to corruption. We are always expected to be speaking right things and doing right things as an antidote to the corruption around us. Thus salt speaks of the preservative element of what is right in the sight of God. Here it is expressed as "the salt of the covenant of thy God". All that is right Godward and manward is expressed here. Christ could say "Thy law is within My heart" (Ps.40:8), in all that He said and did, whether Godward or manward, the salt of the covenant of His God was never lacking. He perfectly gave to God that which was right in His sight. So in every meal offering the salt of the covenant of God had to be included as setting forth the Lord Jesus Christ in responsible Manhood, right in His love to God and to man (compare John 14:31 and 15:13 - love to the Father and love to His friends respectively).

Salt

In ancient times salt was the most important agent for seasoning and preserving foods. Salt is pungent, bitter; but it keeps what is good and prevents corruption. In the Old Testament, the "salt of the covenant" had, on God's order, to be added to all sacrifices (Lev. 2: 13). Thus salt is a clear symbol of the sanctifying, keeping power of God which should be expressed in us. We are not sugar or honey, but the salt of the earth. If we witness mockery concerning divine things at school, at work or in other situations and we do not ignore it, but reprimand the scoffers in the right way, and if we do not laugh at certain jokes, then we are the salt of the earth. Often our mere presence will exercise a moderating influence on unbelievers. Two further passages make clear that this "salt" should not be confounded with human pungency or even cutting remarks. The Lord says in Mark 9: 50 to His disciples: "Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another." Paul writes to the Colossians: "Let your word be always with grace, seasoned with salt." (Colossians 4: 6) Grace and peace therefore are not opposed to salt but complementary to it.

Salt is ordinary and commonplace, but it has a strong effect. This is not easily noticed outwardly, but takes place more in secret and in the long term. We might consider it useless to be the only ones in our surroundings who take a stand for the things of our Lord, but let us remember: "Ye are the salt of the earth!"

In contradistinction to the following verse, the Lord says: "Ye are the salt of the earth." "Earth" is not the same as "world." The Greek can mean "land" as well as "earth," and here it seems to point to the scene where witness is borne to God. Firstly this was Israel, to which the disciples belonged. But then we can see in it also the wider sphere of the testimony to God in Christianity today, which in its broadest scope corresponds to the Kingdom of the heavens. Here where the light of the gospel and the truth of God shone brightest, the greatest apostasy of all times will take place in the future. This the Lord points out with his following words.

The disciples had yet to learn that wondrous and mighty sacrifice of His; but here they find themselves set in the only position which suited Him, and them too associated with Him. Its moral nature, not only inwardly but publicly, is here conveyed by the words. "Ye are the salt of the earth." To the Son as to the Father anything but this pure and purifying or at least preservative savour was intolerable for the kingdom of the heavens which they were to enter on the earth. The law, as we are told, made nothing perfect. And Moses, in view of Israel's hardheartedness, allowed what could not be when God was revealed in a Son. In that divine light He looks for suitability to His holiness. How it was to be made good in them they did not yet know; for the discourses on the mount did not unfold redemption nor yet the new birth. But there could be no doubt that this was the plain and certain expression of the place in which the Lord set His own.

Let it be noticed that they, and only they, and they emphatically, were "the salt of the earth." The Lord does not say the salt "of the world." This will come for fuller elucidation when we consider what was meant by their being "the light of the world," not of the earth. But when thus distinguished as here, we may remark now in pointing out the force of our text, that "the earth" means that ordered scene where God had dealings beyond other parts. It was then as of old where Israel was set; as it was about to be enlarged by the outward profession of His name far beyond the land of Palestine. The Lord accordingly begins with that position of conserving purity, alike privilege and responsibility. "Ye are the salt of the earth." Less or other than this was unrecognisable since He, the Son, came and called into association with Himself. The life He communicated to the believer, and the redemption He would accomplish for his sins, would be explained fully in its season. But here He shows what consisted with the Father, as well as the kingdom He would establish.

But He adds words — most grave words — "If the salt lose its savour, wherewith shall it be salted?" Profession there would be, and an excellent thing it is, if it be a heart testimony to God, true not only in word but in deed. Here, at the beginning and still more clearly at the end of His communications the Lord prepares us to expect what soon and increasingly became evident how hollow and false it was to become; and He intimated by His question and comment that the true and holy savour if once lost would be irreparable. Whatever grace might work individually, or with a few here and there, the pure position cannot be restored. Salt is itself. Nothing outside can give the saltness that disappears. Wherewith shall it be salted?