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It is impossible for us fully to appreciate the significance of this text until we decide the exact connotation of this term. Our Lord took for granted that His hearers would understand what He meant, that salt was very commonly  used in our Lord's day. There was no need for any qualification whatsoever when He said "Ye are the salt of the earth."

Salt  was used for one primary and pre-eminent purpose —as an aseptic; to prevent the process of decay  and putrefaction in meats and foodstuffs.  In our Lord's day you would find in every home a certain quantity of salt, and the housewife would make use of it to prevent foodstuffs, and meats especially, from putrefy­ing.

The conclusion, therefore, that the Lord  is saying of the world in which His people lived, as in the grip of moral and spiritual decay. The world,  in effect, is in process of moral and spiritual putre­faction.

The world is dead in trespasses and sins; and the evidences of that decay are to be seen on all hands. But ye, says the Master, you, my people, you whom I have redeemed, you are the salt of the earth. You are in this world as a moral and spiritual aseptic.

You are now quite different from the world. There was a time when you were of the world, when you too were in the grip of the evil one, when you too were dead: but you are no longer in that condition.

For He delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the Kingdom of His beloved Son (Col. 1.13)

Psalm 1. Reminds  us,  “He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water”  (Supernaturally planted in an arid desert)

That reminds us we cannot live our  lives drawing on our own resources which are earthy, we know from Genesis  Chapter 3. That the earth was also  corrupted when man fell.  Relying on our own resources will only  bring toil and failure.

But You are my people ; I have called you out of the world says the Lord Jesus Christ, now you are entirely different.  You possess a different life.

The process of death is evident in the world around, but in you we see the evidences of life. And what a life! God looks upon His children as the recipients of a divine nature,

as those who by grace are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, as those who have the mind of Christ. God looks upon His people in all generations as new creatures in Christ Jesus.

And so, our Lord looking into the faces of these His disciples, says, "You are the salt of the earth. There is something in you which is capable of stemming the tide of sin around you.

There is something in you which, by the grace of God, is capable of stopping the impetus of iniquity. Yours is a life, a triumphant life,  a victorious life, a life of true glorious, God-given victory."

 

This is one of the great declara­tions of the  Scriptures. God means His people to triumph over their difficulties,

to be victors over their sin,

to rise up with wings as eagles,

to run and not be weary,

to walk and not faint.

Next Page - A spiritual asceptic of society

Living in God’s Kingdom- - Study two

The True Commission of the

Citizen of the Kingdom of God-

“You are the salt of   the earth”

It is into this world that we are  to be  “The salt of the earth, and to impart  Spiritual morality“  Upon the the environment in which we live in.

 But You are my people ; I have called you out of the world says the Lord Jesus Christ, now you are entirely different.  You possess a different life.