In a world where prejudice and racism is rife, Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:43-48 concerning loving our enemies, cut right through to the heart. His disciples, who belong to His upside down Kingdom, are not to be like the world or the Pharisees who believe that God’s law encouraged them to ‘hate their enemies’. There is no such Old Testament law! Instead, Jesus taught that His disciples ought to exercise inclusion (embracing all kinds of people) and practise imitiation of our Heavenly Father who sends rain upon all kinds of people. Imitating that undiscriminating kind of love is nothing less than what Jesus taught and showed in His death securing our salvation. His love was at great cost to Himself!

Because of what Jesus taught in Matthew 5:38-42, some have concluded that Jesus was anti-war and others that he was a pacifist. Though his words have been misinterpreted over the years, Jesus did teach that in the lives of His followers there is no room for taking revenge, there must be much room for our lives for forgiveness and plentiful room in our hearts for love – even for those who would strike, offend or use us. There will be many times when our rights are trodden on. Jesus knew all about that. he chose to give us His rights for our sake and by doing so saved us, that we might be His and learn to live His way of forgiveness in response.

In a day when the Jewish religious found themselves every ‘loophole’ they could find in the Old Testament law about making oaths and promises, in Matthew 5:33-37, Jesus made it very clear that those who were quick to make oaths and promises that they never intended to keep, were avoiding a serious issue. God does not expect His people to only tell the truth when they are forced to swear on oath. The true disciple of Jesus will be known by their honesty and truth-telling. God’s standards remain hight, but there is grace freely given to all who seek it – even to those who have failed to keep their word.

In a day when the Jewish religious found themselves a ‘loophole’ in the Old Testament law about divorce, in Matthew 5:31-32, Jesus made it very clear that the issue goes much deeper than what was popular at the time. Jesus taught that the only ‘biblical ‘grounds for divorce are sexual immorality, and that those who divorce for other reasons end up breaking the seventh commandment if and when they remarry. This is a difficult topic for many, especially when the divorce rate is so high, however God’s standards are there to be followed and we must not forget that His grace is freely given to all who seek it – even to those who have failed to keep their marriage vows.

When dealing with false and slack interpretations of the seventh commandment ‘You shall not commit adultery’, Jesus, in Matthew 5:27-30, made it pretty clear that obedience to the commandment goes much deeper than just refaining from the physical act. Jesus pointed out that the root of adultery begins in the yes and spreads to the heart. Lust is the problem! To show how dangerous this is, Jesus the proceeded to tell men to ‘pluck out their eye’ if their eye offends in this way. He was not meaning this literally, but making a point to show that we should take extreme action to avoid this sin, so that we do not end up suffering more awful consequences.

Oops…human error (mine!) means that the first few minutes are missing from this audio…so what follows here is what was said and you’re welcome to follow the audio from the end of the written part 🙂 Continue reading →

In Matthew 5:21-26, Jesus addressed the question of the right understanding of the sixth commandment, ‘You shall not kill’. While the Pharisees were content to understand that they had obeyed this commandment by refraining from the physical act of murder, Jesus took it a whole lot deeper. He pointed out that the real problem is with the root cause of anger in our hearts, which can lead to murdering people by our tongue and also having difficult and real conflict within our relationships. Thankfully Jesus died for murderers and for those who sin with their tongues too and there is grace for all who fall short!

In Matthew 5:17-20, Jesus addressed the question of where he stood in relation to the Old Testament, particularly the Law of Moses. This is a question that troubled many in his time and continues to trouble people today. Jesus said that he came to fulfill the Law, not be in opposition to it. More than that, Jesus upheld the Old Testament as being the Word of God and taught that the standard of righteousness we need in order to enter God’s Kingdom has to be greater than that of the Scribes and Pharisees – that is, it needs to be a true (not hypocritical) righteousness that comes to us by God’s grace and so is not merely outward but inward.

In Matthew 5:14-16, Jesus used the image of ‘light’ to illustrate what He expects His followers to be. God calls us in the Bible to come to the light, to receive the light and to live in His light. We can ever only be what He wants us to be as the light of the world, but reflecting the One who is the true light of the world – Jesus. While there are many reasons why we may want to hide our witness to Jesus (such as fear) this does not negate our responsibility. The gospel has brought us light and now we are called to share that light to a world in darkness.

After speaking about the blessing that belongs to those who belong to His ‘upside-down’ Kingdom in the Beatitudes, in Matthew 5:13, Jesus then spoke of the influence that He expected His people would have on the world, by being ‘salt’ in an often tasteless world. Why did Jesus describe believers as being like salt? Because of the way in which salt was highly valued in Jesus’ day, because of the way in which salt was also used as a preservative, the way in which salt creates thirst, and also the way in which salt could so easily lose its flavour and become useless. For all these reasons believers are to be in the world and so have a preserving, thirst-creating and godly influence on others and therefore on the world.

After speaking about the blessing of being poor in spirit, being broken over our own sin, the importance of meekness, the need to hunger and thirst for righteousness, the blessing that comes to those who know and give out mercy, the need for a pure, undivided heart,and the blessing that belongs to those who set out to make peace, in Matthew 5:10-12, Jesus then spoke of the blessing that comes to those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake. It is a strange fact of life that those who seek to live the way that Jesus taught in these Beatitudes will face persecution. The world may approve of people having ‘their religion’ but when that very thing shows up the darkness of other people’s hearts and lives, then this will not sit so easy with others. Christians all over the world are facing this kind of persecution, because they are aiming to live for another kingdom, not the one of this world. Jesus was persecuted Himself – even to death on a cross! He said, ‘if they hated me they will also hate you’.