Many people on special diets need to limit or even eliminate their intake of salt. To compensate, they search for other ways to spice up their food, from sauces to herb mixes, because some things just taste too bland without it. Salt is used for flavor and as an excellent preservative; no wonder salt remains an important ingredient even today.
It is no surprise, then, that Jesus compared those who belong to Him with salt: “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men” (v. 13 NASB).
You are to be the good, Christlike “flavor” in your world. Just as salt without any taste would be useless in its intended functions, so is a believer who refuses to yield his or her life to Christ. He does not lose his salvation, of course, but he does not keep his ability to flavor his world for the Lord.
Salt is also used as a healing agent. Have you ever exposed an open wound to salt water, in the ocean, for example? It hurts badly, but it usually feels and looks much better afterward. Very often when a believer demonstrates love to a nonbeliever, that love rubs into the open heart wound of the hurting person, causing initial pain. Over time, though, that exposure may bring healing in Jesus.
Dear heavenly Father, make me like salt in this world—a healing agent to those who are hurting.
Stanley, C. F. (2002). Seeking His face (311). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers.