Today we are making the transition to another new devotional series, this one based on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount as recorded in the book of Matthew. The Sermon on the Mount is the longest continuous section of Jesus speaking found in the New Testament. It includes the Beatitudes and the Lord’s Prayer, and for many believers expresses the main purposes of Christian discipleship.
Enormous crowds were following Jesus and everyone wanted to hear what he had to say. Jesus challenged people to live God’s way rather than conforming to what the world wanted and expected. Jesus made it clear that obeying God’s law is more important than knowing it. Throughout this series, you will be encouraged to consider how you can live God’s way.
Since you will be reading the Sermon on the Mount over the course of many days, we’d like to recommend that you take time today to open up your Bible, or click on whatever device you use for your Bible reading, and read through the entire Sermon in one sitting as found in Matthew 5–7. Take a few extra moments and reflect upon what this passage is saying to you.
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” —Matthew 5:13–16
E. Stanley Jones once said, “The Sermon on the Mount seems dangerous. It challenges the whole underlying conception on which modern society is built. It would replace it by a new conception, animate it with a new motive, and turn it toward a new goal.”
Think about that!