The Unseen Power of Salt: A Discovery (Matthew 5:11-16...Part 4)

Speaker 1: 0:06

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Pure Faith Podcast, a podcast where we discuss all things Bible. My name is Michelle, this is my brother, mitchell, and we are very thankful that you are joining us today. We ask that you like this video, subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to hit the notification icon to be notified when new episodes are released.

Speaker 2: 0:28

You actually did a good job on that one.

Speaker 1: 0:30

Thanks, I added a couple lines. Yeah, I noticed, I know right, because I don't remember it. I say it every week, but I cannot memorize this.

Speaker 2: 0:37

And it's not like you, like I didn't print it out for you that you could take it home and oh no, it literally goes right back in the folder after I leave here.

Speaker 1: 0:46

I don't study this intro because you put it on paper. If you would say you have to memorize it, then I would, but it's on a piece of paper I can always take out on my folder. So take it out, put it back, get it out later. No memorizing Right.

Speaker 2: 0:59

Sure.

Speaker 1: 1:00

How are things Good? Life's good.

Speaker 3: 1:04

Sure.

Speaker 1: 1:05

Yep, okay, perfect, we've got a showing. We had a showing of the movie. It was fantastic. We had a huge turnout. It moved.

Speaker 2: 1:12

Real tear-jerker.

Speaker 1: 1:15

Yeah, I hope you get to see it. Maybe we'll show it again. No, I look forward to not seeing this because I'm too busy. I mean seriously so sad.

Speaker 2: 1:26

This is all I've heard for like the last four days.

Speaker 1: 1:29

So what lesson have you learned?

Speaker 2: 1:31

Not to talk to you, that's what caused the problem?

Speaker 1: 1:36

That's what caused it. What did you say? Hey Shal, look, because that's what you would say hey Shal.

Speaker 2: 1:44

Hey, it's not about you. It's not about you.

Speaker 1: 1:50

But then you asked me if I would help. So I know it's not about me, but you involve me into all of this we are recording. I'm so sorry, lord. God, please forgive me for my sins. Okay, I did it. Okay, sorry guys.

Speaker 1: 2:20

We have been doing this for a little while, since pre-recording. We've been giggling a little bit. So fellowship is good, we enjoy it very much. So I do want to give a shout out to Noah Wehmeyer. He did a ruck this morning. Is that what you call it? Is it a ruck? Oh, a ruck Like a ruck march. Yes, so Noah traveled down to Panama City from Mississippi to be a part of this ruck and he I have a hard time saying it, I know right Ruck, ruck, ruck, ruck, ruck.

Speaker 1: 3:01

So you know they put their full batons on and they put it on their bag and they carry all their equipment. A rucksack. They do all of this, Okay.

Speaker 2: 3:10

So, noah, you laughing at me.

Speaker 1: 3:11

His book with that, his book with that, his rucksack Please forgive me Anyhow so he does this. Stop laughing at me.

Speaker 2: 3:24

Is this a competition? Ruck march.

Speaker 1: 3:27

Okay, no, it was. He did this for a medal, so it was like a competitive thing. They had to have it done in four hours and 30 minutes. Yeah, 18 miles so.

Speaker 2: 3:40

I had the opportunity to do that and I said no.

Speaker 1: 3:42

So something about he gets a Norwegian medal, but then also, if he does something else and he gets a German one, and I don't know. He was telling me all about it and I was listening. I was listening, noah, but anyhow he does this today. He has to be there at 5am this morning. Okay, and he does this and you have to have it done in four hours and 30 minutes, and at that four hour mark, no, he wanted to do it in four hours. At that four hour mark, don starts sending me messages. Have you heard anything from Noah? Have you heard anything from Noah? No, I've not heard anything from Noah.

Speaker 2: 4:15

I've known a lot of guys that have done this. They had a couple of them when I was on my last deployment and it is. It is not pleasant.

Speaker 1: 4:25

It's not pleasant, especially when you do it in Panama City and you realize when you get there it's all in sand.

Speaker 2: 4:32

Well, they did it all in sand too, but Did they, that's because they did it in Kuwait which was only sand.

Speaker 1: 4:37

Mind you, dylan told me, doing in sand is like going overseas, and you were in the sand all the time and he he was at my house today when we got some of these messages anyhow, but he did complete it in four hours and I think it was 17 minutes. So he barely got it. Unfortunately, the other guy that did it with him, who was also went to BG I think Miller was his name, anyhow. He missed it. So I feel bad for him because he missed it. But they said they're going to do another one, but it's okay, they're going to. The next one's gonna be on pavement, he said. He said a lot easier, but it's, it's torture. I mean he's completely exhausted. Yeah, it is because he's got his book bag on.

Speaker 2: 5:27

And I forget what the weight is. Is it 25 pounds or 50 pounds?

Speaker 1: 5:29

I have. He did not tell me this. Didn't tell me it was a rucksack he took. I said it was a book bag. Yeah, you have to have a certain amount of weight yes, you do. So, like I said, he had been training for it. You know often off and on, yeah, you have to train for it.

Speaker 2: 5:49

It's total distance again.

Speaker 1: 5:50

It's 18 mile. 18 points up the mile, or something crazy. For yeah, so he, he did, he completed it, so he's gonna get his medal. So congratulations. No, we're very proud of you, I know that you're dumb. That's not very nice so, but anyhow, he, that's my, that's my share for today. Do we do shares? I? Guess yeah sure you don't have anything to share.

Speaker 2: 6:18

No, a cat still life.

Speaker 1: 6:20

Oh, mitchell had a thing, did you rather this cat? It got stuck up in his car. Who saw on social media to honk your horn before getting starting your car Because there could be a cat in it? Everybody but Mitchell, everybody but Mitchell. So he oh you did this. You got in your car and you drove up road and you heard and you look back.

Speaker 2: 6:59

You know, I killed. I killed Zeke's cat. I felt bad.

Speaker 1: 7:04

And then when he went he backed up because he forgot his phone not to check the cat. Because he forgot his phone, he backed up. The cat was gone. It's true too but the cat's so light it wasn't gone, it was in the ditch.

Speaker 2: 7:18

So I'm like well, apparently I didn't kill the first pass and I was afraid I was gonna have to put it down, but surprisingly there was no physical or visible injuries to it. And let me pick it up. Took a home Put in the back of the Zeke's gator, his little toy gator made it a bad water made it a bed, I'm like. Well, if it dies, it dies of Singa tans. Well, it's still alive, it didn't walk around you that you yeah, okay.

Speaker 2: 7:53

I had to, because I was gonna come home and pick it up and Carried around and rub it up and I get because they carried around in the blanket. Yeah, so I did tell him on the way home that he was in an accident.

Speaker 1: 8:06

Were they upset Not?

Speaker 2: 8:08

really okay. I mean, they handled it pretty good, so they knew.

Speaker 3: 8:14

We told them Can't be you, gotta be gentle touch the cat right now.

Speaker 2: 8:19

You gonna look at him.

Speaker 1: 8:20

Don't touch it her, so okay they did good, and now she's back to her normal routine.

Speaker 2: 8:28

She's 95% okay. Yeah, I think I messed up her hip.

Speaker 1: 8:34

So do you honk the horn when you get in the or use check for the cat?

Speaker 2: 8:38

I sleep on my brakes.

Speaker 1: 8:41

For what reason?

Speaker 2: 8:43

she's in there to fall out. I'll back up like maybe five hours on my brakes. Do it a few times, I'm gonna catch run. I must be good. Hey, it's work for the last six days.

Speaker 1: 9:07

You know, if you would just leave the cat in the house 24-7, you're gonna have to worry about you're the one who said do not let the cat go in the house. I would not let the cat house. My cat is in the house and I would not let another cat in the house. That's what I said last time when you'll let another cat know once Daniel's gone.

Speaker 1: 9:24

That's a emotional support animal. It's going to college. I'm filling up paperwork, I'm going to sign. It is emotional support animal. It must go. They must take it at BG.

Speaker 2: 9:39

Good luck with that.

Speaker 1: 9:40

Well, it's gonna have to go. I don't know. I guess we'll figure it out so.

Speaker 3: 9:49

All right Tim yeah, I did.

Speaker 1: 9:50

We've been talking for 10 minutes, so I guess you should really stop talking and probably start.

Speaker 2: 10:05

All right, you're gonna get started.

Speaker 1: 10:06

I mean, I guess, let me on Go for it.

Speaker 2: 10:15

I don't know why you would yawn. We're going to talk about salt today.

Speaker 1: 10:17

Oh, oh, so I'm ready. What page are we on? Yeah, you don't have page numbers.

Speaker 2: 10:26

I forgot on Matthew five eleven through sixteen, okay, thirteen.

Speaker 1: 10:31

That's page seven. All right, I'm ready. Oh yes, you are the soul of the earth. You won. But if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.

Speaker 2: 10:55

It's very true. So with this verse we are transitioning out of the whole Beatitude, feel we're no longer going to be discussing Macarios. I know it's sad.

Speaker 3: 11:09

Sweet Jesus.

Speaker 2: 11:14

What did you? Do Did you have coffee or something before this?

Speaker 1: 11:18

I said Dylan came to our house.

Speaker 2: 11:22

So you had something with a little higher alcohol content. Is it an Irish coffee?

Speaker 1: 11:32

You are the salt of the earth.

Speaker 2: 11:36

So, yeah, we're transitioning out. We are still in the Sermon on the Mount, so this is still part of Jesus' teachings.

Speaker 2: 11:44

Oh yes, I know we have spent a lot of time covering the Beatitudes, Just the opening of the Sermon on the Mount. So over the next few chapters yes, chapters we're still going to be covering the Sermon on the Mount. So as we get into some of these teachings, like this one, we will probably go a little bit faster, even though I think we probably won't get through this verse in this episode. As we go on and move forward, it should go a little bit faster. But in order to understand this one, we have to look at the very first line, the first section you are the salt of the earth. This is an obvious metaphor.

Speaker 2: 12:35

But who is Jesus referring to as salt? Well, the obvious answer is in the very first word in verse 13. You. So, yes, he is referring to you as Christians. So we Christians are the salt of the earth. That is the most obvious reference to this metaphor. But what does it mean for us to be salt of the earth? Like what is he trying to tell us by saying that we are the salt of the earth? So in order to understand this, we need to understand what salt actually is and how it's used, both then and now. So sorry, I guess I'm going to throw.

Speaker 1: 13:26

Obviously. Are you going to take a big drink of your chocolate milk? Do you want me to no?

Speaker 2: 13:32

Then I should Okay, no, okay. So salt has two primary functions, and this is true for the Israelites back in the days of Jesus as well as today. The first one is pretty obvious Salt is used for flavoring for food. I don't think I need to go into any depth or any in-depth explanation for that. Everybody realizes that if you add salt to food, it changes the flavor.

Speaker 1: 14:02

It does. It also gives you high cholesterol, doesn't it?

Speaker 2: 14:07

I don't know. I have blood pressure. No, I have blood pressure. I'm saying like full milk gives me cholesterol.

Speaker 1: 14:12

Oh, okay, see, I don't have any issues.

Speaker 2: 14:13

I'm bothered. So shouldn't have butter either.

Speaker 3: 14:16

Okay.

Speaker 2: 14:18

Olive oil is good for your cholesterol.

Speaker 1: 14:21

Let me make a note of that.

Speaker 2: 14:22

Vegetable oil is not Okay, butter is not Salt. Skin milk is good.

Speaker 1: 14:27

That used a lot of salt Ward.

Speaker 2: 14:34

We're all going to teach it.

Speaker 1: 14:38

All right. So, we all know it's all this oh my. They're family.

Speaker 2: 14:45

They would take lard and just put it on bread and just eat it.

Speaker 1: 14:47

It's so gross.

Speaker 2: 14:50

There's a reason he's not with us anymore.

Speaker 1: 14:57

He was the salt of the earth.

Speaker 2: 15:00

Yeah, so the other primary function of salt is as a preservative.

Speaker 2: 15:06

Okay, and the way salt works as a preservative for some people don't know this isn't quite as obvious as just putting salt and food and changes the flavor. As a preservative it works in a few different ways. So if you put salt on something up to a point, you're just adding salt and flavor to it, right. But once you get to a certain concentration of salt, then it becomes more of a preservative and the way it works is it pulls moisture from the cells within that food. So at a certain point, once your salt gets to a high enough concentration, it's pulling that salt out of the cells. Well, it's pulling the salt out of the bad cells and it's killing the bad cells and the stuff that would ultimately cause your food to decay and rot and break down. So it's killing that stuff which is preserving your food. But the good stuff is allowed to continue to live. But once you get too much salt on it, well then even the good stuff is going to die. Then your food is pretty much ruined.

Speaker 2: 16:19

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 16:20

Okay.

Speaker 2: 16:22

But you can also use salt as a brine and that's just basically salt water.

Speaker 3: 16:28

Okay.

Speaker 2: 16:29

And this is what I do whenever I make my hot sauce. Oh, I ferment my peppers in brine.

Speaker 1: 16:37

Okay, and then you get it on your fingers and you rub your eyes.

Speaker 3: 16:41

And it hurts and it hurts, yeah, even if you get gloves on.

Speaker 2: 16:44

See gloves on Ow. Yeah, gotcha See as you go ahead the other day.

Speaker 1: 16:51

I know you did Hot sauce.

Speaker 2: 16:53

Hot sauce. So, yes, you take the peppers, put them in the jar and you put salt water in there. But that salt water has to be a certain concentration of salt to water and then it also has to be a certain type of salt too. You can't just use table salt Okay, it has iodine in it, so it has to be like a canning salt and you have a certain ratio that you put in on your peppers. Well, when it does that, it does the same thing as preserving your meats. Putting salt in your meats. It will kill the bad bacteria while allowing that good bacteria to thrive.

Speaker 3: 17:30

Okay.

Speaker 2: 17:31

And so as long as my peppers are submerged in that salt water, they could stay good for a very, very long time.

Speaker 3: 17:40

Gotcha.

Speaker 2: 17:41

Because there's no bad bacteria that can live in there To ruin it.

Speaker 1: 17:45

Gotcha.

Speaker 2: 17:46

I told you I'm going to talk about hot sauce, but I want you to understand this concept of the salt, the flavoring with reserving, because, like I said, salt up to a certain point is just flavoring your food. When you go to another level and it is preserving your food and then after that it's ruining your food.

Speaker 1: 18:14

Right, right, I got that.

Speaker 2: 18:18

So another way to look at this, again referencing back to the fact that we are the salt of the year. If we change that concept of the good stuff and the bad stuff to the righteous and evil, if you put a certain amount of salt, a certain amount of flavoring into your foods, then, yes, your good, your righteous will do okay, but the evil will also be allowed to exist. Now, once you get into that preserving level, well, now you're killing the evil.

Speaker 2: 19:04

You're getting rid of the evil and allowing the righteous to thrive. But if you get too much, then both the good, the righteous and the evil will be under stress. So hopefully that helps you understand this whole concept of salt of the earth. So let me get caught up on my notes here. But it goes a little bit deeper than that, because there are other scholars, because, like we said, the obvious metaphor for this is us Christians being salt of the earth. But there are other scholars, theologians, that think that this salt that is Jesus is referring to isn't us Christians. It is referring to wisdom and that that wisdom is the flavoring, that wisdom is the preservative. But we, as Christians, are the ones who have that wisdom and so we are the ones salt in the earth.

Speaker 1: 20:11

Why do they make it difficult for?

Speaker 2: 20:14

Well, once we get into the next section, that makes more sense. So let's go ahead and move on into the next one, which is but if salt has lost its taste? So actually it's not even this one, I think it's the one after this, but we'll eventually get back to that answer so if salt has lost its taste, this statement is a contradiction. Salt cannot lose its taste. Salt is simply a compound. Are we going to find out.

Speaker 3: 20:49

No, no.

Speaker 2: 20:50

Okay, it's sodium chloride. I mean, that's, that's salt, that's what it is. If it's no longer salt, if it loses its saltiness, it's no longer sodium chloride, so it's no longer salt.

Speaker 3: 21:05

It's nothing.

Speaker 2: 21:06

Yes, exactly, it is an encode. Yeah, it's totally chloride. I was questioning myself there for a second.

Speaker 1: 21:15

I wasn't questioning you.

Speaker 2: 21:17

Yeah obviously. But with Jesus talking about well, salt has lost its taste.

Speaker 3: 21:22

Yes.

Speaker 2: 21:23

Well, now we have to understand what salt the ancient Israelites had. They got their salt from the Dead Sea, okay, but that salt was not 100% pure salt. It was salt mixed in with other types of minerals and a very high concentration. So if they had salt and they brought it home and okay, this is salt, tastes like salt. But every time they still have this substance but no, it tastes like salt it's probably because the salt is all the way and now they're just left with these other minerals that don't taste like salt because they're not salt, right, right.

Speaker 2: 22:02

So the ancient Israelites would understand this line. They would understand that salt can lose its saltiness, because they didn't realize that salt was just sodium chloride. It was this stuff that they got from the Dead Sea that they could use for flavoring and preservative. So that's what this is talking about. But again, this isn't necessarily about salt. This is about, again, us being the salt. So whenever you replace this salt that Jesus is talking about with that metaphor of us as Christians, then we see that it's about us losing our faith, us losing our belief in Jesus, our trust in Jesus, us just losing our path and falling away from our religion and our faith. And so that's what Jesus is kind of referring to here. So, even though this statement would make sense to the ancient Israelites as salt can, lose its saltiness.

Speaker 2: 23:15

even though technically it can't, we can look at it in this metaphorical way as when we lose our way, how much time do we got?

Speaker 1: 23:29

You got about six minutes.

Speaker 2: 23:32

And actually this is the answer to the question you were talking about, because, if you look at, lost its taste. Well, that lost its taste in other translations is actually translated as tasteless, and that is the most. The more accurate Greek word translation is tasteless, but that same Greek word also means foolishness. So you could take this verbiage here If salt loses its taste, or salt loses its saltiness as if salt loses its salt becomes foolishness. But then if you go back to that, salt also meaning wisdom, because okay, if we become fools, okay, that makes sense, but if our wisdom becomes foolishness, that's what is really being highlighted here and that's why a lot of scholars do believe that the salt is the wisdom and it does actually work.

Speaker 2: 24:41

Because then, if we go and look at it in the sense of that, we as Christians are meant to go out and be the salt of the world. Right, then we are meant to go out and be disciples, we are meant to go out and share the gospel, and this can happen on multiple different levels. If you're the type of person that, okay, you just well, let's say, you're the person who, okay, you've accepted Jesus Christ, but then you live in your parents' basement and you never see the light of day and you never share Jesus with anybody except the shadows on the wall, then, yes, what You're going to be?

Speaker 2: 25:22

the salt that is thrown out.

Speaker 1: 25:24

I was going to say are you?

Speaker 2: 25:25

Your taste.

Speaker 1: 25:26

Yeah, you're tasteless.

Speaker 2: 25:28

But then if you're the type of person that you know you live your life righteously, you follow the beatitudes and you may not be really that outspoken about Jesus, but you're living your life righteously and people see that. Well, now you're kind of acting as a little bit of flavoring to this world. You're living your life in a Christian way, according to Jesus, according to the Bible, and so people will see that and be flavored from it.

Speaker 2: 26:01

And then this can keep going up. You can take multiple different levels. You know, all the way up to the point that once you start just publicly preaching, being in a position where you're just sharing Jesus with everybody and anybody, then you're getting into that preservation level where you're adding even more salt, more flavoring, to the point that now you are trying to draw the evil out of people and allowing the good, the righteous, to thrive. But, like we were saying before, you can't go too far and that's when you are going to alienate the good and the bad.

Speaker 2: 26:43

So those are the people typically standing on the street corners with signs yelling at you, no matter who you are, and just alienating people. They're just a little too extreme, so that's over-seasoning.

Speaker 1: 26:59

Okay, that's too much salt.

Speaker 2: 27:02

Just as bad as the guy living in the basement.

Speaker 3: 27:05

No, yeah.

Speaker 1: 27:06

So, okay, happy medium.

Speaker 2: 27:10

Happy medium.

Speaker 1: 27:11

Gotcha.

Speaker 2: 27:12

So are you? Are you flavoring or are you preserving? It's a good question, I think I don't know what we are. We're on the border, I think.

Speaker 1: 27:25

Maybe, we're at a time no, I didn't say that I'm flavoring. Why is that comical?

Speaker 2: 27:41

I don't think we have time for me to do the next section though. Okay, do you mind, I'll just have to figure out. Two minutes Sure, why not?

Speaker 3: 27:58

Go for it.

Speaker 2: 27:59

So how shall its saltiness be restored? Well again, once salt is no longer salt, it cannot be salt again. That's just the way it works. But looking at it in this vein of wisdom, if you do lose your wisdom, if you do fall off the wagon, so to speak, you walk away from Jesus, you become foolish, but you can regain that wisdom. Salt can't become salt again. But if you lose your wisdom, you can gain it back.

Speaker 3: 28:44

I believe it. Yeah, I mean.

Speaker 2: 28:45

that's another reason why a lot of people like this wisdom instead of we both work yeah.

Speaker 1: 28:58

Yeah, but I can see now where that comes from.

Speaker 2: 29:00

Yeah, but along the same lines if you lose your path, you can find your path. Yes, I mean, if you lose your way you can find a way again in the way just happens to be Jesus.

Speaker 1: 29:13

Right, right In case anybody was wondering no, no, I knew that the answer is always Jesus. I got that.

Speaker 2: 29:21

So how is the saltiness going to be restored? Well, one of the commentaries that I study kind of changed the way I was viewing this whenever I was first studying it, because it isn't so much about how can your wisdom be restored, but if you lose that wisdom, if you lose your path, if you lose your way, what's going to fill in that void? What's going to replace Jesus? What's going to fill in that gap that is left in your heart? Because we, as humans, we are designed to worship. That's just the way we are, that's the way we were designed. So if we're not worshiping Jesus, we're not worshiping God. What are we worshiping? Who are we worshiping? So that's really this question. What's going to fill that void? It could be numerous, numerous things, probably incalculable, but chances are it's not going to be heavenly, it is going to be of this world. A very good chance is going to be of an evil nature and you are going to go down a path that you really don't want to go down.

Speaker 2: 30:51

So your best choice is to regain your wisdom, to come back to Jesus and to live a righteous life.

Speaker 3: 31:00

I agree.

Speaker 2: 31:00

Is that what I get?

Speaker 3: 31:02

I don't know.

Speaker 2: 31:06

So there's still more to this verse, but we'll stop there because I know I don't want to finish that you talked too much.

Speaker 1: 31:21

All right, so you're done for tonight. All right, so we thank you for joining us for another episode of Pure Faith Podcast. Please leave a comment on this video or go to the contact page on PureFaithLivingcom to send us a message. And, as always, if you like what you hear, then we ask that you share the show with others so we can all work together and spread in the good news of Jesus Christ. Oh my gosh, I almost got it. Don't forget to subscribe and we'll talk to you next time.

Speaker 2: 31:53

Have a good day everybody.

Speaker 1: 31:55

I still can. I'm right there.