Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men (Matt. 5:13 KJV).
(I)
Rev. Marinus Schipper
(Source: The Standard Bearer, vol. 36, issue 5, 1st December 1959)
Reverend Henry Vander Kam gives brief
expositions on The Sermon on the Mount ... Commenting on Matthew 5:13-16 and
particularly on the expression of Jesus: "Ye are the salt of the
earth," he makes the following [erroneous] observations:
"Those whose hearts have been renewed have a very
specific task to perform in this world. They are the salt of the earth. This is
stated as a fact, not as something which must still be accomplished. If they
should not act as a salt they are worthless. They have received all their
qualifications from above and that makes them a salt. The statement: "If
the salt have 'lost its savor' means that their qualifications as citizens of
his Kingdom are lacking. Those who are what the Beatitudes demand are the salt
of the earth. Salt is used for two purposes: to make food tasty and to preserve
it. It is this latter function which Jesus has in mind when he speaks of his
people as the salt of the earth. Salt was the only preservative known to the
people of Jesus' day. It was, therefore, one of the most important things in
their daily lives. Without salt food would spoil in a very short time. As the
salt of the earth God's people prevent the decay of this sinful world. Without
the presence of his people this world would fall into utter ruin. Had there
been but ten righteous people in Sodom and Gomorrah, these cities would have
been spared. God spares the world because of the presence of his people
..."
Concerning the above quotation we
remark:
1. That the Rev. Vander Kam should
have known better than to give the above interpretation concerning the
significance of salt. He himself tells us that "salt is used for two
purposes: to make food tasty and to preserve it." Without testing the
former significance, he makes the definite observation that "it is this
latter function which Jesus has in mind when he speaks of his people as the
salt of the earth." This is a case of poor exegesis.
2. That he is in error when he asserts
that salt must be understood here in the preservative sense. He is evidently so
much under the influence of the common grace doctrine that he cannot understand
how God's people is the only morsel left in this corrupt and rotten world that
is tasty to God. He tells us that Jesus is stating a plain fact here, but he
ignores this statement of fact and wants to make it an imperative that the
children of God must preserve this rotten world. I would ask him the question:
What good is it to put salt with rotten and decayed meat? He knows the answer
is that it serves no purpose at all. Neither do the children of God preserve
this rotten world, nor is it their calling. He knows too that when the very
last of God's people has been saved out of this rotten world, then the world will
be destroyed as were Sodom and Gomorrah.
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(II)
Rev.
Erik Guichelaar
Check out the following sermon on this Scripture passage:
http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=62142314391
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(III)
More to come! (DV)
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