The Lord Jesus compares His followers to two things, salt and light (Matt. 5:13-14). Salt that loses its saltiness is despised by men, and as a consequence is walked on. Light that is hidden from men is not something they respond to at all—because it is hidden from them. So we either have a no reaction of contempt or no reaction of ignorance. In order to get a response, according to this passage, we have to be salty Christians. So what does it mean to be salt?
Our first reaction, of course, should be to turn to Leviticus . . .
“As for the oblation of the firstfruits, ye shall offer them unto the Lord: but they shall not be burnt on the altar for a sweet savour. And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering: with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt” (Lev. 2:12–13; cf. Num. 18:19).
Notice that this requirement is given in the context of a first fruits offering, an offering of thanksgiving. It must be seasoned with salt, and this salt is called the salt of the covenant. It apparently means something that is a big deal. And then the law adds that this salt should be added to all their offerings.
It also appears (to me) to be the passage that Paul is alluding to here:
“Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man” (Col. 4:6).
Notice also that this element, whatever it is, enables you to know how to answer every man. This includes discourse in the public square, in addition to conversations over the back fence with your neighbor. Our language is sacrificial, and is to be seasoned with salt, seasoned with gratitude, and full of grace.
Then Jesus gives us an odd juxtaposition between being salted with fire in judgment and salted with salt. He says that to be salted with salt is good, and He ties it in with the sacrifices. And He then ties those sacrifices in with our lives in community.
“Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another” (Mark 9:48–50).
Taking these passages together, I understand salt to be a type of thanksgiving, a type of gratitude. And this means that salt is freedom from envy.
I do not in any way wish to be thought of as disparaging activism—voting, yard signs, picketing abortion clinics, calling your congressman, and so on. It must come down to that, for the same reason that rubber meets road, and metal meets metal when you let the clutch out. So, when it comes to such things, go, fight, win.
But . . . you knew there was a “but” coming. That is not what establishes the contrast. We are not the same kind of people striving for a different kind of end. We are a different kind of people striving for a different kind of end. We are not the same kind of citizen striving for a different kind of city. When we do that, it always winds up the same old city. As The Who taught us, in Won’t Get Fooled Again, “meet the new boss, same as the old boss.” We must be different citizens of a different kind of city. This is Monty Python eschatology—and now for something completely different.
What is our banner? What is our flag? What distinguishes the fact that we are in fact a liberation army? The banner that has to fly above us is freedom from envy.
“Do all things without murmurings and disputings: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain” (Phil. 2:14–16).
Culture war is waged by provoking to envy, and not by being provoked to envy. Stop envying the godless.
“Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, And washed my hands in innocency” (Ps. 73:13).
“When I thought to know this, It was too painful for me; Until I went into the sanctuary of God; Then understood I their end. Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: Thou castedst them down into destruction” (Ps. 73:16–18).
Live in such a way as that they start to envy you, despite the slanders.
“Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things; Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the Lord shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee” (Deut. 28:47–48).
What was the problem here? Whatever they were doing with physical salt, their offerings had no salt.
Further, there is only one effective response to any of this, which is the cross of Jesus Christ.
In the meantime, always remember that Bunyan’s Faithful had a good hunch.
“Then it came burning hot in my mind, whatever he said, and however he flattered, when he got me home to his house, he would sell me for a slave.”
One of us is reading the verse incorrectly. My reading says God does not want a sweet burnt offering but a salty one. Your take says the opposite.
What am I missing?
thx.
Pastor Wilson, Is it the case that we are citizens ONLY of the other kingdom, and so must treat life in this kingdom as if is merely a front in a relentless culture-war? Or is it perhaps the case – following good old-fashioned Protestant political theology – that we are indeed citizens of both kingdoms and our civic citizenship is not about promoting radical distinctives destructive of the common temporal good but instead about seeking that common temporal good *as a real good in itself*? In other words, should our temporal citizenship be governed by perfectionism, or by prudence? Is… Read more »
Tim,
Can I make a simplifying assumption that you are ‘perhaps-ing’ what many refer to as “Two-Kingdom Theology” when I cut through the Latin?
Tim Enloe wrote: “In other words, should our temporal citizenship be governed by perfectionism, or by prudence?” If those are our only two options, then it’s an easy answer. Perfectionism, right? :-) Seriously though, I think Tim asks a very important question that has serious implications for how we approach the world. My position is that the kingdoms/cities of man are inherently at war with the Kingdom of God. Their desire is to cast off His authority over them (Psalm 2). In other words, they must die and be born again. There is no salvaging them, as they are. They… Read more »
Salt = the Truth, like it or not.
Salt = that sting of appropriate measure of just criticism. Hopefully self-criticism, if it’s not too late. It’s the warning of consequences. Or if it’s too late, like what’s her name became a big ol’ PILLAR of salt way back when.
If your “salt” has become mild-mannered wishy-washy “I’m-Ok-You’re-Ok” with no sting of truth, yech.
Tim Enloe wrote:
Isn’t that really a false dichotomy? Should it not be “teleologyprudence?” Of course, temporal citizenship governed by teleology does not lack or ignore prudence, but neither does it bare its neck to it.
I note that Pastor Wilson has lately written on patriotism, and not in a manner critical of it in and of itself. That would seem a tad inconsistent with an assertion of ‘perfectionism’ on his part.
WordPress ate my arrow and equal signs, BTW.
Timothy, you were right. I fixed it.
Thanks Pastor.
This was my first theological/biblical contribution to the Body of Christ–I am smiling.
cheers.
t
“Righteousness exalts a nation, But sin is a disgrace to any people.” – Proverbs 14:34
Doesn’t it stand to reason that the more born-again believers in a nation, the more likely that nation is to be governed righteously? The proverbs verse doesn’t seem to limit itself to the nation of Israel only.
Go, fight, win but fret not yourself because of evildoers; be not envious of wrongdoers! (Ps. 37).