Matthew 5:3-20

3‘Happy are the people who know that they need God very much. The kingdom of heaven belongs to people like that.

4Happy are the people who are sad now. God will come near to help them.

5Happy are the people who are kind. The whole earth will belong to them.

6Happy are the people who want to obey God, as much as they want to eat food. God will give to them everything that they need.

7Happy are the people who help other people and who forgive them. God will forgive people like that.

8Happy are the people who have only good thoughts. They will come near to God and see him.

9Happy are the people who bring people together to be friends. God will call them his children.

10Happy are the people who do what is right but other people hurt them because of it. The kingdom of heaven belongs to people like that.

11Yes, happy are you when people say bad things against you because you believe in me. Or they may hurt you. Or they may say things about you that are not true.

12God is preparing many good things for you in heaven. So you should be very happy when people do these bad things to any of you. People did these same things to God's prophets who lived long ago.’

13Jesus said, ‘You are like salt for all people to taste and use. Salt is good. But if it is not salty any more, you cannot make it salty again. People can no longer use it for anything. They just throw it away and they walk on it.

14You are like a light for everybody in this world. If people build a city on a hill, then other people can see it easily.

15Nobody lights a lamp and then puts it under a pot. He will put the lamp in a high place. Everybody who is in the house can then see the light from the lamp.

16You must be sure that your light shines well. Then you will give light to other people. They will see all the good things that you do. Then they will praise God, who is your Father in heaven.’

17Jesus said, ‘You should not think that I have come to destroy God's Law. Also, I have not come to destroy the messages that God's prophets wrote down. No, I have not come to destroy their words. I have come to make what they taught become true.

18I tell you this: One day, even the earth and the sky will finish. But while they remain, God's Law will also remain. Nobody can remove even the smallest thing from it. The Law will remain until everything in it has happened.

19A person may choose not to obey a rule in God's Law. He may think it is the least important rule. He may also teach other people to think like that. Then God will call him the least important person in the kingdom of heaven. But a person may choose to obey all the rules in God's Law. And he may teach other people to obey them too. Then God will call that person great in the kingdom of heaven.

20I tell you this: You must always do what is right. You must live in a way that is better than the teachers of God's Law and the Pharisees. You will never come into the kingdom of heaven if you do not do better than them.’