“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
salt - "...preserves, creates thirst, and cleanses." (Ryrie)
"To show the influence of those who accepted His word and became His true disciples our Lord used two figures. The first was the figure of salt (Matt 5:13). While salt is used today as a preservation, it does not seem to have been so used in biblical times. It was the function of salt to create a thirst so that the body might retain the proper amount of fluid to maintain its health. Salt created a thirst which, when satisfied, would maintain life. Believers are in the word to create a thirst, both by their life and by their words, for the One in whom they have found their satisfaction." (Pentecost)
of the earth - "Men and women are of the earth. It is impossible for us to escape from the material, while we are in the material, and of the material; and we need have no desire to escape from it. But Jesus said you are to be the sale of the earth. You are to live in the midst of men and women who live in earthly conditions, and are material, in order to influence that side of the things with an aseptic influence. You are to save men, render possible their salvation by hindering corruption on that side of their nature that is distinctly of the earth." (Morgan)
You are the light of the world - "Example is not enough to save a man, but example is a great force in the growth of the man who is saved. It is a great force also in luring a man toward salvation. We are not called upon to shine on men, revealing to them the truth concerning human life, the possibilities of human life, the principles that underlie human life, giving them to see what life may be; we are called upon to be light. Now, notice the sphere of its operation—the world. 'Ye are the light of the world,' not the age, but the world, the cosmos. A great word, which includes not merely the life, but the whole created order. Here Jesus declares that His people are to illuminate other men as to their relation to the whole order of which they form a part, and as to the necessary laws which govern it." (Morgan)
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. - "What is the meaning of 'to fulfill'? It means to give the fullness, to make full, to fill out the law and the prophets. The wrong interpretation comes generally from having only the ten Commandments in view, but there is more than that more than the Lord's full obedience to the law and fulfilling Himself all that which the law the prophets had spoken concerning Him. In the true sense of the word the meaning is, that He came to make good the whole scope of the law and prophets. He is come to reveal the completeness of that which the law and the prophets had but pointed out. All that which the law and the prophets teach and predict, the fullness, is of Him and will be fulfilled in Him who came and who will come again." (Gaebelein)
"It is true that our Lord fulfilled the Law for us law-breakers' in a two-fold way: He perfectly obeyed the Law in His life and He died as a law-breaker, paying the penalty of the broken Law for us in His death. However, we do not believe that our Lord had this in mind when He said that he had not come to destroy, but to fulfill the Law and the prophets. It is not until much later, in Matthew 16:21, that we read: 'From that time forth, began Jesus to show unto His disciples how that He must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer ... and be killed, and be raised again the third day.' Thus, in our Lord's Sermon on the Mount He could hardly have been speaking of His coming death for sin. Nor should we read Paul's God-given doctrine of imputed righteousness into the Sermon on the Mount, for we are clearly told that when Jesus began to tell His disciples about His coming death and resurrection, Peter rebuked Him for thinking He would be killed (Matt 16:22), and none of the twelve understood what He was even talking about (Luke 18:34). Here in Matthew 5:17 our Lord states that He had come to fulfill the Law and the prophets. This corresponds to the message which He and His apostles had been preaching: 'the gospel of the kingdom.' This kingdom, so long prophesied and so graphically described in the Old Testament Scriptures, will be based upon the principles and precepts of the Sermon on the Mount, which in turn was based upon the Mosaic Law. Thus, when our Lord reigns as King, and His subjects follow the principles of the Sermon on the Mount, the Law and the prophets will be fulfilled. Not only will God have 'put the law within their hearts,' so that they will spontaneously obey it, but the glorious descriptions of Messiah's reign, called by Peter, 'the times of refreshing,' will also be fulfilled. We repeat, this will take place only when Messiah reigns and the Holy Spirit takes control of His people and causes them to do His will, as we have seen from Ezek. 36:27. How very erroneous, then, to make the theme of our Lord's Sermon the theme of our message to mankind today! What folly to suppose that this will be a better world if we just tell people what they ought to do and how they ought to live!" (Stam)
not an iota, not a dot - "The smallest Hebrew letter or iota is yodh, which looks like an apostrophe ('). A dot or stroke is a very small extension or protrusion on several Hebrew letters, which distinguish these letters from similar ones (like, in English, an R from a P). The Lord's point is that every letter of every word of the OT is vital and will be fulfilled." (Ryrie)
your righteousness - "We may understand this as 'your practice of religion.' The Pharisees' righteousness was external; it should be internal." (Ryrie)
"The Sermon, and its Beatitudes, showed the hearers how to have good human relations, but they did not deal with the impossibility of man's achieving this in his present sinful condition. Like the Law, the Sermon on the Mount taught its most important lessons historically, for after more than 1900 years it is surely evident that man, in his present state cannot, surely does not, live up to the Sermon on the Mount." (Stam)
salt - "...preserves, creates thirst, and cleanses." (Ryrie)
"To show the influence of those who accepted His word and became His true disciples our Lord used two figures. The first was the figure of salt (Matt 5:13). While salt is used today as a preservation, it does not seem to have been so used in biblical times. It was the function of salt to create a thirst so that the body might retain the proper amount of fluid to maintain its health. Salt created a thirst which, when satisfied, would maintain life. Believers are in the word to create a thirst, both by their life and by their words, for the One in whom they have found their satisfaction." (Pentecost)
of the earth - "Men and women are of the earth. It is impossible for us to escape from the material, while we are in the material, and of the material; and we need have no desire to escape from it. But Jesus said you are to be the sale of the earth. You are to live in the midst of men and women who live in earthly conditions, and are material, in order to influence that side of the things with an aseptic influence. You are to save men, render possible their salvation by hindering corruption on that side of their nature that is distinctly of the earth." (Morgan)
You are the light of the world - "Example is not enough to save a man, but example is a great force in the growth of the man who is saved. It is a great force also in luring a man toward salvation. We are not called upon to shine on men, revealing to them the truth concerning human life, the possibilities of human life, the principles that underlie human life, giving them to see what life may be; we are called upon to be light. Now, notice the sphere of its operation—the world. 'Ye are the light of the world,' not the age, but the world, the cosmos. A great word, which includes not merely the life, but the whole created order. Here Jesus declares that His people are to illuminate other men as to their relation to the whole order of which they form a part, and as to the necessary laws which govern it." (Morgan)
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. - "What is the meaning of 'to fulfill'? It means to give the fullness, to make full, to fill out the law and the prophets. The wrong interpretation comes generally from having only the ten Commandments in view, but there is more than that more than the Lord's full obedience to the law and fulfilling Himself all that which the law the prophets had spoken concerning Him. In the true sense of the word the meaning is, that He came to make good the whole scope of the law and prophets. He is come to reveal the completeness of that which the law and the prophets had but pointed out. All that which the law and the prophets teach and predict, the fullness, is of Him and will be fulfilled in Him who came and who will come again." (Gaebelein)
"It is true that our Lord fulfilled the Law for us law-breakers' in a two-fold way: He perfectly obeyed the Law in His life and He died as a law-breaker, paying the penalty of the broken Law for us in His death. However, we do not believe that our Lord had this in mind when He said that he had not come to destroy, but to fulfill the Law and the prophets. It is not until much later, in Matthew 16:21, that we read: 'From that time forth, began Jesus to show unto His disciples how that He must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer ... and be killed, and be raised again the third day.' Thus, in our Lord's Sermon on the Mount He could hardly have been speaking of His coming death for sin. Nor should we read Paul's God-given doctrine of imputed righteousness into the Sermon on the Mount, for we are clearly told that when Jesus began to tell His disciples about His coming death and resurrection, Peter rebuked Him for thinking He would be killed (Matt 16:22), and none of the twelve understood what He was even talking about (Luke 18:34). Here in Matthew 5:17 our Lord states that He had come to fulfill the Law and the prophets. This corresponds to the message which He and His apostles had been preaching: 'the gospel of the kingdom.' This kingdom, so long prophesied and so graphically described in the Old Testament Scriptures, will be based upon the principles and precepts of the Sermon on the Mount, which in turn was based upon the Mosaic Law. Thus, when our Lord reigns as King, and His subjects follow the principles of the Sermon on the Mount, the Law and the prophets will be fulfilled. Not only will God have 'put the law within their hearts,' so that they will spontaneously obey it, but the glorious descriptions of Messiah's reign, called by Peter, 'the times of refreshing,' will also be fulfilled. We repeat, this will take place only when Messiah reigns and the Holy Spirit takes control of His people and causes them to do His will, as we have seen from Ezek. 36:27. How very erroneous, then, to make the theme of our Lord's Sermon the theme of our message to mankind today! What folly to suppose that this will be a better world if we just tell people what they ought to do and how they ought to live!" (Stam)
not an iota, not a dot - "The smallest Hebrew letter or iota is yodh, which looks like an apostrophe ('). A dot or stroke is a very small extension or protrusion on several Hebrew letters, which distinguish these letters from similar ones (like, in English, an R from a P). The Lord's point is that every letter of every word of the OT is vital and will be fulfilled." (Ryrie)
your righteousness - "We may understand this as 'your practice of religion.' The Pharisees' righteousness was external; it should be internal." (Ryrie)
"The Sermon, and its Beatitudes, showed the hearers how to have good human relations, but they did not deal with the impossibility of man's achieving this in his present sinful condition. Like the Law, the Sermon on the Mount taught its most important lessons historically, for after more than 1900 years it is surely evident that man, in his present state cannot, surely does not, live up to the Sermon on the Mount." (Stam)
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