The Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, Day 12, Jan 12, | Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT
LOUIS COMFORT TIFFANY

²⁷ “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’^[e] ²⁸ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Jesus focuses not on the law, but on the heart of the law.

²⁹ If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. ³⁰ And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

The absolute seriousness of sin. How lightly we can take it. And how seriously Jesus took it.

³¹ “It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’^[f] ³² But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

There is a lot to be said for Jesus’s hard line on divorce. People can change, people are infinitely redeemable. Many people who have stuck it out are now so glad they did, including we ourselves.

However, the unhappiness in an unhappy marriage is extreme, and so I am so glad that Jesus is the law-giver in these situations, not I.

³³ “Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfil to the Lord the vows you have made.’ ³⁴ But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; ³⁵ or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. ³⁶ And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. ³⁷ All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

The integrity of our characters should be such that our word is enough without our needing to take God’s name lightly.

³⁸ “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’^[h]

We are reaching the sublime core of the Sermon on the Mount.

“An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind,” was Mahatma Gandhi’s comment on this.

³⁹ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person.

I keep coming across the saying of Jesus with a fresh sense of revelation. What? What?

I have so often thought it my duty to resist evil, because otherwise evil merely increases.

And what happens when evil becomes more evil? Extreme evil has a limited shelf-life because it is so contrary to God’s nature. Eventually, since evil is destructiveness, extreme evil destroys itself. Look at

Sodom, Gomorrah, Nero, Hitler, Stalin, Jim Jomes, David Koresh.

And on a micro-level? Well, evil people often do self-destruct.

And they are functioning under the eye of God who will keep their ability to do harm within limits.

And who will definitely bring immense good out of their evil intentions and attempts.

Confrontations take a huge amount of energy. When they are necessary, they should be embarked upon with gentleness.

If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. ⁴⁰ And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. ⁴¹ If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.

If someone is taking advantage of you, let them.

You can only do this if you are convinced that you are under God’s eye, and he’s got it in control.

Whatever you do, be gentle. Whether you bow down to escalating demands or resist them, be gentle.

⁴² Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

Live under the powerful eyes of God. Be gentle, be generous.

I now view these as a general principle: Be generous, rather than a specific directive.

⁴³ “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’

“Hate your enemy”–contains the certain seeds of spiritual destruction. In fact, one’s spiritual disciplines, I think, should contain an examination of this—is there hatred in my heart? And then we need immediate treatment—prayer for the Holy Spirit to bathe, soothe and soften one’s heart.

⁴⁴ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ that you may be children of your Father in heaven.

“Love your enemies”—a level of perfection I have not reached. The only thing that melts my heart towards my enemies is to visualize Jesus standing before my enemies, seeing them as they are, seeing the fragilities, weaknesses, pain, facades, pretence, wounds. And in a flash, I see something of what he sees, and my hatred and resentment begins to crumble.

“Pray for those who persecute you” is another very hard saying. However, one needs to do this for the sake of your own heart.

I love the fact of our Sonship and daughtership. That we are children of God.

“That you may be the children of your Father in heaven.” It sounds conditional. We are children of our heavenly Father, whether prodigals in a far country, or tasting all the abundance of his household. However, when we behave like him, we are truly his children, under his protection, drinking from his wells of rejoicing.

He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

By treating even our enemies graciously, we share the very nature of God, who treats the good and the evil with equal goodness—because that is his very nature.

⁴⁶ If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? ⁴⁷ And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? ⁴⁸ Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Jesus asks higher standards of us than merely being nice to those who are nice to us. He asks us to be absolutely perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect.

Again, this is probably a rhetorical device. Give sin no quarter just as your heavenly Father has nothing to do with sin. Do not voluntarily continue in sin, just as your heavenly Father does not continue in sin.

²⁰ Out in the open wisdom calls aloud,
she raises her voice in the public square;
²¹ on top of the wall^[d] she cries out,
at the city gate she makes her speech:

²² “How long will you who are simple love your simple ways?
   How long will mockers delight in mockery
   and fools hate knowledge?
²³ Repent at my rebuke!
   Then I will pour out my thoughts to you,
   I will make known to you my teachings.

²⁴ But since you refuse to listen when I call
   and no one pays attention when I stretch out my hand,
²⁵ since you disregard all my advice
   and do not accept my rebuke,
²⁶ I in turn will laugh when disaster strikes you;
   I will mock when calamity overtakes you—
²⁷ when calamity overtakes you like a storm,
   when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind,
   when distress and trouble overwhelm you.

²⁸ “Then they will call to me but I will not answer;
   they will look for me but will not find me,
²⁹ since they hated knowledge
   and did not choose to fear the LORD.
³⁰ Since they would not accept my advice
   and spurned my rebuke,
³¹ they will eat the fruit of their ways
   and be filled with the fruit of their schemes.
³² For the waywardness of the simple will kill them,
   and the complacency of fools will destroy them;
³³ but whoever listens to me will live in safety
   and be at ease, without fear of harm.”

Wisdom promises that those who follow her counsel (follow the counsel of the Spirit of God) will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm.”

Not heeding the wisdom of God conversely, can open you up to calamity, distress, trouble, and disaster. And this is true!!

The essence of wisdom in Proverbs is the fear of the Lord.

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