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Luke 14:34–35
“Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
Throughout Luke 14:7–33, Jesus has been presenting the high demands of discipleship, arguing that becoming His disciple requires a commitment to Him above all else and a living according to the kingdom values of humility and generosity that are at odds with the ways of the fallen world (vv. 7–14, 25–27, 33). He has argued that we must therefore count the cost carefully, not choosing hastily to follow Him but first understanding what serving Him actually requires (vv. 28–32). None of this, of course, is meant to dissuade us. There is a high price to following Jesus, but the reward will be great, since those who become His true disciples will feast at the great banquet that God will host at the end of history (vv. 15–24; see Isa. 25:6–8). Our Lord wants us to know what we are getting into when we commit our lives to Him.
In today’s passage, our Lord presents the significant consequences of not becoming His disciples, of not coming under Him as our Master or of only professing discipleship but not persevering to the end. He gives this warning by using the metaphor of salt when it loses its saltiness. In the ancient world, commentators note, people would sometimes put salt on the floor of their ovens to help start or accelerate fires for cooking. Over time, the salt would lose the properties that made it an accelerant, and it would be thrown out. Also, first-century Jews were familiar with the salt deposits left over from pools of water around the Dead Sea. Salt was mixed with impurities in these deposits and could quickly dissipate when moisture came into contact with the minerals, making the deposits worthless.
This imagery has the effect of impressing on its hearers the importance of believers’ not losing their saltiness. Unless we take the words of Jesus to heart and follow Him, any good that we might have to offer ourselves or the world will be gone. Without following Jesus, we will be of no long-term good to creation or to God’s kingdom. Just as salt that becomes worthless is no longer able even to fertilize soil or slow the fermentation of manure (other uses for salt in those days), those who do not persevere in following Jesus become useless. We must take this warning to heart. To preserve our saltiness and thus our worth, we must commit to following Jesus, by the help of His Holy Spirit, today and every day (Luke 14:34–35).
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
We will be of no lasting good to anyone unless we are disciples of Jesus Christ. By receiving Jesus as Savior and submitting to Him as Lord, we not only enjoy blessings ourselves but are enabled to do eternal good for others by pointing them to Jesus, where they can likewise find salvation. Following Jesus as a true disciple is how we can do authentic good for the world.
for further study
- Deuteronomy 4:1–8
- Matthew 5:13
- Mark 9:50
- 2 Timothy 2:20–21
the bible in a year
- Psalms 62–64
- Romans 1