By Michael Brown, CP Op-Ed Contributor

In one of the most famous passages in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said to His disciples (and, by extension, to His followers today), “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.” (Matthew 5:13; He followed this by saying that we were the light of the world.)

But what, exactly, does it mean to be the salt of the earth? And what does it mean to lose our saltiness?

Many New Testament scholars explain that one of the main functions of salt in the ancient world, where refrigeration did not exist, was preservation against corruption.

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