The "we should be salt and light" metaphor is well kown and well used. We need to be out in the world, the culture around us, not creating our own christian subculture. We need to see ourselves as missionaries in our workplaces, social groups etc.
Jesus came to fulfil the law ( the OT is endorsed by Jesus, it is not irrelevant now that Jesus has arrived. It can only really be properly understood in reference to Jesus). The Pharisees were fulfiling the law on the surface but Jesus says our righteousness needs to exceed theirs, and then He goes on to say how that is possible - its all about the heart, the attitude behind the actions. That's why anger is the same as murder and lust the same as adultery. (the greek word for anger used here means exasperation, deep-seated, long lived anger. There is such a thing as righteous anger).
Our worship can't be seperated from our conduct. I can't come to God sincerely if I've got an ongoing grudge with somebody, Jesus says I should go so far as to leave the "temple" right there and then and go and sort out my issue with whoever it is.
We also need to be ruthless in cutting anything off that causes us to sin. We can't expect to flirt with sin, try and get away with as much as possible, without falling into it in the end.
Jesus then goes on to talk about integrity and loving your enemies. Integrity is fairly self-explanitory, but it needs to involve every single thing we do. Loving my enemies means I need to be praying for them and loving them by my actions.
Ridiculously challenging from Jesus and He's just warming up!
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