Righteousness That God Requires

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus called His followers out of the culture of this world and into a Kingdom Culture. He told them they were the salt of the earth and the light of the world — called to preserve God’s holiness and reflect His goodness in a decaying world. Salt makes no impact when it remains in the shaker, and light does no good when it’s hidden. But living as bright and salty disciples requires that we resist getting too comfortable in this world. God didn’t design us to be satisfied here — He called us to soar as disciples who make it nearly impossible for those around us to miss the truth of Jesus. In Matthew 5:17–20, Jesus draws a line between the religious culture that is wrong and the Kingdom culture that is right, giving three clear warnings.