After reading the Sermon on the Mount you might be thinking to yourself that no one can achieve the perfection that Jesus teaches here, but if you are thinking this, you are missing the point.  We are not here to judge ourselves or others as to whether we are perfect or not, but whether we really love the one who is perfect.  Paul understood exactly what Jesus was teaching and reflected it in his writings to the Philippians:

Philippians 3:12-14 (KJV)
¹²Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
¹³Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
¹⁴I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

We are called to strive toward the upward call of God in Christ.  The truth remains that we cannot accomplish the goals set for us in this sermon by our own willpower nor achieve it by the use of self-help books.  But such weakness is not an excuse for our failure. Realizing this brings us much closer to understanding Jesus’ teaching.  What Jesus expects from us is to love the character that he just described in his sermon.  This character is, in fact, a profile of Jesus himself.  If we say that we believe in Jesus, this is the Jesus that we must believe in.  This is the true Jesus who lifts us out of sin by his own character through love.

The Sermon on the Mount cannot and should not be reduced to one idea or simplified into a cliché. It is complex and speaks to us differently at different levels at different times in our lives.  Today, many have taken Jesus’ teachings and transformed them into a behavioral psychology in order to satisfy man’s psychological needs. We see this frequently when pastors take the words of Jesus and conform them into motivational techniques in order to publish best-selling Christian self-help books.  These are mere imitations of the true teachings of Jesus. We must understand that what started out as divine teaching has now been transformed, conformed, and finally adapted to the needs of humanity as a technique to improve the quality of life and not the divine teaching of God that brings eternal salvation.