I love to cook all types of food at any time of the day! I especially like cooking using a variety of spices and layering them so that each of the individual spices can be tasted while being a part of the larger symbiotic infusion.

And yet, for every unique dish there seems to one key ingredient that each recipe calls for; SALT. It is the oldest known food additive and anyone who cooks knows that salt is one of the essential ingredients that make or break a recipe.

Everyone knows how unpleasant a dish is when the salt which should have been included is accidentally omitted in the preparation. Besides contributing its own basic ‘salty’ taste, salt brings out natural flavors and makes foods more enjoyable.

Salt was the earliest of all preservatives because it seems to put a kind of life into food and defends against corruption.

In bakery items salt provides more than just adding to the taste. It strengthens gluten in bread dough and provides uniform grain, texture, and strength. With salt present in the mixture, the gluten is able to hold more water and carbon dioxide, which allows the dough to expand without tearing by retarding and controlling the rate of fermentation, important in making a uniform product.

In cheese, salt develops the characteristic rind hardness and helps produce the desirable and even consistency and controls fermentation.

I say all that to say that salt plays an important part of our lives so it shouldn’t surprise us that it is mentioned in the Bible. The ancients declared that there was nothing in the world purer than salt because it came from the two purest things, the sun and the sea.

Leviticus 2:13 says:

“And every offering of your grain offering you shall season with salt; you shall not allow the salt of the covenant of your God to be lacking from your grain offering. With all your offerings you shall offer salt.”

In the Bible, believers in Christ are called “Salt”

“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.” (Matthew 5:13)

The pure whiteness of salt was used as a picture of purity. And if the Christian has lost the purity of the Christian life, where will the world ever get these things?"

Jesus used “salt” as something that we need to have in our lives:

“Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.” (Colossians 4:6)

Jesus is telling us that we need to always be gracious in our speech. The goal is to bring out the best in others in a conversation, not put them down, and not cut them out. When you speak, speak graciously (as if seasoned with salt), so you will know how to respond to everyone rightly.

The Bible reminds us:

“Salt is good, but if the salt loses its flavor, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace with one another.” (Mark 9:50)

Jesus was challenging the Christian to add salt in the sense of purity. He is telling us that our speech needs to have the flavor and the purity that only the Holy Spirit can bring.

In other words, Jesus is saying that it is only the life that is cleansed of self and filled with Christ which can live in real fellowship with men.

As William Barclay wrote:

"Have within yourselves the purifying influence of the Spirit of Christ. Be purified from selfishness and self-seeking, from bitterness and anger and grudge-bearing. Be cleansed from irritation and moodiness and self-centeredness, and then, and then only, you will be able to live in peace with your fellow men."

In light of that; Pass the Salt!

New King James Version (NKJV)

Mar 5, 2015

Pass The Salt!