Salt and Light in a Rotten World
by Tom Frazier
We are “of God,” no longer of this world, and we are still here only because He has chosen to leave us here — to remain in the enemy’s domain. But for what purpose? Certainly not to renovate it. Certainly not to offer cosmetic adjustments. It is to stand in the midst of it as the Savior did: redemptively, without condemnation.
As He was, so are we in this world. We are called to walk as He walked, not with pride and a sense of privilege, but with humility and a sense of purpose. To be salt and light. Not to preserve and illuminate the rottenness and darkness of a dying world, but to provide a witness to another Way, another King, another Kingdom.
How could we possibly improve on the testimony of the early Church? Did they rail against the evils of their day? Did they demand that the authorities return to righteousness? Did they lobby Caesar for more just legislation?
No. They lived lives of quiet holiness and powerful witness. They prayed, they fasted, they suffered with joy, and they preached Christ crucified and risen. Their impact came not from transforming society but from revealing a completely different life — the life of the risen Christ.
Can we improve on their testimony?
There is no Scriptural precedent for demanding that society accommodate Christian values. There is no Biblical call to moralize the world’s systems. Yet much of today’s Church has lost its saltiness by doing just that.
We must recover our identity as pilgrims and strangers. We must lose the illusion that we are at home here. And we must stop expecting the world to treat us like we belong. We don’t.
Let us not forget: we are not victims. We are not marginalized. We are light in the darkness, and the darkness cannot comprehend it. We are salt — and if the salt has lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted?
The Church is not called to clean up the world. The Church is called to call people out of it.
Let us return to the gospel. Let us preach Christ. Let us pray. Let us love. And let us rejoice that our names are written in heaven.
© 1993 Winthrop House / Revised 2022. Used by permission of the author.