Salt

“For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. Salt [is] good: but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another.” (Mr 9:49-50 AV)

Salt is an antiseptic.  It cleanses bacteria which we cannot see.  The Old Testament law required that all sacrifices be salted before they were placed upon the brazen altar.  This assured that the sacrifice was pure down to the microscopic level.  Salt was often placed in an open wound before dressing.  Salt was added to meat that was stored.  Salt was more than just a seasoning.  It was a preservative.  Verse 49 has commentators baffled.  The ‘every one’ is said to be those who are lost and refuse to repent.  However, the antiseptic nature of God’s presence works on the lost and on the saved.  We are saved yet so as by fire.  The fire of God’s cleansing or the fire of God’s judgment; either way, every soul will experience one or the other.  The application above can be thought of two ways.  First, it might be a call to salvation.  To have salt in oneself could mean to go through the cleansing of God’s holy fire and be saved by the blood of Jesus Christ.  But it could also mean to have the flame of God’s cleansing as a permanent influence on the soul.

Sodium Chloride is the chemical name for salt.  Sodium Chlorine is a stable mineral.  Pure salt will always be salty.  So, how does salt lose its saltiness?  There are several ways in which salt can lose its saltiness, but it all boils down to one cause.  When salt is neglected, it will lose its saltiness.  How is that possible if sodium chloride is a stable compound?  The answer is in how it is harvested, stored, and used.  Rarely does salt appear in its purest form.  Salt is often mixed with other compounds.  It is harvested and stored, then purified, then sold.  Since salt is water soluble, when neglected, the humility or rain will wash the salt away from the other minerals and what is left looks like salt.  But it doesn’t taste like salt.  I have also noticed that heat will do the same.  We keep our rock salt in the front entryway, which is almost completely glass.  It is easily 20 degree hotter than the outside.  The heat mixed with the humidity turns the salt into a shallow puddle.  The salt has to be stored in a cool and dry place.  In other words, the best way to manage salt is to purify the latent minerals from it and then use it.  Salt loses its saltiness when it lays there unused.

When the LORD challenges all people to have salt in themselves, it is a call to salvation and yielding to the effective ministry of the Holy Spirit.  This implies a choice on our part.  Unlike the sacrifice of the Old Testament that didn’t have a choice in the matter, we do.  Whether we choose to be cleansed by the blood of Christ or burn in the eternal fires of damnation, it is our choice.  God will not force anyone to accept Jesus.  If they refuse, then God does force them to suffer eternally for their refusal of His grace.  For the saint, God does not force us unto a life of purity.  We must yield to the work of the Holy Spirit.  We have to allow salt to do its work.  It also appears by the word ‘have’ that this choice is a proactive one.  It is a choice of pursuit as much as it is a choice of yielding.  To have something, one must reach out and grab it.  Jesus knows what we need.  He knows better than anyone.  The salt of God’s cleansing by the word of God and ministry of the Holy Spirit is something we both pursue and allow.  I don’t know about you, but the smell of rotting flesh or food is not something I enjoy.  If we don’t allow the Holy Spirit to do His work, then our testimony will not be something God or others will appreciate.