It is not a coincidence that Christ teaches on divorce in the passage immediately following His instruction on lust. And although Christ taught in this section that we should be willing to remove any member which stumbles us, He teaches here that there is one member which is not to be removed. “”Furthermore it has …
The Heart of Lust
As Jesus applies the law of God in this sermon, He continues the same pattern. Obedience to the law is not merely a matter of external conformity; it is a question of heart loyalty. Put another way, the well-respected and pious tend to think about sins. The godly are constrained by the teaching of Christ …
Biblical Anger
At this portion of His great sermon, Jesus comes to teach on murder, along with the thoughts and attitudes that are prohibited under the scriptural prohibition of murder. When God prohibits something, we cannot hide our disobedience through clever appeals to the technicalities. “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘”You …
Jesus and the Law
In the course of working through the Sermon on the Mount, we inevitably must come to a subject that has been greatly debated among Christians. Unfortunately, the debate is not caused because the Scripture is all that ambiguous theologically on the point under discussion. It is caused because the teaching of Scripture is difficult for …
Salt and Light
We have been considering the character of the Christian in the Beatitudes. We now come to the effect that believers, who have this kind of character, will have on the world. “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing …
The Privilege of Persecution
There are some things which the natural man is simply incapable of doing. If we are thinking carefully, we should recognize that obedience to the words of Christ in this passage heads the list. This inability of the non-believing is important for us as we consider the passage. Christ gives the last Beatitude, and then …
Peacemaking
Mankind loves to wrangle. It is part of the sinful condition we inherited from Adam. Unfortunately, this is one of the last sins addressed after conversion. In many cases, a professed conversion to Christ “just changes the subject,” but does not change the heart of a man given to quarrels. But “blessed are the peacemakers, …
The Pure in Heart
We must continue to remember the progression of the Beatitudes. We do not come now to a person who is pure in his own authority and power, rather, we come to someone who realized the impurity of his heart, cried out for forgiveness, and through Christ was heard. But even when we have come to …
The Meaning of Mercy
We now see a progression of thought in the Beatitudes. We began with the man who was poor in spirit, who was in mourning over his own sin. The Bible teaches that when a man is humbled, then God will lift him up. We see that here. God has shown mercy, and the recipients are …
Hunger and Thirst
We must begin by noting that the Beatitude we are considering here does not say, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after blessedness . . . “ We all want to be happy, blessed, and we are tempted to make that state of blessing our goal. But the spiritual irony is that such blessings …