Salt-Life:  Living a Life Well Seasoned, Part One

Have you ever seen those bumper stickers that say “Salt Life” with the picture of a sea turtle or a palm tree? I first saw them on cars in Hawaii and California almost 20 years ago. They were created by three guys in Florida that were passionate about the ocean and all the activities in and around it like fishing, surfing, swimming, and just beach gazing. People that were loving and living the “salt life.” This simple bumper sticker became a catchphrase that identified a whole subculture of people and turned into a multi-million dollar business that now sells clothing, all kinds of gear, and even charters diving trips. Today I want us to dig into what it means to live a different kind of “salt life,” one that Jesus talks about in Matthew 5: 13 NLT.

“You are the salt of the earth. If salt loses its taste, how can it be made to taste like salt again? It is no good. It is thrown away and people walk on it.” 

The Message Version says it like this:

“Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.”

The salt of the earth, what does that mean? You’ve heard the phrase “he’s the salt of the earth,” meaning, “he’s such a great guy.” Is Jesus just wanting us to be good people?   Does He want us to be salty? My young adult kids used to tell me, “now, don’t be salty,” when I was getting a little sarcastic with them. I don’t think He meant that. Is Jesus referring to Morton’s table salt we buy at the store? Are we the iodized kind or the plain?

I don’t think Jesus meant any of those things. Our modern culture loses much in translation about the value of salt. Today we can buy a big container of salt for a dollar or less, and you can buy it at so many places, even at Dollar Tree! But access to salt was much more difficult in bible times. The value of salt in Jesus’ day was much higher.

Salt was a valuable commodity, highly sought after. It was considered a luxury and a sign of wealth. Have you ever heard someone say “he’s worth his salt”? They are usually referring to someone who works to earn his pay. This saying comes from a time in history when Roman soldiers would earn a special allowance just to purchase salt. In fact, the word “salary” comes from an ancient word meaning “salt money.” And for centuries, salt has been known to be a symbol of a binding contract that was enduring, not corruptible, and perpetually preserved.

Salt had great significance, and the Bible talks about it many times. Here are a few references:  In 2 Chronicles 13:5, we can read that the covenant God made with David declaring that his throne would endure forever was called a covenant of salt. And in Numbers 18:19, God refers to the covenant He makes with the priests and the Levites as a salt covenant. In 2 Kings 2:19-22, Elisha comes to stay in a town that has bad water. He asks for a new jar filled with salt and proceeds to pour the salt into the spring, and declares that the Lord had purified and healed the water. And in Leviticus 2:13, the Lord instructs that all grain offerings should be seasoned with salt to remind them of God’s eternal covenant.

So just in these references, the Bible uses salt to reference healing, purification, and an eternal covenant-one that was perpetually preserved.

So, why did Jesus use salt? What is salt, and where does it come from? Salt is a mineral composed of sodium chloride.

All salt comes from the sea. Either from a process of evaporating seawater that’s saturated with sodium chloride, or it is mined as rock salt from underground salt deposits in areas that used to be covered by ocean water thousands of years ago.

So why am I giving you this science lesson? I believe everything that God says has depth and is on purpose. I don’t think Jesus just randomly looked at a salt shaker when He made this statement.

When Jesus spoke the words “you are the salt of the earth,” it was during the Sermon on the Mount and right after the Beatitudes where He taught his disciples what the “blessed of God” looked like. Do you remember? He said blessed are the merciful, the gentle, the pure of heart, the humble, those that hunger and thirst for righteousness, those that work for peace. (That’s found in Matthew 5:2-12).

Those definitive markers are impossible to achieve without the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives and the fruits of the Spirit at work in us.

Do you remember what the fruits of the Spirit are? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (that’s found in Galatians 5:22).

How do we get those gifts of the Spirit? They are given and grown by abiding in Jesus, having the Holy Spirit fill us and teach us, and by growing in the knowledge of the Word of God. Having those fruits in our lives allow us to be merciful, humble, gentle, pure of heart, peacemakers, and to hunger and thirst for righteousness. 

I have always felt so close to the Lord when I am at the shores of the ocean. There are so many spiritual analogies and representations from the grains of sand, to the uniqueness of every seashell, and the flow of the ocean tides. And as I was preparing this lesson, the Lord showed me another spiritual analogy. So if all salt comes from the sea, what if salt is a spiritual representation of the Holy Spirit-the Spirit of Truth in our lives?

In Genesis 1:2 it does say: “The Spirit of God hovered over the waters.”

So, if this analogy is correct, considering all that we’ve talked about concerning salt, Jesus is saying that we, His followers, are the salt of the earth. He is saying we are valuable, worth the work to obtain, developed through a process, and essential to this world and God’s plan for it.

Stay tuned to our next blog where we will discuss 7 of the many uses for salt and the way they translate to us as His disciples.