What is Our Purpose in this World as Followers of Jesus Christ?

Once we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and are “born of water and the Holy Spirit”, we are charged with a great responsibility. This great responsibility is to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. What does it mean to be salt and light and how do we become the salt of the earth and the light of the world?  Let it be observed, that while the two figures of salt and light both express the same function of true believers and followers of Jesus Christ - their blessed influence on their fellow men -they each set this forth under a different aspect. Furthermore, to be the light and salt means that true followers of Jesus Christ have to be different from the world and through this difference impact the world. In fact, as true followers, we are not here to be part of the darkness, as it is written in 1 John 2: 15-17:

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world--the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life--is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”

What Does It Mean to be the Salt of the Earth?

What's the primary use of salt?  Why did Jesus Christ say that true believers are the salt of the Earth?

Salt is a preservative. Salt preserves that to which it is added from putrefaction - from rotting.  The Earth is rotting in sin and death because human beings born and living in darkness are corrupt, unholy, and ignorant of the truth of God. True believers preserve the world from complete putrefaction - rotting. True believers and followers of Jesus Christ, as the salt of the earth, are given the following two responsibilities:

True believers and followers of Jesus Christ are set apart in the lives that they lead in complete dedication to God. In living holy lives, they become living testimonies to all who live in darkness, influencing some to believe and also follow Jesus Christ. In following Jesus Christ in obedience to God’s Word, those who were once lost in darkness become transformed and saved from corruption. This is demonstrated in the Apostle Paul’s letter to believers in Colosse, as it is written in Colossians 1:14, 21-23::

“We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints; because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth; as you also learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, who also declared to us your love in the Spirit.

For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.  

And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight-- if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.”

It is imperative that we as true believers and followers of Jesus Christ retain our "saltiness" - because to lose it means that we are not born again, and to be not born again means that we cannot enter the Kingdom of God.

Keep your saltiness!

Remember - if salt loses its flavor, it will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless!