God uses the small things and the small people. God uses you and me in order that he might do his work in the world. As a matter of fact, the smaller you can become the more effective his work in you will be.
There is a second thing that salt is good for, and that is to provide flavor. The Christian, through the life of Jesus Christ within and the verities of the gospel, is to lend flavor to a flavorless, insipid world. The pleasures of the world are unsatisfying without Jesus Christ.
All of this falls into much clearer focus when we consider the actual uses of salt, particularly those that were most valued in ancient times. First, in Christ's day and for many centuries thereafter, in fact, until nearly modern times, salt was the most common of all preservatives.
This is of great significance for our understanding of the nature of true Christianity, and it has never been of more significance than in our present day. Jesus was saying, "Those who are my disciples should affect the world positively by the way in which they live." But as I view the world today I would say that although there seems to be a very keen awareness on the part of many people that something of this nature is precisely what the world needs, even though they may not look to the disciples of Jesus Christ for the answer, there is not nearly enough of this positive action in the world for good by Christians.
At verse thirteen of the fifth chapter of Matthew's Gospel we come to a new section of the Sermon on the Mount. We pass from a basically abstract definition of the Christian to a functional one. Jesus said, "Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men."
