Matthew part 7

Following the Spirit of the Law

Because of time, we could not finish looking at chapter 5, and so we must be reminded to not separate Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount too much. Chapters 5-7 are one discourse and must be treated together. With that, we can look quickly at where we left off last week.

The Beatitudes share a series of ‘blessed’ statements which give a quick summary of character traits for those whom Heaven has been opened. The Good News is that Heaven has come to even the least of society. Anyone may be saved from this corrupt life and enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but entrance requires penitence.

If we are to have any hope to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, we must recognize our hopelessness.

Jesus immediately flows into being salt and light to the world around us. Once we have experienced the goodness of God, then we can be agents of transformation in the world. Those who have experienced the heavenly life can share that life with the lost.

Last, in 5:17-20, Jesus reminds us that He has not come to abolish the Law. The requirements of the Law of God still stand. He is not removing anything from them, but rather He is fulfilling the Law. In fulfilling the Law, He is showing us the way to do the same.

Before we go into the text for today, let’s take a moment and examine this word “fulfill.” It can be a bit confusing if we aren’t careful.

The Greek is plērōsai which can be ‘fulfilled, completed,’ or ‘being filled up’. The idea is whatever has been required, that has been accomplished. It actually is a bit more involved than just “do the do’s and don’t do the don’t’s”.

Many times we think of laws as simply actions to avoid. Traffic laws tell you where you to drive, how to drive, and what actions to avoid while driving. But can we say someone is a good driver just because they have never broken any of the laws? A newly minted 16 year old licensed driver has not broken any laws, but are they really a good driver? They don’t have the decades of experience of an older driver or the training of a professional racer.

Likewise, Jesus did not come to just cross all the t’s and dot all the i’s. He fulfills the Law by keeping it throughout His experience on earth. He demonstrates what it means to follow both the letter and the spirit of the Law.

Fulfilling the Law of God requires keeping both the letter and the spirit of the Law.

As we read the last half of chapter 5, keep in mind that Jesus is explaining the spirit of the Law. He is taking the letter of the Law, which His audience would have been very familiar with, and explaining the heart required to truly fulfill what God has designed for living.

Being Faithful to Fellow Humans | Matthew 5:21-26

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.

So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

Matthew 5:21-26

The Law simply states, “You shall not murder.” Jesus points us to the fact that a series of actions occur long before someone commits murder. The root issue is the heart and attitude of the person involved. It begins in anger. Yoda was actually right in his famous quote—Anger does lead to hate, and hate leads to suffering. Thus, Jesus tells us to be careful in how we think and talk about an individual, but also to take steps toward reconciliation.

First, notice that Jesus talks about insulting a brother or calling them a fool. The ESV simply states ‘insult’, but other translations phrase it with the Aramaic word “raca”. ‘You fool’ is the Greek, moros, which is exactly where we get the word ‘moron’. (“Moron" was coined in 1910 by psychologist Henry H. Goddard from the Ancient Greek word μωρός (moros), which meant "dull" and used to describe a person with a mental age in adulthood of between 7 and 10 on the Binet scale.) Both ‘raca’ and ‘moros’ are words that insult the intelligence of the person, and they could be considered vulgar. Scholars debate the severity of the two, but it appears these words would have been similar to how 21st century English speakers use words that we tell our kids not to use and definitely shouldn’t be said from the pulpit on Sunday morning.

Jesus is expanding the commandment to not murder by showing us the character of heaven is to avoid even the path that would lead to murder. We are to guard our hearts against hatred for our fellow humans.

Jesus calls us to guard our hearts against hating one another.

It is easy to love those who are lovable, but before we go any further, take stock in what insults you have hurled recently. Who are they directed against? We will get to enemies in a bit, but for now, keep in mind Jesus is talking about insults to “our brother”. In other words, how do we treat those in our family and the family of God? If we struggle to love them, it will certainly be a struggle when Jesus gets to loving our enemies.

If this is a struggle for you, start with the easier ones to love. Be careful in how you address your spouse, your kids, and other family members. Then, be careful and think about how you address and talk about your church family. Master showing love, and actually loving these because Jesus calls us to even greater love than this.

The importance of this love is stressed in how Jesus talks about our offerings. Bringing an offering to the Temple was the height of Jewish practice. This offering is what would atone for the person’s sin. If they wanted to be right with God, they would bring these offerings. Jesus says that if we want to be right with God, we must also deal with our fellow brothers and sisters. It is so important to God for us to be reconciled with one another that He tells us to hold off bringing our offerings to Him until we have done what we can to be reconciled.

Being Faithful to Your Spouse | Matthew 5:27-32

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.

It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Matthew 5:27-32

The next Law Jesus tackles is the law against adultery. Again, Jesus reminds us that many steps occur before physical adultery takes place, and it begins with lust. In Job 31:1, Job makes an interesting statement regarding lust. He is in the middle of justifying his own righteousness and states,

I have made a covenant with my eyes.

Job 31:1a

It is the type of attitude Jesus describes here. We must keep our eyes in check in order to avoid the path to sin. In fact, Jesus goes further and says whether it’s your eyes, your hand, or any other body part that is dragging you to hell, cut it off! Typically, here is the part where Christians try to soften this statement by calling it figurative speech, but I’m not convinced he is exaggerating.

Whatever is in our life that keeps us from heaven and living as God calls us to live needs to be cut out.

Now, I am not necessarily advocating self-mutilation, but I do think before we get to the point of cutting off limbs, we could definitely be more careful about what shows we watch, what apps we allow in our homes, or how much screen time our children have.

When we consider Jesus’ teaching on anger and lust together, what we find is that Jesus helping us understand we must be careful about our inward thoughts and outward stimulus. Sin infects our soul, body, and mind. Thus, if we are to overcome it, we must take control of how our bodies and minds operate. God will cleanse our soul which will empower us to take the reins over our bodies and minds, but we have to be careful that this world does not bring us back into sin’s grasp. Sometimes that means that even though a particular thing, place, or event is not inherently sinful, if it is something that will lead us into temptation, we should avoid it.

Rather than trying to find the line between sin and ‘not sin,’ Jesus tells us to aim for love, godliness, and faithfulness. If we are heading in that direction, we will be heading away from that line.

This teaching is reinforced by Jesus’ address on divorce. Later, in Matthew 19, the Pharisees ask Jesus about divorce and he explains Moses allowed for divorce “because of the hardness of your hearts.” In other words, divorce was a capitulation on God’s part because the Israelites were too hardened to have true faithfulness. It was not meant to be this way.

In our day, divorce is once again rampant in our society. It has become so common that the phrase “starter wife” exists, and people are shocked if someone heads into their 40s having the same first wife. Unfortunately, Christians have a tendency to either castigate those who have gone through the pain of divorce or ignore it as a problem altogether. While we can freely admit the reality of our situation and others’, we must also remember that this is not the way God intends it to be. We are called to a higher standard of faithfulness. But if that standard seems too high, remember it is. Sin has corrupted us to where we can’t fulfill the Law as God intended. That is why Jesus came. He fulfilled the Law, and in doing so, He opens the door of heaven to us so that we can be empowered and transformed.

We cannot uphold the standards of ethics Jesus describes until we are cleansed of sin and evil by surrendering to God’s grace.

Once we are cleansed by the work of Jesus, then we can lean on Him to help us grow into the type of person God designed us to be.

Being Faithful to Yourself | Matthew 5:33-37

“Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.

Matthew 5:33-37

We don’t hear the phrase, “Your word is your bond,” much anymore, but that is what is being said. Consider the type of honesty Jesus describes here. When someone can say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and that is all that is needed, that is true integrity. Jesus calls us to be the type of person that can be believed no matter what.

But that is not the state of affairs for the majority of people. In Jesus’ day, the people would swear on heaven, earth, or Jerusalem as if to say, “If I am wrong, may something happen to ______.” Jesus says to not swear by them because they are not yours. Heaven is the throne of God, the earth His footstool, and Jerusalem is His city. To swear by them is something akin to blasphemy. And we should not swear on ourselves because we can’t even control what happens to our hair. (Keep in mind this statement is before hair dyes became in vogue, but even still, dye does not permanently change the color.) Regardless how commonplace swearing with conditions is, God’s people are called to have the integrity that does not require such additions.

True honesty and integrity does not require additional oaths on heaven or earth.

Interestingly, Jesus says anything beyond yes and no “comes from evil.” Greek has a few options for ‘evil’ depending on what kind of evil is being discussed. This particular one has two important facets. One, it is the same ‘evil’ that is used for Satan’s title, “The Evil One”. Two, it can be used to describe an ‘evil’ in someone’s body, meaning a disease or defilement. The word is used 75 times in the New Testament which reminds us that sin is much more than just a legal problem—it is a health problem. The reason people require additions to ‘yes or no’ is because they are evil—diseased by sin.

One measure for whether we are cleansed of sin (evil) is how honest we are with others and ourselves.

Do we maintain the kind of honesty that people can believe without extra oaths or swearing?

Do we maintain the kind of integrity that people know we truly have their best interests at heart rather than anger or hate?

Do we maintain the kind of faithfulness that our spouse does not worry about us having a wandering eye?

Being Faithful to Your Enemies | Matthew 5:38-48

“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Matthew 5:38-48

This last section is probably the most difficult for Christians to uphold. It goes against every fiber of our sin nature. How can we submit to those who persecute us, beg from us, or even harm us? It is a matter of faith and character development that supersedes that of the “scribes and Pharisees.”

The key verse in this teaching, as well as in this whole chapter, is verse 48. “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” It works hand-in-hand with 5:20. How much should our righteousness exceed the scribes and Pharisees? It should be as perfect as our Heavenly Father.

And immediately, when we hear such a thing, our sin cries out, “That’s not possible!”

And yet, that is the standard of righteousness for Heaven. That is why Jesus came. There is no amount of ‘good’ that can earn us a place in heaven, because heaven does not exist for good people. It exists for perfect people. But we can be perfected by Jesus when we surrender to Him. We can have forgiveness for our imperfections and strength to grow in our righteousness and fulfill the Law of God. It takes time, but that is the Goal of our Faith—to be like Jesus, to be transformed into the kind of humanity God originally designed us to be.

If we really want to love like Jesus loves, we have to practice loving the unlovable. Consider what it means to be perfect like our Heavenly Father. How does God demonstrate love to us? How does God demonstrate giving to us? How did Jesus demonstrate turning the other cheek to those who put him on the cross? How does He give to us who beg Him so often for things?

The more we grow closer to God and learn what He has done for us, the more we can emulate the kind of life He calls us to live.

Are these teachings difficult for us? They are outright impossible on our own. Consider once again how Jesus began this sermon.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 5:3

How can the poor in spirit be blessed? They understand their hopeless situation. These difficult teachings only remind us how hopeless we are without Christ. Who can honestly say they have perfectly loved their fellow humans? Who can honestly say they have kept their eyes faithful to only their spouse? Who can honestly say they have always told the truth without any need for oaths or justification? And who can honestly say they have loved their enemies and prayed for their persecutors without fail? Only Jesus has fulfilled these requirements. He not only fulfilled the letter of the Law, but also the spirit of the Law.

As we consider the standards Jesus lays before us, do not get discouraged believing there is no hope for you. Hope has already come. His name is Jesus. He is the one who can cleanse of sin and empower us to live the life God has in store for us.