I have just read a statement of a Christian writer to the effect that the salt of the earth needs to be rubbed in, even if it smarts.
I have heard and read many developments of the salt theme. The outline usually runs the same course: salt seasons, purifies, preserves. But somebody ought to remind us that salt also irritates. Real living Christianity rubs this world the wrong way. "The world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." John 17:1414I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. (John 17:14). Godly living is in itself a rebuke to this age, and this world resents the light that exposes its corruption.
We are going to a lot of trouble these days developing a brand of Christianity that will not irritate this world. The only salt that will not irritate is "salt without savor," and our Lord said such salt, whether table salt or spiritual salt is "good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men."