Can salt really lose its flavor?

Can salt really lose its flavor?

“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.

Matthew 5:13

One of the most famous passages of scripture concerning a metaphorical spice (I know, there are so many), this verse has often been scoffed at by modern day critics.  After all, table salt really doesn’t lose its ‘flavor.’ Salt is salt, and it doesn’t suddenly quit becoming salt one day. So why would Jesus (who is God’s son) say that salt may lose its flavor?

So normal salt keeps is "flavor," but in places around the Dead Sea and in that geographic area surrounded by marshes, there is indeed salt filled with such impurity after the water is dried up around it that it sometimes disintegrates into a dust that actually prevents growth in soil.  Such salt is literally cast into the streets to be trampled underfoot, as it is beyond useless...it is a detriment to growth all around it.  That salt has indeed ‘lost’ its flavor, and is no longer good for anything.

Jesus was making a point about our lives, as we are the salt of the earth.  If we lose that which preserves and "flavors" the lives of those around us through Christ, we not only lose our usefulness...we harm others!  The warning is for us to consider the worth of a life seasoned with Christ, and to avoid the impurities of sin which causes us to lose our flavor.  In the region Jesus was in, they would have understood the message.  They knew what would happen to that particular salt in the region of Galilee and would know His warning since they had seen it happen with their own eyes.

Regardless of how table salt differs from the salt Jesus was referring to, the message is clear.  We too can lose our flavor if the world around us corrupts and ruins what is good and pure and life-changing about us through the gospel of Jesus.  The message? Stay salt, stay pure, and be useful in Gods kingdom!

God bless you this week,

Michael