Matthew Chapter 5
1/8/2016
#5: The word blessed is used quite a bit in this first section of scripture. The word blessed means happy, fortunate, blissful but here Jesus is talking on a deeper level than just our surface emotions, He is talking about a divine well-being that is given only to the faithful. Jesus is describing the special favor of God toward His people, both physically and spiritually, and the consequences of living with that favor.
#4: For those who don't know this section of scripture is called the Beatitudes and it goes from verses 3 to 10. The Beatitudes describe the lifestyle and character of a follower of Jesus. Those who are blessed and have repented and turned to God. To me the Beatitudes are almost like one big Jesus pep talk. He is addressing people's suffering and in some case good deeds and reassuring them that God has their back and that they will be blessed because of the suffering they are currently enduring or because of the good things they are doing for God's Kingdom.
#3: On the Beatitudes that stands out to me is in verse 10 "God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven." This was a foreshadowing the suffering and persecution the Disciples and other Christian's would soon face. It is also very applicable to our lives today, if you look at the world we live in people are no longer fond of Christians and our beliefs. In many countries, Christians are being killed just for believing. In our country, we are not killed for believing yet but you can see the seeds of hatred toward Christians being sown. This will be an issue that present and future Christians will have to deal with and I think looking at the message and reassurance Jesus provides here can really help us stay strong and continue serving and worshiping Him.
#2: Verses 13-6 give us a really important message, They tell us that we as followers of Christ will have a profoundly positive effect on the world around us, for the Glory of God. People should look at us and see something different than what they see in the world. They should see us doing good works, not to be saved but because we are so full of God's love that we are overflowing with love for others! That being said Jesus also give a strong warning as He says do nothing that might jeopardize that positive impact. We as followers of Christ need to watch what we do, we can not act live the worldly people around us and we cannot fall into the traps set by the world. If we do people will see us and associate it with our Christian walk or worse they will think its ok and make it part of their Christain walk.
#1: In verse 13 Jesus uses salt as an example for our Christian walk. Salt was used for cleansing, preservation from decay (Ezek 16:4), and for flavor. In this verse, its salt's preserving nature that Jesus is referencing. Pure salt cannot lose its flavor or effectiveness and like pure salt, we as Christians cannot lose our purpose and effectiveness. During Jesus' time salt could also come from the dead sea, this salt was contaminated with gypsum and other minerals and thus, it had little to no flavor. This salt was thrown out and deemed useless. We cannot let ourselves be contaminated by the ways of the world or by sin.
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