Saturday in the Word | Matthew 5 and 6

This week, as we continue traversing through our Simple Bible Reading Plan, we find ourselves sitting with Matthew chapters 5 and 6 as well as words many of us know so well that we risk skimming past them too quickly.

The Sermon on the Mount isn’t loud.
It doesn’t shout. Jesus doesn’t rush.

He invites.

Matthew 5: A Different Kind of Blessed

Jesus begins with what we call the Beatitudes, but upon reading them they feel more like reversals than blessings.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit…”
“Blessed are those who mourn…”
“Blessed are the meek…”

In a world rewarding certainty, strength, and self-promotion, Jesus names dependence, grief, and gentleness as holy ground.

This isn’t a checklist of virtues to master. It’s a description of people who have nothing to lose. Jesus seems less interested in who looks righteous and more interested in who is honest before God.

He goes on to speak of salt and light, not as something we manufacture, but as something we already are when we live our life in alignment with His Kingdom. Salt doesn’t try to be salty. Light doesn’t strain to shine. They simply exist as they were made.

Matthew 6: The Interior Life

If Matthew 5 speaks to how we are seen in the world, Matthew 6 turns our attention inward, toward the quiet places where faith either takes root or withers.

Jesus addresses giving, praying, and fasting—not to shame us, but to free us from performance.

“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them.”

The warning isn’t against public faith.
It’s against performative faith. Jesus values authenticity.

Then comes the Lord’s Prayer. It is simple, grounded, and relational.

“Give us today our daily bread.”

Not tomorrow’s bread. Not next year’s security. Today’s. Jesus knows how easily our hearts drift toward anxiety, accumulation, and control. He names it plainly:

“You cannot serve both God and money.”

And again:

“Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.”

This isn’t a command to ignore reality. It’s an invitation for us to live present, attentive, and anchored in trust rather than fear.

Sitting With the Text

As you read Matthew 5 and 6 this week, you might notice something subtle but profound: Jesus isn’t trying to make us impressive. He’s helping make us whole.

These two chapters in Matthew don’t demand immediate answers but they do challenge us to ask better questions:

• Where am I striving when Jesus is inviting me to rest?
• Where has faith become something I perform rather than something I live?
• What would it look like to trust God for today?

Friend, you don’t need to resolve all of this at once. Just sit with it. Let the words linger. Sometimes the most faithful thing we can do is remain with the text long enough for it to read us.

After all, you and I may be the only Bible some folks ever read.

Until my next post…

Be salty, stay lit.

Rainer Bantau —The Devotional Guy™

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