Made salty (233) (halizo from háls = salt) means to season or sprinkle with salt. To preserve by salting. There is also one figurative use as discussed below. There is only one other NT use of halizo by Mark... Mark 9:49 For everyone will be salted with fire. (Halizo is used figuratively in this passage. That's the easy part. The interpretation is not absolutely certain but it could refer to God's judgment which is like fire, and everyone suggest will be applied chasten believers while they are on earth, test the worth of the "works" of believers at the Judgment seat and to punish unbelievers. There may be an association with the use in Leviticus [see below] so as the Old Testament priests salted the animal sacrifices, so God will season His living sacrifices with fiery trials to purify their faith.) Wuest comments on Mark 9:49: Verse 49, taken in its context, reaches back to the unquenchable fire of Gehenna (v. 48), and forward to the self-discipline of verse 50. Expositors says: “Every one must be salted somehow, either with the unquenchable fire of Gehenna or with the severe fire of self-discipline. Wise is he who chooses the latter alternative.” Robertson reminds us of the fact that the Lord Jesus once called His disciples the salt of the earth (Matt. 5:13). He warns them now (v. 50) not to lose their saltness. (Wuest, K. S. Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: Eerdmans or Logos) There is one use of halizo in the Septuagint (LXX)- Leviticus 2:13 'Every grain offering of yours, moreover, you shall season (Lxx = halizo) with salt (literally "salt with salt"), so that the salt of the covenant of your God shall not be lacking from your grain offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt. Marvin Vincent commenting on "tasteless" (Have lost his savour) (moraino - moranthe) explains that The kindred noun (moros) means dull, sluggish; applied to the mind, stupid or silly; applied to the taste, insipid, flat. The verb here used of salt, to become insipid, also means to play the fool. Our Lord refers here to the familiar fact of salt losing its pungency and becoming useless. Dr. Thompson (“The Land and the Book”) cites the following case: “A merchant of Sidon, having farmed of the government the revenue from the importation of salt, brought over a great quantity from the marshes of Cyprus — enough, in fact, to supply the whole province for many years. This he had transferred to the mountains, to cheat the government out of some small percentage of duty. Sixty-five houses were rented and filled with salt. Such houses have merely earthen floors, and the salt next the ground was in a few years entirely spoiled. I saw large quantities of it literally thrown into the road to be trodden under foot of men and beasts. It was ‘good for nothing.’ ” (Vincent, M. R. Word Studies in the New Testament Vol. 1, Page 3-39) (Bolding added) Vance Havner has some salty words on how to be salty Christians (keeping in mind that the primary function of salt in Jesus' day was preservation and which undoubtedly was His main meaning, although it does not preclude some of these other nuances of significance - the danger with metaphors is that we take them further than God intended, so keep that in mind as you read this and any commentary on the meaning of "salty Christians")... It might have seemed ridiculous to a casual bystander for Jesus to say to a handful of ordinary men, "You are the salt of the earth and I am sending you out to permeate and infiltrate and season the whole world." Yet that little band, that pinch of salt, started something that has survived the centuries and changed the history of mankind. Our Lord used the simplest figures of speech. Nothing is plainer, more universal and old‑fashioned than salt. It is such a common commodity that we take it for granted, but if suddenly no salt could be had, what a difference that would make! What would life be without salt! A little boy said, "Salt is what tastes bad when you don't have it." Christians are the salt of the earth and we ought to make a difference. 1. Salt has a seasoning influence. There ought to be a flavor, a tang, a relish, and a zest about us Christians. Someone has said that our main trouble today is not that our doctrine is false, but that our experience is flat. 2. Salt preserves. Civilization has been saved from destruction by the restraining influence of the Holy Spirit in Christians. Salt prevents decay and restrains corruption. One godly person in a group will restrain evil conversation. 3. Salt purifies and cleanses. The best gargle for a sore throat is plain salt water. The church of Jesus Christ has had a purifying influence wherever it has gone. You may think that your community is in a bad state, but take out the church and you would not want to live there. 4. Salt heals. Lives are changed, souls saved, homes rescued from disaster, broken hearts mended, sorrows eased, burdens lifted, sick bodies and minds made well because of the antiseptic and therapeutic power of the Holy Spirit working through God's people, the salt of the earth. 5. Salt creates thirst. God's people should develop in the hearts of men a desire to know God. We ought so to live that others would want the peace and joy they see in us. Does anybody want to be a Christian like you? The best argument for Christianity is a Christian. 6. Salt irritates. When the salt of God's truth is rubbed into this diseased old world, sick souls may smart. When the light is turned on, some will wince. The devil hates the Gospel and fights back.... We are not the sugar of the earth‑nor the vinegar‑but we are salt and we will not be welcomed by a generation full of wounds, bruises and putrefying sores. We need to get into the salt business and we must start with a few. This is God's program today. It sounds old‑fashioned, but salt is old‑fashioned, sin is old‑fashioned and so is the Gospel. We have been tickling palates with fancy flavors, spicy relishes, and clever recipes borrowed from the world. Too many pulpit gourmets and theological epicures with menus from Hollywood are trying to please the jaded appetites of a fed up humanity. We need old‑fashioned salt, and if we do not start producing more of it in our churches, we shall be good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men. Albert George Butzer said "Some Christians are not only like salt that has lost its savor, but like pepper that has lost its pep." Does God Ever Restore One's Saltiness? Kent Hughes addresses the question "How will it be made salty again?" asking... Can a church be re-salted? The Lord brought this question up when he asked, "How can it be made salty again?" As we have said, salt cannot lose its saltiness, and therefore it cannot again be made salty. I believe Jesus is talking about salt that is so adulterated it has lost its preservative powers. In the context of His times Christ is saying that if salt has lost its savor, there is no natural hope for it. Is there any hope for us if we have become desalted? The answer is no - not in ourselves anyway. However, Jesus extends the metaphor into the supernatural, and here we must say that the answer is yes! Jesus is not saying that if a Christian loses his pungency, he cannot get it back, even by going to the source from which it came. Nothing but our own sin can keep us from being resalted. I once met a man who, in his sixties, was re-salted. He told me about how his life had become bland and insipid, and then he was confronted again with the necessity of a vital life for Jesus Christ and committed his life to him. For the next ten years of his life he was incredibly salty in the world. The effect of his life is literally known by thousands. So one can be re-salted! (Hughes, R. K. Sermon on the Mount: The Message of the Kingdom. Crossway Books) (Bolding added) In Genesis 20:1-18, Abraham illustrates one who for a time lost his savor when he went to Gerar (capital of the Philistine colony on the seacoast) and lied to the pagan king Abimelech about Sarah, telling the king she was his wife. Abraham became tasteless salt for a time -- how could he talk to the pagan King about His God of truth when he himself was living a lie? And yet even while still in Gerar, Abraham was apparently "re-salted" supernaturally as evidenced by his interceding with God for Abimelech's life (see Ge 20:7). Surely this indicates that Abraham had confessed his sin and God had restored him (cf Ps 66:18, 19). Also see the testimony of the pagan king in Ge 21:22 "God is with you in all that you do". This further supports that God had restored His erring saint to saltiness. In Mark 9:50 Jesus tells His disciples who in context had been bickering over which one was the greatest (Mk 9:34, cf their attempt to hinder another believer Mk 9:38)... "Salt is good (kalos = beautiful, attractive); but if the salt becomes unsalty, with what will you make it salty again? (the idea is "you" cannot but it leaves open the possibility that God can supernaturally) Have (continually be having = present imperative) salt in yourselves, and be (continually be = present imperative) at peace with one another." So Jesus does leave open the possibility that although man can in no way "re-salt" savorless salt, God can just as He did in the case of Abraham's life and in the life of every believer who is willing to walk in the light as He Himself is in the light. That believer will find that the blood of Jesus God's Son will continually cleanse him from all sin. (1John 1:7) Thus cleansed and "re-salted", he can function as salt in society. Notice also the phrase "be at peace with one another" in (Mark 9:50). In context this suggests that one of the conditions of continually having saltiness is that we are continually at peace with our brethren! IT IS GOOD FOR NOTHING ANYMORE, EXCEPT TO BE THROWN OUT AND TRAMPLED UNDER FOOT BY MEN Spurgeon comments that... A professing Christian with no grace in him,-a religious man whose very religion is dead,-what is the good of him? And he is himself in a hopeless condition. You can salt meat, but you cannot salt salt. There are people who believe that you can be children of God to-day, and children of the devil to-morrow; then again children of God the next day and children of the devil again the day after; but, believe me, it is not so. If the work of grace be really wrought of God in your soul, it will last through your whole life, and if it does not so last, that proves that it is not the work of God. God does not put His hand to this work a second time. There is no regeneration twice over, you can be born again, but you cannot be born again, and again, and again, as some teach there is no note in Scripture of that kind. Hence I do rejoice that regeneration once truly wrought of the Spirit of God, is an incorruptible seed which liveth and abideth for ever. But beware, professor, lest you should be like salt that has lost its savor, and that therefore is good for nothing. 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