A couple of years ago I had a conversation with my dad about a small business owner that I worked for. As far as I know, this man has a life that bears the fruit of a relationship with God. In describing him, the words “good, Christian guy,” made their best effort to pass out of my mouth, but my lips could not help but tighten and block their passage.

After spending some time studying the history of the church, there is one thing that is far more obvious to me than it has ever been: as Christianity becomes more and more widely claimed by the culture, the more deluded and fruitless it tends to become. To say it differently, the more that a society identifies itself with Christianity, the quicker Christianity devolves into a religion that promotes the society itself. This is the contrast between Christian America and American Christianity. The first is a description of a land touched by Christianity, and the second is a picture of Christianity informed by the views of the nation. This idea sends some of Jesus’ words violently vibrating around my skull.

"You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.”

Matthew 5:13 (NASB)

“Therefore, salt is good; but if even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned? It is useless either for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Luke 14:34-35 (NASB)

We use salt every single day of our lives; without salt, our lives would be a little bit more bland. However, in the first century salt was more than we can imagine. As far as I know Jesus did not have access to Jane’s Crazy Salt or Everything but the Bagel Seasoning, so this is basically the option for adding flavor to food. There was no refrigerating system in the desert heat of the Holy Land, so salt did its job to preserve food and evade the stink that comes from meat that goes bad. The fact of the matter is that the second that salt loses its “saltiness” it can no longer carry out those functions. The best option is to throw it on the ground and go on with your life. 

Jesus goes so far as to compare tasteless salt to a piles of soil and manure, pointing out that it does not even compare to either of those things. At least a mound of dirt can be used for growing things. And here is the knockout punch, in my humble opinion: Jesus cuts to the heart saying that it would be better if this tasteless, functionless mound of salt was a lump of manure instad. Do you feel the weight of that statement? Jesus points out not only is the impotent salt useless (referring to some of His prospect followers), He would rather have a steaming pile of poo! At least there is some use in feces. 

The reason why this comes to my mind in thinking about my conversation with my dad is this: I grew up in a midwestern city, where anyone who wants to wear the badge can claim the Name of Jesus. Day after day, this way of thinking was ingrained in my head (maybe yours too). Constantly, I have heard of those “good Christian guys,” who have never counted the cost and chosen to actually follow Jesus.

I have heard of the good Christian guy who left his wife and kids for another woman without remorse or repentance. I have heard heard of the good Christian guy who repeatedly puts his hands on his wife and children. I have heard of the good Christian guy who hasn’t cracked his Bible in weeks, months, or even years. I have heard of the good Christian guy who cares not that his life looks more like the pagan world around him than that of the Christ that he claims as his buddy.

The prophet Jeremiah saw a similar landscape in the land of Judah and lamented over God’s fallen people. Speaking through His prophet, God says: “For My people are foolish, they know Me not; they are stupid children and have no understanding. They are shrewd to do evil, but to do good they do not know.” (Jeremiah 4:22) If that is not striking enough, here is a further description: “An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land: the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule on their own authority; And My people love it so!” (Jeremiah 5:30-31b). 

The prophet’s words ring as true in our day with the church as they did right before the Babylonian exile, in which God purged Judah of her false and arrogant views of herself.

The term Christian was not used until Acts 11, in Antioch. There is some scuttlebutt over the intentions of the first usage of this term, but many claim that this term was meant to degrade those that claimed the Name of Jesus Christ. Being called a Christian has been described as one that wanted to be a “little Christ,” meaning that they were trying to look like this man who, in the eyes of the culture, was not worth replicating. Jesus was a baby born out of wedlock who found His end on a Roman cross, the worst and most disrespectful possible death in the eyes of both the Jews and the Gentiles. That reads a lot like a degrading mock to me: “look at those little Christs.” Another way that the word “Christian” can be defined is as one who belongs to Christ. A slave, or servant of the same man who was “to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness.” (1 Cor. 1:23b)

That is a salty Christian.

Historically, the trend appears as follows: the more that salt (Christians) intertwines with the culture of the day, the more quickly the salt becomes impotent, and invites more saltless sand (Christians in name only) to join the decline. You can see it in Constantine’s Roman rule (which made Christianity the national religion) and the fruit that followed and you can see it in modern America. As long as we wield an ineffectual, ineffective and inadequate view of Christ-following, Christians will be saltless and the power of our message will be weaker and less useful than a steaming pile of animal dung. 

Do not allow yourself to fall into the cynicism that places the bar too high for anyone who claims the Name, but also run from the slippery slope that says being a Christian means being a good ol’ boy with a little bit of midwestern kindness. For me, this forces me to stop gingerly asking the question, “is he a good Christian guy,” but more forcefully promote a more explicit and direct list of questions: “Do you belong to Jesus?”

“Are you a slave to Christ?”

“Is knowing Jesus and looking more like Him your greatest conviction and purpose” 

The one that can answer yes gives a better depiction of what a Christian is.