Are You Worth Your Salt?

I am sure that you are familiar with the old saying - Are you worth your salt? What you might not be familiar with is where this expression came from. The phrase originated with the ancient Romans, who highly valued salt. Salt was used not just for flavor but also as a preservative, which was very important with the lack of refrigeration.

In ancient Rome, salt represented great power and value and was even used as currency for payment. Some of the wages the Romans paid soldiers wages were in salt. The English word "salary" comes from the Latin word sal meaning salt. Thus was born the phrase - Are you worth your salt?

I heard a great sermon at the lake this Summer from an elderly pastor and I wanted to share this great message with you. There are two key Biblical references to salt and both have excellent application for us.

Colossians 4:6 Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

As a believer, our words must be seasoned with salt – meaning, a preservative to others, respectable, and valuable. Our words should be intended to build up and not tear down. Words are powerful and they are also duplicitous. On one hand they can hurt people, end relationships and even start wars. On the other hand, they can bring people together and offer encouragement that can sustain people through difficult times. Words matter and they need to be seasoned with the grace of the Holy Spirit.

Matthew 5:13 “You are the salt of the earth, 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.

Are we leading “salty” lives? Do our lives give others a flavor for walking with God or do we just provide another taste of the world? If our lives are truly “salty” it will create a “thirst” in others to have what we have. Just like salty food creates thirst, are we making others thirsty because of our saltiness?

If we “hunger and thirst for righteousness,” it will be noticed. Some will not understand us and may not want to have much to do with us, but others will desire what we have - the joy and peace that comes with a saving faith in Jesus Christ.

Stay hungry,

Big E

Matt. 5:6