by Benjamin Lloyd

Created on: December 31, 2008   Last Updated: November 25, 2011

The term "salt of the earth" originates from the Bible. In Matthew 5:13, Jesus spoke these words to his disciples. These words are still relevant for today's disciples.

Being the salt of the earth means to be a preservative. Salt is used as a preservative in many ways. Jesus was telling His disciples that if they did not preserve the earth, then who would?

In the Old Testament of the Bible, to eat salt with another man meant that a covenant had been formed between the two. As the salt of the earth, we have made a covenant with God to be faithful to Him until we reach heaven.

There are over 10,000 uses of sodium chloride, more commonly known as salt. Salt is composed of a soft, silvery, poisonous metal (sodium) and a greenish poisonous gas (chlorine/chloride). It's amazing how God can take these two harmful items and join them to make such a common item.

God can also take a sinful person and make something positive out of him/her. Salt is also the only rock that we eat on a daily basis.

Salt is used in making many of the foods that we eat. It also adds flavor to our foods. Salt can be used to make personal hygiene items such as soap, shampoo, and cleaners.

Salt is also used to make the medicines we partake of, whether liquid or tablet. However, salt can also be a killer. It is used in pesticides (pest killers), and herbicides (plant/weed killers).

Salt is used to melt ice, especially on major highways after a snowstorm. It can also be used in making glues.

Salt has also been used as a form of payment. People used to get paid by salt, which is how we come up with the word salary, a persons earnings. Wars were even fought over salt.

Yet the most common use of salt is to preserve from decay, and corruption. In the old days before refrigeration, people realized they could put salt on meats and they would last longer than without the salt.

Christ tells us that we are the salt of the earth. As Christians, we have many ways to be used by God, just as we have many uses for salt. We must also be a preservative of the Christian values. Do not let them become corrupt through false doctrines.

And if the salt loses its savor, it is good for nothing. In Bible times, it was difficult to tell the difference between the salt and the sand on the shores of the sea. It was really a mixture of salt and sand. When it was more sand than salt, it had "lost its savor" and therefore was good for nothing but to be "cast out and trodden under the foot of man.".

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