And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Matthew 28: 18-20

Don’t Forget

the Salt.

Let’s get salty people! Okay, in all seriousness, nearly all of the references I’ve discovered in scripture over the years that reference salt have to do with three topics, the death of something, the sacrifice of something and the cleansing something. Isn’t it interesting that the message of the Gospel contains all three?!

Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thansgiving; meanwhile praying also for us, that God would open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in chains, that I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak.

 

Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how your ought to answer each one.

Colossians 4: 2-6 NKJV

So why is it that we need to season the testimony of Jesus Christ with salt? Well, let’s jump back to the basics of salt.

There are 4 main things that salt is used for.

• preservation
• flavor
• a vital nutient for the bodies survival
• the salt of the Covenant

When we season the gospel with salt, our goal is to make the Gospel flavorful, so that the person receiving it receives it willingly. The acceptance of the Gospel preserves that person’s soul and provides us all that is vital for life and godliness! It becomes a covenant between that person and the Lord.

In the old testiment salt was included in every grain offering as a salt covenant, a symbol of an everlasting relationship.

And every offering of your grain offering you shall season with salt; you shall not allow the salt of the convenant of your God be lacking from your grain offering. With all your offerings you shall offer salt.

Leviticus 2:13 NKJV

Romans 2 teaches us that as believers we are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God; and we have been given a commission to go and make disciples, to take up our cross and follow Him. If we are the offering, then we must season ourselves with salt. Our lives should be preserved, purified, and made flavorful by our personal relationship with the Lord.

“And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire – where

‘Their worm does not die

  and the fire is not quenched.’

For everyone will be seasoned with fire, and every sacrifice will be seasonsed with salt. Salt is good, but it the salt loses its flavor, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace with one another.”

 

Mark 9:47-50 NKJV

We will all have our own crosses to carry; for we all have sin in our lives that needs to be purified by the Spirit. We must constantly work to put to death the misdeeds of the body to grow more and more into the likeness of Christ.

I never understood the if salt loses it saltiness part as I’d never known salt to lose its saltiness. However, in doing some reasearch I found that salt when not in a more pure form, being full of impurities loses its saltiness. This would have been readily understood in biblical times as much of their salt came from the dead sea and in areas that were high in impurities the salt was not as flavorful. 

I would imagine that just as they would have chosen to harvest from areas where the saltiness was…saltier, so the same is true of us. The more flavorful we are, the more Christ-like we become, the more people are drawn to accept what we have to offer. So let’s get salty people.

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life – the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us – that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.

This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

 

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

My dear children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.

 

Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.

 

1 John 1:1 – 2:6 NKJV

So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak and slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

 

Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

 

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it,  and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

James 1:19-25 NKJV