The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 2 — Section 35

Vers. 34, 35.-0urselves as salt. It is hardly possible to mistake the meaning of Christ here. We know that salt is the great preservative of animal nature, the anti- dote of putrefaction and decay. We know also that the great Teacher intended that his disciples should be the salt of the earth, doing in the human the ea.me purifying work which salt does in the animal world. L THE PRESERVING POWER OF THE GOOD IN THE SOCIETY IN WHICH THEY ABE Jl'Om."D. 1. As those who act directly on God, and so on behalf of men. Had there been ten righteous men in Sodom, they would have preserved it from destruction. Similarly, the presence of a few righteous men would have saved the cities of Canaan. Is it not the presence of the righteous men and women in our modern cities which averts the retribution of God? 2. As those that act directly on man, and thus on God. As there is a tendency in animal na.tUie, when life is extinct, towards putrefaction, so is there a tendency in human nature, when spiritual life is extinct, towards degeneracy e.nd corruption. It is the function of salt in the economy of nature to prevent this result, to preserve sweetness and wholesomeness ; it is the part of moral goodness to prevent corruption in society and to preserve purity and excellency there. And this it does. Purity, sobriety, uprightness, reverence, self-control,-these are powers for subduing, for restraining; they are powers that permeate, that sweeten, that preserve. Thie is eminently true of Christian discipleship: for it he.s (1) truth to propound which is most cleansing in its character; and it has (2) a life to live which is eminently purifying in its in.fl.uence--the distinctive truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the life of the great Exemplar, which every follower of his is charged and is empowered to live again. IL THE DA.NGEB THAT THIS POWER WILL BE LOST, " Salt ie good: but i/ the salt have lotd, its savour I " It may do so. The salt, by exposure to sun and rain, may lose its pungency and its virtue while retaining its appearance. 1. And so Christian truth may lose its distinguishing force. Men may use Christian forms of speech in their teaching, and yet the doctrine they declare may be an enfeebled and emasculated Christianity, from which all that is distinctive and all that is redeeming is extracted: it is salt without its savour. :il. And so Christian life may lose its excellency and its virtue. These may be blurred and blemished lives, or they may be spotted and stained lives, or they may be lives with nothing in them beyond mere conventional propriety -lives not animated by the love of Christ, not filled with the Spirit of Christ, not governed by the principles of Christ; not blamable, but not beautiful; not wicked, but worldly; not criminal, but not Christian : the salt has lost its savour. IlL THE E:X:TBEJWI: UNLIKELIHOOD OF RESTORATION. "If the salt hove lost ••• on. xvi. l-36.] THE OOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. 37