January 28, 2008

For the sake of Righteousness (Part 2)

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you." (Matthew 5:10-12)

Over the weekend we finished our devotions on the beatitudes, but there are a few things that I thought we might want to tie together. Opposition and persecution are the mark of Christ followers in the same way as other beatitudes are -showing mercy, being a peacemaker, hungering and thirsting for righteousness. Yet, we need to make sure we are approaching this last blessing properly.

Often times we see the breaks in paragraphs and numbers in our English Bible and we automatically separate passages that were meant to be heard together as a unit. As we have said before, the first part of the beatitudes (5:3-6) deals with one's position before God. The next section deals with the outworking of that position before men (5:7-10). Verses 11-12 are Jesus expounding on verse 10. But, have you ever considered the next section on ‘Salt and Light’ with reference to the beatitudes?

Jesus takes the norms of ‘Kingdom Living’ and provides the "salt and light" metaphor to show us what it looks like in our everyday world. We do not exhibit the qualities of the beatitudes in isolation from others. With the “salt and light" metaphor, we see how a Kingdom Lifestyle functions in a dark and sinful world, a world often opposed to the norms of God’s Kingdom.

Consider this as the pastors continue moving through the Sermon on the Mount in the next few weeks.

Written by Matthew Capps