Ye Are the Light of the World

Jesus sits down on a mountain, the posture of a teacher, and opens with eight blessings. They surprise because of whom they bless: the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, the hungry for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, the persecuted. The third echoes Psalm 37:11, “the meek shall inherit the earth.” When the risen Savior gave this sermon to the Nephites, He added a phrase that changes how the whole list reads: “blessed are the poor in spirit who come unto me” (3 Nephi 12:3). The Beatitudes are not a list of personality types. They describe the Savior Himself, and they trace the way He changes those who come to Him: from humility and mourning, through hunger for righteousness, to mercy, purity and peace.

🔗 Cross-references

• 3 Nephi 12:1–12 ↗The Savior’s Beatitudes at the temple in Bountiful, with additions that center them on coming to Him.
• Psalm 37:11 ↗The psalm Jesus echoes: “the meek shall inherit the earth.”

Right after the Beatitudes, Jesus tells His listeners what they are: “Ye are the salt of the earth… Ye are the light of the world” (5:13–14). Salt preserves and flavors, but only if it keeps its savor. A lamp is useless under a bushel basket. In latter-day revelation the Lord says that those who make covenants with Him “are accounted as the salt of the earth” (Doctrine and Covenants 101:39). To the Nephites He added that He is the light we hold up (3 Nephi 18:24): our light is really His, reflected. Then Jesus says He came not to destroy the law but to fulfil it (5:17), and that His disciples’ righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees (5:20). The next verses show what He means: not more rules, but a deeper heart.

🔗 Cross-references

• Doctrine and Covenants 101:39–40 ↗Covenant people are accounted as the salt of the earth, and salt that loses its savor is good for nothing.
• 3 Nephi 18:24 ↗The risen Savior tells the Nephites to hold up their light, and that He is the light they hold up.

Now comes the pattern: “Ye have heard that it was said… But I say unto you.” The old law forbade murder; Jesus addresses the anger and contempt that come before it. In the Book of Mormon version, the words “without a cause” are absent, so the standard is simply not to be angry with a brother (3 Nephi 12:22). He says reconciliation matters more than an offering: leave your gift at the altar, “first be reconciled to thy brother,” then come back (5:24). The old law forbade adultery; He addresses the look and the thought behind it (5:27–28). The goal isn’t shame; it’s a pure heart. These verses ask a lot, and the Savior who asks is also the One who heals hearts that have been angry, wounded or impure.

🔗 Cross-references

• 3 Nephi 12:22–24 ↗The Savior’s teaching on anger and reconciliation as He gave it to the Nephites.
• Ephesians 4:31–32 ↗Paul’s counsel to put away bitterness and anger and to be kind and forgiving, as God has forgiven us.

The pattern continues. Instead of elaborate oaths, let your yes mean yes (5:37). Instead of an eye for an eye, turn the other cheek, give your cloak as well as your coat, and when someone compels you to go a mile, “go with him twain” (5:39–41). Roman soldiers could require civilians to carry their gear a set distance; Jesus says to carry it twice as far. Then the summit: “Love your enemies… that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good” (5:44–45). The chapter ends, “Be ye therefore perfect” (5:48). The footnote explains that the Greek means complete, finished, fully developed, and Moroni teaches that we are “perfect in Christ” by His grace (Moroni 10:32).

🔗 Cross-references

• 3 Nephi 12:48 ↗The risen Savior adds “even as I” to the command to be perfect.
• Moroni 10:32 ↗Come unto Christ and be perfected in Him; by His grace we may be perfect in Christ.

Luke 6 opens with two Sabbath controversies. The disciples rub grain in their hands as they walk through a field, and Jesus reminds His critics that David and his men ate the shewbread when they were hungry, then declares that “the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath” (6:5). On another Sabbath, with the scribes watching to accuse Him, He heals a man’s withered hand and asks, “Is it lawful on the sabbath days to do good, or to do evil?” (6:9). Then, before the most important choice of His ministry, He goes up a mountain and “continued all night in prayer to God” (6:12). In the morning He chooses the Twelve. Coming down to a level place, He finds a crowd reaching to touch Him, “for there went virtue out of him, and healed them all” (6:19).

🔗 Cross-references

• Mark 2:27 ↗Mark adds the Savior’s words, “The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath.”
• Isaiah 58:13–14 ↗The Lord’s promise to those who call the Sabbath a delight.

Luke’s sermon is shorter and sharper. Four blessings for the poor, the hungry, the weeping and the hated are matched by four woes for the rich, the full, the laughing and the well-spoken-of (6:20–26). Then comes the heart of it: love your enemies, bless those who curse you, treat others as you would want to be treated (6:27–31). Luke’s summit line is “Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful” (6:36). Mercy shows up in practical forms: judge not, condemn not, forgive, give, and it will come back “good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over” (6:37–38). Deal with the beam in your own eye before the speck in someone else’s (6:41–42). The chapter ends with two builders; only the one who digs deep and does what Jesus says stands when the flood comes (6:46–49).

🔗 Cross-references

• 3 Nephi 14:1–5 ↗The Savior’s teaching on judging and the mote and the beam, given again to the Nephites.
• Helaman 5:12 ↗Build on the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, and the storms shall have no power over you.

Today, review the key passage in the version the risen Savior gave at the temple in Bountiful. Notice how He begins: before the Beatitudes, He blesses those who give heed to His servants and are baptized, promising that they will be visited “with fire and with the Holy Ghost” (3 Nephi 12:1–2). The poor in spirit are blessed when they “come unto me” (12:3). Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness “shall be filled with the Holy Ghost” (12:6). And then, as in Matthew, “I give unto you to be the light of this people” (12:14). As you take the sacrament today, you renew the covenant that opens those blessings, and the promise that His Spirit will be with you. That Spirit is what lets the light shine.

🔗 Cross-references

• 3 Nephi 11:37–38 ↗The Savior teaches that we must become as a little child and be baptized to inherit the kingdom of God.
• Moroni 4:3 ↗The sacrament prayer’s promise that we may always have His Spirit to be with us.