Christianity is Practical

"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." - Mt. 5:13-16

So much of the time, evangelicals present a Christianity that is concerned with spiritual needs and realities at the expense of physical, emotional and practical needs. Growing up I heard this salt and light passage of the Sermon on the Mount interpreted as a command to meet spiritual needs, share the gospel, evangelize, etc... It's not that I think this is wrong, just backwards. Salt and light are very practical. Salt preserves, cleanses, and enhances. Light illuminates, heats, and heals. I have come to believe that Christ followers should be as useful to the world as salt and light. We should be feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, comforting the sick, teaching the illiterate, advocating for the voiceless, caring for the environment, creating art, etc.... Christ then states that men will see our good deeds and praise our Father in heaven.

God intends us to penetrate the world. Christian salt has no business to remain snugly in elegant little ecclesiastical salt cellars; our place is to be rubbed into the secular community, as salt is rubbed into meat, to stop it going bad. And when society does go bad, we Christians tend to throw up our hands in pious horror and reproach the non-Christian world; but should we not rather reproach ourselves? One can hardly blame unsalted meat for going bad. It cannot do anything else. The real question to ask is: Where is the salt?
John Stott, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount