Salt is good: but if the salt has lost its taste, how shall it be restored?
All Commentaries on Luke 14:34 Go To Luke 14
Bede
AD 735
He had said above that the tower of virtue was not only to be begun, but also to be completed, and to this belongs the following, Salt is good. It is a good thing to season the secrets of the heart with the salt of spiritual wisdom, nay with the Apostles to become the salt of the earth. For salt in substance consists of water and air, having a slight mixture of earth, but it dries up the fluent nature of corrupt bodies so as to preserve them from decay. Fitly then He compares His disciples to salt, inasmuch as they are regenerated by water and the Spirit; and as living altogether spiritually and not according to the flesh, they after the manner of salt change the corrupt life of men who live on the earth, and by their own virtuous lives delight and season their followers.
As if He says, If a man who has once been enlightened by the seasoning of truth, falls back into apostasy, by what other teacher shall he be corrected, seeing that the sweetness of wisdom which he tasted he has castaway, alarmed by the troubles or allured by the attractions of the world; hence it follows, It is neither fit for the land, nor yet to the dunghill. For salt when it has ceased to be fit for seasoning food and drying flesh, will be good for nothing. For neither is it useful to the land, which when it is cast thereon is hindered from bearing, nor for the dunghill to benefit the dressing of the land. So he who after knowledge of the truth falls back, is neither able to bring forth the fruit of good works himself, nor to instruct others; but he must be cast out of doors, that is, must be separated from the unity of the Church.
Let him hear also not by despising, but by doing what he has learnt.
