Matthew 5:13-20....Are you the Salt and Light of the Earth?

By -
Check out the Exegesis of Matthew 5:13-20 located to the right. This passage really helps to encourage us to fulfill our role as believers here on the earth. It reminds us that God doesn't need us to complete any part of His will for the future but that He has invited us into His story and thus we get to be a part of it.

What do you think of the passages out lined in this exegesis? Do you have any questions? Is there any part of the passage that really makes you think? What about?

Let's get this thing rolling!!

Comments

Amanda said…
The passage about being salt and light has a lot of bearing on my life. I should be an influence in my culture, instead of running to the nearest Christian bubble and soaking in the comfort of being around people that agree with me. One of the scariest things is sharing my faith with a stranger, but I am supposed to care so much about the state of my neighbor's heart, that I must invest in the lives of strangers, with the hope that I can tell them about Jesus. What good is it if I just go to church every Sunday and then shuffle about the rest of the week avoiding eye contact with "sinners". I am a sinner! I need to be light; I must pray more for Jesus to open the doors to talk about Christ with strangers, relatives who aren't believers, coworkers, etc. Help me Lord Jesus.
February 25, 2008 at 10:57 PM
manny said…
Hey Josh the exegesis is good. I would like to add specifically about this passage that the salt and light are only doing what they can do! salt has to be salty or it no longer is called salt. Light has to be light or it ceases to be light. Prior to this passage Jesus declares how the people of the new kingdom will be (matt 5:1-12). Once our new nature is established and the work of the Holy Spirit begins then our nature will change. We will be light and salt we have no other choice.
I would also like to add that Jesus positions two ideas to convey same message. Salt as a preservative and light as a way to dis-spell darkness. Both have the same job to correct what has been made wrong. Ultimately leading to the same purpose "bringing glory or shining light on God".
February 26, 2008 at 4:33 PM
Josh said…
I think that Amanda has really hit the nail on the head. We must be living out our faith in a real way, in the way the Christ has called us to. That is our purpose, that is our calling no matter what.

Manny brings up an interesting point...Are Christ's statements directed towards the future kingdom or are they directed towards Christians living now?

I also like Manny's final comment...Believer's all have one purpose...to bring glory to God.
February 26, 2008 at 6:12 PM
Manny said…
Theologically I believe Jesus is speaking in a now / then framework. However contextually Jesus is communicating to a people about the now situations. This idea comes to life as the teaching expands in the next chapters. If the now / then is not understood then relate it this way... Jesus is relaying a message about a current kingdom and a future kingdom. Current kingdom began with Jesus beginning his ministry and future kingdom is one when Jesus comes back and the new heaven and new earth are joined. The now kingdom supposes that we will be about our fathers work as the example of Jesus following his father. The future Kingdom is one in which that father reigns directly without the corruption of the evil one.
February 28, 2008 at 3:58 PM
Josh said…
Just imagine how important it was for the oppressed Jews and few gentiles who were hearing this message to be given a hope for the future that Jesus promised to the faithful! Restoration from the grip of sin and Satan would have brought hope for believer living in this time as well as for any believer living in any time who needs an uplifting message.

I so much look forward to that day!
February 29, 2008 at 7:58 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Casting Lots and Determining God's Will

By -
What is the deal with casting lots in the OT and why is it used in the NT? Was this a valid way to determine the will of God? Can we cast lots today to determine God’s will for ourselves? When I first became a Christian and began to read through the Bible, This subject led to some very challenging questions that I could not find answers to. Recently, our pastor, David, has been taking the church through the book of Acts on Sunday nights and last Sunday we read about how the disciples used lots to decide who the replacement disciple would be for Judas Iscariot. This reminded me of my own question that I had before and how many others may also be questioning this as well. Why would believers use what would appear to be a system of chance in order to distinguish the will of God? To answer this question, let’s look at 3 things. First, we will need to understand just what “lots” is and what it was used for. Second, we will look at an OT passage in which it was used. Finally, we wil...
Read more

Inclusionist, Exclusionist, Pluralist...What do they all mean?

By -
While I was preparing this week to be on a panel for the discussion of theological issues I came across a very difficult question that pushed me to spend some time solidifying my own doctrine on a certain issue. The question came from a student in our youth group: "How can a person who has never been exposed to the gospel (through no fault of his own) be expected to come to a saving knowledge of Christ?" This simple question has been discussed for centuries and divided denominations since the first denomination was formed. Dr. Ken Keathley, now a professor at a Southern Baptist seminary wrote an interesting work on this very question. His paper delineates the differences between the three schools of thought on the issue presented. The excerpt presented below is from his paper titled, "None Dare Call it Treason: Is an Inclusivist a Paul Revere or a Benedict Arnold?" appearing in the Journal for Baptist Theology and Ministry, Vol. 1 No. 2. "Exclusivism holds that...
Read more

The Trinity and The Triple Point

By -
In our monthly theological discussion group, a group of men and I recently discussed the Trinity . We now understand the Trinity to be: The unity of God subsisting in three distinct persons. We reviewed the different views of the Trinity, how the concept is defined in the Bible, and how it has come to be accepted as the orthodox view currently. At the close of our discussion , we began to discuss the different analogies of the Trinity. Here are a few that we discussed through the direction of Millard Erickson's book "Christian Theology." First, we talked about the egg. The egg has the yoke, the surrounding liquid, and the shell. All of these make up the egg. The egg is like the Trinity in that it has three parts unified into one egg. This is obviously an incomplete analogy since each of the parts of the egg are not really completely separated and yet totally unified. Each part of the egg has a different nature. So the egg analogy fails. What about the human/humanity ana...
Read more