Matthew 5:13 (YLT)

Passage

`Ye are the salt of the land, but if the salt may lose savour, in what shall it be salted? for nothing is it good henceforth, except to be cast without, and to be trodden down by men.

Nearby Context

Matthew 5:11 `Happy are ye whenever they may reproach you, and may persecute, and may say any evil thing against you falsely for my sake--

Matthew 5:12 rejoice ye and be glad, because your reward <FI>is<Fi> great in the heavens, for thus did they persecute the prophets who were before you.

Matthew 5:13 `Ye are the salt of the land, but if the salt may lose savour, in what shall it be salted? for nothing is it good henceforth, except to be cast without, and to be trodden down by men.

Matthew 5:14 `Ye are the light of the world, a city set upon a mount is not able to be hid;

Matthew 5:15 nor do they light a lamp, and put it under the measure, but on the lamp-stand, and it shineth to all those in the house;

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "salt", "land", "lose", "savour", "shall", "salted", and "nothing". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "salt" and "land", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 12's "rejoice ye and be glad because your..." into verse 14's "Ye are the light of the world...", so "salt" and "land" belong inside that flow. In Matthew context, the local focus is Christ, faith, and discipleship.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "salt" and "land" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.