"You are salt to the world. And if salt becomes tasteless, how is its saltness to be restored? It is now good for nothing." Matt. 5:13, N.E.B.

No doubt we have all met people who have asked with a shrug of the shoulders, "Why should I be a Christian ?" The indication is that they have never found any good and sufficient reason to be one. Christ stated that Christians have two distinct roles—salt and light. What do these types of Christians prove about Jesus Christ that is worth having? Does Jesus Christ make that much difference in people?

For one thing the function of salt is to preserve that which is good. Salt acts against corrupting germs. Salt also brings out the taste. It flavors. So Christ said that Christians are to fulfill this role. We act against evil, against those forces that corrupt life. We live actively and dynamically against spiritual disease.

Salt can also lose its usefulness. Instead of bringing out the full flavor of the Christian life, the professed Christian can dull the taste of life. We can live in a way that fails to meet people's needs. Poor lawyers make poor mediators for their clients. Poor physicians make poor instruments for healing people. Poor Christians are poor influences, poor keeper's of the truth, poor in acting against those forces that corrupt life.

Christ meant our lives to count. So much of life is stale and flat for many people, unprofitable and useless. So much of life is futile. We are to be different. To become salt in the earth is certainly worth trying. Let us forget about the grabbing and the selfishness. Let us sweeten and purify life for all the people we meet. Let us change the corrupting forces in other lives. There is a way to get rid of the staleness and the dullness of life. We can do it by functioning as Christ gave us the power to do.

"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace." Well, that is a preservative, healing force, all right. Everyone will admit to that. We are to purify life, not corrupt it. We are to preserve our love relationships with one another so that life is sweet and not sour.

Seldom if ever has the world been so rich in possibilities, yet so torn with strife and so dark with despair. Nobody seems to know what to do except the Christian. Our experience with the living Christ offers to men the fullness of life both for time and for eternity.