It was a great night in THP Students tonight as we continued our journey to discover essential principles of what it means to be Salt and Light in a dark world. Like last week we gave the students the opportunity to dig into the scriptures themselves to help them to develop the skill of reading the scriptures and extracting the meaning of the text themselves. We explained to them that while we love being available to help them understand the scriptures, part of growing is learning how to properly read the scriptures and EXEGETE (pull out the meaning of the text) the meaning themselves.
Matthew 5:33-37 > Jesus is warning people that a promise is something that carries heavy weight. If you swear upon the Lord, and you don’t do what you swore to do, you make the Lord look bad. He even says don’t swear on your head, because you can’t force something to change it’s nature just because you messed up.
Principle 5 – People who are Salt and Light are truthful. If you say you are going to do something, do it. If you aren’t sure you can, or you know you can’t, tell people, be honest about what’s going on.
Matthew 5:38-42 > Jesus warns his disciples to avoid the mindset of retaliation or revenge. This is not to develop a mindset of being a victim; much of this language is largely understood to be hyperbolic, but it is intended to highlight a mindset of being a servant and not self-seeking.
Principle 6 – People who are Salt and Light don’t walk in a vengeful mindset, understanding that God will take care of their needs.
Matthew 5:43-48 > Love your neighbor is an Old Testament idea, but culture had included the idea “hate your enemy.” It seems like a natural thing. But instead, Jesus challenges us to love those we would naturally hate and despise. Jesus emphasizes this with verse 48, suggesting that we, as sinful people, are people God naturally should hate, yet he shows us love.
Principle 7 – People who are Salt and Light love people, even when it seems natural for us to hate them.
Matthew 6:1-4 > Jesus warns His disciples not to be like the Pharisees in how they live out their walk with God. He warns them to make sure their motives for doing what they do are pure. If we practice our faith for the sake of getting applause from people, then God will not bless what we have done. In the following verses, Jesus lays out 3 examples: giving to the needy, praying, and fasting. In all 3, he warns us not to make a spectacle for the sake of being seen. This is not in conflict with what we talked about earlier about letting our light shine. Again, we are talking about motives here.
Principle 8 – People who are Salt and Light serve and worship God with pure motives, seeking God’s approval rather than the applause from others.
Adventures in Student Ministry 