Luke 14:35
It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill; but men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill; but men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Salt that has lost its savor or its preserving quality is useless, fit neither for the land or soil nor for the dunghill, and is cast out. Its preserving quality is the influence of faithful Christians who are purified through truth and kept in vital connection with God, who live in Christ's saving grace and bear His imparted righteousness, so that they help preserve the world from moral corruption, restrain wrongdoing, and lead many toward reformation. Faithful helpers who retain Christian principle and service are salt that keeps its savor, and their steadfastness counts especially when the work is difficult.
Christians who lose the qualities of Christ and their connection with God become like savorless salt, insipid and disagreeable, with lives that contradict their profession of godliness. Having lost saving influence, their efforts to advocate truth carry no weight. Without living faith in Christ as a personal Saviour, with genuine love, actual service, and the Holy Spirit's transforming grace, Christians in name only have no influence for good and no power to bless and uplift others. Consecration and devotion to Christ measure power to bless and uplift mankind in a skeptical world, since no one can give what is not possessed. This requires reality of experience, connection with heaven, the savor of Christ in the life, and being usable by the Holy Spirit as an agent to communicate the truth as it is in Jesus.
Such lack of the grace of Christ testifies to the world that the believed truth has no sanctifying power, and so far as that influence goes makes the Word of God of no effect. By misrepresenting God, it can do worse than the unbeliever and make the profession of truth appear powerless. The same loss of savor was seen in the Jewish nation, whose religion kept an outward form but became like savorless salt because the people rejected Christ, whom their sacrifices represented, so that their offerings without the slain Lamb could not express faith in God's promise. The same image of outward form without essential substance belongs to those who claim to accept Christ while refusing to obey God's law, who are likewise spiritually unsound.
Salt that has lost its savor is also ministers whose work has become useless because instead of going out to labor actively they hover over churches without giving spiritual help. Like salt that can no longer preserve, they do not preserve the churches, remaining weak and spiritless because they draw from impure sources rather than pure spiritual streams. The closing charge that those with ears must hear is oft-repeated, meaning every soul must heed God's counsel for present and eternal good and receive the word spoken into good and honest hearts. Though what is preached may be indited by the Holy Spirit, the result lies with the hearers, and the word profits only when heard with consecrated ears, mixed with living active faith, believed, and practiced by being doers of the Word. The call to the supper in this chapter is an invitation to those in the valley of decision to take courage to decide to be fully on the Lord's side by keeping all the commandments of God.