Salt or sodium chloride is an amazing mineral and has been used in countless ways throughout history. Salt is used to cleanse, purify, season, and preserve. It is a mineral that almost everyone in the world consumes and is vital for our bodies to function properly. It is interesting to note the Lord tells us we are to be spiritual salt. “Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.” (Matthew 5:13 KJV).
The parallel between the action of the mineral salt and the effect of believers in this world is similar. One specific effect was made evident to me at the end of a youth camp, I asked an unbelieving teenage girl who accompanied us if the camp had done anything for her. She said, “It made me curious about the things of the Lord and I want to know more.”
She was made thirsty for the things of God. Is this not an effect of salt? Since our conversation, I have thought a lot about the idea of our lives making others thirsty to know more about the Lord. How does this work? How can we make others spiritually thirsty? In the Old Testament, salt was to be offered with all offerings presented to the Lord as a symbol of the holiness of Christ. We can then conclude that holy living is needed to produce spiritual saltiness. As born-again believers, we are made holy in Christ. (Ephesians 1:4)
It is our responsibility to live in this new position. “As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: but as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation: because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:14-16 KJV).
The way we deal with problems can also make us salty. If we can respond to the difficulties, disappointments, and frustrations of life with hope and assurance that our Lord has all things in His control, we will have the effect of salt on others. Our lives will cause the people around us to become curious. They will become spiritually thirsty.
The question is, are you and I “salty”, or have we lost our “savor”? Spiritual saltiness does not develop out of our self-righteousness or good works. It can only come as self is crucified and the Holy Spirit works through us.
Are we supplying our neighborhood, workplace, family, or our church with pure spiritual salt? Are we causing others to thirst after the Lord?
“Our great problem is trafficking in unlived truth. We try to communicate what we've never experienced in our own life.” ~D.L. Moody