Matthew 5:13-16

“Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” ^[1]

These words follow one of the most memorable passages in the Bible, often referred to as ‘The Beatitudes.’ Before announcing the truth that His audience was to “Be – Salt and Light” to the world, Jesus explained the qualifications required of these peculiar ones. Please note the fact that these qualifications are what makes one capable of being salt and light. Jesus also warned us that salt that has lost its savor is useless. Here we will expound upon the beatitudes in order to better understand how one succeeds or fails in the endeavor to “Be – Salt and Light.”

Matthew 5:3-12

3) “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

• These think more of God than they think of themselves. This mindset is an absolute necessity, as a kingdom is only possible when one is king and the rest are not.

4) “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.”

• These lament over the condition of the worldly they meet each day (Contextually, these mourn for the lost). The great comforter, the Holy Spirit, comforts these. Jesus said, “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever” (John 14:16).

5) “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.”

• Meekness, as in not weakness… Instead, these know the power of humbling themselves before God. Because of this, these will rule over the earth during the millennial period.

6) “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.”

• These seek to follow God’s will, always. Thus, they are more prone to being in right standing with Him. Based on last week’s study, these are filled with the knowledge of God’s will for them, which, if followed, leads to said righteousness.

7) “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.”

• These act as Jesus did and show mercy to those who do not deserve it. Because of this, they themselves will receive mercy.

8) “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.”

• The pure in heart are those who walk with God, like Enoch. One day soon, the Lord will call these into the air to meet Him face to face.

9) “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.”

• Peacemakers are those who “Follow Jesus” and act just like Him. Thus, the indication that these inherit the title “the children of God.”

10) “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

• These willingly suffer persecution for being in right standing with God, doing what is right before God, and saying what is right about God. This is the second reflection to the kingdom of heaven. With this in mind, we could say that those in right standing with God are also more likely to be peacemakers.

11) “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.”

• “Christians – Christ-Like Ones,” often maligned for Christ’s sake, should actually take comfort in the discomfort, as it is proof that one serves Christ. The Apostle Paul was our chief example of this, as seen in Second Corinthians chapters eleven and twelve. Clearly, the world hates Christ and all who represent Him. Great reward awaits in heaven for those who suffer for Him in this regard.
• Notice – the reward is in heaven. Many think the reward should be here and now, but this does not square with the truth of Scripture. We spoke about this last week. ^[2]

Ultimately, each of the ‘Beatitudes’ marks what it takes to “Be – Salt and Light” to the world. We must not separate any of the beatitudes from the whole in the narrative at hand, for the whole is indicative of what a Christian really is. Perhaps a simple analogy can shed a bit of light here, pun intended. When making a cake, it is important to follow the recipe in order to achieve success and produce a visually appealing and tasty treat for those who wish to partake. If one or more parts is/are missing or said another way without the full recipe, this cake will not rise and/or taste good. Thus, those who would normally partake depart from it instead of consuming it. I believe this is what much of the church is experiencing today. Allow me to explain.

Jesus sent the disciples into the world by way of the Great Commission. In it, He instructed them to teach all that He had ever commanded them, including the one small section that we have been discussing here about the beatitudes. Here is the text:

Matthew 28:19-20

“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” emphasis mine

Many so-called church leaders only preach and teach certain parts of the Bible, and the result is a church that only walks in partial truth. This happens in varying degrees throughout the church world, and the result is clearly visible in the many denominations that we see manifest in the land today. Each denomination having some claim to fame as to how one finds salvation in their ‘right way.’ Sadly, this type of separation is not what the Lord intended when He told His followers to go into the entire world but not be of it (not be of its essence – John 17:14-16) and to “Be – Salt and Light” wherever they were.

Make no mistake, Jesus did intend for us to scatter and “Be – Salt and Light” to all peoples of the world. However, He wanted us to do so in like-mindedness. He wanted us to teach, like those who received the original ‘Great Commission,’ ALL that He has commanded us. This full-gospel teaching is the only way all can come into complete unity in Christ. Sadly, this has not happened, and we now see great deviation from the truths of Scripture set forth by Jesus and shared with us by the Apostles in the form of the New Testament.

Since we began by discussing the beatitudes, let us revisit them to see how some have skewed the original intent in order to prove their false doctrines. Before doing so, let us make it clear what awaits those who twist Scripture:

Galatians 1:6-9

“I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.” emphasis mine

The Apostle Paul made it very clear that we are not to change the original content or intent of the gospel of Christ. Sadly, so many church leaders have decided that the Bible, written thousands of years ago, is no longer popular or relevant, and they avoid its content, replacing it with self-motivation seminars and ‘you can be great’ coaching sessions. Sadly, in doing so, they shy away from the very truths of Scripture. One serious negative outcome of this is the fact that the lost no longer hear the Word of God, and because of this, they do not receive the faith that leads to salvation. Thus, the empty pews across the land.

Now, back to the Beatitudes…

Matthew 5:3-12

3) “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

• As we saw last week, Christ reprimands the church of Laodicea for their attitude of lack of need; they were rich in their own eyes (Rev 3). Far too many churches want their congregants to strive for earthly riches and to exalt themselves by quoting “I Am” phrases about themselves. This is far from what Jesus had in mind here.

4) “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.”

• Many flee from mourning for the lost world as they see it as a terrible thing. Instead, they would attempt to placate the sins of the world, thus inoculating the sinner from the conviction they should experience when the mourner is present.

5) “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.”

• Pride is so prevalent these days; just look in the pulpits of many of the most popular churches. These pastors, so-called, look and act just like the world. So much so that one often has trouble discerning if they are witnessing a church service or a rock concert followed by a motivational conference. Sadly, very few humble themselves in the sight of the Lord, resulting in a powerless church. This is quite simply because those in the world have the pride thing down to a science. They have no need of so-called Christians to teach them the ways of the proud.

6) “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.”

• Much of the church world goes around like a chicken with its head cut off because of failure to do this one thing. This is because so many are so busy doing their own thing that they have forgotten that it is God’s church where His will should be done, not theirs.

7) “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.”

• Truly, the love of many has begun to wax cold as iniquity abounds (Matt 24:12). This is indicative of the church that has stopped reaching out to the lost because they are just too sinful.

8) “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.”

• The pure in heart diminish as the hyphenated Christians fill the church ranks. Think about this for a second… only the pure in heart will see God; this means those who are half-hearted (hyphenated) will not. ^[3] Because of this, many will miss the rapture. ^[4]

9) “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.”

• Peacemakers are much fewer these days, as sarcasm has become the norm in our societies. Truly, narcissism, which is selfishness on steroids, abounds, making the peacemaker rare indeed.

10) “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

• Few willingly suffer persecution for being in right standing with God, doing what is right before God, and saying what is right about God. This is because they are scared of rocking the proverbial boat by telling the truth, resulting in fewer being set free.

11) “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.”

• Those who come against the righteous often do so by calling good evil and calling evil good. There is great warning against this type of behavior. If you have not read it yet, I encourage you to read the article “Warning to Those Living in the Land of Woe.” ^[5]

Today, many Christians are ready to take up arms against those who malign them in complete opposition to Scripture, which says we are to make room for God’s wrath upon the disobedient. ^[6]

Conclusion

This has been a short journey through the Beatitudes and how they are the qualifications necessary to “Be – Salt and Light.” One can liken the absence of the beatitudes to salt that has lost its savor, which means it is no longer good for seasoning or preservation. With this in mind, we can see why the church has lost its influence over the populace of the world. Far too many have long abandoned the truths of Scripture and the commission to “Be – Salt and Light. Instead, they have chosen the easy path, the path of least resistance, and the world has suffered for it.

Therefore, I encourage us all to circle back to our beginning and set our focus on what Jesus wants from us rather than what the world wants from us. Truly, the only hope for the lost and dying of this world is for the faithful to “Be – Salt and Light.” Moreover, time is short.

***I encourage you to go back and read how Christ set forth the beatitudes in the first section of this article.

Website: In His Commission

Special Message: View this week’s sermon, which features this article on our Facebook page.

[1] “Unless otherwise noted, all biblical passages referenced are in the King James Version.”

[2] For greater understanding, see the article, “Follow God’s Will.”

[3] For greater understanding, see the article, “The Hyphenated-Christian.”

[4] For greater understanding, see the article, “Only the Ready are Raptured.”

[5] For greater understanding, see the article, “Warning to Those Living in the Land of Woe.”

[6] For greater understanding, see the article, “Vengeance Cometh – Make Room.

When someone is 100% certain of something that they do not see ever happening, something they think can never actually happen, they might say, “not in a zillion years.” I vaguely remember saying that somewhere in the past.

Then I got to thinking about how long of a time period a zillion years actually is, and how that compares to eternity.

The way time moves along upon the earth, a thousand years, which is also known as a millennium, seems like a pretty long time even though a millennium is as one day to the Lord according to Psalm 94 and 2 Peter 3:8.

A million years seems like a ridiculously long time. What about a billion years? Or a trillion years?

A zillion years makes a trillion years seem like a quick jog around the block.

So then, what about eternity?

God, our Heavenly Father, has promised eternal life to all who believe in Him and trust in Him through His beloved Son Jesus.

Eternal life is forever and ever and ever. That would make a zillion years seem like a three-week vacation.

Eternal life means to live forever and ever and forevermore without end.

Not for even one second will living forever be boring.

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and it has not entered into the hearts or minds of men what God has planned for those who love Him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).

What has been revealed is that we will receive eternal bodies free of corruption of any kind and not subject to temptation. Our new bodies will never get sick, never grow old, and never die.

We as believers, will have these new bodies to experience all of the wonderful things God has prepared for us in eternity.

Somewhere along the line, a false concept of eternal life in heaven slipped into the collective consciousness of humanity. It is the false belief that those who make it to heaven will be bored out of their minds for all eternity while forced to sit on a cloud playing the same sad tune on a harp, over and over and over again forever.

This false vision of heaven was infused and inserted into the collective mind of humanity by none other than guess who? For those who recall, the old SNL church lady portrayed by Dana Carvey had the answer. Do I even need to say the name of the one who came up with the concept of boredom in Heaven? Could it be you know who?

To be sure, being condemned to eternally play the same sad tune repeatedly on a harp while perched on a cloud sounds much more like a punishment in hell rather than a reality in heaven.

Not in a zillion years, or ever, would our Heavenly Father impose anything resembling boredom on any of His forever family.

We will all be far too busy doing wonderful things to be bored, or to take part in anything so silly and redundant.

There might very well be harps playing in Heaven; however, it will be by amazing harp players inspired by God to take harp playing to whole new levels of brilliance and beauty. And, these heavenly harpists will have an endless repertoire of songs and melodies to choose from, as well as being able to sit anywhere they want to, including on a cloud, to worship and glorify our awesome God.

Clouds, by the way, are very beautiful. I once had an amazing dream about surfing a 200-foot cloud wave in super slow motion.

After paddling into the wave, it took a very long time to drop all the way to the bottom of the wave where I was able to carve a gigantic bottom turn that projected me far down the line and into a humongous cloud wave tube ride. I was so far inside that giant barrel, only a tiny opening was visible at the far end about a mile away. Again, the entire ride was in super slo-mo, so it took what seemed like an hour or so to complete the ride. I finally rode my surfboard up over the top and off into a deep blue sky.

I have ridden some amazing actual waves on planet Earth, but that cloud wave topped them all.

Was it a preview of what is to come? I do not know but would not be at all surprised. The possibilities are endless, much like eternity itself.

Bible scriptures make it crystal clear that God, our Heavenly Father, Jesus, our Lord and Savior, and the Holy Spirit, who guides all believers, love us more than we can even comprehend. Truly, the creative abilities of God are unlimited.

This amazing love for us was proven to be an actual fact on the cross at Calvary.

“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13).

It is unthinkable that God, who loves us that much, would impose a thing such as boredom, or anything at all that could be construed as bogus, upon His beloved children to whom He had just bestowed life eternal.

Almighty God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, has always lived forever.

The only difference between eternity before the creation of the physical universe and earthly history, and eternity after the creation of a new heaven and a new earth, will be that an entire forever family of redeemed humans will accompany God and all of the good angels into that next phase of eternity.

Simply put, God came out of eternity for a little time and created a visible universe with a life-sustaining planet called Earth, and living breathing humans to whom God gave an amazing thing called free will.

The free will to choose between good and evil. The free will to choose to love God or to reject Him. The free will to choose whether we want to be with God forever throughout eternity or not.

God created the angels first and also gave them free will. One of the angels made a poor choice with the gift of free will and chose to rebel against the One that created him.

It was the very first sin.

The wayward angel who was named Lucifer was banished to Earth. This coincided with the timeframe of Adam and Eve living in and being caretakers of the Garden of Eden.

Lucifer, who also became known as Satan, assumed the form of a snake and slyly confronted Eve with the first known lie. Lucifer was attempting to induce Eve to rebel against God the Creator just as he had already done. It worked.

Eve believed the lie and convinced Adam to do the same. He did.

Together, they bought into the untruth that God was to be disbelieved and Lucifer, the inventor of lying, was to be believed.

They bought the lie that if they ate the forbidden fruit, which would allow them to know all about good and evil, they would and could become like God, and that they would not surely die as God had said they would.

It was a lie, but they believed it.

As a result of that poor choice by the world’s first couple, the virtue that God had created them with became tainted, became compromised. Thus the Godly nature that God had originally created within them in His own image became fallen.

All of their descendants, including you and I, inherited the fallen nature of Adam and Eve and have had to choose of our own free will between good and evil. Between God and the devil, between light and darkness, between bitter and sweet, and between truth and deception.

It seems fair to surmise that if both Adam and Eve had obeyed God and rejected that lie from Lucifer, the Garden of Eden would have remained undefiled, and Adam and Eve would have remained virtuous and uncorrupted, continuing in a state of being as to where they would never die, and the first creation would have remained perfect forever.

Hence, no need for a new heaven and a new earth.

The only thing that would have been missing is the multitudes of human beings that have chosen of their own free will and continue to choose to be a part of God’s Forever Family.

Oh, and two other things that would have been missing. You and me.

Almighty God is the sovereign creator, and He did the whole thing His way. His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and His ways are higher than our ways.

Neither I nor you nor any ancestor of Adam and Eve has ever possessed the ability to create life or is in any way capable of sustaining life for even one second, let alone for all eternity.

God is not being egotistical in claiming all of the praise and glory. The simple truth is that only He deserves it, and truth is a vital part of who God is.

When we humans give Him all of the praise and the honor and the glory freely, of our own free will, and in a spirit of gratitude and thankfulness and graciousness, our precious Lord – the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – loves us all the more for it.

The most beautiful blessings imaginable as well as amazing blessings we have no concept of quite yet are in store for all who love God.

And such blessings are promised by Him to us for all eternity.

All eternity is, believe it or not, uncountable light years longer than a zillion years.

That is forever and ever and ever without end.

I pray that whoever may read this, if they have not already done so, will choose Jesus and receive the eternal blessings of He who has lived forever and will continue to live forever.

Romans 10:9-10 explains simply and beautifully how to call on our Heavenly Father and become saved, and how to become a welcome addition to the eternal family of our precious Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Shalom in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Rick Segoine