What does Jesus want from us in the Sermon on the Mount? Righteous living by faithful obedience.  In the Kingdom of Heaven, obeying Jesus matters. He wants us to honour God by doing the maximum to keep the law. Jesus wants us to live righteous lives that honour God by being obedient to him not just to the letter of the law, but much more. If it is not about technically crossing a line, then what is it? It is about a righteousness, which is greater than the Pharisees and the Scribes? We need to think of how can we honour God with our actions. We need to be people who do the maximum to please God. We must be people who are like our heavenly Father.

For years they had heard the teachings of the Pharisees, but now Jesus’ new teachings changed everything? If they were seriously to consider obeying Jesus, what used to be a relatively easy fence to hop over now was Mount Everest to climb

So in today’s passage, the way forward is love. We are to be people of love. We are so concerned that we would seek reconciliation rather than letting them be angry with us and therefore falling sin. Even if they have something against us and we haven’t wronged them, then we still will seek reconciliation. Remember, “Blessed are the peacemakers!”

But why is this generally not practiced? Because we all roll our eyes say that it is an “ideal” and it is just too hard for me to do this!

Here are three (3) things that I know help practice this:

(1) If I am to act in the opposite of murder and anger, then I am to act in love. I must remember that Love is not primarily an emotion. Love is not primarily a feeling. It is praying and acting for the good of another. It is passive in not retaliating. It is active in making the first move to be reconciled to those who we have wronged.

(2) The Cross of Christ marks our faith. It drives our Christian faith. It drives us to act in love. Jesus loved for the unloving. We love because Jesus loves.

(3) The sermon on the mount is not about rule keeping. Instead it is about orientating our life to live an obedience born of our faith, and living righteously as our Father in Heaven calls us to live.

Yours in Christ,
Eric

St Phils Editorial