Lord, let me be salt today
It's not just that the author approvingly recommended the Salt Institute website as "particularly interesting" in his blog post today, but Richard Bentall in "For such a time as this" has just run three successive days of blogs on our favorite subject -- salt.
Some highlights:
On Tuesday, "Salt from the Bible" Bentall observes:
To offer salt is to treat with honour. It is a gesture of respect. Even of love. To offer the salt is to not hold back.
Yesterday, an informative treatise on the "Covenant of Salt" where he explains that
according to Smith's Bible Dictionary, there was something called a "covenant of salt." Such a covenant betokened "an indissoluble alliance between friends." This phrase, covenant of salt, turns up in 2 Chronicles 13:5, which says, "Do you not know that the LORD God of Israel gave the rule over Israel forever to David and his sons by a covenant of salt?" Indissoluble. Get it? A bond of friendship that cannot be broken. These are some of the connotations, that surrounded the word salt for people in Palestine in Biblical times.In Colossians 4:6. "Let your words be always full of grace, seasoned with salt." Remember that in this passage Paul is speaking to church members about their relationships to those on the outside. Your words to them, he is saying, ought to carry with them the offer of friendship very much like God's to David. This is grace, and it is abounding grace. It has been poured out for us, so that we may abound in it toward others. Offering peace, this is what the covenant of salt is about, and that is what our words should savor of when we speak to outsiders. So that "thanksgiving may overflow, to the glory of God." (2 Cor. 4:15b)
And this morning's treat, "If it 'taint salty, then 'taint salt," he continues this instruction, noting:
The offer of salt, the instruction to season all our interactions with others with the salt of hospitality, of graciousness, is a seriously high standard. ... One way to do this is to compare our behavior with the standard that Jesus laid out in the beatitudes, which is where the Saviour spells out what it means to be "the salt of the earth." Why is all this so important? Jesus answers, "Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with each other." (Mark 9:50) And Peter, for his part, adds: "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect . . . ." (1 Peter 3:15)Lord, let me be salt today. Let there be the savor of salt in all my conversation. Let graciousness, gentleness, and respect be the marks of my faith today...
Salt has enormous and enduring cultural significance. Thanks to Richard Bentall for this illuminating reminder.
