Luke 14:34

Luk_14:34-35

Salt is good

Salt that is genuine, and salt that is saltless

Among the substances that enter into the composition of this globe of earth, salt is a very important one, being of essential use in the economy of the world, and eminently conducive to the preservation of human life.

It may be regarded as the grand conservative principle of nature, whose office is to keep this earth, the habitation of man, in a wholesome state, to check the progress of decay and corruption, and promote the health and wellbeing of the animal world. To fit it for these important purposes, the All-wise Creator, who communicates to every element its peculiar character, has given it the quality of being soluble in water, and has thus made it capable of diffusing itself over the whole globe, impregnating the various departments of nature, and penetrating the finest fibres of vegetable and animal substances--a hidden agent that, by means of the element that holds it in solution,conveys its salutary influence to every region of creation. Suspended in strong infusion in the ocean, it preserves its immense reservoirs from putrefaction, and makes them the means of conveying health to the shores they wash, and salubrity to the atmosphere that rises above them; while it further serves, by increasing the gravity of the waters, to aid in buoying up the tribes that inhabit and the ships that navigate them. It is largely deposited in the heart of the earth, in rocks and strata. It is also found to enter into the composition of plants, some of which yield it in large quantities, and even to form an ingredient in the bodies of animals. If this element were withdrawn, the great deep, we have reason to think, would become a putrid pool, the air would consequently be a pestilential vapour, and vegetable and animal life would quickly be extinct. Now our Lord here speaks of salt in a figurative sense, using it as an illustration to declare the excellence and usefulness of the Christian character, as exemplified in those who maintain it faithfully and consistently; and the loss of all excellence, the shipwreck of all valuable attainments and of all good hope, in those who forsake and abandon the principles and spirit with which they once started on the Christian race.

I. THE EXCELLENCE AND USEFULNESS OF THE CHRISTIAN CHARACTER The disciples of Christ are destined to the same office in the moral world that salt supplies in the natural--namely, to check the progress of corruption, and diffuse salubrity and health; and while they preserve their appropriate character, they fulfil this high destination. Sound in principle and exemplary in conduct themselves, they serve to arrest corruption in others; savouring the things of God, they communicate the same unction to others; active and beneficent, they extend a beneficial influence around them. The faithful followers of Christ are like good salt, in respect of those principles of truth which they embrace and maintain. For error corrupts the mind, and, insinuating itself through its faculties, will eat as doth a canker, and blend in all its communications; truth is the healing salt that arrests its progress and defeats the operation of the poison. Again, the true disciples are like good salt in respect of that temper of mind, and those good and gracious affections, which they cherish and manifest. For the truths of the gospel, when received in faith, fail not to renovate the heart and inspire it with corresponding dispositions: they necessarily awaken an unfeigned piety and holy reverence toward God, a simple, child-like dependence on Christ, a genuine benevolence toward men, a true humility, a spirit of sympathy with the afflicted, a desire to do good to all, a disposition to forgive injuries and to overcome evil with good. Now this temper of mind has a healing efficacy: like salt, it is diffusive, and tends to preserve the atmosphere of life from the putrid exhalations of selfishness, envy, and malevolence; it gives also a grateful relish and gracious aspect to society, fostering and maintaining in healthful exercise the substantial blessings of mutual esteem, friendship, and harmony. In a word, the true disciples are like good salt in respect of their whole conduct in life; which, while they act in character, cannot fail to have a beneficial influence, since it both presents a model to be copied, and suggests the motives and arguments that commend it. For their whole manner of life, if candidly interpreted, shows that they are governed by high and heavenly principles--that they are not of the world, but of the Father.

II. THE RUINED AND UNHAPPY CONDITION OF THOSE WHO ABANDON THAT CHARACTER. If he who bears the Christian name lose the distinctive qualities of his Christianity--if he relinquish those principles of truth which he has professed--if he forsake the Christian temper--if, forgetful of heavenly things, he immerse himself in the world and live for himself, for gain, for pleasure, and not for Christ--alas! the glory is departed, the usefulness of his character as a guide or example is at an end; he becomes, if not a betrayer, yet a deserter, worthless and contemptible, fit only to be cast out, and trodden under foot.

1. The salt loses its savour when professing Christians lose their relish for those Divine truths that peculiarly distinguish the gospel and make it what it is.

2. The salt loses its savour when professing Christians lose their relish for the duties of religion.

3. The salt loses its savour when professing Christians imbibe the love and become conformed to the spirit of the world.

4. The salt loses its savour when the professor of religion falls into open immorality. Finally, the salt has lost its savour when the soul learns to vindicate its errors and without shame to persist in them--when reproof is unwelcome, when expostulation is offensive, and the man is anxious rather to defend his character than amend his ways--when, deaf to admonition and rebuke, he wilfully yields himself to the snare of the devil, to be led captive at his will. How calamitous such termination of what was hopeful in its beginning! (H. Gray, D. D.)

Grace in crystals

It would take all time with an infringement upon eternity, for an angel of God to tell one-half the glories in salt-crystal. So with the grace of God; it is perfectly beautiful. Solomon discovered its anatomical qualities when he said, It is marrow to the bones. I am speaking now of a healthy religion--not of that morbid religion that sits for three hours on a gravestone reading Herveys Meditations Among the Tombs. I speak of the religion that Christ preached. I suppose when that religion has conquered the world that disclose will be banished. But the chief beauty of grace is in the soul. It takes that which was hard, and cold, and repulsive, and makes it all over again. It pours upon ones nature what David calls the beauty of holiness. It extirpates everything that is hateful and unclean. It took John Bunyan the foul-mouthed, and made him John Bunyan the immortal dreamer. It took John Newton, the infidel sailor, and in the midst of the hurricane made him cry out: My mothers God, have mercy upon me! It took John Summerfield from a life of sin, and by the hand of a Christian edged-tool maker, led him into the pulpit that burns still with the light of that Christian eloquence which charmed thousands to Jesus whom he once despised. Ah! you may search all the earth over for anything so beautiful or beautifying as the grace of God. Go all through the deep mine-passages of Wielitzka, and amid the underground kingdoms of salt in Hallstadt, and show me anything so exquisite, so transcendentally beautiful as this grace of God fashioned and hung in eternal crystals. Again, grace is like salt, in the fact that it is a necessity of life. Man and beast perish without salt. What are those paths across the Western prairies? Why, they were made there by deer and buffalo going to and coming away from the salt licks. Chemists and physicians, all the world over, tell us that salt is a necessity of life. And so with the grace of God: you must have it or die. I know, a great many people speak of it as a mere adornment, a sort of shoulder-strap adorning a soldier, or a light, frothing dessert brought in after the greatest part of the banquet of life is over. So far from that, I declare the grace of God to be the first and the last necessity. It is a positive necessity for the soul. You can tell very easily what the effect would be if a person refused to take salt into the body. The energies would fail, the lungs would struggle with the air, slow fevers would crawl through the brain, the heart would flutter, and the life would be gone. That process of death is going on in many a one because they take not the salt of Divine grace. Again, I remark, that grace is like salt in abundance. God has strewn salt in vast profusion all over the continents. Russia seems built on a salt cellar. There is one region of that country that turns out ninety thousand tons in a year. England and Russia and Italy have inexhaustible resources in this respect. Norway and Sweden, white with snow above, white with salt beneath. Austria yielding nine hundred thousand tons annually. Nearly all the nations rich in it--rock-salt, spring-salt, sea-salt. Christ, the Creator of the world, when He uttered our text, knew it would become more and more significant as the shafts were sunk, and the springs were bored, and the pumps were worked, and the crystals were gathered. So the grace of God is abundant. It is for all lands, for all ages, for all conditions. It seems to undergird everything. Pardon for the worst sin, comfort for the sharpest suffering, brightest light for the thickest darkness. Again, the grace of God is like salt in the way we come at it. The salt on the surface is almost always impure--that which incrusts the Rocky Mountains and the South American pampas and in India; but the miners go down through the shafts and through the dark labyrinths, and along by galleries of rock, and with torches and pickaxes find their way under the very foundations of the earth, to where the salt lies that makes up the nations wealth. To get to the best saline springs of the earth huge machinery goes down, boring depth below depth, depth below depth, until from under the very roots of the mountains the saline water supplies the aqueduct. This water is brought to the surface, and is exposed in tanks to the sun for evaporation, or it is put in boilers mightily heated, and the water evaporates, and the salt gathers at the bottom of the tank--the work is completed, and the fortune is made. So with the grace of God. It is to be profoundly sought after. With all the concentrated energies of the body, mind, and soul, we must dig for it. Superficial exploration will not turn it up. Then the work of evaporation begins; and as when the saline waters are exposed to the sun the vapours float away, leaving nothing but the pure white salt at the bottom of the tank, so, when the Christians soul is exposed to the Sun of Righteousness, the vapours of pride and selfishness and worldliness float off, and there is chiefly left beneath, pure, white holiness of heart. Then, as in the case of the salt, the furnace is added. Blazing troubles, stirred by smutted stokers of darkness, quicken the evaporation of worldliness and the crystallization of grace. Have you not been in enough trouble to have that work go on? But, I remark again, that the grace of God is like the salt in its preservative quality. You know that salt absorbs the moisture of articles of food, and infuses them with brine which preserves them for a long while. Salt is the great anti-putrefactive of the world. Experimenters, in preserving food, have tried sugar, and smoke, and air-tight jars, and everything else; but as long as the world stands, Christs words will be suggestive, and men will admit that, as a great preservative, salt is good. But for the grace of God the earth would have become a stale carcass long before this. That grace is the only preservative of laws, and constitution, and literatures. Just as soon as a government loses this salt of Divine grace it perishes. We want more of the salt of Gods grace in our homes, in our schools, in our colleges, in our social life, in our Christianity. And that which has it will live--that which has it not will die. I proclaim the tendency of everything earthly to putrefaction and death--the religion of Christ the only preservative. My subject is one of great congratulation to those who have within their souls this gospel antiseptic. This salt will preserve, them through the temptations and sorrows of life, and through the ages of eternity. (De Witt Talmage, D. D.)

The salt that has lost its savour

He that is ungodly would be ungodly still. And why? Because the salt has lost its savour. The mischief is not without--it is within. The wretched houses, the rent-books, the pawnshops, are but symptoms--are but the efflorescence of a deep-seated disease--and if we are wise, we shall aim not at putting them to rights, except where grievous distress and impending ruin call for ready rescue; but we shall aim far deeper--we shall be ever musing on and seeking an answer to the question, Wherewith shall it be seasoned? And this is just the question which has been occupying so many Christian hearts, and employing so many Christian hands, now for some years in this our land. I called it the most fearful and difficult problem of our times; and every one who has fairly grappled with it will bear me in saying so. No special philanthropic agency will so much as touch the whole matter, however widely and efficiently supported. Each one of these, alone, is but opposing a feeble resistance for a time to the vast and gathering mass as it rolls and plunges downward. Improve the dwellings of these poor people. Yes; of all mere remedial measures, doubtless this is the most obvious and lies nearest the surface. But how slow the progress; how distant and almost hopeless the result. Then again: Improve their Sundays. By all means. The general observance of the Lords day in our land is perhaps the most powerful instrument and the surest pledge for future good, which we possess. But again, How? For here once more we are beset with difficulties. You will be easily able to apply remarks of the same character to those various other agencies which are at work for this most salutary and beneficent purpose. (Dean Alford.)

Christianity the salt of the earth

A wealthy, irreligious, shrewd business man in Illinois was approached by a member of the Church of Christ for a subscription towards building a meetinghouse. He cheerfully put down his name for two hundred dollars, and then remarked, I give that as a good business investment. I would rather give two hundred dollars every year than not to have the gospel preached in this community. How is that? he was asked. You do not pay any heed to the gospel. Why are you interested in having it preached? Oh, he replied, I live here with my family, and my property is around here; without the influence of Christianity the condition of society would soon become such that neither property nor life would be safe. I would not be willing to live in any community where the gospel was not preached! These views of a hardheaded man of the world are confirmed by all experience. Christianity is the salt of the earth. Only the utterly abandoned would be content to live where its influence had ceased to be felt.

Religion should be practical if it is to be influential

William Smith, a Primitive Methodist local preacher, had a business letter shown to him from a manufacturer of cloth. The concluding paragraph was a rather high-flown rhapsody about revivals, and some sermon that had been to him (as he said) wines on the lees. His pair of eyes keenly watched the reader of the letter, to whom he said, when the reading was concluded, What do you think of that? Answer: I dont think I should have written the last paragraph. Response: I should think not; I only wish the fellow would put his religion into his cloth instead of his invoices.

Salt

I. LOOK AT WHAT IS HERE SO EXPRESSIVELY SYMBOLIZED. Salt is good. Salt is a necessary of life, and it is an essential element of true altar service. There was no real sacrifice without salt.

1. It is the symbol of the covenant of everlasting mercy, but of ever lasting mercy as the basis of a sinners new life. There is a purpose of grace. God wills not the death of sinners, but their re-union with Him as the God of life. That purpose does not change. God pursues it in spite of the infatuation, the wilfulness, the ingratitude of men; and He will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Salt is good. It is the salt of the great sacrifice for sin. It is the salt of the covenant of thy God. He receives, and pardons, and renews, and cleanses all who believe on His Son Jesus Christ. No man can be saved but through the Divine mercy, and by an action of the Divine Spirit on mind and heart.

2. Salt symbolizes not only Gods covenant of mercy with man, but mans covenant with God. Salt was a human offering on the altar, according to a Divine appointment. It meant, on the part of the offerer, the laying aside of enmity; it meant the submission of the offerer to the terms of the Merciful Sovereign; it meant the surrender of the will--of the life--to the Divine service. Salt symbolizes human consecration.

3. Salt is also the principle of counteractive grace. Antiseptic. The new principles of Divine life in the spirit arrest moral decay; work against the downward, earthly, immoral tendencies and temptations of the heart.

4. Salt symbolizes the preventive, corrective, life-nourishing power of the Christian society in the world.

5. Salt is also the principle of peace. Peace with God comes of salt within. With surrender to Him reconciliation is effected; and there is now no condemnation, and no dread, and no discord--man and God live in harmony the perfectest.

II. THE SAVIOURS LESSON CONCERNING THE DETERIORATION OF THE SALT. Salt symbolizes Gods covenant of mercy in its unchangeableness; and there can be no deterioration of that; but there may be a careless feeling concerning its excellence, its necessity, and its grace. Salt symbolizes mans covenant with God--the principle of entire self-surrender; it symbolizes the principle of counteractive grace both in the individual and the Church; and it is the principle of individual and social peace. Of these our Lord declares--

1. The possibility of deterioration. If the salt have lost its savour. Rock salt exposed to the atmosphere becomes utterly tasteless and insipid; it comes to lack all the essential characteristics of its own nature. Whatever the truth may be on the Divine side of the great fact of human redemption, on the human side we are obliged to admit the possibility of a fall from grace. It is involved in the very fact that it is a free human spirit which is being dealt with.

2. Christ marks here three things as characteristic of men in this state.

(1) They are useless for any good purpose whatever--useless in the Church, useless in the world. What shall be seasoned with such salt? It is useless to make anything grow. It is a heap and nothing more--neither man nor beast can ever be the better for its existence.

(2) Such characters are utterly contemptible. They are neither fit for the land nor yet for the dunghill, which, if it does not grow itself, helps other things to grow.

(3) And last of all they are rejected with utter disdain. It is henceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men. It must not be allowed even to occupy the place of the real thing. There can be no fellowship between life and death. (The Preachers Monthly.)

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The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk 14:34-35. Salt is good — If you are not my disciples indeed, your outward profession will be very insignificant: for, though salt in general is a good thing, and my servants, as I formerly intimated (see on Mat 5:13,) are the salt of the earth; yet I must again add, if the salt have lost his savour — Or be grown insipid, how can its saltness be restored to it? or what can recover those whom my gospel will not influence and reclaim? It is neither fit for the land, &c. — As insipid salt is such a vile and worthless thing, that it is neither fit to be used of itself, as manure for the land, nor even to be cast upon the dunghill, to be there mixed with other manure; but men cast it out — It is thrown out of doors, and trampled under foot like mire in the streets. So you, my disciples, will be no less useless and contemptible, if, under the advantages and obligations of a Christian profession, you are destitute of a true principle of integrity and piety, of which you will certainly be destitute if you do not thus deny yourselves, and stand disposed to forsake all for my sake and the gospel’s, as far as, and whenever, I shall call you to it. See notes on Mar 9:49-50.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

THE SALT

Luk 14:34-35. “Therefore salt is good, but if indeed the salt may lose its savor, with what shall it be salted? It is neither fit for the land nor the manure-heap. They cast it out. Let the one having ears to hear, hear.” In the Sermon on the Mount, our Savior says, “Ye are the salt of the earth,” speaking concretely of His disciples. Here we have the same, but abstractly considered. The Christian religion is the salt, put in this world to save it. The Holy Ghost is the savor of that salt. Therefore when, like Judaism, Romanism, and many dead, worldly, Protestant Churches, the Holy Ghost has been grieved away, that religion becomes savorless salt, the most worthless thing in the world. If you put it on the soil, it covers it up, and disqualifies you to cultivate it. If you put it in the washes, you annihilate all hope of restoring them to fertility and productiveness. Jesus says it is only fit “to be cast out, and trodden under foot;” i.e., make nice, comfortable walks, along which the deluded members of the fallen Churches travel blindfolded down to hell. This statement about hearing, if you have ears, is quite axiomatic with Jesus and His apostles, keeping us reminded of the distinction between physical and spiritual hearing. Unless the Holy Ghost open the spiritual ear, you can no more hear the voice of God than the deaf man can hear the human voice.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

14:34 Salt . . . if it loses its flavor: Sodium chloride cannot actually lose its saltiness. Jesus might be speaking hypothetically (if salt were to lose), or he might be referring to a combination of minerals that included salt. The salt around the Dead Sea was a mixture of sodium chloride and other minerals. When the sodium chloride was removed, what was left behind was “salt” without saltiness.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Luk 14:34. Ἅλας, salt) Which means the disciples: Mat 5:13; Mar 9:50. Salt is something pungent (sharp): let the Christian be so. See the preceding verse [in which the strong pungency which attends Christian self-renunciation is brought out strikingly.] [We must do sharply what is to be done, and must do it also gravely (seriously).[153]—V. g.]

[153] In the Germ. mit nachdruck, “with energy.” Perhaps therefore ‘graviter’ is a misprint for ‘gnaviter.’—E. and T.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk_14:34-35. Comp. on Mat_5:13; Mar_9:50. Jesus uttered the saying about salt more than once, and with differences in the details. Here He commits to His hearers by ὁ ἔχων ὦτα ἀκούειν, ἀκουέτω, the charge of themselves giving the interpretation according to what has gone before, But this interpretation depends on the fact that τὸ ἅλας must represent the preceding μου εἶναι μαθητής. Comp. Matt. l.c. Hence: It is therefore (οὖν, see the critical remarks) something gloriousto wit, in respect of this all-renouncing decision which is appropriate to itto be my disciple, and as such to effect the maintenance of the power of spiritual life among men, as salt is the means of maintaining the freshness of life in the region of nature. But if ever my disciple (through turning back to selfish interests) loses this his peculiarity, this spiritual salting power, by what means can he again attain it? Such a μαθητής is then absolutely useless, and he is excluded (at the judgment) from the Messiahs kingdom.

ἐὰν δὲ καί] (see the critical remarks): if, however, even the salt, etc., which is no longer to be expected from this substance according to its nature.

οὔτε εἰς γῆν κ.τ.λ.] it is fitted neither for land nor for manure (to improve neither the former nor the latter). In respect of the salt that has become insipid, no other use would be conceivable than to be employed as manure, but neither immediately nor mediately is it of use for that; it is perfectly useless! Guard against such interpretations as that of Euthymius Zigabenus: γῆν μὲν λέγει τοὺς μαθητάς … κοπρίαν δὲ τοὺς διδασκάλους!

ἔξω] with strong emphasis placed firstout it is cast!

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk 14:34-35 . The saying concerning salt (Mat 5:13 , Mar 9:50 ). This logion may have been repeatedly uttered by Jesus, but it does not seem to be so appropriate here as in its place in Mk. In this place the salt appears to denote disciples and the idea to be: genuine disciples are an excellent thing, valuable as salt to a corrupt world, but spurious disciples are as utterly worthless as salt which has lost its savour.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The disciples of Christ must be wise, both for themselves and for others: otherwise they become the most foolish of all.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Salt, &c.--(See on Mat 5:13-16; and Mar 9:50).

Next: Luke Chapter 15

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 34. Salt is good] See Clarke on Mt 5:13, and See Clarke on Mr 9:50.

ON the subject referred to this place from Lu 14:23, Compel them to come in, which has been adduced to favour religious persecution, I find the following sensible and just observations in Dr. Dodd's notes.

"1st. Persecution for conscience' sake, that is, inflicting penalty upon men merely for their religious principles or worship, is plainly founded on a supposition that one man has a right to judge for another in matters of religion, which is manifestly absurd, and has been fully proved to be so by many excellent writers of our Church.

"2nd. Persecution is most evidently inconsistent with that fundamental principle of morality, that we should do to others as we could reasonably wish they should do to us; a rule which carries its own demonstration with it, and was intended to take off that bias of self-love which would divert us from the straight line of equity, and render us partial judges betwixt our neighbours and ourselves. I would ask the advocate of wholesome severities, how he would relish his own arguments if turned upon himself? What if he were to go abroad into the world among Papists, if he be a Protestant; among Mohammedans if he be a Christian? Supposing he were to behave like an honest man, a good neighbour, a peaceable subject, avoiding every injury, and taking all opportunities to serve and oblige those about him; would he think that, merely because he refused to follow his neighbours to their altars or their mosques, he should be seized and imprisoned, his goods confiscated, his person condemned to tortures or death? Undoubtedly he would complain of this as a very great hardship, and soon see the absurdity and injustice of such a treatment when it fell upon him, and when such measure as he would mete to others was measured to him again.

"3rd. Persecution is absurd, as being by no means calculated to answer the end which its patrons profess to intend by it; namely, the glory of God, and the salvation of men. Now, if it does any good to men at all, it must be by making them truly religious; but religion is not a mere name or a ceremony. True religion imports an entire change of the heart, and it must be founded in the inward conviction of the mind, or it is impossible it should be, what yet it must be, a reasonable service. Let it only be considered what violence and persecution can do towards producing such an inward conviction. A man might as reasonably expect to bind an immaterial spirit with a cord, or to beat down a wall with an argument, as to convince the understanding by threats and tortures. Persecution is much more likely to make men hypocrites than sincere converts. They may perhaps, if they have not a firm and heroic courage, change their profession while they retain their sentiments; and, supposing them before to be unwarily in the wrong, they may learn to add falsehood and villany to error. How glorious a prize! especially when one considers at what an expense it is gained. But,

"4th. Persecution tends to produce much mischief and confusion in the world. It is mischievous to those on whom it falls; and in its consequences so mischievous to others, that one would wonder any wise princes should ever have admitted it into their dominions, or that they should not have immediately banished it thence; for, even where it succeeds so far as to produce a change in men's forms of worship, it generally makes them no more than hypocritical professors of what they do not believe, which must undoubtedly debauch their characters; so that, having been villains in one respect, it is very probable that they will be so in another, and, having brought deceit and falsehood into their religion, that they will easily bring it into their conversation and commerce. This will be the effect of persecution where it is yielded to; and where it is opposed (as it must often be by upright and conscientious men, who have the greater claim upon the protection and favour of government) the mischievous consequences of its fury will be more flagrant and shocking. Nay, perhaps, where there is no true religion, a native sense of honour in a generous mind may stimulate it to endure some hardships for the cause of truth. 'Obstinacy,' as one well observes, 'may rise as the understanding is oppressed, and continue its opposition for a while, merely to avenge the cause of its injured liberty.'

"Nay, 5th. The cause of truth itself must, humanly speaking, be not only obstructed, but destroyed, should persecuting principles universally prevail. For, even upon the supposition that in some countries it might tend to promote and establish the purity of the Gospel, yet it must surely be a great impediment to its progress. What wise heathen or Mohammedan prince would ever admit Christian preachers into his dominions, if he knew it was a principle of their religion that as soon as the majority of the people were converted by arguments, the rest, and himself with them, if he continued obstinate, must be proselyted or extirpated by fire and sword? If it be, as the advocates for persecution have generally supposed, a dictate of the law of nature to propagate the true religion by the sword; then certainly a Mohammedan or an idolater, with the same notions, supposing him to have truth on his side, must think himself obliged in conscience to arm his powers for the extirpation of Christianity; and thus a holy war must cover the face of the whole earth, in which nothing but a miracle could render Christians successful against so vast a disproportion in numbers. Now, it seems hard to believe that to be a truth which would naturally lead to the extirpation of truth in the world; or that a Divine religion should carry in its own bowels the principle of its own destruction.

"But, 6th. This point is clearly determined by the lip of truth itself; and persecution is so far from being encouraged by the Gospel, that it is most directly contrary to many of its precepts, and indeed to its whole genius. It is condemned by the example of Christ, who went about doing good; who came not to destroy men's lives, but to save them; who waived the exercise of his miraculous power against his enemies, even when they most unjustly and cruelly assaulted him, and never exerted it to the corporal punishment, even of those who had most justly deserved it. And his doctrine also, as well as his example, has taught us to be harmless as doves; to love our enemies; to do good to them that hate us; and pray for them that despitefully use and persecute us."

From all this we may learn that the Church which tolerates, encourages, and practises persecution, under the pretence of concern for the purity of the faith, and zeal for God's glory, is not the Church of Christ; and that no man can be of such a Church without endangering his salvation. Let it ever be the glory of the Protestant Church, and especially of the Church of England, that it discountenances and abhors all persecution on a religious account; and that it has diffused the same benign temper through that STATE with which it is associated.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(34) Salt is good.—The words are all but identical with those of Mat_5:13, and resemble those of Mar_9:50. (See Notes on those passages.) They appear now, however, in a very different context, and the train of thought is not at first sight so clear. The common element in all three instances is that salt represents the purifying element in life, the principle of unselfish devotion. Here, the special aspect of that element is self-renunciation. In proportion as that is incomplete, the salt loses its savour. The question, Wherewith shall it be salted? is asked as in the accents of almost hopeless sadness. What other purifying influences can be brought to bear on us when the love of Christ has failed?

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

34. Salt is good] The true reading is Salt therefore is good, connecting this verse with what has gone before. This similitude was thrice used by Christ with different applications. “Ye are the salt of the earth,” Mat_5:13. “Have salt in yourselves,” Mar_9:50. Here the salt is the inward energy of holiness and devotion, and in the fate of salt which has lost its savour we see the peril which ensues from neglect of the previous lessons.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

34 Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned?

Ver. 34. Salt is good] This was a sentence much in our Saviour’s mouth, Mat 5:13; Mar 9:50; and is here used to set forth the desperate condition of apostates.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

See the Mat 5:13 note; Mar 9:49-50 notes.

Salt is good - It is useful. It is good to preserve life and health, and to keep from putrefaction.

His savour - Its saltness. It becomes tasteless or insipid.

Be seasoned - Be salted again.

Fit for the land - Rather, it is not fit “for land,” that is, it will not bear fruit of itself. You cannot sow or plant on it.

Nor for the dunghill - It is not good for manure. It will not enrich the land,

Cast it out - They throw it away as useless.

He that hath ears ... - See Mat 11:15. You are to understand that he that has not grace in his heart; who merely makes a profession of religion, and who sustains the same relation to true piety that this insipid and useless mass does to good salt, is useless in the church, and will be rejected. “Real” piety, true religion, is of vast value in the world. It keeps it pure, and saves it from corruption, as salt does meat; but a mere “profession” of religion is fit for nothing. It does no good. It is a mere encumbrance, and all such professors are fit only to be cast out and rejected. All such “must” be rejected by the Son of God, and cast into a world of wretchedness and despair. Compare Mat 7:22-23; Mat 8:12; Mat 23:30; Mat 25:30; Rev 3:16; Job 8:13; Job 36:13.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

But if the salt, &c. Man, after he has once been illumined with the light of faith, should he be so unfortunate as to fall into the sink of his former evil habits, what remedy is there remaining for him? He is, as our Saviour says, neither profitable for the land nor for the dunghill, but shall be cast out. (Luke xiv. 35.) (Ven. Bede)

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George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

See Poole on "Mat 5:13". See Poole on "Mar 9:50", where we met with the most of what we have in these verses. By salt in this place our Saviour seemeth to mean a Christian life and profession. It is a good, a noble, a great thing to be a Christian: but one that is so in an outward profession may lose his savour. Though a man cannot fall away from truth, and reality of grace, yet he may fall away from his profession; he may be given up to believe lies, and embrace damnable errors; he may shake off that dread of God which he seemed to have upon him; and then what is he good for? Wherewith shall he be seasoned? He is neither fit for the land nor the dunghill: as some things will spoil dunghills, so debauched professors do but make wicked men worse, by prejudicing and hardening them against the ways and truths of God.

He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. It is a usual epiphonema, or sentence, by which Christ often shuts up grave and weighty discourses: the sense is; You had therefore need to look about you, and to undertake the profession of my religion upon such weighty grounds and principles as will carry you through the practice of it to the end, against all the oppositions you shall meet with; for if you apostatize from your profession, you will be the worst of men, neither fit for the church nor for the world (for you will make that the worse;) indeed fit for nothing but for the fire of hell.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

34. Salt is good—Excellent is salt! is, literally translated, the Lord’s exclamation. The true living, sparkling, stimulating, conservating article is the very emblem of faith, perseverance, and life. He who has the principle it symbolizes will not merely chase at my heels, but truly tread in my footsteps.

Have lost its savour—If we have taken up with salt which has no saltness, then truly it is no salt at all.

Wherewith… seasoned—That is, wherewith shall the salt be re-endowed with its saline power? There is no giving any Christian value to that religion which has no self-surrender to Christ in it.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vers. 34, 35. Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned! It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill; but men cast it out. Here "salt" stands for the spirit of self-sacrifice, self-renunciation. When in a man, or in a nation, or in a Church, that salt is savourless, then that spirit is dead; there is no hope remaining for the man, for the people, or the Church. The lesson was a general one it was meant to sink into each listener"s heart; but the Master"s sad gaze was fixed, as he spoke the sombre truth, on the people of Israel whom he loved, and on the temple of Jerusalem where his glory-presence used to dwell. Men cast it out. Jesus could hear the armed tramp of the Roman legions of the year 70 as they east out his people from their holy land.

Vers. 34, 35. Ourselves as salt.

It is hardly possible to mistake the meaning of Christ here. We know that salt is the great preservative of animal nature, the antidote of putrefaction and decay. We know also that the great Teacher intended that his disciples should be the salt of the earth, doing in the human the same purifying work which salt does in the animal world.

I THE PRESERVING POWER OF THE GOOD IN THE SOCIETY IN WHICH THEY ARE FOUND.

1. As those who act directly on God, and so on behalf of men. Had there been ten righteous men in Sodom, they would have preserved it from destruction. Similarly, the presence of a few righteous men would have saved the cities of Canaan. Is it not the presence of the righteous men and women in our modern cities which averts the retribution of God?

2. As those that act directly on man, and thus on God. As there is a tendency in animal nature, when life is extinct, towards putrefaction, so is there a tendency in human nature, when spiritual life is extinct, towards degeneracy and corruption. It is the function of salt in the economy of nature to prevent this result, to preserve sweetness and wholesomeness; it is the part of moral goodness to prevent corruption in society and to preserve purity and excellency there. And this it does. Purity, sobriety, uprightness, reverence, self-control, these are powers for subduing, for restraining; they are powers that permeate, that sweeten, that preserve. This is eminently true of Christian discipleship: for it has

(1) truth to propound which is most cleansing in its character; and it has

(2) a life to live which is eminently purifying in its influence the distinctive truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the life of the great Exemplar, which every follower of his is charged and is empowered to live again.

II THE DANGER THAT THIS POWER WILL BE LOST. "Salt is good: but if the salt have lost its savour!" It may do so. The salt, by exposure to sun and rain, may lose its pungency and its virtue while retaining its appearance.

1. And so Christian truth may lose its distinguishing force. Men may use Christian forms of speech in their teaching, and yet the doctrine they declare may be an enfeebled and emasculated Christianity, from which all that is distinctive and all that is redeeming is extracted: it is salt without its savour.

2. And so Christian life may lose its excellency and its virtue. These may be blurred and blemished lives, or they may be spotted and stained lives, or they may be lives with nothing in them beyond mere conventional propriety lives not animated by the love of Christ, not filled with the Spirit of Christ, not governed by the principles of Christ; not blamable, but not beautiful; not wicked, but worldly; not criminal, but not Christian: the salt has lost its savour.

III THE EXTREME UNLIKELIHOOD OF RESTORATION. "If the salt have lost... wherewith shall it be seasoned?" That is an impossibility. Salt that has lost its virtue is useless for all ordinary purposes, and is "cast out." It is not absolutely impossible for the soul that has lost its Christian spirit and character to regain its worth, but it is very difficult and it is very rare. The recovery of lost feeling is a spiritual marvel.

1. It is so improbable that no man who loves his soul will expose himself to the peril; if he does, he most seriously endangers his spiritual life, he most gravely imperils his eternal future.

2. It is not so impossible that any unfaithful soul need despair. True penitence and genuine faith will bring back the wanderer from the fold to the shelter of the good Shepherd"s love. C.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Salt - Every Christian, but more eminently every minister. Matt. v, 13; Mark ix, 50.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

A final warning:

v. 34. Salt is good; but if the salt have lost its savor, wherewith. shall it be seasoned?

v. 35. It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill; but men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

The very fact of self-renunciation brings out the genuineness of the discipleship, which must have the same seasoning power as salt. See Mat 5:13; Mar 9:50. As long as salt is strong, it has value for seasoning; but if it becomes insipid (almost a contradiction in itself), it has lost its purpose in the world. It can no longer be used in the preparation of foods for the table; it is neither earth nor fertilizer; out they cast it, since it is worthless, mere refuse. If the purifying influence of the Christians in the midst of the unbelieving world of these latter days ceases, if the Church is no longer a power for good, by the preaching that is done from its pulpits and by the example of the life of its adherents, then savor and worth are lost at the same time. The reason for existence can no longer be urged in such a case. Every individual Christian that fails of his wonderful destiny due to the call of God in him, that does not in speech and life confess Jesus the Christ, is deceiving himself, as well as others, but not God. He can well distinguish between seasoning salt and savorless salt. It is an impressive lesson, emphatically brought out by the Lord’s "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear!" For many so-called Christians mere outward formality seems to be sufficient. But God looks upon heart and mind, and demands sincerity in His confession and service.

Summary.Jesus heals a dropsical man on the Sabbath, gives a lesson in humility and true altruism, tells the Parable of the Great Supper, and explains some of the obligations of Christian discipleship.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Our Saviour here compares his disciples to salt, thereby denoting their usefulness, salt being one of the most useful things in nature; and pointing out also their duty, which is to season themselves and others with sound doctrine. But hypocritical professors are like unsavory salt; they are neither savory in themselves nor serviceable to others. Our Saviour compares such Christians who have no savor of piety and goodness upon their spirits, to salt, that, having lost its goodness, is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill: that is, being of a brackish nature, it is wholly unfit to manure the ground, and will rather occasion barrenness than any fruitfulness or increase.

Learn hence, that sincere and serious Christians are and will be as the salt of the earth; that is, good and savory in themselves, and endeavoring by exhortation and good example to season others; but hypocriticl professors and apostatizing Christians will be cast out, and trampled upon as unsavory salt.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

34, 35. Salt therefore is good. See Matt. 5:13 and Mark 9:50, for notes. The Christian is the salt of the earth; the savour is the spirit of self-sacrifice; if it is wanting his life is worthless.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

Connecting Statement:

Jesus finishes teaching the crowd.

Salt is good

"Salt is useful." Jesus is teaching a lesson about those who want to be his disciple. (See: Metaphor)

how can it be made salty again?

Jesus uses a question to teach the crowd. AT: "it cannot be made salty again." or "no one can make it salty again." (See: Rhetorical Question and Active or Passive)

manure pile

People use manure to fertilize gardens and fields. Salt without taste is so useless it is not even worth mixing with manure. AT: "compost heap" or "fertilizer"

It is thrown away

This can be stated in active form. AT: "Someone just throws it away" (See: Active or Passive)

He who has ears to hear, let him hear

It may be more natural in some languages to use the second person: "You who have ears to hear, hear" (See: First, Second, or Third Person)

He who has ears to hear

Possible meanings are 1) "Everyone," since normal people have ears, or 2) "Whoever has the ability to understand," which refers to those who are willing to listen to God. (See: Idiom)

let him hear

"he should listen well" or "he should pay attention to what I say"

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

34. καλὸν οὖν τὸ ἅλας, the true reading (Salt therefore is good), connecting this verse with what has gone before. This similitude was thrice used by Christ with different applications. “Ye are the salt of the earth,” Mat 5:13. “Have salt in yourselves,” Mar 9:50. Here the salt is the inward energy of holiness and devotion, and in the fate of salt which has lost its savour we see the peril which ensues from neglect of the previous lessons.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

34, 35. The Spirit of Sacrifice. The similitude respecting salt was probably uttered more than once, and in more than one form. Comp. Mat 5:13; Mar 9:50. The salt is the self-sacrifice spoken of vv. 26, 27, 33. The figure of salt is not found in O.T., but comp. Job 6:6.

34. καλὸν οὖν τὸ ἅλας. The οὖν (א B L Ξ 69, Boh.) perhaps refers to previous utterances: “Salt, therefore (as I have said before), is good.” Nihil utilius sale et sole (Plin. H. N. xxxi. 9, 45, 102).

ἐὰν δὲ καὶ τὸ ἅλας. The Καί (א B L Ξ, Vulg. codd. Syr., Bede) must be preserved. “But if even the salt.” In Mat 5:13 there is no καί. Note the characteristic δὲ καί, and see small print on 3:9.

In LXX and N.T. ἄλας is the common form, with ἄλα as v.l. in good MSS. In class. Gk. ἄλς prevails.

In class. Gk. μωραίνω is “I am foolish” (Eur. Med. 614); in bibl. Grk. μωραίνομαι has this meaning (Rom 1:22; Mat 5:13), μωραίνω being “I make foolish” (1Co 1:20). Mk. has ἄναλον γίνεσθαι. Vulg. has evanuerit; a d e infatuatum fuerit.

ἐν τίνι ἀρτυθήσεται; Quite impossibly Tyn. and Cran. have “What shall be seasoned ther with?” From meaning simply “prepare,” ἀρτύω came to be used of preparing and flavouring food (Col 4:6).

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Have lost its savor. See on Mt 5:34.

Shall it be seasoned. See on Mr 9:50.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.