October 7 - Matthew 5:17-48

I had to get a first draft posted today of my segment survey for Matthew 5:17-48 in the Inductive Bible Study class.  You might recognize that this is part of the Sermon on the Mount.  It comes right after the Beatitudes and just before the Lord's Prayer.  But, this is the passage that Jesus uses to emphasize the fact that He didn't come to abolish the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill it. 

If you want to take a few moments to read through the passage, it won't hurt!

If we break this segment apart, it's easy to see that what is happening is that Jesus presents an introduction regarding the Law, and then He expands on that.  He talks to the people about murder, adultery, divorce, oath-making, retaliation, and loving your enemies.  The first four are about action we should not be taking against other people and the last two are all about how to care for others.

In Matthew 5:20, Jesus says "For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Now ... look at 5:48 where he says, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."

He just said pretty much the same thing - and those two verses lie on the outside of the transformative words He uses regarding the Law.

The Law isn't about rules and regulations that are imposed from the outside - it is all about our response.  It is about what comes from the inside of us that makes this work.  It's about our relationship with God and our relationship with each other.

One of the phrases that recurs throughout this passage is "You have heard it said ... but I say to you."  Take a minute to find those recurrences.  Every single time - He reminds them of the way that the priests teach the lesson and then while He acknowledges that the lesson is important, He retells it so that there is a great deal of personal responsibility.  These aren't just laws that people should use to get by, these are ways of living so that people will live in healthy relationships with each other.

This is one of the things that Paul spoke of so often when talking about the Law.  As long as we use the Law to make rules we can obey, we forget about how important the relationships are between us and God and between us and the world. 

We're going to keep looking at this passage for a couple of days - I'm going to end up reading through it at least 3-4 more times.