Salt in the Rottenness

Salt in the Rottenness

Among many popular expressions circulating in religious circles today is this one: We must be salt in all this rottenness. David says in Psalm 1, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.” [Emphasis added].

If people had meditated on the law of the Lord day and night, they would have realized a long time ago that the expression “salt in all this rottenness” is meaningless and superficial. People should be embarrassed to utter such a meaningless phrase. I have always understood that salt keeps things from rotting. No one is so foolish as to salt rotten fish or rotten meat. However, people have so incredibly little understanding of God that they believe He would pour salt onto something rotten, expecting something to come from it.

It’s written in Matthew 5, “You are the salt of the earth.” [Emphasis added]. That means God allows the earth to continue to exist for the sake of the righteous so they can have a place for their spiritual training. In other words the righteous are the salt that preserves the world which God otherwise—without these righteous people, without this salt—would destroy. If there had been ten righteous people in Sodom, God would have spared the city, but there was too little salt and it was destroyed.