The Right Peer Pressure

Peer pressure is a powerful force in our lives, and it can both help us and hurt us. David Greene, one of the hosts of NPR’s “Morning Edition,” explains that peer pressure can help us by inspiring us to do the right thing. Sit next to a good student in class, and her study habits can rub off on you. Watch your neighbors install solar panels on their roof, and you might be motivated to do the same thing.

But peer pressure can also hurt us. This happens when we are exposed to our very best peers and find ourselves becoming discouraged about ourselves. Their pressure might even cause us to quit. A 104-year-old woman was once asked by a reporter, “What do you think is the best thing about being 104?”

She replied, quite simply, “No peer pressure.”

Todd Rogers is a professor of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. He has studied the peer pressure that comes from people who are a little better than us, as well as the pressure that comes from people who are way better than us.

In other words, the Pharisees.

Says Rogers, “When you are compared to people who are doing a little better than you, it can be really motivating.” Someone who is conserving energy might inspire you to use less energy, and someone who is voting might motivate you to vote.

But peer pressure turns negative when you are compared to people who are unattainably better than you. If you decide to train for a 10K race with an Olympic distance runner, for example, you are not going to be inspired. You are going to be really intimidated and probably drop out.

Rogers studied more than 5,000 students in a massive open online course. As part of the course, the students graded each other’s work and learned from each other. What Rogers discovered was that ordinary students became far more likely to quit the course when they were paired with the best students. The ordinary students grading top-quality papers assumed that everyone in the group was brilliant and this made them feel inferior.

I know the feeling. Back in my first college go-around, I was a Mechanical Engineering major.  I had to take Calculus I, II, and III.  It was mind boggling to me.  The cronies I hung out with were all nice guys.  They tried to help me, but it was as if they were speaking a foreign language. And it didn’t help that the highest math I took in high school was Algebra II.  Nope, my mathematically adept friends were constant reminders that I was never going to make it as an engineer.

This is exactly the effect of the Pharisees on the people around them.

Remember what the apostle Paul said about his own accomplishments as a Pharisee? “If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more,” he wrote to the Philippians. “Circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee” (Philippians 3:4-5). Paul was a top-performing Pharisee, unattainably better than many of the people around him.

You can understand why his peers would feel inferior and want to quit.

But Jesus is not interested in making people give up when he says, “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (v. 20). The Pharisees might be better than anyone else in terms of following religious rules and regulations, but Jesus has a new approach to righteousness that is not based on rigorous law-keeping.

So what do righteous people look like?

They look like salt. Jesus says that they are “the salt of the earth” (v. 13). In the ancient world, salt was a valuable commodity used for sacrifice, purification, seasoning and preservation. Christians are to play all of these roles in the world, and are to remain salty by staying true to their mission and avoiding contamination.

Note that Jesus doesn’t say, “Try to be the salt of the earth.”

He doesn’t say, “It might be good for you to catch some classes at Salty University to learn how to be salt.”

He doesn’t say, “Go to the rabbi and elders and have them lay hands on you to beseech God to grant you saltiness.”

He doesn’t say, “Take 30 minutes every morning to meditate and try to reach, and to be in touch with, your inner saltiness.”

No, Jesus says, “You are the salt of the earth. This is what and who you are. Don’t forget it.” His statement is not a command but a description. Too often, we’re afraid that we’re not “salty” enough, and when we get agitated like that, we’re essentially making this all about ourselves instead of about Jesus.

Salt as an element has no value to itself. It’s not about making salt better salt. Salt is salt. The value of salt is in its application to other things.

No wonder Jesus calls us “salt.” That’s because we exist for others.

What else do righteous people look like?

They look like light – lighthouses, spotlights, flashlights, lamps, candles in the darkness. Jesus says, “You are the light of the world” (v. 14). Once again, being light does not involve sitting through a college class, reading literature on the subject or meditating about it. Jesus’ statement is a description, not a command.

And, like salt, light does not exist for its own benefit, but for the benefit of everything it illuminates. Light provides warmth and energy to the world around it, and encourages life and growth. We do the very same thing when we act as the light of the world, and when we reflect the light of Christ to others.

When you open a door that separates a lighted room from a dark room, what happens? The light always spills into the darkened room. And the darkness never enters the lighted space.

Our righteousness as Christians depends on doing whatever we can to be lights to each other and to the world around us. We are to be open and honest instead of hiding in the dark. We are to offer other people warmth and encouragement instead of being cold and discouraging. We are to be an energy source for others, so that together we can advance the mission of Christ in the world.

“Let your light shine before others,” says Jesus, “so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven” (v. 16). Our challenge is to shine as a Christian community so that others will see what a life of love and faithfulness looks like. In a world of self-righteousness, we can be an example of Christ-righteousness – right relationship, that is, with God and neighbor.

Jesus invites us to be salt and light. And he offers us the very best peer pressure, that which inspires us to rise to the challenge of advancing his mission in the world. As salt, we can talk with openness and honesty about who we are as Christians. As light, we can bring warmth and energy to the world around us.

And that’s a righteousness even a Pharisee would envy.