Influencers: How Can Ordinary People Change the World?

With the rise of social media, “influencers” now use their profile on various platforms to impact people.  These new celebrities use their profiles and popularity to persuade others. 

In His famous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gave an incredible promise that His followers would be influencers. They would be like salt and light in a decaying and dark world – in other words, that we would have influence for Him.  What many people miss, however, is that this promise of impact directly follows His dramatic introduction to His sermon – the traits and descriptions commonly called the Beatitudes. 

Jesus outlines eight character traits of His followers that are utterly counter-cultural, and only then makes the promise that those who live like this will be salt and light. Each Beatitude has an exclamation of God’s blessing or favour, a description of the kind of person who receives that favour from God, and the reason why they are the ones in this world who are truly blessed.

This series explores what these traits are and how we can impact the world by being different. 

The paraphrase below tries to bring out the counter-cultural statements of Jesus in fresh language. 

How utterly fortunate are those who declare spiritual bankruptcy!
Why? Because they are the ones who will inherit the jackpot of God’s kingdom.

How utterly fortunate are those who weep over their sin!
Why? Because they are the ones who will have their tears dried by God Himself.

How utterly fortunate are those who are gentle with others!
Why? Because it is only the humble who get to enter God’s kingdom.

How utterly fortunate are those who earnestly crave after holiness!
Why? Because that deep hunger will one day be completely satisfied. 

How utterly fortunate are those who show compassion and kindness to others!
Why? Because they are the needy recipients of divine grace. 

How utterly fortunate are those who desire to be pure in the core of their being!
Why? Because they are the ones who will one day actually look on the face of God!

How utterly fortunate are those who seek to bring shalom-wholeness into every space
in this world!
Why? Because they will be honoured as those who exemplify the God of peace. 

How utterly fortunate are those who are persecuted, insulted, and slandered simply because
they are my followers!
Why? Because those are the ones who enter the eternal kingdom with great acclaim,
just like the prophets of old. 

All of you who are like this – because you live this way, you are like salt that prevents decay in this world.  So make sure you keep living this way, because that’s how you impact a decaying world. 

Or to put it another way, you are like lights in a dark place. The point of light is to shine into the darkness so people can see. So make sure you keep shining by being these kind of people, and you will have an influence that shines a light on your heavenly Father.

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