THE SALT OF THE EARTH

A Series of Practical Meditations

by Stephen Tyng

20. The Salt of the Earth

"You are the salt of the earth." Matt 5:13

The people of God are in the world, not only for its instruction, but for its preservation also. This is the great purpose of salt in the natural world, to withstand corruption in the earth. This is also the aspect of Christian usefulness, which it is employed to describe. The people of God are here to resist and counteract the power of human sin; to preserve men from ruin under the burden of their iniquities. To rescue the wretched, and save the lost, and restore the decaying, is their great responsibility and office in the world. Thus they are divinely employed, and for this they are divinely blessed. They are thus the salt of the earth. It is a most important title. I would faithfully realize its meaning and its purpose in myself, and in my own relationships to the world around me. If I am to be the salt of the earth,

1. Then I ought to exercise a positive influence in the world. This is the purpose and property of salt. It is intended in all things to exercise its own power to influence and change; and such is the grace of God in the heart and life of man; and such must be the actions of the man thus changed, in his communion with others. My influence must all be active. To restrain evil; to overcome hostility; to increase happiness; to diminish sorrow among men--to the utmost extent of my power. My personal influence may be more or less in amount. This is not under my own control. God assigns me my place and my station. But whatever its amount, its character must always be the same. It must be manifest and active. I cannot yield to the sinful influence of others. I am to counteract and overcome it. For this I am in the world. Not to seek my own pleasure, but to promote and testify the truth. For this I must exert myself continually. It will not do for me to go through the world in a mere negative character. I must ask, Whom have I blessed? To whom have I been a savor of life? Salt that has lost its savor is profitable for nothing. A Christian without active religious usefulness is no better. Let me solemnly look to this.

2. Then I ought to cultivate the active power of grace in my own heart. Grace is to influence my own character, before I can be the instrument of grace to others. The attributes of my nature are all to be subdued and sanctified by a Divine power. My mind, my judgment, my heart, my will, must all receive and manifest the influence of this heavenly salt. It will sanctify my conversation. It will govern and direct my actions. It will adorn the whole current and course of my life. Thus it will become active in blessing and saving others; but it will not without my constant cultivation of its growth and power within myself. It must, therefore, be a constant subject of effort and watchfulness with me. To be useful to others, I must be alive in myself. If religion is really living in my heart, it will become natural and easy for me to do good. This ought to be my state. I will endeavor that it may be. I am not straitened in God. I will strive to improve the abundant privileges he bestows. I can do no good unless I have a clear consciousness of my own sincerity in the service of Christ, and of my real fellowship with him.

3. Then I ought to be constantly watchful over my daily walk among men. Influence is always active. I cannot refuse to exercise it. It is not under my control in its existence and operation. In its character it may be. Oh that my influence might be always for good! Wherever I am, something may be done or left undone, something may be said or withheld, which must exercise an influence, and may be made to produce a good influence upon others. How many secret thoughts come from what we see and hear, even when they are not addressed to us; no, even when we hear by mere accident! I cannot tell what thoughts I may be the means of exciting; or what direction, even permanent direction, I may thus give to the character and mind of some other person. Oh let them not testify against me! Let me labor ever for good! I ought never to be unguarded. How much evil to myself, and to others, may come from one unguarded or hasty act or moment! Let me ever walk circumspectly, and be salt indeed, in the associations in which the will of God has placed me.

4. Then I must be careful not to lose the gifts of grace myself. Salt that has lost its savor is good for nothing. It cannot be used, like many other substances, in its decomposition and decay. It is cast out; trodden under foot. Oh could there be another such illustration of a useless and unprofitable professing Christian? Of what worth can he be? Fit for nothing. If a minister of the gospel becomes corrupt, he is odious. Desirable for no position. Trusted in none. If a Christian be light, or vain, or worldly, he is a great evil. Far greater than if he had never professed to be the servant of Christ. How great is the danger of this to me! How terrific will be the responsibility for it! Shall I ever become an apostate? Shall I ever be a mere monument of human deceitfulness and crime in the church of Christ? Oh let me watch and pray, and strive against this tremendous evil! God only can keep me from it. But if I seek him and trust him, he will keep me.

5. Such are the properties of salt--as illustrating Christian character. Active influence upon others; dependent upon the living power within; to be maintained in unceasing operation; worthless if this be lost. Oh let me be the salt of the earth, and learn and try to do the will of God from my heart. Let my influence, conversation; example, and habits of life all be made subservient to my Master's will, and promotive of my Master's glory.

Oh may I never silence break,
Unless I with your guidance speak;
Then sanctify my every word,
That I may honor you, my Lord.

THE SALT OF THE EARTH

THE SALT OF THE EARTH
[Roger T. Forster]

"Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men" (Matthew 5:13).

"For every one shall be salted with fire. Salt is good: but if the salt have lost its saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace one with another" (Mark 9:49-50).

"Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill; but men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear" (Luke 14:34-35).

CHRISTIANITY has a tang in it! It is a salty business. It is like the early morning spring breeze off the sea that bites into your face, or, perhaps, a thunderstorm, when you push your face out into the rain and it stings. Or like the aching in your legs and the beating of your heart when you get to the top of a mountain. There is something pungent, biting, about it; there is an edge in Christianity which the Lord Jesus says can be lost. In being Christians we can somehow lose the salt of the whole business, and there is no bite in us. We can be seasonless, insipid Christians.

In three places, one recorded in each of the first three Gospels, our Lord Jesus uses this simile for Christian living. If we lose that 'salt' we are still Christians, but Jesus says in Matthew 5:13 that we are 'good for nothings': "ye are the salt of the earth, but if the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is henceforth good for nothing ." We are not even as much use to God as Nebuchadnezzar was, evil man though he could be, for at least he could be used as a chastening rod on God's people. We are not bad enough to be any good to God, and we are not good enough to be any good to God. We are just nothing, 'good for nothings', Christians who have lost their tang.

In Mark 9:49 the Lord Jesus says: "Everyone shall be salted with fire." If we have lost our saltness, we are not able to be consumed or to burn. We are just like clods. We cannot catch fire, there is no warmth in us, we are muddy and damp, and [57/58] there is not very much light coming from us. Amy Carmichael said:

"Let me not sink to be a clod;

Make me Thy fuel, flame of God."

Christians who lose their salt are but non-burnable clods in the Lord's eves.

In Luke 14 the Lord Jesus says that if we lose our seasoning we are neither fit for the land nor for the dunghill. We are not fit. We are out of condition. There is a middle-aged spiritual spread appearing, and we are not able to keep pressing on with the virility of what it means to be a Christian.

I wonder if, as we look at our own Christian lives, at ourselves as a church, and at the state of Christianity in the world, it would be unfair to call to mind these sayings of the Lord Jesus to test ourselves? Are we but 'good for nothings' as far as the Gospel is concerned? Are we but clods? Are we really not fit for this whole business of Christian living?

THE EFFECT OF CHRISTIANS IN THE WORLD

The first of these sayings has to do with the world. It was in the Sermon on the Mount, of course, that it was given, and as the multitudes gathered round the Lord Jesus He turned very deliberately to His disciples, not because He was unconcerned with the masses, who were like sheep without a shepherd -- for He "was moved with compassion toward them" (Mark 6:32) -- but because He purposed to affect the multitude through His people, who were going to be 'salt'.

"Ye are the salt of the earth", He says; and there is something about this biting edge in Christian living which is to do with our attitude to the world, to the multitudes who are without Christ in the earth, for if we have lost our saltness we are "cast out". We are "trodden under foot of men." The Lord Jesus is concerned, in this first application of the word 'salt', with our biting edge in relation to the world. Are we affecting the society in which we live? Are we infiltrating like salt into the infection to hinder society's corruption'? Is such an impact being made through our Christian living? If not, we are just going to be cast under the feet of men.

Concerning the recent publication of yet another book advocating a new, anaemic version of Christianity, certain non-Christians commented that if this is all that Christianity is, then it is about time that Christians gave the whole business up. They are throwing Christianity, as it were, under their feet, because it is such a world-accommodating, non-cutting, insipid affair, so watered down, that it has virtually nothing to say to a corrupting society.

Are we salt that has lost its savour? The Lord Jesus says in verses 11 and 12 of this chapter: 'Happy are ye if men revile you and persecute you', but the Church is not being persecuted in Western Europe. Men think so little of us that they say: 'Let us just walk over the top of them and ignore them'; and when the Church of Jesus Christ is being ignored in the world it is because the salt has gone. Otherwise there would be an antagonism. The Lord Jesus says so.

Are we looking round with superior, patronising smiles at the decadence of our society, saying how very soon the end time must be, and this is really about as much as we can expect? Rather we should see it as an indictment upon our Christian living that the salt has gone and we are not hindering the corruption about us.

Men did not treat the early Church like this. They persecuted it, and tried to destroy it; but when we are so thoroughly ignored that we are hardly worth considering, then we are no longer the salt of the earth . Yet the earth has no other salt than the Church of Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus did not say that we could find the salt elsewhere. The only hindrance to mankind's final rundown in energy, moral and ethical, and in dignity and ability is the Church of Jesus Christ -- and that is you and I. We are called into this great calling.

THE PEACE OF GOD'S HOUSE

In Mark's Gospel, chapter 9, the emphasis upon the salt is different. The disciples had been arguing about who was the greatest -- and it is a very important thing to some in the Church of Jesus Christ as to who is No. 1 Apostle, No. 2 Apostle, No. 3 Apostle, etc. Everyone has to be in their right order!

After the disciples' arguments the Lord Jesus took a little child, put him in their midst and said: 'This is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven', and went on to explain that if we do not live in that sort of way, but go on living with our self-ambition, self-assertion and exalting of what we are, all we are going to create is war, but it will be a war amongst God's people. John had just confessed: 'You know, Lord, I met a man the other day, and he was casting out devils in Your name, so I said to him: "Don't do it! You are not with us."' It is that sort of officialdom, superiority, feeling that we are the 'in group', which creates all the disturbance and antagonism in the Church. So verse 49 says "Everyone shall be salted with fire. Salt is good, but if the salt have lost its saltness, wherewith will ye [58/59] season it? Have salt in yourselves , and be at peace one with another."

So the second reason for the necessity of salty Christianity is that it is the only way to preserve peace amongst God's people. By destroying that self-assertiveness whereby each of us strives for first place, we find peace with, and love for, one another. Can we apply this in our present context to-day? Do we really find a great deal of peace amongst God's people? Are we not still so concerned about arguing our pet point as to who is the first and who understands things the best, and everyone else is less than we are? We have such a great understanding, we are really the 'in crowd', we have the true appointment of God, and that man has not. And so there are divisions. We argue, we divide, and then some of us try to join together by signing bits of paper and dismissing our doctrines -- but that is not the way to solve the problem. The way is to get the salt of fire, the burning of the Holy Ghost. We need salt if we are going to live together in the peace of God's House, and we cannot do without it.