In my previous posts, I have avoided using the term “church.” That is intentional. To be sure, the term “church” (the Greek term “ekklesia,” which means “called out ones”) is biblical. I have no objection to using it in the universal sense of believers in Jesus Christ – the true Church. However, since the institutionalization of Christianity, which I contend emerged in the early fourth century, the institutionalized church was distinguishable from the universal Church of believers in Jesus Christ. What happened in the early fourth century?
Rome persecuted Christian believers for nearly two centuries. In A.D. 313, the Roman Emperor Constantine declared that the empire would tolerate Christianity and restore all lost property. Then, in an effort to consolidate the empire and the church, he ordered the first Council (Nicea) in A.D. 325 to clarify the true doctrines of Christianity and officially proclaim other views as heretical. Constantine personally moderated the Council. Christianity became the official state religion. From this time forward, the institutionalized church and the political state were mutually influenced and dependent on each other – any distinction between the institutionalized church and this world was blurred – the institutionalized church was corrupted.
The true Church can be found within the adherents of the institutionalized church. However, the institutionalized church generally reflects the moral character of its adherents – especially in democratic societies. Leaders of the church come from within the ranks of the institutionalized church. If the leaders are morally compromised, it reflects the moral condition of the adherents from whom they arose. When believers’ behavior is indistinguishable from those in this world, they do not represent the Kingdom of God. As a result, believers lose the prophetic moral voice to speak from the Kingdom’s perspective and Spirit-empowerment. The Holy Spirit will only empower those who are accomplishing the Kingdom agenda accomplished by Kingdom standards (i.e., the end does not justify the means in God’s Kingdom). Corruption occurs when members of the Kingdom forsake their call as Christ’s ambassadors to this world (2 Corinthians 5:20) and sell their birthright for a bowl of common stew of this world’s values, speech, behavior, and actions (see Genesis 25:29-34 for this reference).
The contrast between the character of believers as members of the Kingdom of God and the non-believers in this world is unmistakably evident in the gospels, particularly in Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:13-20. As believers living in this world, Jesus declares that members of the Kingdom are the salt of the earth and the light of the world.
In interpreting Matthew 5:13-20, preachers and scholars rightly discuss the natures of salt and light and their analogies to believers’ distinct functions and roles in this world. However, Jesus seems to be making a more specific point about losing that distinctive nature – when salt loses its potency or light is hidden. Salt, precious in first-century Palestine, that lost its flavor or potency to preserve foods was no longer good for anything. It was thrown out, and trampled on the ground. Likewise, when a lamp is lit, no one puts it under a bushel basket to hide it. Light is an analogy of revelation, the saving knowledge of God. Accordingly, the light of God’s revelation of the gospel is entrusted to Kingdom members so that it can be shared with all humanity – if it is hidden, it is worthless.
The warning is stark. If we are salt and light but fail to demonstrate the distinctive nature of being members of the Kingdom, we have no value or use. Dietrich Bonhoeffer summed it up well: “That is the judgment that always hangs over the community of disciples, whose mission is to save the world, but which, if it ceases to live up to that mission, is itself irretrievably lost.” And, “Flight into the invisible is a denial of the call. A community of Jesus which seeks to hide itself has ceased to follow Him.” (The Cost of Discipleship).
Given their personal experience, some may attach negative connotations to the term “holiness,” but it best describes the character of Kingdom members in speech and behavior. The concept is found in the Old and New Testaments. Israel was instructed: “When you enter the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to imitate the detestable things of those nations” (Deuteronomy 18:9). They were taught “you shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy” (Leviticus 19:2). Similarly, Jesus said in Matthew 5:48, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Like the ancient tribes of Israel, the members of the Kingdom are called to particular, peculiar even, standards for life (“peculiar people” as used in James 2:9 of the King James Version is fitting). Living out the standards of holiness does not garner God’s grace. Grace is bestowed in an inexplicably free manner by God in His steadfast love. Moreover, at its core, holiness is not a checklist of acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Instead, it is an expression of gratitude and worship to God in response to His loving grace. In the New Testament, holiness is the natural fruit growing from the redeemed nature of those born again. Holiness is transrational, and it sets the people of God apart from this world, and in doing so, it defies human logic. So, it may never make sense to an unbeliver when a believer explains why they act or refrain in a certain manner.
What are these standards of holy living? Certainly, they include the characteristics set out in the beatitudes of Matthew 5:3-12. But in later verses of Matthew’s gospel, Jesus gives even more practical guidance in the Sermon on the Mount. Here, He describes these standards of living (holiness) as a righteousness that must exceed that of the Pharisees. The Pharisees were those in first-century Judaism who sold their spiritual birthrights for the stew of this world and became salt without flavor/potency or hidden lamps. Corrupted by this world’s political power and prestige, they came to see themselves as the religious experts of God’s Law. Jesus would eventually call them “whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness” (Matthew 23:27). They were salt without flavor and potency, and they hid God’s Word in their hypocrisy.
Jesus’ clear warning should not be diluted with efforts to soften the demand: “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20). We must choose: live by the standards of this world or by the standards of the Kingdom. In fact, it seems it is a choice that must be made daily, if not multiple times in a day, for one seeking the will of the King to be done in his/her life.
The Pharisees pandered their corrupted righteousness under the guise of strict adherence to the Law of Moses. So, later in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus’ oft-repeated formula is, “You have heard that it was said. . . but I say to you…” Is Jesus eliminating or replacing the Law of Moses as He inaugurates the Kingdom of God?
In Matthew 5:17, Jesus clarifies that He did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. The “new order” of the Kingdom of God is the culmination or, as A.M. Hunter would say, the crown and completion of the “old order” of the Law and Prophets. (Hunter, A Pattern for Life). Jesus comes to complete the old order.
Followers of Jesus are “in Christ,” He who fulfills the law, and therefore, they are not condemned by the law. Paul will later teach believers that the righteousness of Christ is spiritually imputed to those who believe. Jesus took the believer’s sin upon Himself, and therefore, the believer in Jesus is justified (Romans 5:9). Part of that justification is the imputation of His righteousness – “For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). By God’s grace, through faith in Christ, His righteousness is given “to all who believe” (Romans 3:22).
Again, it must be emphasized that the peculiar speech and deeds of Christ’s followers in this world (holiness as Kingdom righteousness) are not following a list of rules or commands. Holy living is the fruit of a changed nature. Obedience to Christ is an expression of love and worship to Him who redeems and imputes His righteousness to them. To fall into pride about one’s level of holy living and/or condemn others for their failures is to fall prey to the trap in which the Pharisees are caught.
One final thought. The call to be the salt to the earth and the light to the world by living out the life of holiness is not given just to the disciples who were sitting at Jesus’ feet while He delivered the Sermon on the Mount. The call was to the readers of Matthew’s gospel who were suffering persecution for their faith in Christ. Remember, the readers of Matthew had just read that they were to feel blessed, to rejoice, and be glad for their persecution. They are now reading that the lifestyle of holiness that is causing their persecution is necessary and must be sustained. To abandon the standards of holiness would mean they become worthless to the Kingdom – all would be in vain.
How much more remarkable is the call to holy living today when knowledge of God’s Word abounds in rich diverse formats in pracically every language, and there are millions of believers supporting each other? For those of us in the United States, we have the freedom to worship as our conscience dictates; persecution is non-existent for us compared to believers in the first century. No doubt, Paul would tell us to walk worthy of our calling in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 4:1). We must not sell our spiritual birthright for the stew of accommodating this world, corrupting our faith by aligning our speech and behavior with this world’s values. Knowing we will give an account for every idle word we speak, we must daily submit to the guidance of the Spirit so that one day we will hear the King say, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 12:36 and 24:23).
Thy Kingdom Come 
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