Matthew 5:13-20
Salt of the earth13 You are the world's salt. But, if the salt loses its zest, how can it be made salty? It is worth nothing and so is thrown out, where people walk all over it.
14 You are the light of the world – like a city on a hilltop that can't be hidden.
15 No one lights a candle and puts it under a basket; it is put on a candlestick and sheds light for everyone in the house.
16 Similarly, let your light shine before people so that they may see your good works and praise your heavenly Father.
17 Don't think I have come to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I am not here to destroy, but to fulfill.
18 Very seriously I tell you, Before the world ends, not one jot or dash will vanish without everything in it being fulfilled.
19 Whoever breaks one of the least of these rules, and teaches people to do likewise, will be called the least in heaven's realm. But whoever does them and teaches others likewise will be called great in heaven's realm.
20 I am telling you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, there is no way you are getting into heaven's realm.
You, once you become born again, are supposed to be DIFFERENT from the mass of humankind. If you are no different, then you are wasting time just playing church.
Matthew 5:13
The difference shows in your behavior, especially your behavior toward
others. If you have the light of Christ in you, how can your walk not
change as you attempt to be guided by that light?
You are the world's salt. But, if the salt loses its zest, how can it be made salty? It is worth nothing and so is thrown out, where people walk all over it.
As we may know from various old-fashioned salted meat recipes, salt is a preservative that tends to retard spoilage. So, the true Christian ought to count for something, to make a difference. If he is just like everyone else, what use is he? In fact there are quite a few nominal Christians whose activities don't differ significantly from the behavior of the worldly. Jesus here is pointing the way toward the inward change that should begin as people hear his word and which will show in outward behavior, especially once they are reborn of the Spirit. By turning back to your old self, you have made yourself pretty much useless.
Aside from its preservative effect, salt makes people thirsty, as James Montgomery Boice observes. The question is: Do you make anyone thirst for Jesus? The person who has not received the new birth may be deceiving himself into thinking he is doing quite well -- externally. Or he may feel the weight of the world of sin on his shoulders. Life is miserable, meaningless. But when a born-again Christian
comes into his sphere of vision, there should be evidence of joy, satisfaction, and peace that makes him look up and say, "That's what I want; that's what I want to be like!" Can that be said of you? Do you make men thirsty for Jesus? [SE.mht2]
A person may say, and even (perhaps doubtfully) believe, that he has been born again, without that assertion being so. For example, consider Billy Graham, who had grown up in a Protestant church but who had not fully responded to Jesus. Yet, he tells us, that when he heard a call at a particular church service, he was convinced by God's Spirit that he was in dire need. That act of obedience led to his being used by God as an evangelist who reached large numbers of people for Christ. [SE.1*]
Once Graham was endued with the Spirit, there was no longer concern that he wouldn't have enough zing for God.
This thought is recapitulated in the following verses.
Light of the world
Matthew 5:14-16
Those verses may be compared with this:14 You are the light of the world – like a city on a hilltop that can't be hidden.
15 No one lights a candle and puts it under a basket; it is put on a candlestick and sheds light for everyone in the house.
16 Similarly, let your light shine before people so that they may see your good works and praise your heavenly Father.
John 8:12
What's the connection? Answer: Jesus brings true light to the human race and that light flows out through his true followers. If it doesn't, it's time to ask yourself what's going on.I am the light of the world: he who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
You can tell a real Christian by her Spirit and by her deeds. Talk by itself is insufficient. You don't necessarily have to make a big fuss about being a Christian. Your compassion, friendliness and actions will say it all. At least some people will thank God for you. Even so, don't try to hide your faith in Jesus. Christ's light is supposed to reach people through you, once you are born anew.
A few years ago I became friendly with a fellow. A former computer programer in his fifties, he was out of work and on the dole. [SE.1a] Though a very cheerful, friendly sort, when the subject of God came up, he would demur, saying that that subject was something he did not know much about. Yet, his behavior, looked at objectively, was solid-gold Christian: always willing to help, to act the friend. Often he would chat with me about some little project or other that he was doing to help someone, which serendipitously might lead to small money-making gigs. He walked everywhere, often quite a few miles at a clip, and he was always busy, much like the Apostle Paul in the sense that he "redeemed the time." I suppose that what I am getting at is that Christ cannot really hide. He is proclaimed even by those who don't proclaim him!
We should beware seeing this saying as bolstering the notion that somehow we must earn our way into heaven. You can't earn God's free gift (free to us, costly for him). Just as John the baptizer admonished some miscreants: Don't fake repentance, but show that you mean it by what you do! If you have truly turned your heart over to Jesus, you will want to behave accordingly. Yet, you will also be tempted to duck your Christian responsibility, that being the normal direction of the fearful and greedy flesh (bodily mind).
The Law and the Prophets?
By "every dot and dash," Jesus was not speaking of the laborious interpretations of the scribes and Pharisees. He meant every jot and tittle that was in God's mind that was behind the Torah law. Note that according to some rabbis, the Mosaic law provided easy divorce. But Jesus invoked God's higher law: no divorce permitted but for adultery. In other words, not even the Mosaic law, so sacred to Jews, was as holy and unflinching as God's perfect vision of how human beings ought behave, if only they could.
Now here is the point that should not be lost sight of: When the
completely pure and innocent Jesus was sacrificed on the cross, every
single human infraction of God's perfect law was punished. God's high
law was not canceled, and neither was the Mosaic law. Jesus was
actually made into sin and thrown in hell so that the Law would be fulfilled while we are able to go free! The Law was not abolished.
Every dot and dash -- down to the "tiniest" sin -- was punished. God used Jesus to make sure that God's high law was honored to the fullest. Jesus paid the price to the fullest extent of that law.
Because he fulfilled the law, we who live under grace are no longer bound by the law. Its obligations were fulfilled when Jesus paid the price of all human sin for all time. We are not under the law, whether Jewish law, Greek law or any law whatsoever. We are under the "law" of love and don't need to be told what not to do. But not all of you are participating in this grace because you have not turned your life over to Jesus. What that means is that you are under God's law, which is hanging over your head like the sword of Damocles. You will pay dearly for every little sin, every bit of idle gossip... Would it not be a good idea to get out from under that curse by seeking God's forgiveness and putting yourself in the hands of Jesus?
To modern ears, many of the admonitions of Jesus sound like rules that are intolerably rigid and impossible to live up to. This, I suggest again, should be taken to mean that the Lord was upholding a very high standard, one that is surely right, but one that shows us, with no wiggle room, that we have all sinned and come short of God's standard. If you think you don't need forgiveness of sin, think again! Who has perfectly followed Jesus' teachings about what God wants from us?
Will be called least
What of the Apostle Paul? Should he be called "least in heaven's realm" because he rejected observance of Jewish law by non-Jewish Christians? And clearly, Paul felt free to "violate" fine points of this code as the Spirit led, just as Jesus "violated" these points on the Sabbath. So we should beware the thought that Jesus was laying a heavy burden on Jews or Gentiles.
Yet, no one should water down Christ's message, for sure. We are to heed every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. And everything Jesus taught proceeded from the mouth of God. Don't dilute the message, which is: God has high standards, to which we are to aspire. Those standards show us our dire need for salvation, and Jesus provides that salvation to all who heed his pleas.
Righteousness exceeds
What was Jesus' objection to the practices of the scribes and Pharisees? It was their love of the praise, which meant they were pious frauds. You can't get anywhere with God by showing off! You must have a truly repentant heart. That's the ticket for entry into Christ's realm.
Paraphrasing Jesus:
"Holier-than-thou" won't work to get you into God's realm. Let me tell you what true morality is [which is summed up in Jesus' teachings]. So you see, you can't get anywhere with your religious formalities. Don't you see? You are all sinners – and "being religious" won't cure that. If you want to get into God's realm – which is dawning right now – you have to stop spinning your wheels and get real. You must admit your sin – face yourself – so that you can seek entry. Humility, not pride, is the ticket, friend.Before the world ends
With respect to the words "Before the world ends..." (or "Before heaven and earth pass away..."), I offer a suggestion, which you may regard as a stretch, but which to me accords with how God sometimes operates. We read in the Bible that when Jesus died, a great darkness fell across the land, lasting three hours. So at this time "the sky" along with "the earth" – which became very hard to see – "passed away." The old system was done away with, and the New Dispensation was at hand: a new heaven and a new earth were brought into force. [SE.3*] For some, this could mean the start of the Millennium (Jesus ruling the hearts of the born again who do not die, even if they do die), while the unregenerate see nothing much.
Clearly one can come up with a "natural" explanation of the atmospheric darkness. The idea of an eclipse has been debated; another thought is that an exceptionally heavy sand and dust storm shrouded the region. In addition, Palestine sits in the Great Rift Valley, which is known for the volcanic activity caused by plate tectonics. One of the volcanoes along the Arabian coast might have erupted. But, even if such is the case, the miraculous element is not curtailed one iota.
When Jesus says, "Sky and land [=the natural world] will vanish, but my words will not pass away" (Matthew 24:35), he means that God's mind upholds all. The Father is speaking through him: I AM the cause of all.
What then does "Till heaven and earth pass away" (King James rendering) imply? Once Jesus was resurrected, all the condemnation due to the law was overcome. So the old law was superseded by its meaning and fulfillment, Jesus himself. And this "law" continues to be fulfilled as Christians learn the law of love.
NEXT PAGE
Mt. 5:21-26. The peril of anger
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