Parables are illustrations or examples. The intention of a parable is to explain, in a natural way, supernatural, spiritual things.

Jesus said: “I am a bread of life.” It does not mean He is flour, water, yeast and salt, which we bake, but He was using an analogy to explain that the body cannot exist without bread the spirit cannot exist without the Word of God. The Word is invisible and can only be recognized by one physical sense: hearing. Faith comes by hearing the WORD. By the Word of God faith comes, which is an essential basis of a solid spiritual life.  Therefore, works, or doing good deeds is not a priority, since work is a physical matter and not a spiritual one.  The Word (and therefore faith) is the priority and good works are secondary. Good works are a result of what we are but good works do not change who we are.  Good works may make us religious but good works do not make us believers. Many religions have switched this priority and it has disrupted God’s will.

Salt has a natural ability to make food taste better. Many walk away from tasteless, healthy food and go to McDonald’s to eat.

It is not good when someone expands the parable into something that it was not intended to be. Some say that salt is good for preservation. But Lord did not intend for this to be expanded. Why would someone want to preserve?  Preserve what?

The parable is very clear. It says: “You are the salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13).”

There are two kind of people living on here on earth. There are believers and there are those who are religious. Bible believers should know the Bible well. But a religious person lives based on their opinions and therefore lives in ignorance, which is darkness. Regarding being the salt of the earth, we do not know for sure who is religious and who is a believer.

What things are being preserved? This world and its system are bad. Are we suppose to preserve the status quo in this world in its current bad condition? Certainly not—so this parable was not intended to be interpreted in this way. We used to preach many negative things, condemning people, preaching sin instead of redemption, poverty rather than blessing, sickness rather than healing. We used to believe that  with calamities God was teaching us by using it as a tool for correction. This is the same as those people who forego eating tasteless food and go to eat at McDonald’s. Churches became empty. We preached the wrong things and  made Satan happy. We blamed God for tragedy, catastrophe, wars, poverty.

It is interesting that He did not say you are salt of the world (He said you are the salt of the earth).

God is the owner of this earth. The owner of this world (and its system) is the prince of this world, the Serpent (Satan). The world was sold to Satan by Adam when he sinned in the Garden. From that point on, we all pay the price for this sale.

Being the salt of the earth means that we should be tastily presenting the Good News of the Gospel to the inhabitants of the earth so that they will come to the knowledge of God. Then they will listen to the Word of God to receive faith. Faith in the Word of God is the road back to paradise.

People already know that they are sinners living in the darkness. We do not need to inform them of this. If a person is in a dark place or the lights goes out, they do not sit around a say “We are in darkness” but instead they say, “Where is the switch? Where is light?” This is the positive side of Gospel.  

 No 10246