Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned?
Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his savour ... He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. See the note at Matthew 5:13; and at Mark 4:9.
Remarks:
(1) Better not begin the Christian course, than begin and not finish it. Inconsistency is offensive even to men, and, in the matter of religion, is apt to draw down ridicule and contempt; as is so admirably portrayed in " Pliable" by Bunyan in the "Pilgrim's Progress." But to Him whose eyes are as a flame of fire, it is abhorrent. "I would thou weft cold or hot. So then, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth" (Revelation 3:15-16).
(2) Though the contest for salvation be on our part an awfully unequal one, the human will, in the exercise of that "faith which overcometh the world" (1 John 5:4), and nerved by power from above, which "out of weakness makes it strong" (Hebrews 11:34; 1 Peter 1:5), becomes heroical, and will come off "more than conqueror." But without absolute surrender of self, the contest is hopeless.