"Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another." (Mark 9:50) I am always amazed at what a little spoonful of salt can do to a whole pot of soup. The salt isn't the costliest food item neither is it the most attractive or the most desirable. Do you know that on its own, the salt isn't even delicious. Try licking a spoon of salt and see what happens to your tongue. Consuming a large quantity of the salt can even constitute a health hazard! Yet, you could spend thousands of naira to buy food commodities (like fish, vegetables, oil, meat, stockfish, etc) and prepare what should be a delicious and appetizing pot of soup, only to find out that it is completely tasteless because you forgot to put in just something common and seemingly negligible as ten naira worth of salt! The salt is small, common and cheap yet its absence is always noticed. People will lose their appetite if they cannot get a taste of the salt in their food. Jesus must have taken the time to study the salt before He giving this amazing teaching in our text. Jesus told the disciples that salt is good but only as good as it retains its saltiness..
As long as it does not lose that which makes it unique, it will always be the most valuable item in food. The salt holds every other item together. The taste of the fish, okro, egusi, etc depends on the salt. They all rely on the salt to bring out their taste. The salt brings out the perfect blend between the taste of all the food item. Granted, we have never heard of the salt losing its saltiness; but when comparing Christians to the salt, Jesus said it is possible for us to lose our own saltiness.
What exactly is our saltiness? And why is it possible to lose it! We shall deal with that tomorrow. Stay tuned and stay blessed!