Matthew chapter 5:21-30 (continued)

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause[b] shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire.

Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer and you be thrown into prison.

Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny. You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.”

Last time we addressed the importance of being very careful when we judge someone’s character and their worth.We also saw the importance of solving issues between you and a brother or sister in the local church and in life in general.It is impossible to have a worshipful attitude in a church service when there are persons there that feel wronged by one party or another. It is imperative that we set about building bridges; each one looking for what is best for the other and not just looking out for self.

This theme is carried on in verse 25; the word adversary has the connotation of someone who is taking you to court. It is important to settle issues quickly. Find a solution and fix it before it comes to the idea of going to court. Matthew Henry’s commentary offers a more sobering view; God has charges against us and we will be carried to court and judged.We will not be able to ever repay our debts to God so we will suffer eternally.

But through Jesus we can find a solution to the impending judgment that we deserve. He is willing to be our payment for our sins before the Holy Heavenly Father. Don’t put off making things right with God. Life is short and tomorrow is not guaranteed. It may not be that you die tomorrow; maybe you just get a brain injury and lose the chance to make the choice to believe in Jesus as your Savior. These kinds of tragedies happen every day. Take advantage of today and make it right with the Lord. Romans 10: 9-10:

“Because if you acknowledge and confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and in your heart believe (adhere to, trust in, and rely on the truth) that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart a person believes (adheres to, trusts in, and relies on Christ) and so is justified (declared righteous, acceptable to God), and with the mouth he confesses (declares openly and speaks out freely his faith) and confirms [his] salvation.”

In the next segment we are going to get into some really touchy stuff which if taken out of context can certainly lead to some very serious and dangerous acts. Nonetheless the seriousness with which Jesus approaches these sins is not to be downplayed. God takes sin very seriously and at times—we do not. We should always keep an eye on the cross of Jesus to remind us of how seriously God takes sin.

Don’t Even Look at a Woman, Verses 26-28

Don’t even look at a woman! This is how many would read these verses. This is obviously not what Jesus was saying. Jesus looked at women; in fact He looked at women who when brought to Him were in some very compromising situations. In John 8: 3-5, we find this account:

“As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd. ‘Teacher,’ they said to Jesus, ‘This woman was caught in the act of adultery. The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?’”

It is likely that these Pharisees did not allow her to privilege of getting dressed since they caught her in the very act of adultery. Jesus looked at her, it is very possible that He saw her naked in some degree or another.Yet we know that Jesus did not sin ever. So looking at a woman, even a naked woman is not a sin.

God intended for men and women in a married relationship to have sex. So He made a woman to satisfy a man sexually and a man to satisfy a woman sexually. Thus if a man is married to woman and he desires to have sex with her it is not lust.A married man cannot lust after his wife. Since it is right for them to have sex, there is no lust involved. What then is lust? What would be a definition of lust?

In the tenth commandment we are told not to covet our neighbor’s wife amongst other things. If our neighbor is married we are not to wish that his wife was ours. This is wrong. This idea of coveting can simply take root and destroy our own marriage.This really does not need to be sexual. instance we are not to covet his livestock either.

This is more the idea of envy. We are not to be envious of our neighbor. If he has a better car, bigger house, well behaved kids, smarter dog we should rejoice for him and learn to be content with what God has given us.

Lust is more sinister than simply coveting. Lust begins to find ways to make what my neighbor has to be mine. A good example of this in the Bible is the story of David and Bathsheba. We find this account in 2 Samuel 11: 2-5:

“One evening David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king’s house, when from there he saw a woman bathing; and she was very lovely to behold. David sent and inquired about the woman. One said, Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite? And David sent messengers and took her. And she came in to him, and he lay with her—for she was purified from her uncleanness. Then she returned to her house. And the woman became pregnant and sent and told David, I am with child.”

Here David sees a woman who he knows is married and yet he sends for her and she comes and has sexual relations with him.This is lust. The act of sex was not lust, rather the actions to get her to have sex was lust. David already had many wives, the Bible counts ten in all.Later, when he is confronted by Nathan the prophet, God tells David that if the ones he had were not enough he would have given him others.But he took Uriah’s wife. Then he plotted to have Uriah killed and succeeded in doing so when the fact of Bathsheba’s pregnancy could not be hidden.

Thus it is not a sin to look at a woman.It is a sin to covet a neighbor’s wife, to be envious of him because he has a “better” wife, at least in your opinion. Neither is it wrong for an unmarried man to see and unmarried woman and want to be with her in marriage and all that comes with it. There are countless accounts of love stories in the Bible, the account of Jacob and Rachel comes to mind, he saw her and loved her and wanted to marry her; God wants us to marry and have children.

What is wrong is this: If a married man sees a woman and then tries to figure out how to have sexual relationships with her even in his mind. Even if he has no intention of living out his fantasies, they are wrong and sinful. He is married and his desire should be only for his wife and her desire should be only for him.

There should be no misunderstanding here;an unmarried man is not to walk around thinking of having sex with every woman he meets. This is also lust. This is very prevalent today, there is no thought of marriage or even the idea of marriage and it is just sex and nothing else. Young men need to be careful to keep their thought lives in check so as not to walk around in constant sin.

It is important then for all men to keep their minds in check around women. Half the population of the world are women; we see them at work, on the trains, in traffic, at the restaurants and in a lot of other places. We must keep our though lives in check. God will hold us accountable for our thoughts.

“For God will bring every act to judgment, including every hidden thing, whether good or evil.” (Ecclesiastes 12:14).

Cutting Off Body Parts, Verses 29-30

Again it is important to read these verses in the right context and yet not lose the seriousness with which Jesus attacks the idea of sin. It is easy to come to the conclusion that Jesus was soft on sin because He was constantly forgiving people BUT nothing could be farther from the truth. Jesus was not soft on sin; He was gracious to people. He hated sin. He still hates sin and He is still gracious to people.

We are to be careful about sinning. We all have the propensity to sin in one way or another. Some of us are thieves from our youth, we find ourselves taking stuff and are good at it. Others are good liars we could get anyone to believe us no matter what. Some men struggle with sex and things like pornography from their youth.

The book of Proverbs warns about those who are prone to having big appetites when it comes to eating. On and on we can go with our sinful traits and habits, most of which stem from childhood.

I have heard it said that in the Old Testament children were not named until they were much older so that their names truly matched them.Is it no wonder that Jacob was a trickster, his name suited him or was it that he suited his name?

It is essential then that we as children of God discipline ourselves not to allow these things into our lives. Keep away from the things that cause you to sin and fail before the Holy God. Don’t go to certain places or see certain movies.

Don’t read certain books, don’t engage in improper conversations.In Christ we have the power to take sin seriously and to make a serious effort to say no when tempted or better yet to simply not put ourselves in the place to be tempted. All too often we allow ourselves to get into situations where we simply should not be.

This is even more important when something is keeping you from trusting Jesus as Savior. Sin can get in the way; Satan uses it to keep us satisfied until we have missed the boat completely. Sin is anything that gets between you and Jesus; even something good can be sinful if it is a barrier between you and salvation.

What is keeping you from Jesus?

Zaccheuas had to give up his riches.Paul had to stop depending on self-righteousness. Peter needed to stop catching fish. One thief on the cross was worried about this life, the other was preparing for the next one.

What about you?

Which life are you preparing for? What is keeping you from Jesus?

And for you saved people what is that pet sin? We all have them; the one that we keep hidden and safe. We fight it for a while but it is the one we run to when we feel down or depressed or mistreated by God and others. We know it is wrong but we like it. Jesus knows about it, nothing is secret from Him and He wants us to get rid of that sin crutch. He can give us the power to choose right over evil, but most of us simply don’t want to.

“For God will bring every act to judgment, including every hidden thing, whether good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:14).

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Matthew chapter 5:17-20  (continued)

“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.

Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”

In my previous article we discussed “salt” and “light.”  We explored some of the qualities that they both have and then made the journey to examine ourselves in light of these two measures that Jesus gave us to gauge ourselves by.  I will tell you that I realized I need to continue working on being better “salt” and “light.”

I have learned in the process of having and raising children, how patient the Lord is with me and each day I awake thankful for a new day.  God is “salt” and “light” in my life as His child, and I long to be the same for my kids.  My kids need to be extremely forgiving with me. What about you?  Are you “salt” and “light” for your kids?  It is scary sometimes how the people we need to be the best for—are the very people we take for granted.  May the Lord have mercy on us.

Today we will move on to Matthew 17-20; in those verses we will come to understand what true righteousness is and how we get it.  Jesus lived amongst a people who were religious to a fault but not righteous. Many times Jesus confronted the religious persons who thought they were righteous but they were sinners, and He often consoled the sinners who were actually righteous in Him.

Jesus, the Fulfillment of the Law, Verses 17-18

Jesus is the absolute fulfillment of the Law.  First of all He obeyed the Law down to the very  last “jot” and “tittle,” these are grammatical marks that distinguished between words in the Old Testament  language of Hebrew. Jesus came to do what no other man on earth could do at the time, actually live out the Law in its entirety.

He was and is the only man who never violated the law even in the smallest detail. Not only did he DO the Law, He lived the Law.  He lived out the spirit and attitudes of the Law based on absolute and unabashed love for God and His fellow man.  No other person had ever done that.

The religious leaders around Him could claim that they lived out the letter of the Law, but none of them could live out the spirit of the Law.  These religious men were bigoted and self-righteous, looking down on others and without compassion or mercy. So while they could claim that they lived out the letter of the Law, they absolutely could not and did not live out the spirit of the Law. They did not love God wholeheartedly and many of them—if not most of them—did not love their fellow Man. We find a wonderful account of this lack of love for the Lord in Matthew 19:16-22, in the story of a “Rich Young Ruler”:

“And someone came to Him and said, ‘Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?’ And He said to him, ‘Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good; but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.’

Then he said to Him, ‘Which ones?’ And Jesus said, ‘You shall not commit murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; Honor your father and mother; and You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’  The young man said to Him, ‘All these things I have kept; what am I still lacking?’

Jesus said to him, ‘If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.’ But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property.’”

This young man was quick to point out that he had lived out the letter of the Law, but in loving his wealth more than the Lord, he had missed the spirit of the Law. God cannot and will not tolerate this kind of divided love. And in the prisons of our fleshly bodies and minds we are not able to love God this way.

We need to have true righteousness from God to be able to live this out.  This is the very point that Jesus was making in these verses we are examining in Matthew and the verses that preceded them. We cannot live out the Law in deed or spirit apart from Jesus. He has to live it out for us.

And Jesus did that very thing. When He said “It is finished” to the crowd below Him as He breathed His last few breaths, He was not just stating that the sacrifice for sin had been finished, but the very act of one man living out the law in its entirety both in deed and spirit had been accomplished.

Jesus had done for us what we could not do for ourselves. Jesus fulfilled the Law both by living it out and then by becoming the spotless and perfect sacrifice on behalf of those of us who cannot and will not live out the Law in either action or spirit while trapped in these bodies.

We Are the Breakers of the Law, Verse 19

We break God’s Law! There is no need for us to  fuss over this if we are to truly be honest about ourselves and make and honest assessment. We break God’s Law over and over again. This is true from the time that we are rebellious children to the time we are stubborn, set in our ways seniors; we break God’s Law.

Jesus said in verse 19 that if we were to break the least of the commandments, then we would have broken all of them.  The great writer James wrote this in his epistle, James 2:10:

“For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.”

We often think of “big sins” and “little sins.” Or “white lies” and “mistakes.” These words are not in God’s vocabulary. He calls all actions and motives that fall short of His perfection, SIN!  To be disobedient to your parents was just as serious to God as murder. Let that sink in for a while. We shade sin in terms of black, grey and white.  God simply measures them against His holiness and anything short of perfection is not allowed.

What then is the solution? Is there a remedy for our sinful and lost condition? How can we  attain  the level of righteousness that is required for God to not execute His just wrath upon us? We know that we sin; often we sin without any real conscious thought—we just do.

Our actions have become so ingrained is that we act without pre-cognition. We simply react as we have always done with no care or consideration of the rightness of an action before God.  How do we then change our nature?  How do we make it so that our natural reaction is to behave with righteousness in any and all situations? The answer is in verse 20. Let’s take a look.

Real Righteousness, Verse 20

The Pharisees and Sanhedrin of the Jesus’ day thought they were righteous. They actually lived as if God owed them something. In Luke 18:11 we find this prayer being offered by a Pharisee,

“The Pharisee took his stand and was praying like this: God, I thank You that I’m not like other people–greedy, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.”

What this dear man did not understand was this: Because he was so self-righteous before God he was actually guilty of all the sins he and just renounced. He was greedy, he was an adulterer and he was as thievish as the tax collectors he despised. He could not see that he was a sinner before God and that he was not dong God any favors with his life.

He and many self-righteous people of our day act as if they have God on speed dial and He is in debt to them. We have entire religious movements today of men and women who act as if God owes them a big house, a big car or multiple cars, and that  their kids should have the best of the best. They treat God as some kind of servant to their fleshly lusts.

This was how the Pharisees and other religious leaders lived, in an air of entitlement. This is not true righteousness. Jesus then gave an example of true righteousness in the same account in Luke 18:13-14:

“And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

For our righteousness to exceed the self-righteousness of the Pharisees of Jesus’ day and of the religious pundits of today we need to humbly confess that we are sinners. This is not a one-time act at the point of salvation but a daily assessment of our need for God’s grace and mercy each and every day. A daily acknowledgement that if it were not for the compassion of the loving Lord of the universe we would be dead and burning in hell and rightly so.

The only righteousness that God recognizes as far as mankind is concerned is the righteousness of the Person of Jesus the Christ. We must have our sinfulness covered in His righteousness and then, and only then will our righteousness exceed the Pharisees and present day religious leaders.

In this way, God will see Jesus’ righteousness over us and accept us as His own. But even then, to maintain a proper relationship with God Himself we need to daily admit and confess our sinfulness and the sinfulness of our families and neighbors. Think of Job in chapter 1 offering sacrifices on behalf of his children’s sins.

Think of Daniel confessing the sins of his nation before the Lord in Daniel 9. We must be in a constant awareness of our sinfulness before God.  This is true holiness. Our humility and constant understanding of how sinful we are and how gracious and righteous God is will grow our love for Him and our love for our fellow man. We will begin to have compassion; we will live mercifully and graciously.

We will begin to love God more than anyone or anything else and love our neighbors as we love ourselves. We will begin to live out both the letter of the Law and its spirit.  Our insides will change, our minds will change and our actions will change. We will live simply to obey and honor God and when we fail, and we will, we will quickly fall in confession of sin and trust in His mercy.  We will actually desire not to sin, even when we do.

We will start to hate the sins we are doing and love the right we find hard to do, (see Romans 7: 14-25). We will lose any attachment to worldly possession and view them as agents to be given away so as to show God’s love and grace.

Our earthly poverty will no longer bother us as we simply trust in God’s provision to make sure that we have whatever we need and we will gauge success not by what we have, BUT by what we can give away for His glory. This is the righteousness that Jesus was talking about and it is still the righteousness we need today.

Are you covered in Jesus’ righteousness? It is the only righteousness that God accepts. Your self-righteousness has and will fall short of holy perfection! Jesus is the One you are looking for.  Humble yourself today and call on His name. In His name is life eternal and deliverance from the wrath of the living God!  Don’t wait, today is the day of salvation.

Sean Gooding, Pastor Mississauga MBC

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