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Giving to the Poor (Matt 6:1-4)

In these verses Jesus gives us advice on what holiness looks like when it comes to giving. But this advice can also be used when it comes to the value that we place upon money and other material things that we receive from others as well.

If we give for the purpose of having others see how generous we are or even for that good feeling we have about ourselves when we give, we are in jeopardy of losing our true reward which comes from our Father in Heaven.  When we give so others see us, or give because it gives us a warm feeling inside, these things puff us up so that we place a material value upon our generosity. This takes us away from the purity of heart that brings us closer to our heavenly Father.

If we receive the praise of the world, it overshadows that praise that comes from God.  What exactly is this praise from God?  It is the way that true giving transforms us into the image that God wants us to be.  The end result of humble giving is true holiness.  I don’t believe that our holiness is based upon God keeping track of how much we give to the poor, but rather it is in the results that proper giving has upon our character where the holiness takes place.

Those who gladly receive people’s praise for their generosity have already received their reward for it has enlarged their self-importance.  So all those wealthy pastors who receive the treasures of this world for their Christian duty have already received a worldly reward instead of a spiritual one.  Heaven may be very disappointing for such people.

So Jesus tells us that when we give to others, whether it is financial or even pastoral, we must not keep a mental record of what we do.  Just give our offering and forget it as though the left hand does not know what the right is doing. That’s when we receive the eternal reward from our Father and this reward is the transformation of our soul from being worldly to becoming more spiritual.  In this state we become more aware of God’s truth and presence in our life.  John tells us in his first letter:

1 John 2:3 (KJV)
3And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.

So when we obey and do things the way that Jesus taught us we become more assured and confident in his presence in our lives.

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Love Your Enemies (Matt 5:43-48)

This is one of the sayings of Jesus that many people have a problem not only doing, but even believing that he actually said it.  But listen to Proverbs 25.  Many of the things that Jesus taught in his sermon are already embedded in the books of the Old Testament.  You just have to know where to look.

Proverbs 25:21-22 (KJV)
21If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink:
22For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the LORD shall reward thee.

The burning coals represents a burning conscience of wrongdoing not fire from Hell.

Keep in mind that Jesus is not saying that hating your enemy is part of the law or even in the Old Testament.  He simply says that “You have heard .”  So this isn’t something that Moses taught and for that matter it doesn’t appear anywhere in the O.T.  So Jesus is correcting a misconception that many had during his time.

We also have to clear up what he means by “enemy.”  The word in Greek is echthros (ἐχθρός), which refers to those who are hostile towards us and show hatred.  It does not appear to mean enemies of the state in this context. It refers to those who hate us and seek to do harm towards us. Verse 44 makes this clearer as the enemy is linked to those who persecute us. This also fits much better with the idea found in the Beatitudes about those who are blessed because they are being persecuted.

Matthew 5:44 (KJV)
44But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

Our faith must be expressed in love if it is to be believable. Jesus teaches us that we shouldn’t repay evil with evil, but do good, especially to those who persecute us. For if we hate our enemies we are not likely to want to bring the gospel to them.  The power of the Gospel should be stronger than anything–even hatred of our enemies.

Jesus goes on to teach us that if we only love those who love us, we are not at all special or unique.  He wants us to have the right attitude so that we can become perfect (fully mature in Christ).  Even the world loves their friends and those who are good to them.  Jesus asks more from us.  He asks us to love those who persecute us. 

So what is “love?”  The context here is not some romantic feeling that we must have towards our enemy.  It is a willingness to help them when they need help.  It is providing food, shelter, and comfort for them.  Once again we can see God’s intention from the Old Testament:

Proverbs 25:21-22 (KJV)
21 If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink:
22 For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the LORD shall reward thee.

This next verse bothers many believers because they simply don’t understand what it actually means.

Matthew 5:48 (KJV)
48Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

Surprisingly, these words are even echoed in the Old Testament where the Jews are commanded to become perfect and holy.

Deuteronomy 18:13 (KJV)
13Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God.

Leviticus 19:2 (KJV)
2Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy.

It is not that we should try to imitate God’s holiness, but that we should love his holiness and want to be complete in perfect harmony with his holiness through our faith. The perfection Jesus is speaking about is not self-righteousness, but is having the perfect relationship with God through a faith that is without flaw so that we are complete in Him.  These sayings are not always easy to hear, but this is what makes them so beautiful and perfect: that they are so unique to our minds and hearts, and that they rise above man’s self-proclaimed religions as well as man’s claims of metaphysical truths.

It is true that loving our enemy can sometimes put us in fearful situations, but John tells us that perfect love casts out all fear.

1 John 4:18 (KJV)
18There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

So the key word throughout all of Jesus’ teachings as well as Paul’s and John’s is that love is behind our faith.  In order to teach this to others it is imperative that we not just teach it to them by words, but show it to them by our deeds as well.

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Retribution (Matt 5:38-42)

Retaliation or retribution can come in many forms.  Jesus tells us something here that many think is absurd.  If someone strikes you on the right cheek you should turn to him the other cheek.  Now under the law we are certainly entitled to take an eye for and eye and a tooth for a tooth and this is what we tend to do from childhood to adulthood.  But Jesus is making a distinction here; yet, he is not contradicting the law.  Lex Telionis (law of retribution) stands as a law, but it is not necessary that man takes this action on his own accord.  If we choose not to retaliate we are choosing to show mercy instead.  Even God showed that he was a merciful God, especially when Jesus forgave those who put him to death on a cross.  Those who repented for their sins always received mercy.  So we can see here that there is a distinction between Moses’ retaliation and Jesus’ mercy.  By turning the cheek or giving the cloak in addition to the coat to the man who sues us we are showing him true charity. 

According to the law we are almost dutifully required to retaliate at least legally, but Jesus is telling us that we must go beyond the law that was imposed upon the flesh and live by the new law imposed upon the spirit.

We have to understand that this is not just an isolated commandment by Jesus, but an entire different way of living life. It is a new attitude towards others, ourselves and even God.  We have to remember that Jesus was not destroying the law that was imposed upon the flesh, but that he was fulfilling the law within himself. This new kingdom is not of the flesh, but of the spirit. Those who want to live in such a kingdom must abide by these new commands aimed at perfecting the spirit.

The lesson here is that we must always be prepared to show love to everyone including those who would take advantage of us.  We will see in the next verses that Jesus even extends this to our enemies.  We will discuss that next.

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Taking Oaths (Matt 5:33-37)

How valid is our promise that we make to others and even to God?  Jesus warns us that we might be thinking to highly of ourselves when we take oaths.  There is nothing that man has that God does not already own.  There is nothing that anyone can offer to God that he would have to forfeit if he broke his oath, except perhaps his own soul.  And this is the very thing that man refuses to offer to God.  So the point that Jesus is teaching us here about oaths is that all we have is our word and we ought to be very careful when making an oath or even a promise especially to God since we really don’t have the power to keep it.  Circumstances can change of which we have no power to control.  For this reason James rephrases Jesus words in his epistle as follows:

James 4:14-16 (KJV)
14Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
15For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
16But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.

Therefore we should not think too highly of ourselves to think that we are independent of God and that we possess anything including the hair on our heads that can make our word any more credible or reliable.

We have no right to use anything for collateral to support the truth of our word than our word itself.  So we should make it a practice to consider answering only “yes” or “no” and adding the phrase “If the Lord wills . . .”  

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Divorce (Matt 5:31,32)

According to Matthew 19:4-6 marriage is a sacred relationship that one has between a man and a woman. Yet, Jesus teaches us that according to the Mosaic Law all a man had to do was write down on a piece of paper that he wanted a divorce and it was official.  He tells us that this was done because of their hard hearts meaning that men wanted what they wanted not what God wanted.

In 2 Co 11:2 and Ephesians 5:22-33 Paul tells us that marriage is symbolic of the relationship that man has with God.  Paul teaches us that the church is the bride of Christ. Only in the case of adultery where the member of the church falls away from God and goes after other gods such as lust and selfishness does he commit spiritual adultery against Christ and will therefore be liable to separation (divorce) from Him. 

So when we enter into marriage we need to see our marriage in the light of such advice and do all that we can to make it work. I believe that when Paul tells us in Romans 12:18 that as much as lies within us we must live peaceably with all men, we must also submit to the same devotion to do all we can to make a marriage work for a good marriage to our spouse symbolizes our good marriage to Christ.

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Adultery and Offense of the Eye (Matt 5:27-30)

Adultery is a crime of selfishness and lust.  It involves a betrayal of fidelity. According to the Old Testament adultery was punishable by death, but in his sermon Jesus gives us a deeper understanding of adultery.  Jesus contradicts the common idea that the act of adultery takes place at the moment of intercourse.  According to Jesus the sin begins with selfishness and lust within the heart of men that finally consummates in intercourse. 

It begins with the lust of the eye when it looks upon a woman with desire.  At this point the fidelity of marriage is already broken.  This is the spiritual sin that takes place prior to the physical one. Many cannot believe that Jesus really means what he says here.  The claim is that no one can go through life without lusting after another person—at least not in our society where advertising is based upon the very idea of lust.

Jesus makes it very clear that this is not some exaggeration that is supposed to somehow scare us into holiness or is aimed only at monks, priest, and saints.  In the very next verse he tells us that if our eye or hand offends us we must cut it off and throw it away for it is better to enter heaven with one eye or one hand then enter hell with two.

This is not an exaggeration.  It is an example of how serious we must take the commission of sin.   When war vets enter into war against our enemies they know that they might lose an eye, a hand, leg, or even their lives. They are given metals for bravery when such things happen and looked up to by society as heroes.  But when Jesus asks this same dedication of us towards our enemy of sin we turn away and want to believe that he is exaggerating.  Why would we be willing to offer more for our country than for our Lord and God?

So the main point to take away from this commandment is the seriousness and pervasiveness of sin in the human heart.  This is where evil begins. The only remedy for such a sin is faith as we shall see later.

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Anger & Murder (Matt 5:21-26)

Both Jesus and Moses agreed that murder is a sin against God and will deserve punishment, but Jesus does not stop there.  Jesus looks deeper into the psyche of men and teaches us that anger and hatred lie beneath the act of murder itself.  Anger and hatred are the emotions that become manifest in violent acts such as murder.  The act of murder is considered to be a crime against society, but in the kingdom of Heaven it is the root causes, anger and hatred, which are the sins against God.  These are the real sins of men—the act of murder is an expression of the hatred and anger of man’s spirit.  

Jesus continues to teach that even speaking against your brother in the form of insults or name-calling could also put one’s spirit in jeopardy. This basic lesson is reflected in the teachings of Paul:

Romans 12:17-18 (NKJV)
17Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men.
18If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.

We have to strive for peace if we are to have peace.  This ties directly into the Beatitudes where the peacemakers are blessed because they are the children of God. So inner peace begins when we make peace with our brothers.   

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Jesus and the Law

When we read Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount we find that he not only acknowledges the Law of Moses, but makes obedience seemingly impossible.  So we need to fully examine what Jesus is saying here in order to more fully understand how it affects us. 

There was a distinction between the Law of Moses and the commandments given by Jesus in his sermon. The law was given to Moses in the form of crime and punishment.  If you commit this crime, you will suffer this punishment. The emphasis was on the committing of the crime rather than what drove man to commit the crime.  So the law dealt more with the act of disobedience.  It was written upon stone tablets in order to give us the impression that it was very rigid and unyielding.  God didn’t seem to consider why we broke his law, but just that we broke it.

Paul teaches us in Romans that Jesus’ version of the law fulfills what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah by explaining that the law is now written upon our hearts.  

Romans 2:15 (ASV)
15in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness therewith, and their thoughts one with another accusing or else excusing them);

Jeremiah 31:33 (NIV)

“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

Jesus’ interpretation of the law dealt more with the internal causation of the crime than the crime itself giving us the idea that he believed the act of the crime began deeper within the heart of man than simply a thoughtless reaction to circumstances.  In other words, Jesus personalized the law whereas Moses depersonalized it.  We could say that Jesus spoke not simply as one who knew the law, but was a personalization of it in himself. He was, in fact, the law (Word) in the flesh. 

But what advantage is this to mankind that God would do such a thing? It was so that man could see the holiness of God more clearly and through this new vision of the law would feel the judgement of God more deeply since it was aimed directly at the heart.  So sin was not simply the committing of the act, but that sin lived within the hearts of men.

But there is also another reason that God manifested the law in Christ.  It was so that man could see the holiness of God in human form through the obedience of Jesus and relate to it at the highest level possible for man—through love. Yes, it is through love that we see the commandments of Christ. For it is through love and only through love that we can truly obey them.  For love is at the root of obedience. 

Did you ever wonder how we know that we are truly a Christian?  Well, John gives us the answer in his 1st letter:

1 John 2:3-6 (KJV)
3And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
4He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
5But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
6He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.

The connection between love and obedience is clear in the above scripture.  Our love for God is perfected (completed) by our obedience.  For obedience without love is nothing more than self-righteousness. We will see the importance of love and Jesus’ commands as we read through the next verses of his sermon.

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Fulfilling The Law Matt (5:17-20)

Matthew 5:17-20 (KJV) 
 17  Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. 
 18  For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. 
 19  Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 
 20  For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus said that he came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it.  What does it mean to fulfill the law?  The word fulfill also means to complete with a purpose or design or to bring about its full meaning. All of these meanings are appropriate here.  Jesus fulfilled the law in that he not only lived out the law perfectly without sin, but that he himself was a perfect sacrifice required by the law to be a substitution for sin.  The law is not limited to only the moral code that was given to Moses as listed in the Ten Commandments, but is used of the entire Jewish system of worship including the temple system or worship and all the food and purity laws.  So Jesus’ fulfilling of the law extends beyond living a perfect moral life.  The entire structure of worship that was established by God with the Jews was done as a foreshadow of what was to come in the form of Christ.

But does verse 18 mean that we are still under the law?  The law is still in effect in that it continues to bring the sinner to repentance by making them aware of their sin.  Without the law man would not know what the moral will of God was.  Paul writes in Romans 7:7,

7What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.

The law was the greatest expression of God’s morality until Christ.  So the law continues to be the law, but Christ has become an even better expression of God’s morality than the written law.   

What Paul taught us is so important to understand here: that if we try to keep the law, we are denying that Jesus fulfilled the law.  If we live as though we were under the law, we are no longer under the grace of God. 

The role of the law has caused a lot of confusion in Paul’s day and continues to today.  There is nothing wrong with the law and Jesus did not need to destroy it.  However, what Jesus did was to show us what it looks like when someone keeps the law perfectly.  Jesus expression of the law is the highest form of righteousness than could be expressed to mankind in that way Jesus is greater than the law (Matt 12:6-8).  So the law is still in effect, but it is now much better expressed through Christ.  We keep the law not by living it through our will to be righteous, but by the submission of our will to Jesus. If you truly want to be righteous than live by these sayings of Jesus in his Sermon and you will be obeying the law. 

Jesus told us that we must exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees who were very religious and struggled to keep the law perfectly.  They fasted and prayed and offered sacrifices frequently as well as tenaciously kept the Sabbath.  How many of us could really be good Pharisees today?  The point that Jesus was making was that our righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees not in that we are trying harder, but rather that we are loving the law of God more accurately as we love it as expressed by Christ.

If you still want to live by the law, then obey the Sermon on the Mount for by so doing you will live the law more perfectly.  There are some today that think they must keep the food laws given to Moses in order to keep their bodies clean. Paul taught very clearly here in Romans 7:1-6 that we died to the law through Christ (Baptism). 

4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.  

So we are now free from the law through our baptism into Christ. We did not earn salvation through our works or goodness.  It was gift given to us through the suffering and sacrifice of Jesus that we might die with him and receive the gift of eternal life. Let us be eternally grateful to him for our freedom rather than become bound to the law.
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The Salt of the Earth & Light of the World (Matthew 5:13-16)

SALT OF THE EARTH

Who are we as Christians? This is not a question of defending our doctrine and beliefs.  It is an existential question as to what is our purpose as “being” a Christian.  Jesus answers it by telling us that we are the “salt of the earth.”  We are supposed to be what the purpose of salt is to the earth.  This means that we are to be the ingredient that cleanses or makes things pure.  We are to be known by the reputation of being pure in character. Our word and reputation must be without spot. If we are not living a life of such purity than we have lost our purpose for which God has chosen us.  What do we do when salt no longer has the quality of purity?  We throw it away.  Jesus may sound harsh here, but I think that he truly and fully knows the hearts of men.  These verses are a sober reminder as to our true purpose in life.

THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD

How do we appear to the world?  Jesus says that we must appear as being lights in the sense of our works, goodness, and character shining over others.

What do we do as lights?  We must let it shine before men.  We cannot hide ourselves because of false humility or fear of judgment.  We don’t need to brag about ourselves, but we do need to let others see our works and character so that they can see how the Father works in us so that they might come to him and worship him because they see him in us.  It is by being lights in the world that we glorify our Heavenly Father.  So if you sing praises to God through songs on Sunday at church, sing those praises to him through your good works so that others beside those sitting next to you in church can see your Father’s glory.