Jesus has just finished talking about fulfilling the Law and saying "…unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven." He then goes on to talk about some specifics, starting with MURDER!!!! This is where (I think) he starts explaining the difference between the way the Pharisses hypocritically followed the letter of the law and the way we need to follow the essence of the law…for example:
You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, "Do no murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell. (Matt 5:21-22)
Simply avoiding Murder is not enough, we must avoid anger and name calling as well. (For those of you keeping score at home, I am currently 0-1 on this…it's the name calling, not the murder that gets me).
Moving on to Adultery, Jesus makes a similar statement
You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.' But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Matt 5:27-28)
And I'm 0 for 2. Then JC throws us a little curve ball in verses 29 through 30
If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell. (Matt 5:29-30)
Now, if we are to take Jesus literally, as some have suggested, then I imagine we would all be blind, deaf, limbless, people rolling ourselves around…which then makes me wonder if it would be better for us to simply kill ourselves to avoid sinning…that is, if we really should take Jesus literally. Of course maybe Jesus is just "speaking in extremes to get his point across"…you tell me.
The next paragraph deals with Divorce, (a rather hotly debated subject within the church). I think it deserves a post of it's own, so we'll save it for later. Of course, just so I can get on the board…if we include Divorce the score is 1-2…I'm back in the game.
Just a thought…if we were genuinely grieved enough about our sin, enough so that we had a knife in our quivering hand and were willing to mutilate ourself to keep from sinning, I believe at that level of humility we recieve supernatural strength to overcome whatever temptation is dogging us. (James 4:6 , Philippians 2:13) God always wants to know just what level of obedience we are truly striving for–are we just giving lip service, or are our hearts committed to Him and His ways no matter what the world thinks or says? I have found regularly that when I finally submit to Him in an area I have resisted, He miraculously intervenes and I do not have to do the thing I fought against… (Genesis 22:1-14)
The problem is, nobody really grieves about their sin to that degree–we are too busy making excuses, justifying our behavior, blaming somebody else, or looking for loopholes; “God didn’t REALLY say you would DIE, did He?”.
Until we are as grieved about our sin as God is, we will continue to fight (or not) the flesh and lose, just like we have throughout history.
Ahh, killing ourselves….I think this could be covered in Romans 6:3-4, “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” (also see Col 2:12 for more on this)
I don’t mean to jump ahead of you, but the escape hatch for our daily sins seems to be the Lord’s prayer. We need forgiveness daily, just like we need daily bread.
I’ve been looking forward to your Matthew reading! It would have been good to hear this from a pulpit or preacher, but I guess the ones I have been involved (enslaved?) with were too busy buying land and building God’s house.
I had to move back from the busy “do, do, do more” style of church life to a quiet listening in order to hear Him. Keep up the good work!
Great comment Hungry, I think you nailed it.
RF: I think a better word for “gouging” from the social context would probably be mutilation or self-mutilation.