In Matthew 5:13-16, Jesus taught, as part of his Sermon on the Mount, that those who are called into the kingdom of God in salvation are, at the same time, called to be salt in the world and light to the world in which they live.
Yet the calling to be salt in the first part of verse 13 comes with a warning or a caution to the believer in the second part of the verse.
Lost his Savor
Matthew 5:13 You are the salt of the earth: but if the salt has lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted?
Most of us think of savor as flavor, but here is the catch or the problem with interpreting savor as flavor or taste: Salt cannot lose its savor because, no matter what we do with it, it will always retain the flavor of salt.
An abundance of articles and books and commentaries go to great lengths to try to explain what Jesus meant here, trying to prevent what appears to be a contradiction of science, but the problem is not one of science as much as it is one of definition.
Yes, the word savor may refer to the quality in a substance that affects the sense of taste or of smell, but it may also refer to the distinctive qualities or properties of a substance. [i]
According to Spiros Zhodiates, the Greek word interpreted as “savor” comes from a root word that is the source for the English word “moron.” On two occasions in the Bible, the word is actually translated fools or foolish. However, while the word does mean foolish or dull, it does not refer to a person’s mental ability.
When applied to an object, such as a tool, it means that thing has lost its sense of purpose. It is no longer sharp or the battery is dead or the tires are flat. Whatever the failing, the tool can no longer be used effectively in fulfilling the purpose for which it was created.
When applied to a person, it means that they have been made to look foolish by their actions or lack thereof. I find it neat that the KJV says “lost his savor” instead of lost its savor, animating the salt and thus making the reference personal and directly applicable to the Christian.
The Christian who has “lost his savor” may be tasteless, but the idea here refers to a believer who has lost or forgotten the purpose for which he or she exists – they are confused about why Jesus saved them in the first place.
You see, Jesus did not save us simply to rescue us from hell and deliver us to heaven – those are the rewards of our salvation. The Apostle Paul explained in 2 Corinthians 5:17 that the salvation experience is an act of creation.
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (ESV)
God does not begin ex nihilo (with nothing) and create something. If you were five feet seven inches tall, weighing 145 pounds with brown eyes before you were saved, then you will remain five feet seven inches tall, weighing 145 pounds with brown eyes after you are saved.
God begins with who we are (the old) and makes of us something new. Before salvation, we are “without form and void,” meaning that we are disordered and nonfunctional and without purpose as far as the kingdom of God is concerned.
Paul then speaks to the purpose for our salvation. He explains in another place that, by means of our new creation in Christ, we are a work of God’s hands with a distinctive purpose.
Ephesians 2:10 For we are his (God’s) workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
In salvation, we who were without order and purpose are made anew (created) – that is, given order and purpose – made into an instrument that God can use to further His plan of redemption that He set in place before the foundation of the world.
When applied to the Christian, “lost his savor” refers to a man’s heart and character, not his mental ability. It means that the person who claims Christ as his Savior has become morally worthless and looks foolish by claiming to know Christ while living like the world.
To lose one’s savor means that one’s effectiveness has been diminished by the choices of life – by compromises in principle, purpose, performance, and in moral character.
Now, if we need a reminder of what makes up the Christian’s savor, we need only look back a few verses to the beginning of Matthew 5 to the section we refer to as the Beatitudes (verses 3-12).
A person who has the flavor of Christ is…
- Poor in spirit
- Saddened by sin
- Meek and well-disciplined
- Hungry and thirsty for righteousness
- Pure in heart
- Merciful
- Peacemaker
- Persecuted
Think about your own community or sphere of influence. If you had taken a poll among your friends and acquaintances this week, how many would have claimed to be a Christian or at least expressed a hopeful desire that they were?
Yet how many of them are actively and regularly involved in local church or ministry activities, or how many can be found in a worship service on any given Sunday morning or whenever corporate worship opportunities are available?
Listen to what the late Pastor Ray Pritchard had to say about this…
Put simply, the church has lost its influence in the community. There are many reasons why this is so, but one reason stands out above the rest. The church has lost its influence because Christians have neglected their responsibility to be salt and light in the world. As we have neglected to be what God has called us to be, the world has decided to ignore us. [ii]
Consequences of living salt free
When we read Matthew 5:13 in the King James Version, we read, “…if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted?”
The English Standard Version says it like this: “…if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?”
The New International Version makes the point even more succinctly: “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?”
The question asks how one might restore the saltiness of salt that has lost its saltiness. That is certainly the meaning of the two other uses of this same phrase in Mark and Luke, although the application of the saying is in a different context in each case.
The Bible is not a science book, so we need not attempt to interpret the phrase scientifically. It may more appropriately be interpreted metaphorically, for certainly even the ancients realized that salt never ceased to be salty, though it may have become contaminated and, therefore, have lost its usefulness and function.
Whatever the case may be, the antecedent of the preposition “it” in the phrase “wherewith shall it be salted” reflects back on the word salt in the phrase “if the salt have lost its savor.”
Even though this is the universal interpretation of the verse, I believe that a case can be made that the antecedent of the word “it” may be the world in the phrase “You are the salt of the world.”
The Message appears to make this application in its paraphrase of the second part of verse 13, “If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness?”
Without Christianity – that is, unless individual Christians and the church as a whole fulfill their God-assigned purpose of sharing the gospel of Christ – there is nothing in the Universe that can preserve, protect, season, or heal this world in which we live.
Jesus warns us of the consequences of failing to fulfill our calling as salt. Return with me to Matthew 5:13 once again.
Matthew 5:13 You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor (fails to fulfill its purpose), how shall it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.
Once again, my studies show that virtually every commentary on this verse makes the antecedent of this second “it” to be the salt – that salt that is without flavor is good for nothing but throwing it out as garbage where people can walk on it in disrespect.
Whatever profession the Christian might make or whatever good the church might do within the community – if they do not follow their profession and actions with obedience to the commands of the Lord, they will find themselves without strength or effect and subject to be treated with the utmost contempt and indignity.
The German theologian, Helmut Thielicke (1908-1986) said, “…we are not supposed to be the honey of this world, but the salt. To the world, we are not supposed to be entirely pleasant, but there is supposed to be a biting quality about us. Whether they experience a sting of conscience or a surge of resentment when we are around, we are not supposed to let them sin comfortably.” [iii]
When the church ceases to be the church, then there is nothing left but to see it stamped out of existence.
Someone might object, “God will never allow His church to be stamped out.”
And you are right. God has always allowed a remnant to survive as seed. But there are countless stories throughout history where God has allowed His people to be virtually eliminated. He allowed Israel, His own chosen people, to be carried off into captivity by the Assyrians and the Babylonians and their religious center destroyed by the Romans.
But I am going to go out on a limb here and posit a different interpretation to the last part of this verse.
I propose that these final phrases may not refer exclusively to the church. I am certain that someone will argue that my proposal violates all the rules of good exegesis, but what if the “it” of “it is no longer good for anything” was applied to the world itself – to the very culture in which we find ourselves immersed?
This interpretation says that, when salt ceases to be salt, the result in the world is catastrophic.
When salt fails to live and to act like salt, there is nothing else that can make the world salty. The salt may be ignored at best or attacked at worst. Yet another consequence of that failure is that the world and the culture in which we live will collapse around our very feet and putrefy, and before we know it, we find ourselves living in a garbage heap of immorality and irrational behavior.
All one has to do is look at our modern culture to know that that is exactly where we are and where we are headed.
Salt that is left in the shaker or the salt box and never applied in any application is useless and, for all practical purposes, does not exist. When salt is polluted or contaminated or otherwise rendered unusable, it has lost its savor and is cast away.
By definition, the Christian is one who is called to confess the lordship of Christ – that is, to proclaim to those within our sphere of influence that there is hope for a world that has lost its bearing. When we fail to be obedient to that calling, we have lost our savor, which, for the Christian, is sin.
Yet God does not throw us away. He has made a provision for sin. He has promised that there is always hope of restoration for a disobedient believer.
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Jesus promised in Matthew 28:20, “I am with you always.”
And God expressed His grace in…
2 Chronicles 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. (KJV)
NOTES
[i] http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/savor
[ii] Pritchard, Ray. “The Salt and Light Brigade, Matthew 5:13-16,” Keep Believing Ministries, March 17, 1996. https://www.keepbelieving.com/sermon/1996-03-17-the-salt-and-light-brigade/
[iii] Cheung, Vincent, “The Sermon on the Mount,” Reformation Ministries International, 2004, p. 45. Referenced 29Mar2008 at http://www.rmiweb.org/books/sermonmount.pdf
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