MERRY CHRISTMAS.
Merry Christmas.
Such a joyful greeting from a Christian to another.
Returning our thoughts to the multitudes hearing Jesus’ teaching:
Matthew 5
Verse 13
- You are the salt of the earth.
Salt is plentiful and worthless, except that it makes our food to last and seasons its flavor to make our food more palatable.
- But if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and trodden under the foot of men.
I am trodden under the foot of man. But of what worth am I to this man (who calls himself the Son of Man)? What does he mean that I am the salt of the earth?
- Ye are the light of the world.
- A city set on an hill cannot be hid.
- Neither do men light a candle, and but it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light to all that are in the house.
What can all this mean? What does it mean to meet God on a hill overlooking the city?
Dearly beloved believer and seeker of the Lord God,
I leave this to your own conviction of the Spirit. Yet I challenge the context of your hearing the blessings or beatitudes of Jesus once more in considering His calling. Jesus speaks to the multitudes. The believing church sits in the crowd as a light on a hill or a candle lifted on a candlestick to light the whole house.
Many will hear the Word and wander off back into the darkness and destruction and death. Many will not see the Lord on the hill again until the call of the trumpet to Judgment, of which Jesus further warns the multitudes (immediately after these verses) of the fulfillment of the Law and Scripture in Him.
To the multitudes, our Lord further speaks of repentance for the sin we have done. He calls us to righteousness exceeding the appearance of the most respected representatives of God’s Law.
He tells us how to exceed the righteousness of rules by the intention of our heart and the thoughtfulness of our actions. Jesus forbids divorce. Jesus forbids anger without cause. He commands reconciliation between brothers (now he speaks to the church), before thinking that our offering to God is acceptable.
Jesus tells the crowd and the church how by our actions Christians are to demonstrate God’s light to the house and to the world. He proceeds to tell us how we, as God’s house and God’s city, and God’s people must do more than the Law, to go the second mile.
Further, He concludes:
Matthew 5:44
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Love your enemy.
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Bless them that curse you.
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Do good to them that hate you.
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Pray for them that despitefully use you.
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And (pray for them that) persecute you.
Is this the church you signed up for? Is this the light on the hill you are among men?
It’s difficult, if not impossible, isn’t it?
Jesus then says (in verse 45) that we have to do it to be children of the Father.
Then he says essentially (in verse 46): If you love only those who love you, even the politicians do that. Ouch!
Then our Lord calls on us to do something that we cannot do:
Be ye therefore perfect, as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
How?
Repent! Be obedient children of adoption by our Father in Heaven, who did send Christ Jesus to the Cross as perfect redemption for our sins.
‘Go; and sin no more,’ as our Lord has called upon us to do. (John 5:14; John 8:11)
Jesus’ teachings of ‘Blessed are you…” or ‘Happy are you…’ give us, perhaps, a little different than usual perspective on the reason for God to send His only Son to a manger in Bethlehem.
Have you ever thought of the Nativity of Bethlehem with the baby in a manger to be the beginning of His destination of His place for you on the Cross?
Do you think of the Cross when you wish someone (perhaps an unbeliever), “Merry Christmas?”
Do others see Christ’s Light in the salt of your joyful greeting?
To be continued…
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