The Witness of the Kingdom

Overview

The Beatitudes make up the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, and it defines what it means to be a Christian. A Christian is someone who has a radically new relationship with God through belief in the gospel. The Beatitudes is essentially a list of the characteristics of someone with this new relationship with God.

Today’s passage shifts to focus on the Christian’s relationship to the world. In other words, if you have a relationship with God (described in vv. 1–10), then that will mean you will have this relationship to the world (vv. 11-16). Jesus says that if you are living a Christian life, then in the world you will be salt (v. 13), you will be light (vv. 14–16), and you will be hurt. Let’s tease these out of the passage in more detail.