Sunday message · That’s What He Said series
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Message Summary
In the twelfth message of That’s What He Said, the church’s series through the Sermon on the Mount, Pastor Phillip Santillan finishes Jesus’ six examples of righteousness with Matthew 5:31–48. Every follower of Jesus, Phil often says, is a missionary wherever God has planted them. After the Beatitudes, Jesus tells his people they are salt and light and must let their light shine so others see their good works and glorify the Father (Matthew 5:16). That he has to say it shows a real temptation to hide our light.
Rather than going verse by verse, Phil reads verses 21–48 without comment, asking listeners to imagine hearing them for the first time on that mountainside. Jesus moves quickly through anger, lust, divorce, oaths, retaliation and loving enemies. If we wish he would slow down and explain, Phil says, we may be missing the forest for the trees, letting our own theological interests, like divorce and remarriage or whether signing a mortgage breaks the teaching on oaths, pull us from the big picture. Jesus spent few words on these subjects because he was making a more essential point.
That point lies in the bookends of this section: the command to let your light shine in verse 16 and the call in verse 48 to be perfect as the heavenly Father is perfect. Scholars agree, Phil says, that Jesus’ call to be perfect casts a vision for a pursuit rather than a call to earn salvation. The goal of a follower of Christ is to pursue their part in seeing God’s mission accomplished in the world, the mission Jesus later gives to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19).
So what is our part? Phil admits he has often urged living on mission without showing what it looks like. Everyone has 24 hours, but no two people live the same 24 hours. Drawing on labor statistics and a quick text survey, he sketches days shaped by work, by caring for children at home, or by school. Being salt and light means representing God so clearly that others praise God, not us, which is why the church is called Clarity Church. He asks listeners where it makes the most sense for God to want them to shine. “Your current reality will clarify your life’s purpose as a salty one or a bright one.” For some that is home, for others work or school, and because seasons change, the question needs asking often.
The standard is high, Phil says, not because the responsibility to earn salvation is big but because the calling to be light is so important. God already accepts us and wants to reach people through us. Letting our light shine is an investment where moth and rust do not destroy and thieves do not steal, one that will outlive our lives. The purpose of each life is bigger than itself: God is building a heavenly family and calls his people to go find more brothers and sisters, until every knee bows and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord.