Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men.
Christ commits His doctrine to the apostles so they may season a tasteless world with heavenly truth. But mark the severity: if they lose their savor through corrupt life or false teaching, they become worse than useless, salt that poisons even the dunghill. An incurable disease, when those meant to heal the world become its plague.
AI summary
Christians preserve the world from moral putrefaction through prayer, influence, and example. In the East, salt was mixed with earth and could lose all savor when exposed to rain and sun, leaving only useless residue. So too a Christian stripped of righteousness becomes good for nothing but the dunghill.
AI summary
The apostles are salt through savoury doctrine and savoury lives both; their words and their conduct season the earth. But if either fails, if gifts fade, if doctrine turns false, if conversation becomes loose, the salt has lost all power. Christ poses this not as mere supposition but as warning, especially to those He would elevate.
AI summary