Matthew 5 -- Jesus Tells Us How To Be Blessed As God Is Blessed

My commentary blew me away today!  "The main theme is true righteousness.  The religious leaders had an artificial, external righteousness based on law.  But the righteousness Jesus described is a true and vital righteousness that begins internally in the heart.  The Pharisees were concerned about the minute details of conduct, but they neglected the major matters of character.  Conduct flows out of character."

"To be poor in spirit means to be humble, to have a correct estimate of oneself ... It is the opposite of the world's attitude of self-praise and self-assertion."

"In our attitude toward our sins, we mourn over sin and despise it.  We see sin in the way God sees it and seek to treat it the way God does."

"Jesus explained His own attitude toward the law by describing three possible relationships:  1)  We can see to destroy the law; 2)  we can seek to fulfill the law; and 3)  we can seek to do and teach the law...  The Pharisees were destroying the law ... they thought they were conserving God's Word, when in reality they were preserving God's Word, embalming it so that it no longer had life! ... Jesus found the Living Word of God encrusted with man-made traditions and interpretations.  He broke away this thick crust of religion and brought the people back to God's Word.  Then He opened the Word to them in a new and living way."

I loved this next part!  "Jesus did not destroy the law by fighting it; He destroyed it by fulfilling it!  An illustration -- I can destroy an acorn in one of two ways.  I can put it on a rock and smash it to bits with a hammer.  Or, I can plant it in the ground and let it fulfill itself by becoming an oak tree."

"How can we fulfill the law?  By yielding to the Holy Spirit and allowing Him to work in our lives ... The only way we can experience the righteousness of the Beatitudes is through the power of Christ."

"Anger is such a foolish thing.  It makes us destroyers instead of builders.  It robs us of freedom and makes us prisoners ... Sinful anger must be faced honestly and must be confessed to God as sin.  We must go to our brother and get the matter settled and we must do it quickly.  The longer we wait, the worse the bondage becomes!  We put ourselves into a terrible prison when we refuse to be reconciled."

Regarding adultery, my commentary said, "God created sex and God protects sex.  He has the authority to regulate it and to punish those who rebel against His laws.  He does not regulate sex because He wants to rob us, but rather, because He wants to bless us.  Whenever God says no, it is that He might say yes."

"Sexual impurity begins in the desires of the heart.  Jesus is not saying that lustful desires are identical to lustful deeds ... they are not identical, but spiritually speaking, they are equivalent.  The look that Jesus mentioned was not a casual glance, but a constant stare with the purpose of lusting ... The man Jesus described looked at the woman for the purpose of feeding his inner sexual appetites as a substitute for the act.  It was not accidental; it was planned.  (It is possible for a man to glance at a beautiful woman and know that she is beautiful, but not lust after her.)"

"Jesus defined our enemies as those who curse us, hate us, and exploit us selfishly.  Since Christian love is an act of the will and not simply an emotion, He has the right to command us to love our enemies... When we pray for our enemies, we find it easier to love them.  It takes the poison out of our attitudes ... Matthew 5:45 suggests that our love creates a climate of blessings that makes it easy to win our enemies and make them our friends ... As Christians, we must return good for evil as an investment of love."

Wow, Father!  So much about what's going on inside of me rather than just against me in the world and also how to handle it better than I often do.  Keep these words forever on my heart and fresh in my mind!

 

Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford