Jesus said many things that are truly astonishing. It is good at times to pretend that we are reading them for the first time in order to feel the punch of them. Think carefully and seriously about this statement of Jesus, “You are the salt of the earth”. That is a striking statement when you consider those people who first heard it. They were a motley group from many walks of life and hardly regarded as being any significant influence in the eyes of most. But Jesus saw what others were blind to. Because they were followers of Jesus, they were new people set apart from the world. They belonged to a Kingdom that is from above. They were forgiven of their sin and liberated from the bondage of the Evil One. Following their new Master, they became servants of righteousness. To such people Jesus says, “You are the salt of the earth”.

This statement implies a great deal about the world and the influence Jesus expects His people to have in this world. Jesus had no delusions about the goodness of man. As the only Saviour, He knew how desperately the world needs saving. He calls every follower of His to join Him in His saving mission. In the Spirit and power of Jesus, Christians are to resist and overcome evil. That is the primary meaning of calling them salt. The main use of salt in ancient Palestine was that of a preservative. If meat were to be stored, it had to be rubbed in with salt. Meat contains in itself the germs that will cause it to rot. The world is like meat. The sin that followed the fall of our first parents is at work, and if left to itself will spread loathsome decay throughout the life and culture of man.

What does this mean for Christians today? First of all it means that Christians should be able to detect moral decay when they are confronted by it. The smell of decaying flesh is unmistakable to anyone who has a sense of smell. So also the stench of moral decay ought to be unmistakable to any Christian worthy of the name. The society of modern America reeks with the foul air that rises from the rotting flesh of legalized abortion, pornography, homosexuality, broken marriages, child abuse, racism, drug abuse, etc. If one has smelled the sweet fragrance of the salvation of God, he can never become accustomed to the putrid odors of evil.

Yet it is not enough to know how bad our world is and to complain to ourselves about it. Perhaps the church has been content to do just that for too long and have treated the evils of our world with “benign neglect”. Can this be the reason for the blatancy and the rapid growth of the moral decay that we have witnessed in recent years even while polls indicate that at least 40 percent of all Americans profess to be born-again Christians? Is there a direct relationship between how well Christians are acting like salt and the growth of moral decay? I think there is. Salt is not going to do what salt can do until it is applied to the meat.

How must Christians do that? Obviously they cannot hinder the spread of evil in the world ifthey do not resist and fight it in their own lives. With the daily grace of the Holy Spirit, they must walk in the paths of obedience to the Lord who bought them, and delight in His commandments. But their concern may not be only for themselves. They must commit themselves to Jesus’ mission of saving lost people. They must reach out to them with the gospel of salvation, calling all men to repentance and faith in Jesus. Having done that, Christians must also realize that many will not return from their sin but will go bad to worse. May the followers of Christ stand by without aggressively opposing their evil pursuits? John the Baptist didn’t think so. When he smelled the rot of King Herod’s adultery, he confronted the king with the claim of God’s law. John did not have the right of free speech which American Christians enjoy. He paid the ultimate cost of being the salt of the earth. What costs are we willing to pay? What will it take for all of America to hear Christians unitedly and loudly protest the moral corruption of our land?

Obviously American Christians are not opposing evil aggressively enough. Is it due to our lack of nerve? Or are we trying to be too polite? Does the approach of John the Baptist offend us? Or, more seriously, have we lost our saltiness? If the latter be so, our problem is greater than we may have ever thought.

Reprinted by permission from the Spring 1986 SALT TALK (Social Action Liaison Team . Box 8582, Grand Rapids, MI 49508). Rev. Allen Petrolje, writer of this guest editorial, is pastor of the Covenant Christian Reformed Church.