Chapter 5 begins with the Beatitudes. Some have used these as “BE ATTITUDES” saying, this is the way we should be, but Beatitude comes the Latin beatus which means blessed or fortunate. The word Matthew used means blessed, fortunate or even happy. Try reading v. 2-12 again inserting the word, “happy,” at the points where it says blessed.
What we begin to see here is how differently God sees the world from how we see the world. The poor in spirit are blessed? Those who mourn are fortunate? The persecuted are happy? How can that be?
Jesus goes on from there to talk about the fulfillment of the law. He refuses to relax even the smallest part of it; in fact, he makes us realize there is no way we can do it. There is no way we can live up to this standard. Anyone who wants to think they look good in God’s eyes should read this!
- You’ve never murdered? Great! Have you ever gotten angry with someone so that you spoke poorly of them?
- You’ve never committed adultery? Great! Have you ever looked at someone and lusted for them in your heart?
- You’ve never sworn falsely? Great! Why was it necessary to swear at all? Couldn’t people count on your word?
He makes divorce harder, condemns retaliation and then tells us to love our enemies. Each step of the way he takes what I couldn’t do already and makes it even harder! Why?
Well, God sees things differently than we do. Over the centuries, up to Jesus’ time, people had poured their meanings and their interpretation into God’s Word. Jesus is doing a clinic showing them, “You thought it meant this, but really it means that.” He recognizes that we have a fine way of twisting God’s Word to our advantage – similar to how the devil twisted the Word when he was tempting Jesus – and he is confronting those wrong ideas here. He is peeling away the layers that we put around God’s Word to protect ourselves from God’s judgment to make it clear that our standing before God is not and cannot be rooted in whether we keep God’s commands or not.
He hasn’t gotten to this yet, but if you peek ahead, you will see that our standing with God has everything to do with his feelings and attitude toward us. It’s all about grace; and Jesus had come to give us that undeserved love.
Take these words to heart, though. I may not like everything Jesus has to say here. He bursts our bubble of relying on our own goodness. However, by rightly seeking where we stand, we will begin to see how incredible God’s love is!
Father, thank you for challenging my preconceived notions about how good I am. Help me to rightly know the weight of my sin, so that I can also know the glory of your love and forgiveness. Overwhelm me with your loving kindness so that my life, my actions, my thoughts and my words would flow from being truly blessed and happy in Christ. Amen.
What we begin to see here is how differently God sees the world from how we see the world. The poor in spirit are blessed? Those who mourn are fortunate? The persecuted are happy? How can that be?
Jesus goes on from there to talk about the fulfillment of the law. He refuses to relax even the smallest part of it; in fact, he makes us realize there is no way we can do it. There is no way we can live up to this standard. Anyone who wants to think they look good in God’s eyes should read this!
- You’ve never murdered? Great! Have you ever gotten angry with someone so that you spoke poorly of them?
- You’ve never committed adultery? Great! Have you ever looked at someone and lusted for them in your heart?
- You’ve never sworn falsely? Great! Why was it necessary to swear at all? Couldn’t people count on your word?
He makes divorce harder, condemns retaliation and then tells us to love our enemies. Each step of the way he takes what I couldn’t do already and makes it even harder! Why?
Well, God sees things differently than we do. Over the centuries, up to Jesus’ time, people had poured their meanings and their interpretation into God’s Word. Jesus is doing a clinic showing them, “You thought it meant this, but really it means that.” He recognizes that we have a fine way of twisting God’s Word to our advantage – similar to how the devil twisted the Word when he was tempting Jesus – and he is confronting those wrong ideas here. He is peeling away the layers that we put around God’s Word to protect ourselves from God’s judgment to make it clear that our standing before God is not and cannot be rooted in whether we keep God’s commands or not.
He hasn’t gotten to this yet, but if you peek ahead, you will see that our standing with God has everything to do with his feelings and attitude toward us. It’s all about grace; and Jesus had come to give us that undeserved love.
Take these words to heart, though. I may not like everything Jesus has to say here. He bursts our bubble of relying on our own goodness. However, by rightly seeking where we stand, we will begin to see how incredible God’s love is!
Father, thank you for challenging my preconceived notions about how good I am. Help me to rightly know the weight of my sin, so that I can also know the glory of your love and forgiveness. Overwhelm me with your loving kindness so that my life, my actions, my thoughts and my words would flow from being truly blessed and happy in Christ. Amen.
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