Low-sodium Christians

Let your speech be always with grace, having been seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one. Colossians 4:6 NKJV

As a result of health issues I have been, for several years now, on a low sodium diet… also low fat and low sugar; I am always looking for “lite” or “diet” substitutes for many of the foods that we formally ate.

My wife and I try and find new ways to add flavour and spice to our cooking and meals. I came across a product the other day that left me chuckling in the supermarket isle… “No Salt salt”… salt with all of its sodium removed, leaving, according to the packaging, “the expected salt taste without its harmful results” 

We can get our recommended daily salt intake (and then some) from the processed food that most of us of consume every day. Even a person without any dietary restriction does not need to add salt to their food or cooking; there is more than enough in our shop bought items. Too much salt is ultimately poisonous to our body; not enough is just as bad. 

Salt has a way of affecting all that it comes into contact with,  a quarter or a half a teaspoon of salt will add flavour to cooking vegetables or potatoes, but try consuming that same amount on its own, not only will you become thirsty, but stinging taste will linger long after you have rinsed your mouth out. 

 

There was a time when salt was a rare and valuable commodity; squabbling ancient Hebrews once consumed salt as the “guarantee” of forgiveness after a feud or quarrel. Salt was an integral part of the old system of sacrifices, and there was an old proverb that stated… “He has eaten of my salt” meaning that a lasting friendship had been established.  This is exactly what this verse in Ezra 14:4 means “And because we have eaten the salt of the palace, and it was not right for us to see the king's dishonour, therefore we have sent and notified the king.”

Newborn babies were to be given a quick “rub-down” with salt or in salty water… “And as for your birth, in the day you were born your navel was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you. And you were not salted, nor swaddled at all. Ezekiel 16:4

Ancient Hebrew literature indicates that salt was a remedy for toothache, and that a grain or two of rock salt held on the tongue helped prevent “bad-breath”, numerous other uses  of salt recognized the medicinal properties of sea or rock salt. Salt is also a Jewish metaphor for wisdom, (God’s Holy Spirit). What passes for commercial salt today is actually little more than a compound of sodium and chloride, just two of the 93 elements in unrefined salt. Unrefined salt stands in complete contrast to leaven, (yeast or other fermentatives) salt is a symbol of permanence, as opposed to leaven which produces change and spoilage.

Because of its preservative properties, salt was imbued with eternal properties, and many covenants between man and God were established as salt (eternal) covenants… “All the holy offerings that the People of Israel set aside for GOD, I'm turning over to you and your children. That's the standard rule and includes both you and your children--a Covenant-of-Salt, eternal and unchangeable before GOD.” Numbers18:19  The Message

King David received his kingdom by a salt covenant… “Should you not know that Jehovah, the God of Israel, gave the kingdom over Israel to David forever, to him and to his sons by a covenant of salt?” 2 Chronicles 13:15

It’s little wonder then that Jesus said of his followers… “You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its savor, (saltiness) with what shall it be salted? It is no longer good for anything, but to be thrown out and to be trodden underfoot by men. Matthew 5:13

There are two intriguing verses in Mark 9… “For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. Salt is good; but if the salt becomes saltless, with what will you season? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another”. Mark 9:49-50

In other words, every one of us will be given opportunities to learn wisdom and grace through the “fire” of bitter experience. Wisdom is obviously of extraordinary value. Grace will fill our spirit with Christ’s nature. However, if wisdom has turned into foolishness, and grace to bitterness, we won’t be able to restore them, any more than we can restore saltiness to salt.

Salt needs to rightly balanced in our diet, for our physical well-being. Likewise, our spiritual diet needs to be well-adjusted if we are to retain our saltiness.