Salt and Light (Matthew 7)

Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
“But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”
And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

I stand corrected chapter 5,6, and 7 should have been one chapter.

Above is the end to the sermon on the mount, which encourages us to hear our Lords teachings and do them.

In this chapter our Lord starts by warning us not to judge for we shall be judged the same way we judge.

We all have different strengths and weaknesses, therefore we cannot judge, the journey of following our Lord is not a competition, we all start at the same place and finish at the same place. Salvation is by grace alone, our Lord’s expense alone, only His sacrifice gives us the right to be His followers. How we do along the way is by His mercy too, it is by the Spirit.

Our Lord encourages us ask our Father for what we need and keep on asking; to search His Word and keep on searching to find understanding; to knock in faith and keep on knocking until the door is open.

This section finishes telling us to do for others what we want them to for us, what you give you get back.

A smile begets a smile, kindness begets kindness, etcetera, etcetera.

Our Lord continues to teach us about the Kingdom.

The road to life in the Kingdom is narrow and few find it. As followers of our Lord we must realise following our Lord will never be the popular thing to do but it is a rewarding road to take. A road where we have lots of assistance from our Lord, it is not harsh but padded with mercy and grace. The best part it does not lead to destruction but to life with our Lord to the Fathers glory.

We are also warned about false prophets not everyone who says they belong to our Lord belongs to our Lord. How would we know by the fruit? Salt and light again.

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’