We, together, are the salt of the earth. We season our world, making it taste good to God. And individually we are to have salt in ourselves--the salt of peace within and among ourselves. Salt is something we are, not something we do. And salt that has lost its flavor is sand in the saltshaker, It was never salt in the first place.
My quest to discover the meaning and intended application of Jesus’ command to go and be reconciled to any believer I know to hold an offense against me now leads me to an earlier piece of the same discourse–Jesus’ statement that we, all believers, together, are the salt and the light of the world. I will start with verse 13, which calls me, as one of “you” (plural), the salt of the earth:
This is a statement of fact, not a command.
I am aware that it is traditional to read it as a command–I must go and be salt, as if being salt is something I must do. But it is not a command. It is a statement–you, plural you, all believers in Jesus, together, ARE the salt of the earth. Though in this context Greek would have permitted Jesus to omit the indicative present tense copula (“are”) altogether, he used it (este, Matthew 5:13 in Greek Interlinear), and so emphasized that he was equating us to the salt of the world, not commanding us to be or become salt.
Like it or not, we now ARE the salt of the earth, the only salt the present human world will ever know.
But what is salt? What is its function?
And what is Jesus talking about when he speaks of salt that has lost its flavor?
First, it must be said that salt is a single, well-characteized chemical substance. We now know it as sodium chloride. But even in Jesus’ day it was known to be a single substance, distinct from all others, and its most important properties were known. People knew what salt looked and tasted like, knew it was soluble in water–unlike the sand with which it was sometimes found to be mixed–knew how to refine and purify it, and knew how to use it.
Sodium chloride does not have to DO anything to be or become salt. It simply IS salt.
When discussing Jesus’ saying about salt, interpreters often point out that salt had four uses in the world of Jesus’ day: 1) it was used as a seasoning; 2) it was used as a preservative; 3) it was used (painfully!) as a styptic, a medical treatment that stopped bleeding from wounds, and an antiseptic; and 4) it was used as a currency–the salarum, salary, paid Roman soldiers. Modern presentations then tend to focus on its use as a preservative, and say that when we do what salt does, we preserve the world from evil. So our focus tends to be placed on the things we do as a church and as politically involved individuals to fight against moral corruption in other people and society as a whole.
But this seems to me to be emphasize the wrong aspect of saltiness, and to convert Jesus’ statement of fact into a command to do something.
Granted, we do preserve the world, simply by being here, by being the focus of God’s love here. And to the extent we are letting the Spirit live through us, our lives–our being, not our doing–are calling others away from evil and toward God and restraining the growth of evil. But, even in this function, our role is that of a preservative, not an abrasive. It is not our calling to scour evil out of other people or society. Only God does that. Our calling is to simply be, together, who we are.
I believe Jesus’ real emphasis here is on the first use of salt, its use as a seasoning. We.as the salt of the world, are what makes God still perceive humanity to taste good. We are also what makes Christ taste good to those in our world who believe in him or will come to believe in him in the future. This can be seen in a parallel saying of Jesus in Mark:
Here, the emphasis is clearly on salt as a seasoning. Salt is good because it makes food taste good.
But what can be done with salt that has “lost” its saltiness? Simply adding good salt to it won’t work, because that will only adulterate and dilute the good salt I add to it. And adding some other seasoning won’t work, either–I would only be diluting the other seasoning to make something that isn’t salt and isn’t even salty.
So, if I find something that is labeled “salt” but has lost its flavor, the only thing I can do is throw it away.
But what is “salt” that has “lost” its saltiness?
Salt–sodium chloride, the real item–never “loses” its saltiness.
The key is found in the fact that the label on the container may not perfectly match its contents. Sand could become mixed in with salt, and, if the sand particles are the right color, they will be very hard to distinguish from the salt just by looking. Jesus made the same point in some of his kingdom parables in Matthew 13 show wheat and weeds growing together in the same field inseparable from each other and a fishing net full of both good and bad fish.
But when the salt is dissolved out of the container by moisture and use, it may appear that there is still some salt in the container, when really there is only sand that at first looks like salt. The test is to taste it. If it tastes salty, there is still salt there. But if it leaves only tasteless grit in my mouth, it is sand, not salt. This is “salt” that has “lost” its saltiness–or, more accurately, perhaps, sand that has lost its association with the salt in a container. The sodium chloride in the container did not mysteriously change to silicon dioxide (sand). It was always sand, never salt in the first place. It just is no longer mixed with salt.
Jesus then tells us what our “saltiness” is. If we have real salt “in” ourselves, we will be at peace with each other. Both of the verbs in this sentence are present imperatives–telling us as believers, together, to do something now. The first verb commands us to “have” salt “in” (or “within” or “among”) ourselves. It doesn’t command me, or us collectively, to “be” salt or to “act like” salt. It only tells me, and us collectively, to “have” salt within ourselves and between ourselves in our believing community–to let ourselves be seasoned with “salt,” to taste good to each other and to God.
The second command tells us collectively, and me as one of “us,” to be “at peace” with each other. This peace is our saltiness, the salt we are to “have” in ourselves. It is what makes us taste good.
In the Bible generally, having peace within and among ourselves involves much more than simply staying out of active conflict. The Greek verb Jesus used in this verse is actually quite broad, and includes a commitment to active reconciliation, harmony and wholeness. This is explained in BibleHub.com’s Topical Lexicon as follows:
BibleHub.com Topical Lexicon, Strong’s NT Greek No. 1514
“Having” salt “in” myself is the same thing as “being” at peace with others in the Body of Christ. I am commanded both to “have” salt “in” myself and to “be” at peace with other believers. We collectively are commanded to “have” salt within our community and to “be” at peace with each other.
If I consistently put other priorities above having peace, refuse to be reconciled to other believers who seek reconciliation with me. or neglect to pursue peace in conflicts in which I am involved, I may not be salt at all. I may be salt that has lost its saltiness–sand in the saltshaker, pretending to be salt. That is Jesus’ warning to me, individually.
I’ll say more about the application to local churches and the Body of Christ a little later.
But, first, I need to put Mark 9:50 into its context. The verse just before it states:
This verse connects the “salt” which we are to have in ourselves with the “fire” with which everyone “will be salted”-passively-by God. God will refine us. He will remove–burn out–that which does not please him. But I have a choice–to have salt in myself as he commands, to let him make peace (which still requires some burning!) and make me like himself, or to be consumed. So it is a very serious choice.
This verse also connects verse 50, with its command to “have” salt in ourselves, directly to the Old Testament regulations, which require every offering have salt added to it:
In the Old Testament sacrificial system, the salt offered to God was a seasoning–it was necessary for the offering to have a “pleasing aroma” and be accepted by God. The salt was necessary because it represented God’s covenant with Israel, the only way either the worshipper or their offering could be accepted by God. It was a declaration to God and a reminder to the worshipper that they could only come before God at all because he had provided them a way to do so, and they were following the way he had provided.
And it should not be forgotten that God’s covenant was with all of the children of Israel, not with any individual worshipper alone. Individuals could come before God with an offering, seasoned with the salt of the covenant, only as part of the family with which he had that covenant. They came as one of “us,” not as “me” alone, and the salt was a reminder of this.
Now consider how this affects Paul’s instructions in Romans 12 to present our bodies as a living sacrifice:
We are urged to present our bodies as “a” living sacrifice. This is exactly how it reads in the Greek, too–“bodies” is plural, but “sacrifice” is singular. We are, together, a single sacrifice. It is this single living sacrifice, of all of our individual bodies together, that is “your” (plural) reasonable service (singular) to God.
So we are each, individually, exhorted to give our part of this sacrifice–our own bodies. I am exhorted to give my body. But this sacrifice is received by God as a single sacrifice, made by all of us, together. Not “me,” but “us.”
Where is the salt of the covenant in this living sacrifice? It is that we recognize that we are only able to make this sacrifice by the “mercies” of God. “Mercy” here is another very broad word:
BibleHub.com Topical Lexicon, Strong’s NT Greek No. 3628
Thus, in recognizing that we present our bodies to him only through his mercies toward us, we also recognize that we are to show that same mercy to others. Applied to me: I will remain responsive to the needs of others. Where reconciliation is needed with another believer, I will both seek it and freely give it, because I know that I am able to offer my body to God because he has shown me mercy, reconciled us, and included me in all of “us.” I will have salt in myself and live at peace with the Body.
Now I reach an aspect of this “salt” as peace with each other in which I have recently stumbled particularly badly:
Living wisely requires speaking wisely. The “you” in this passage is a plural you, applying to all of us together, but I will now apply it to myself: What I say must show grace and respond to the need of my hearers. And it also must be “seasoned with salt,” so that I may know how to respond to others’ needs, which is something I obviously don’t know how to do properly without adding salt to my speech.
In this verse, the “grace” and the “salt” work together. Grace–good will, lovingkindness, favor, sweetness–is something God has shown me, and when I speak I am to show the grace God has shown me to others. My words–all of them, with no exceptions–should be for their good, to build them up, not to manipulate them to get my way or to tear them down. But making this work requires that I have salt in myself, the salt of being at peace and leaving God free to seek peace through me.
And in this I have recently stumbled badly. It is only by faith–faith that is often very weak–that I can find even the faint hope that those I have damaged with my words will ever find forgiveness for me or be restored.
This leads into the last relevant portion of the context of Mark 9:50:
The context of Mark 9:49-50 immediately involves 1) setting stumbling blocks or traps in front of other believers–“these little ones who believe” and 2) falling over them or being trapped by them myself. I have omitted verses 45 through 48, which merely add feet and eyes to the list of body parts I should prefer to have removed rather than be caused to “stumble” by them. The word here translated to “cause to stumble” is skandalizō, the word from which the English word “scandalize” comes. It has a small but somewhat complex cluster of meanings:
![Properly, set a snare ("stumbling-block"); (figuratively) "to hinder right conduct or thought; to cause to stumble" – literally, "to fall into a trap"… Helps Word Studies
properly, to put a stumbling-block or impediment in the way, upon which another may trip and fall; to be a stumbling-block; in the N. T. always metaphorically, (R. V. to cause or make to stumble; A. V. to offend (cause to offend));…
a. to entice to sin…
b. "to cause a person to begin to distrust and desert one whom he ought to trust and obey; to cause to fall away," and in the passive, to fall away… [passive] to be offended in one, (find occasion of stumbling in), i. e. to see in another what I disapprove of and what hinders me from acknowledging his authority… to cause one to judge unfavorably or unjustly of another… to cause one to feel displeasure at a thing; to make indignant… to be displeased, indignant (A. V. offended)
Thayer’s Greek Lexicon
BibleHub.com Topical Lexicon, Strong’s NT Greek No. 4624](https://i0.wp.com/kingdomoftheheavens.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Def-skandalizo.jpg?fit=598%2C397&ssl=1)
.BibleHub.com Topical Lexicon, Strong’s NT Greek No. 4624
The underlying meaning is to set an impediment–a “stumbling block”–where someone can fall over it and become trapped. But it refers to setting any kind of trap, and metaphorically to any kind of enticement to sin against God, to distrust someone they ought to trust or to bring an unjust judgment against another. Recall that, in the Garden of Eden, Genesis 3:4-6, all human sin originated from the serpent’s enticement to bring an unjust judgment against God (i.e., he was being stingy by denying humans the knowledge of evil) and to therefore distrust and disobey God, and it will be appreciated just how broad this word is. It covers all of the possible motivations for sin, when placed by one person in another person’s path.
It also covers every possible offense one person may give to another that may result in bitterness or a grudge.
Verse 42 speaks to the person who has placed a trap that another believer who previously trusted God–“one of these little ones who believe in me”–to stumble, fall and become entrapped in sin, unbelief or bitterness. Jesus says it would be better for that person to be tied by the neck to a heavy millstone and be drowned than to cause another believer to fall into the trap.
Verses 43 through 48 then reverse the focus and speak of things over which I may stumble and become entrapped. The three examples given–a hand, a foot and an eye–are clearly hyperbole. As Dallas Willard has pointed out, I use my body parts to sin, but they do not entice me or cause me to sin. Sin comes from my heart, not from my hand or my eye. I could cut off both of my hands and both of my feet, and poke out both of my eyes, and still spend all of my time sitting in my wheelchair thinking bitter, proud, greedy or lustful thoughts and wishing I could still do something to fulfill them. And I could still say words that tear other people down or entice them to sin. So Jesus really isn’t telling me to cut off body parts.
What he is telling me is that, if I know of things in my heart that entice me to sin or cause me to place stumbling blocks in front of others, I must ruthlessly cut those things out of my life. It is better to lose those things than to go to hell!
So verses 43 through 48, taken together, show the possible consequences and extreme seriousness of maintaining stumbling blocks in my own life and of placing them in others’ lives. These things bring judgment if not corrected. And it is God who makes the correction possible, as shown by the beginning of the next verse:
Everyone will be salted, purified, with fire. But not everyone will voluntarily make themselves a living sacrifice. Those who become living sacrifices will be seasoned–made to taste good–by this fire/salt. They will have salt in themselves:
The result of the salt in those who are seasoned by it is, once again, to set us at peace with one another. Love is what makes us taste good to God.
But if I refuse to be set at peace with another believer, I refuse to let God season me with this salt.
In that case, I will have lost any saltiness I once seemed to have and will have shown that I was always sand in the saltshaker, not real salt. I will then be good for nothing except to be thrown out and walked on.
This is another reason anger must be overcome and offenses reconciled before they grow into bitter grudges. I can’t be bitter and be the salt of the earth at the same time.
The choice is mine.
