JP’s Mind

Luke 14:34-35 AMP  Salt is good [an excellent thing], but if salt has lost its strength and has become saltless (insipid, flat), how shall its saltness be restored?  (35)  It is fit neither for the land nor for the manure heap; men throw it away. He who has ears to hear, let him listen and consider and comprehend by hearing!

The Living Bible gives a modern slant to Jesus’ warning:

“What good is salt that has lost its saltiness? Flavorless salt is fit for nothing - not even for fertilizer. It is worthless and must be thrown out. Listen well if you would understand my meaning.”

It may sound unusual to read of salt losing its saltiness, yet salt has different grades of quality and purity. Even today, only the highest grade of salt reaches the dining table. Most poorer grades of salt are used in industrial processes.

In ancient times, salt was rarely pure. During Biblical times, most salt in Israel came from the Dead Sea and was often mixed with impurities, making the salt less salty. There were also conditions in which salt could be leached out or made less effective, through exposure to water, air, excessive sunlight or even other chemicals. The Victor Bible Background Commentary informs us:

“In Israel salt was mined from a great ledge of rock salt lying near the Dead Sea and evaporated from that Sea’s waters. The rock salt deteriorated in high temperatures, and moisture could leach the salt from the rock. Thus this important product could lose its saltiness - and become absolutely worthless.“

In a similar vein, “flakes of salt form on the rock shores of the Dead Sea at night. In the morning the sun rises. Under its heat the salt loses is saltiness. It blends with the shore and loses its distinctiveness.”

To illustrate this leaching process, Marvin Vincent quotes the following story:

“A merchant of Sidon, having farmed of the government the revenue from the importation of salt, brought over a great quantity from the marshes of Cyprus - enough, in fact, to supply the whole province for many years. This he had transferred to the mountains, to cheat the government out of some small percentage of duty. Sixty-five houses were rented and filled with salt. Such houses have merely earthen floors, and the salt next the ground was in a few years entirely spoiled. [L]arge quantities of it [were] literally thrown into the road to be trodden under foot of men and beasts. It was ‘good for nothing.”

Salt can lose its saltiness if it is adulterated with inferior substances. In the same way, your distinctiveness as a follower of Jesus can be watered down if you mix a biblical lifestyle with the world’s lifestyle.