Moving from the Beatitudes with their emphasis on inward devotion, Jesus next talks about the impact His disciples will have on the world. By living out Jesus’ calling to be meek, to mourn, and to be poor in spirit, they will preserve their culture from decay and embody a compelling vision for a better way to live. Yet all this required active resistance to the world’s pressure to mold them into its image. A. W. Tozer said that the definition of a Christian is a "holy rebel set loose in the world." As we move forward in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus will sketch out what that resistance looks like.
