In this enlightening, second episode of the sixth season of our Loveshaped Life Podcast, Nathan and Bob continue their exploration of Jesus's profound metaphor of his followers being "salt" and "light" in the world. The discussion reveals how Jesus envisioned his followers as those who would elevate the quality of life around them, exemplifying the highest form of love through their actions and way of living.

The conversation takes a thoughtful turn as the hosts examine how Jesus's teachings challenged traditional religious perspectives of his time and continue to challenge contemporary views of God. They discuss how Jesus presented a radical understanding of divine love that went beyond conventional religious practices, encouraging his followers to embody this transformative love in tangible ways. This interpretation calls believers to move beyond passive faith to active engagement with their homes, workplaces, and communities.

The episode concludes by exploring the practical implications of being "salt" and "light" in today's world. Nathan and Bob emphasize how this calling transforms not only individual believers but also has the potential to positively impact entire communities, no matter how large or small. They discuss how acts of love and good deeds serve as practical expressions of faith, creating a ripple effect that elevates the quality of life for everyone in the community, regardless of their beliefs or background.

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Nathan 0:01 The Salt concept is essentially as if Jesus is telling his followers you're the pacesetters. Raise the quality of living around you. You set the bar your life shows what life at its best is meant to look like. So I'm just thinking, what if people who've claimed to follow Jesus through the centuries had allowed God to just infuse himself into their lives so they became the pacesetters?

Hey, I'm Nathan, and I want to welcome you back to the Loveshaped Life podcast, where our dream is to see experience and live in the center of God's radical love. I'm here today with my friend Bob, and we are in season six, episode two, which is a continuation of episode one, as we're looking at these trend this transition section where Jesus is setting the stage for his next big teaching moment in what we've called the kingdom manifesto, from This biography of Jesus, written by one of his followers, Matthew, who was formerly a tax agent, an IRS guy back in the day he followed Jesus, and He is the one who records these words of Jesus spoken on a mountainside, introducing people to the kingdom that Jesus was setting up that he referred to as the kingdom of heaven.

Bob 1:46 Yeah, in Matthew, you know, he was a crook. So he wasn't, he wasn't well liked, because he was of a Jewish descent, and he was, he was working for the Roman Empire, collecting taxes on the Jews. So if you can imagine that dynamic, so and, and he ended up becoming a follower of Jesus, you know, he saw something different Jesus. He longed for it, and then he became a follower of Jesus. So in this, in this passage, it's actually in the book of Matthew, like you said, it's Matthew chapter five, verses through seven. This is Jesus's first big crowd that he was teaching publicly, and it's one of our favorite passages, and we're really excited to have the opportunity to expound on it. And so far, we've looked at in the previous series, and now in this last episode, we've been seeing how that Jesus had just flipped their ideologies. They were hoping that he was going to set up an earthly kingdom and conquer the Roman Empire and just crush them out so they could be rulers. And then Jesus just talks about the kids kingdom, which was based on, not on force, but was had its foundation and its roots in love, and the type of love that's found in the heart of God, which is an other centered, unselfish love, and that was like this huge bomb, because they came there wanting to him to set up this earthly kingdom. They came with this anticipation that he was going to make an announcement about how he was going to conquer the Roman Empire, and it was just like a an explosion, because he didn't teach him that at all. He taught him something different. And it was an announcement. It wasn't an announcement, but not the one they were expecting, one they were expecting. And he had them captivated. They were just like focused and listening to him, because no one had ever spoken to them like this, no one and they found hope. They found, you know, they found more than they'd come to hear about. They found something that would be eternal, not just earthly,

Nathan 3:57 right? So last time we did a longer introduction, and then we got to the text. So I think today we're ready to get right into the text. We're going to read again text we read in the last episode, but expound more on the second part of that, and then we're going to finish this section. If you want to look it up in Scripture, it's in Matthew and chapter five, and we're focused here verses 13 through 20. So I'm going to start in verse 13. I'm going to read through around verse 17, little bit of commentary, and then we'll come and finish up this section again, Jesus setting the stage for another big teaching moment in this mountainside lecture, sermon, manifesto, whatever you want to call it, this major teaching moment, a few of which, only a few of which are captured in these biographies

Bob 4:56 of Jesus, yeah, and I think he's about to drop another bomb, right? The first bomb was he wasn't here to set up an earthly kingdom, that it was a spiritual kingdom. Now we're gonna about to learn about this second bomb, right? Yeah,

Nathan 5:08 so setting the stage. Here it is, Matthew 513 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. Last time we talked about salt and I'm just going to jump in here briefly with a text from one of the ancient Hebrew prophets, Jeremiah. And here are the words in that text, I'll give you the background after I read it. These are the words of Jeremiah to the Hebrew people. Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper. Salt is that first piece which we talked about in our last episode. I love the idea here that is comes out this ancient prophet speaking to the Hebrew people who were being taken into exile by the Babylonians the instruction God gave them through this Hebrew prophet was, make the city the country that takes you captive. Make it a better place by your presence in it, by your influence in the neighborhoods in the city, in the communities where you're exiled, make it a better place. Pray for its prosperity. And as the place you're in becomes better, your own life is lifted up, your own standard of living gets better. And I think that's a pretty just a great piece to kind of wrap into that salt idea that as we influence our communities, our families, our communities, as we set the course for loving Well, living well, it raises the culture around us, rather than pulling it down. Yeah. I

Bob 7:34 mean, it's absolutely beautiful when you look at that, what God was instructing them through Jeremiah, just to like you mentioned, make the place a better place, right? So the salt, the idea of a salt, it's there to provide flavor. It's there to be a preserver. So God has called his his people, those who are followers of Jesus, to do just that, even in our world today, to make it a better place, you know, don't be people who are causing strife and dissension. Seek to bring peace to your community. Seek to bring peace to your home, you know. And as you do that, you will be blessed.

Nathan 8:15 What if? What if the people through history who claimed to be followers of Jesus had allowed God's love to choose so be present in their lives that they raised the bar of every community they were a part of What would today's society look at look look like, because I think of so how so many times the there's this word that I want to use, a Pace Setter. My wife and I have run a handful of longer distance races, half marathon, Marathon foot races, and in half marathon and marathon setting, there are runners who are pace setters. So my kind of, my memory of them is that they carry these, these short these signs. They have a pole, and at the top of the sign is a time, and the time might say one hour 30 minutes, that runner is watching the clock, watching their clock, watching the miles, their pace, and they will finish the race. That runner will finish the race just under the one hour 30 minute mark, you might see another runner, another Pace Setter, because at the start line, this crowd of people as they're starting the race. So you'll see these signs in the crowd. Another one might say, one hour, 45 minutes, two hours. Two hours 15 minutes. This is half marathon pace. And if you stick with the person carrying the sign. You're promised to finish that race within that time. So oftentimes, a runner will start out and say, I want to be dealt with my race by such and such within such and such a time. You stick with the Pace Setter. You finish just under that time. The salt concept is essentially as if Jesus is telling his followers you're the pace setters. Raise the quality of living around you. You set the bar your life shows what life at its best is meant to look like. So I'm just thinking, what if people who've claimed to follow Jesus through the centuries, had allowed God to just infuse himself into their lives, so they became the pacesetters, and they kept raising the bar Jesus, He sent you says, that's your role. That's one of the functions follows Jesus have in society, is raising the quality of living in their homes, their neighborhoods, their communities. They're the ones carrying the sign, this is the way life is meant to be.

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So this is from Bonhoeffer. Again, this line very powerful, speaking of Jesus, He is the righteousness that's the life of radical love. He is the righteousness of the disciples. In other words, the follower of Jesus, their life of radical loving. Is Jesus life unfolding within us. It's kind of a it's definitely a concept that is in the Jesus story, maybe a new concept to you as a listener, but the path to real moral beauty is not trying hard, just like the path to happiness is not trying to be happy. The path to happiness is finding meaning and happiness is just, is just the, basically the halo of a life that's meaningful. Happiness is kind of the halo of that same thing. We don't become moral people by trying hard to be moral people. We become beautiful moral people by leaning into a God of love, that experience of leaning into him shapes us and as the halo of that deep connection with God, we become beautiful people.

Thank you so much for tuning into the Loveshaped Life podcast, we hope you find this podcast not only inspirational, but.