Smoodock's Blog

In our previous study we discovered what life is like in the Kingdom of God. What the Beatitudes tell us is who gets blessed, who dwells in the Presence of God and whose spirits are healed thereby. It is an upside-down kind of kingdom that doesn’t cater to the privileged few. Everyone is important, and everyone has direct access to the Lord. In a 24/7 kind of world, where only the heroes and stars become the movers and shakers of their communities, we find scattered throughout those communities were folks who knew and admitted their limitations and looked to God to make the difference in their lives. They accepted life’s challenges for what they were, their daily portion from the Lord, and they were compassionate towards those many, who were consumed and broken by this world’s philosophy and stood ready to help whenever possible. These folks hungered and thirsted after the goodness in men and sought to rectify contentions between men and God.

Such people, vis-à-vis Jesus’ disciples, attract attention. People who live this kind of life cannot be hid. Some folks who were helped by the followers of Christ would want to be like them. Accepting the help they offered, they, too, began living in the Presence of God to become his ambassadors to the broken world. Nevertheless, lives led like this also attracted the attention of the skeptic and the movers and shakers of society. Men will always fear what they cannot control, so folks, who live like Jesus lived, will often suffer similar consequences that he suffered, and will be persecuted merely for the good they do. However, those, who have experienced life in the Presence of God, will not easily reject that and submit to the will of their persecutors.

According to Jesus, his disciples are like the salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13). As one scatters salt upon one’s food to flavor it, so Jesus’ disciples are scattered over the Table of the Lord (life’s challenges), making life more palatable for others, whom they influence. The salt of the earth is also used to preserve food by suppressing corruption. Because of how believers live their lives, corruption in the world is checked. Of the folks who normally would be bent toward the philosophy of this world, some would change their worldview and desire to be a disciple of Christ, like those who have influenced them. Thus, corruption is checked and even reversed in the lives of folks, who receive Christ as their Savior.

Although Jesus’ disciples wouldn’t readily succumb to the pressure of persecution, it isn’t impossible for them to become overly influenced by the pressures, which men (religious or political) exert upon them. So, Jesus warned his disciples to beware that they don’t become so like the world, that they are no longer useful to him as his ambassadors (2Corinthians 5:20).[1] If salt lost its properties, it has lost its value and is cast out to be trampled underfoot. Therefore, if Jesus’ disciples no longer influence the people for the Lord (cp. Ezekiel 44:6-14), they, too, will be cast out of the House, vis-à-vis the Temple of the Presence of God (cp. John 14:2), and have their inheritance with those who live in darkness (Matthew 25:11-12, 24-30).

Jesus also compared his disciples to the properties of light, and like a city on a hill, light cannot be hidden. It would be ridiculous for men to hide a lamp under an opaque container, because such a thing would be contrary to the value of the lamp. Instead, men would place the lamp on a lampstand, so it would lighten the whole room. God is no different! Jesus was the Light of the world, and his very manner of life exposed the wickedness of the world. Evil men dislike having their deeds exposed by light (John 3:19), so they will make every effort to keep their motives and their deeds secret (in the dark). Yet, some will have their conscience pricked enough to change their behavior, and, letting the light of Jesus’ disciples shine on their lives, they may change to the degree of accepting Jesus as their Savior, as well (cp. Matthew 5:14-15).

Therefore, Jesus told his disciples to permit the light of the Presence of God within them shine before men. They are not a ‘secret society,’ so living out their life in Christ publicly would be something that would glorify and honor God (Matthew 5:16).

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[1] Whether Jesus’ point was hypothetical or that he referred to a kind of salt that could actually lose its salty properties isn’t important. The importance is in the idea that such a thing would render his disciples useless, as far as laboring for the Gospel is concerned.