12 Be happy and excited! You will have a great reward in heaven. People did these same things to the prophets who lived long ago.
13 You are the salt for everyone on earth. But if salt no longer tastes like salt, how can it make food salty? All it is good for is to be thrown out and walked on.
14 You are the light for the whole world. A city built on top of a hill cannot be hidden,
15 and no one lights a lamp and puts it under a clay pot. Instead, it is placed on a lampstand, where it can give light to everyone in the house.
16 Make your light shine, so others will see the good you do and will praise your Father in heaven.
17 Don't suppose I came to do away with the Law and the Prophets. I did not come to do away with them, but to give them their full meaning.
18 Heaven and earth may disappear. But I promise you not even a period or comma will ever disappear from the Law. Everything written in it must happen.