The Sermon on the Mount XIII

Subtitle:  Correcting the Righteousness of the Hypocrites IV

Matthew 6:16-21.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, March 3, 2024.

Today, we will finish this central section where Jesus corrects the righteousness of the hypocrites for his followers.  We will particularly be looking at fasting.

Let’s look at our passage regarding the way we should fast.

The way of righteousness in fasting (v. 16-18)

As Jesus has said in the other issues of charitable giving and prayer, so he says here.  The hypocrites are only fasting in order to be seen by others.  They want the glory and praise that comes from people.  It is an interesting thing that, in all the ways we shouldn’t be focused on others, we generally are, and in all of the ways we should be focused on others, we generally are not.  Of course, this is the tendency of our sinful nature.

I will give a caveat up front in this passage.  It is clear that Jesus is talking about a private fast that you may do on your own and not a group fast for a specific purpose.  Israel did have a fast on the Day of Atonement, in which everyone would fast.  We see some similar things among the early Church.  Acts 13 shows us that Barnabas and Paul were called into their missionary work during a time of group prayer and fasting.  Later, in Acts 14, they had been able to build many groups of converts.  We see Barnabas and Saul fasting and praying as they commended elders in each new church.  So, there is a time and a place for fasts within a community for specific purposes.  In such things, others will know that you are fasting, but generally so are they.

Jesus is not making a new law in which no one can ever see you fast, or you are in trouble.  The true point is that the hypocrites “love” others seeing them, rather than God.  There is no fundamental relationship of love to their times of fasting.  Thus, such group times of fasting should be the tip of the iceberg.  Ice bergs always have much more mass under the water (that you can’t see), then what is above the surface.  In fact, icebergs that have large chunks drop off under the water can even flip over. 

Again, Jesus is showing us how to please God in our personal times of fasting.

Last week, I mentioned The Didache, a document for new disciples whose title means “The Teaching.”  In this manuscript, new converts are told not to fast on Monday and Thursday like the hypocrites.  This may seem odd, if you don’t know the cultural dynamics in Israel at the time. 

The religious leaders had developed the tradition of fasting on Mondays and Thursdays.  It wasn’t required, but if you wanted to be seen as a righteous leader, then you pretty much needed to do so.  The idea is that new Christians who continue to fast on Monday and Thursday are doing so in order to avoid persecution.  You would look like you are following the traditions of the elders, and no one would suspect you are a Christian.  The point is not the day, Monday and Thursday.  The point is the reasoning of your heart.  What are you after?  They wanted people to see them fasting, and this is hypocritical.

Jesus is able to judge this because he knows what is in their hearts.  Yet, he doesn’t point to this.  Instead, he points to some external acts that they do, which reveal their hearts.  It wouldn’t take divine omniscience to recognize something was wrong with these guys who were always looking for attention.

Jesus points to their sad countenance.  They would walk around with a sad countenance when they were fasting, and most likely acted a little more weak than they needed to do.  Of course, it is not about sadness.  We may sometimes fast following a sad event, like the death of a loved one.  The point here is about drawing attention to the fact that they are fasting.  Jesus further describes them “disfiguring” their faces (NKJV).  Here is the idea of the Greek word behind this.  Whatever you are talking about will have something that is considered to be nice-looking, presentable condition of it.  When that is spoiled or ruined, this word would be used of it.  Thus, a person goes to bed at night not looking so bad,  but then wake up in the morning not looking so good.  We usually fix ourselves up to go out in public.  These guys would purposefully not fix themselves up, of course, because they were fasting.  This also drew attention to them.

I remember one time in grade school where a friend and I walked off of campus to his house in order to play video games.  The school called the house and my friend answered the phone.  We were busted of course and told to come back to school (where his mom worked no less).  As we headed to school, we figured our best excuse would be to say that we were feeling sick.  And, guess what, I had no problem looking pale and sick when I arrived at the principal’s office because I knew I was in trouble when my parents found out.  We should never underestimate the power of a hypocrite to put on an act that is worthy of an Oscar Award when they desperately want to do so.  I was powerfully motivated by my flesh.

However, God was not impressed with what these hypocrites were doing- I’m back to talking about the religious leaders of the days of Jesus.  Many people were impressed with their sheer volume of fasting.  However, I wonder if there were some people who were turned off by this? 

Jesus then tells us that “Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.”  God doesn’t owe them a red cent.  They want the praise of people and that is all they are going to get.  However, they probably vainly imagine that God is impressed with their works, like the praying Pharisee in Luke 18:12.  “I fast twice a week…”

Yet, in Isaiah 58, we are told that God is more interested in the heart that is behind the fasting.  If your heart is oriented towards God, then your fasting will become focused on the things that are important to God.  You will be focused on honoring His Name, living out His Kingdom rule and doing His will.  Yes, Isaiah speaks about helping the poor, but think about what that means in light of honoring God, His rule and His will.  We can help the poor out of a wicked heart as well.  We can do it as a moral cloak for selfish reasons.  However, when we love people as God loves them, it then becomes a clean thing.  They had gone without food, but the fought with one another and ripped off their employees.  They weren’t fasting for God, but for their own glory.  Am I working for the glory of God and His purposes?

All of this begs the question, why should we fast at all?  Fasting is a way to bring  your fleshly desires under control.  They are a battle for everyone who wishes to become like God, like Jesus.  We do not want to be ruled by our flesh and its desires.  We don’t want to be a person of the flesh, but a person who is led by the Spirit of God.  James used the analogy of a wild horse.  Breaking in a horse so that it is useful is essentially a battle of will, and it requires wisdom.  Our flesh is naturally hostile to the things of the Spirit of God (His purposes).  Fasting is a mechanism by which we put a bridle in our flesh, so that it can be useful for the work of God’s Kingdom.

This brings us to a second purpose.  It not only brings our flesh under control, but it also orients and focuses us towards the things of Christ, of His Spirit.  Fasting is always accompanied by increased prayer.  We are telling ourselves that we would rather have God than a full belly.  God means more to me than food.  “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”  This is essentially at the base of all true fasting.  It is a worship of God.

Of course, we must avoid thinking that God is impressed, i.e., answers our prayers, for the sake of a quantity of days we fast.  In fact, we should be careful that our fasts are not driven by a single-focused prayer for a particular item or act that we desire from Him.  Ultimately, we come as beggars to God asking for wisdom to live out His purposes in this life.  “Lord, please lead me by Your Spirit!”

Jesus tells his disciples to fast in order to be seen by the Father, and not men.  In fact, he just assumes his people will give charity, pray and fast in this section.

The Father who is in the secret place will see your fasting and reward you.  This is different than prayer.  We don’t have to go into our closet to fast.  However, we should keep our private fasts hidden as we go about our day.  In this way, the “secret place,” or “hidden place,” is a spiritual place before God, no matter where we are.  No one can tell your belly is empty as you walk around.  We are to squelch the desire of our flesh to obtain credit and praise from the people around us.  This is what makes it a hidden place before God.

Jesus tells us to do the opposite of the hypocrites.  Instead of looking sad and a “disfigured” face, we should do all the things that we would normally do when we go out in public.  Jesus tells them to anoint their head and wash their face.  You might even want to slap your face a couple times to combat that pale look you might get when you are not used to fasting.  The whole point is to make sure that you do not stick out, so that people won’t ask if you are fasting, or guess that you are.

By the way, don’t be a person who is always asking people if they are fasting, or other such things.  Don’t be a guesser.  We are to be brothers and sisters walking together with the LORD.  We will have different expressions of love for God at different times, and that is good.  Let it be what it is.

Let me just say a few more things on our reward for fasting.  You may not receive everything that you want, or even prayed for.  Fasting is not the secret to receiving everything you want.  It was never about that.  In fact, we don’t always know what is good for us.  Sometimes, God is saying no to the thing we asked for, but giving us something greater (like intimacy with Him).

In Psalm 106:15, the psalmist says of the LORD, “He gave them their request, but He sent leanness into their soul.”  When Israel was in the desert, they began to complain to the LORD that there was no bread and meat.  God gave them what they wanted, but then sent leanness into their souls.  Why?  When things become more important to us than the presence and love of God, then they essentially become our God, even when we pray.  The life that we think we are deriving from them, however, always fails to satisfy the heart.  Our soul was not designed to be satisfied with anything less than the presence of God, relationship with Him.  Until God means more to us than bread, meat, water, gold, wealth, fame, glory, etc., our soul will always be spiritually starving and lacking the good thing it needs, God Himself.

If we will listen to the wisdom of Jesus in this sermon, then we will not be men and women driven by our flesh.  We will be a people who would rather have leanness of flesh, than leanness of soul.  It is not that there is always a choice.  I do believe God would have provided bread and meat for them, just as He did for Jesus when he fasted in the wilderness.  However, it would have happened in a way that was good.  Yet, sometimes you have to make a choice.  Fasting helps us to have a better grip on the lusts of our flesh so that we do not displease God, and miss what He has for us.

We are very blessed in these United States of America.  Perhaps, you have nothing that you need and would ever fast for.  How about just to know Jesus more?  Maybe, we should fast to ask God whether we have grown complacent and blind to all the things we should be fasting and praying for?  The Laodicean believers thought they were rich and in need of nothing.  If they had spent more time in fasting and prayer, they may have been enabled to see how spiritually poor they had become, how naked they were, and how spiritually blind they were.  Do not trust the eyes and the mind of flesh when it comes to spiritual matters.

Lastly, let me add that some people have medical conditions that make fasting hard, or even dangerous.  They may get the shakes, or have a glucose imbalance.  We must understand that this is not a contest and a necessity in order to please God.

I have a brother whose adult life has been one physical battle after another.  Essentially, he has battled lupus and the variety of ways that it attacks his body.  He has been physically challenged his whole adult life.  He has other brothers who haven’t ever had a thing wrong all of that time.  On the one hand, a person can beat themselves up emotionally because they are so weak and think that God doesn’t care, and on the other hand, a person could think that God is quite pleased with them.  God knows your heart and He knows your physical frame.

I say this to challenge us in the area of fasting, and yet not to place a burden on those to whom this cannot happen, at least not in the traditional way of going without food.  It can be tough to accept our lot in life without blaming God.  It is even tougher to catch the vision and to rise up to the calling that is in those things we call weakness.  Sometimes it is our weakness that enables us to do the greatest spiritual good in the lives of others.  However, we have to learn that by the help of the Holy Spirit as we fight against the mind of flesh and bring it to heel.

This brings us to the third section.  Jesus begins to reveal areas that are pitfalls for becoming a hypocrite.  If you do not want to be an actor, a spiritual poser, then listen up as Jesus teaches us how to avoid it.

Revealing Areas that are Pitfalls for Hypocrisy

Our relationship with things (v.19-21)

Jesus first speaks to our relationship with things (verses 19 to the end of the chapter).  Chapter 7 will open with a look at our relationship with difficult people.  It will then move to our relationship with God.  Hypocrisy grows out of improperly relating with things, people and God.  He spends most of his time on this topic looking at things.

Before He gives us direct teaching on what to do and what not to do, Jesus deals with three images that ask a question.  This first one has to do with what our treasure is, and what our heart loves.  What’s your treasure?  We can pray for our heavenly Father to bring His heavenly things down to earth, but is that where our heart truly is?  This tension between loving earthly things versus heavenly things is important to face in your spiritual walk.  Yet, it is not just a metaphor, but more on that later.

Jesus commands us not to be laying up treasure on the earth.  The focus here is in storing up treasure, literally treasuring up treasure.  It does beg the question of what qualifies as “storing up,” but let’s hold on to that for a bit too.

Jesus gives us one immediate reason for not laying up earthly treasures that has leverage on a natural minded person.  It has to do with the threats that exist on the earth to the treasure that we store here.

He gives three different kinds of threats: moths (sentient but animal), rust (the laws of nature) and thieves (sentient beings).  If you want to retain wealth, then you will have to plan against these categories. 

Moths could just as easily be mice or rats, etc.  How many clothes, bins of grain, etc. have been ruined by such critters.  They have the ability to break past many of the best attempts at stopping them.

Rust is not even sentient.  It represents things that have no mind, but we might be angry with God about them.  Why would God create a universe where my hard earned stuff rusts, rots, essentially falls apart and is ruined?  This is why certain things have risen over time to be a better store of wealth than others.  Gold resists tarnish more than many other metals, and it also has a rarity that is enough to be desirable, but not so rare as to not be obtainable to use as money. 

As if animals and the laws of nature aren’t bad enough, then we have to deal with thieves.  In general, these are other humans who work extremely hard at stealing the accumulated hard work of others.  For some reason, they get excited at stealing from others rather than putting their hard work to honest ends.

For every thing a man does to make his wealth safe, another man can figure out how the safe works and see a way around it.  It is not hard to see that if one man can create something, another man can figure out how to dismantle it.

Today, we are being sold on digital currency because of the great trouble with scammers and thieves.  Yet, digital currency is just another mechanism created by a man.  It is a lie that it will be impossible to hack.  In fact, the greatest threat to stored wealth throughout all of history has been governments of some sorts.  Either your own government taxes it away, or another government conquers yours and takes it from you.  How much stored wealth was capture for the glory of Rome, or Genghis Kahn and his “Mongol hordes?” 

The main point Jesus is making here is not that you should be fearful of all of these things.  His main point is that you can spend your whole life amassing wealth on the earth, and then it is gone.  What have you obtained?  He doesn’t mention the ultimate robber of all wealth, death.

Thus, Jesus points us to a wiser plan.  Lay up treasure in heaven.  This continues this tension between heaven and earth.  We tend to think that a lot of stored wealth on this earth will make my existence heavenly.  However, this is not God’s way, and it is a way that causes pain, fighting and sorrow on the earth.  Before He gets into what it looks like to put treasure in heaven, Jesus balances out his argument.

You don’t need risk management plans for treasure that is stored in heaven.  The risks of earth cannot touch wealth stored in heaven.  You don’t need to purchase insurance for things in heaven.  Jesus is not only our insurance, but even more, he is our assurance that our spiritual treasure is safe.  God doesn’t lie, and there is no being in the universe strong enough to take it from Him.  There is no safer place in the universe for treasure.  He is the great Safe of safes.

Yes, there is a thief who dwells in the heavens, the devil.  John 10:10 tells us that he is a thief, a murderer, and a marauder.  Yet, even the devil cannot touch heavenly treasure.

1 Peter 1:4 tells us that God has called us to “an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”  In fact, this suggests that you “kept by the power of God” are His treasure.  This obviously comports with Malachi 3:17.  There, speaking to those who fear the LORD, God says, “‘They shall be Mine,’ says the LORD of hosts, ‘On the day that I make them My jewels.  And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.’”  Jewels sparkle when they are in the presence of great light.  Thus, the resurrected righteous are described by Daniel in chapter 12 as shining like the stars.  The reason the battle is down here on the earth is because the devil knows that you are His treasure.

Jesus is teaching us that to make an earthly difference, i.e., cause His kingdom to come, we need to put our treasure in heaven.  So, how do we store treasure in heaven?  We do it by making the Kingdom of heaven our primary purpose: His Name, His Kingdom and His Will.  When we do earthly things for heavenly reasons, God credits it as true righteousness born of the fruit of faith in Jesus.  We can use our wealth of time, knowledge, money, relationships, etc. for reaching the lost and strengthening God’s people.

In fact, two people can do the exact same thing and for one of them it will be earthly treasure and for the other heavenly.  Let’s take as an example the raising of a family.  Two people can raise up the same number of kids into society.  One can do it for the glory of their family name, or their national fame.  The other can do it for the glory of the Lord.  Of course, they won’t do everything in raising those kids “exactly the same,” but you should be able to see the point made earlier.  Raising a family has a natural aspect that anyone can do, but it also has spiritual aspects. 

This brings up another point.  Don’t read this to mean that you will have nothing on this earth.  A family raised for Christ is great heavenly treasure, but it has earthly rewards to it as well.  Often those who try their hardest to obtain earthly rewards, at the expense of heavenly purposes, find that it never turns out as great as they had hoped.  The point is where your heart is.

This is why Jesus says what he says at the end.  “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  Who or what has my heart?  What is my heart longing for, and what is it fixated upon?  The Lord’s prayer is a prayer that is focused upon the purposes of Heaven, and yet it still affects this world because God’s purposes are uniquely focused upon this world, particularly His image-bearers that He placed upon it.

He knows that we are flesh and blood, mortal.  As mortals, we will need literal, daily bread.  However, we can live out eternal purposes in these temporary lives.

The point is not about never having a bank account, or saving up to buy a house, etc.  It is asking the deeper question.  Messiah is asking us.  Do I have  your heart?  Or, does this world and the things thereof have your heart?  If you had to choose between Jesus and the desires of this world, which would you choose?

The apostle John reminded us of these questions in 1 John 2:15-17.  There he commands us (in the name of the LORD) not to love the world and the things of the world.  This world is passing away, and the things of it, especially the lusts that we have for things.  However, he who does the will of God abides forever!

This brings us back to the Garden of Eden.  Yes, there is a choice between innocence and knowledge of good and evil.  However, deeper than this is a question of love.  The serpent is tempting their heart away from what they already knew, God loved them greatly.  He tempts them away from the love of God towards the love of things (in fact, they are His things).  How can we be in right relationship with God’s things in our life?  It starts by not making them our treasure.  Instead, God Himself must be our greatest treasure.

God is the greatest good.  He is the source of all things that we might deem as good (and countless others that we are too ignorant to realize their goodness).  He gives us all kinds of things.  Yet, I guess He held back one thing, the knowledge of good and evil.  Have you been seduced by things that become nothing if they are divorced from God?  A love of things that cannot satisfy a soul that was made for the love of God is essentially what Romans 1 pictures.  We worship the creation rather than the Creator who made it all.  In the end, we will be left with things and a very, very lean soul.

God forbid!

Fasting/Treasure audio

The Sermon on the Mount XII

Subtitle:  Correcting the Righteousness of the Hypocrites III

Matthew 6:11-15.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on February 25, 2024.

We are picking up in the middle of the Lord’s prayer.  This is the center point of the Sermon on the Mount, and it is also a central issue, that of prayer.

Jesus is speaking to the way of righteousness in the area of prayer.  There was a lot of praying that happened in first century Israel, but not many righteous prayers.  Righteous prayer is not about quantity, but instead, it is about quality.  Thus, Jesus has pointed out that our desire for others to think well and highly of us can lead us off the righteous path in this area.

The first half of the prayer is praying for God’s purposes, i.e., His Name, His Kingdom and His will.  Of course, there is no question that these things are done in heaven.  The prayer is for these things to also be done on the earth.  Let your purposes be done on earth as they are done in heaven!

The emphasis here can be boiled down to praying in a way that demonstrates that we love God first.  We can also notice that the second half of the prayer focuses on our love for our brother or neighbor.  We not only should pray for God’s purposes because we love Him, but even when we ask for things from Him, there should be an aspect of love for others wrapped up in it- more on that later.

Let’s look at our passage.

The model prayer: prayer in relation to love for others (v. 11-13)

If a person didn’t get the imagery through the use of the term “kingdom” throughout this sermon, you should catch it here in this first request.  Jesus is in the wilderness preaching to the people, and he teaches them to ask God for their daily bread.  This would have stirred up the imagery of Israel in the wilderness receiving the supernatural manna each day.  It the recognition that we are dependent upon God for our daily bread.

We should not be too quick to jump over the natural aspect of this.  Just as Israel would have literally died in the wilderness, if God had not fed them, so we are mortal and in need of physical food.  Bread is often called a staple of life.  A staple food was the predominant food in any group’s diet.  We are spoiled today, but throughout most of history, regions had particular food that was the main source of their diet.  If it was destroyed, or ruined, then their lives were in jeopardy.  Thus, bread took on the metaphorical connotation of life itself.  No bread…no life.   Humans must eat, that is how God has designed us.  We don’t have to eat all of the time.  We don’t have to eat fancy stuff, but we do need to eat periodically.

This biological reality of life is recognized in this prayer.  “Give us this day our daily bread.”  However, God always uses natural, or material, things to teach us spiritual realities.  This is why Jesus taught using parables regarding the everyday life experience of first century Judeans.

Moses told Israel in Deuteronomy 8:3 that God had allowed them first to know hunger, and then to know His gracious supply of food in order to learn a spiritual lesson.  Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.  Thus, the literal bread that we ask of God connotes our need of spiritual bread.

In John 6:341 and following, Jesus said that “the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”  He then said, “I am the bread of life.  He who comes to me will never hunger.”  That is an amazing statement.  It is the same statement that he gives to the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4:14.  “[W]hoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.”  Jesus is the spiritual water and bread that we need in this spiritual wilderness.  In Jesus, God supplies spiritual food to sustain your daily walk of faith with God.  Prayer is an important part of that.

We should also notice that the prayer is couched in us language.  Yes,  you need bread, natural and spiritual.  However, you are not alone and should pray as a part of a community.  This is easiest to see in a parent approaching God.  Of course, you pray for your daily bread, but I have kids who need to eat too.  A parent approaches God in prayer for the sake of the family, not just as an individual.  Yet, this dynamic needs to scope out to our extended family, our town, our county, our State, our Republic (or nation as the case may be), even to the whole of humanity.  I may pray alone in the secret place, but I am not to separate myself from others as I ask God for help.  Lord, help me so that I may be part of your help to others.

In fact, let us recognize that some people have plenty of food and money, but they still commit suicide because they have no hope or faith in the future.  This is a spiritual need that no food and money can supply, only Jesus.

I get it that people look at our world today (particularly in our cities), and they lack faith or hope.  Yet, Jesus lived in such a devastated time, and he said, “the fields are white unto harvest.”  He could do that because he spent time with the Father in prayer.  He had spiritual reserves that we are often ignorant of.  Even in the United States of America, we need a miracle of God to supply our daily spiritual bread, so that we might continue in faith, rather than fainting in death.

The second request asks for forgiveness for our sins, or debts.  In Luke 11, Jesus shares this prayer and asks, “forgive us our sins,” instead of “debts.”  There really is no difference.  The concept of debts had connotations of sin.  When someone sins against you, it is pictured as a debt that needs to be paid off through repentance and making it right.  We are asking God to forgive our sins.

However, it is connected to our forgiveness of others sins, or debts to us.  The preposition “as” is not giving a timing element.  It is not asking God to forgive us at the same time of our forgiving of others.  Rather, the word “as” is establishing a fact that should motivate God to forgive us, “as in fact, we forgive our debtors.  In Luke 11, it says, “for [because] we also are forgiving everyone who is indebted to us.”

In our private prayers, there is a strange sense in which others are always there, at least in principle.  This is my relationship with God, but I cannot relate with God without recognizing that He loves others.  If I ignore that, then it affects my relationship with Him.  This contingency recognizes that if I want God to forgive me, then I need to be forgiving of others.  Our relationships with one another affect our relationship with God, as far as it depends upon you.

This does beg the other side of the equation, i.e., when I have sinned against others.  We can demand that others forgive us, even pointing to the Bible, but that is between them and God.  It is your job to be truly repentant when you have sinned against others.  The rest is between them and God.  A truly repentant heart doesn’t require others to act perfectly.  Duh, we are admitting that we have done wrong and want others to have mercy on us.  None of this (repenting or giving forgiveness) will ever be done perfectly, without error.  Can you forgive someone for not perfectly forgiving you for your imperfection (sin)?  Of course, we can, but the truth is that too often we do not desire it.

This should remind us of Matthew 5:7, “Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy.”

The third request is generally translated as being about temptation, but the word is bigger than that, and it should be seen as properly a time of testing.  “Lead us not into testing..”  We should again imagine Israel in the wilderness.  The wilderness is not in and of itself temptation, but you had better believe that temptation is a component of what goes on in the wilderness.

God took Israel through the wilderness for several reasons.  They weren’t ready to fight all the Egyptian armies they would continue to run into along the coastal plain.  Also, they needed some time alone with God in order to get to know Him better.  This allowed a covenant to be made with God at Sinai.  Lastly, the wilderness would test their metal.  The wilderness is tough on the flesh.  There isn’t much provision in the wilderness for our flesh.  We do become tempted by the devil and the world around us, but we are just as much tempted by what our flesh likes and doesn’t like.

God often leads us into wilderness times of testing. However, we should not think that God is doing that in order to tempt us.  God leads you there because it will make you stronger spiritually, if you trust Him.  You see, when ore is tested, it is what it is.  You crush it and heat it up.  A certain amount of metal comes out of the ore and an assayer can determine how rich the ore is.  However, people are not inanimate objects.  Even as we are being melted down (thief on the cross), we can choose to put our faith in God.  In that moment, something valuable springs into existence that wasn’t there earlier.  The mercy and grace of God is with us in the time of testing.  We can choose, have faith, humble ourselves, and ask for help.  And, guess what!  There He is to help us in time of need.

There are some subtleties happening in the verbs of this section.  It can be explained easiest by translating the words this way, “Don’t just lead us into testing, but deliver us from evil.”  The point is really the heart of God anyways.  God deliver me from the evil (bad things) that I will run into in the time of testing, and there are a plethora of these.

By the way, some translations will say “evil one.”  It is true that we need deliverance from the devil and the lying demonic spirits that work for him.  However, the Greek here is simply an adjective that is being used substantively (like a noun).  The context is supposed to supply whether it is an evil man, woman, thing, or one.  In this case, there is some ambiguity, and I believe that is one purpose.  The bad things that can destroy us in the time of testing are the devil, his demons, worldly friends and societies, even my own stinking thinking.  We need delivered from any bad thing that would tempt us away from trusting God.

Are we not in a time of testing right now, as a republic and as individuals?  Yes, we are.  We do not have to be afraid of the wilderness.  If God delivers us from the evil, then only the good will remain.  The wilderness was good for Joshua and Caleb.  Do you know why they could defeat giants?  It wasn’t because they had honed the art of slaying giants while in the wilderness.  It was because they had learned that God could be trusted with even their very life.  They had learned to trust God.  Caleb was not the original trash talker trying to manipulate people into fighting giants, and scare giants with his crazy talk.  Rather, he knew that his God was greater than those giants who made him look like a grasshopper.

Be careful of thinking the lesson of this time is that Joshua and Caleb were better than the others.  No.  Joshua and Caleb were the same as all those others.  However, they trusted God over the top of the fears of their flesh.  We can all fail in time of testing, but the good news is that we can all succeed in the time of testing by trusting God with our life.

There is a question about how the prayer ends.  The second part of verse 13 is not in the earliest manuscripts.  It does show up in a 2^nd century writing called the Didache (Greek for “Teaching”).  This was a discipleship manual for early Christians and dates back to at least A.D. 130.  However, it is in a shortened form (I believe it only mentions the power and glory, leaving out the kingdom).

Regardless of whether it was original or not, it is a very biblical thing to pray, and we find it in 1 Chronicles 29:10-11.  David has been calling Israel to join him in bringing forth donations for the Temple that was to be built.  His prayer uses the same themes that are found in this closing and even matches much of the whole prayer, e.g., using the phrase “our Father.”

David was recognizing that they were all donating stuff that they had.  Yet, at the same time, all of this stuff had come from God.  We must never forget that everything we receive from God in this life (including our body and breath) is His.  The Church has often made this mistake through history.  God would give them power over natural kingdoms, but we forget it is still His.  Yes, we are His representatives on the earth, but it is always still His.  We are only stewards of His stuff.  We will one day stand before Him and give account for what we did with His stuff.  This is what is meant in Romans 11:36.  “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to Him be glory forever. Amen.”  It all comes from Him, even through Him to us.  However, all we do with it is to be to Him, i.e., for His glory.  He is the source, the channel and the goal of it all.  When we forget that, we make it about ourselves and fall into the trap of the devil.

Let’s look at the last verses of this section on prayer.

An added explanation on prayer (v. 14, 15)

There is not much interpretation needed here.  Jesus is not teaching that we don’t need his death on the cross, that we can save ourselves by simply forgiving others.  Rather, he is showing us his heart (the Father’s heart).  This is who he is.  He loves the brother that you have trouble loving.  If you truly have faith in him, and love him, then you will trust his way, his path, of forgiveness.  This is in the category of things that are easier said than done.  It becomes a litmus test of our faith and love for Jesus.

In truth, none of us can forgive those who sin against us without the help of the Spirit of God, which Jesus has supplied to us.  Still, this is a challenge from our Lord to be the merciful ones of Matthew 5:7.

We see this principle throughout the teachings of Jesus, especially in Matthew 7, the end of the Sermon on the Mount.  There, he speaks about judging your brother.

No matter how much you believe on Jesus to forgive your sins, and no matter how willing He is to cover them, He will not do so if you continue to refuse to forgive others.

In Matthew 18:21-35, Jesus gives us the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant.  The servant owed the king 10,000 talents.  When he couldn’t pay and begged the king, the king had mercy on him and forgave the large sum of money.  The man then went out and found someone who owed him 2% of 1 talent.   Thus, if we treated the 10,000 talents as $10,000 (believe me that it was much higher than this), then he was throwing a man into debtors prison over 2 cents.  Of course, the king was incensed when he found out.

Jesus uses this story to get our attention.  Yet, in our flesh, we tend to think that God may have forgiven us 10,000 talents, but my brother’s sin against me is like 10 million talents!  The beam in our eye always measures our sin in small quantities, and the sin of others in great quantities.

Perhaps, we should look at it differently.  The story hinges on what we owe the king versus what we owe one another.  Have you ever thought that our sins against one another, that seem so huge, are a pittance compared to our sins against God.  When you sin against me, it is understandable because I am a sinful human myself.  I should be able to forgive it easily because I sin myself.  Yet, our sin against God is not understandable.  God is perfect, and has only loved us.  Our sins against Him are so great as to be impossible to quantify.  It is an eternal debt.  If I want God to forgive my eternal debt, then I would be smart to forgive people their small debts to me.  Which do you want, two cents from your brother, or a clean slate with God?

Prayer audio

Sermon on the Mount IX

Subtitle:  Fulfilling the Torah and the Prophets of God VII

Matthew 5:43-48.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on February 4, 2024.

Today, we will finish the Master’s look at what it means to fulfill the Law.  In a sense, this is the sixth case-study, but it is also a summary for all of the others.  It challenges us to recognize all of the ways that we have been an enemy to people, choosing a path that is of the evil one.  It challenges us to see how we have not chosen to take the path of our Father in Heaven, and to change.

This law focuses not on how someone becomes an enemy to us, but on what do we do with those who are already our enemies, and for whatever reason.

Let’s look at our passage.

The Law of Enemies (v. 43-48)

Jesus lays out the teaching of the current day on how we treat our enemies.  “Love your neighbor, and hate your enemies.”  In a sense, you only love the people that God commands.

The idea of loving your neighbor can be inferred from the Ten Commandments of Exodus 20.  Jesus said that all of the Law and the prophets can be summed up in loving God and loving your neighbor. 

Of course, a legalist would ask the question.  “Just who is my neighbor?”  Jesus answers that later (Luke 10:25-37) with the parable of the Good Samaritan.  Here, however, Jesus jumps right by our neighbor and goes to the heart of the issue, our enemy.

Leviticus 19:18 says, “You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD!”

This passage does focus on neighbors being of your own nation or people.  However, there are other passages that add to this.

Take, for instance, Exodus 23:4-5.  It talks about helping your enemy, if you come upon him while he is in a difficult situation (most likely assumed to be another Israelite).  Don’t take advantage of them.  Also, Deuteronomy 23:7 tell Israel not to hate the Edomites and the Egyptians.

On top of this, the Law and the prophets signal a desire of God to bless the nations, whether through Abraham (Genesis 12) or Messiah (Isaiah 42, 49, and 60).  God cared about the nations, and Israel was His tool to reach them with the Truth.

So, how did the religious leaders come to the conclusion that we should hate our enemies?  It is a natural inference from the idea that God is going to judge the nations who have hated Him.  It would make sense that we should not love those who hate God.  Yet, God’s long delay for judging His enemies begs a lot of questions.  Why wouldn’t He just judge them and get it over with?  Did God really want Israel to hate His enemies?

I mentioned several prophetic passages earlier.  It is clear that there is some tension between a judgment of the nations and the light of Messiah going out to the nations.  Jesus is now shining the light of day upon this murky area.

Jesus tells his followers to love their enemies, which is the exact opposite of what they would have been told by the religious leaders.  We are not given any commentary on the crowd, but I have to believe that their were some audible gasps at this point.  It had to be a shock.  Perhaps, we could ask the question (like the young man in Luke 10 regarding his neighbors), “What exactly do you mean by love?”   Is Jesus telling us that we have to have fuzzy warm feelings for our enemies?  No.  The word for love here has to do with an intellectual choice that is not dependent upon the person we give it to.  It is a love of decision.

Jesus goes on to point out three particular ways to love your enemy.  The first is, “Bless those who curse you.”  This deals with the area of speech.  How do we talk about those who talk evil of us?  The second is, “Do good to those who hate you.”  This deals with the area of our actions.  What kinds of things do we do to those who hate us?  The third is, “Pray for those who spitefully use you (treat abusively) and persecute you.”  This is the area of our spiritual life.

I don’t believe that Jesus intends us to pray for their destruction.  The previous two examples clearly show a good and righteous response to the actions that are not good and righteous towards us.  This needs to be a prayer that can be categorized as loving, a choice to work for their good.

This doesn’t mean that we approve of what people do when they curse, hate, abuse and persecute others.  It doesn’t even mean that we pray for them to be happy in life.  A person who chooses to be an enemy to you is not following the Lord Jesus Christ.  They are lost.  Perhaps, that is what we should pray for them.  “Lord, help me to respond in such a way that they may turn away from being an enemy and turn towards being a brother in you!”

We need to understand that love is a weapon.  People who are doing evil are generally not prepared for someone to love them.  I guarantee you that no evil person has spent a minute training on what to do when somebody loves them.  The enemy of our souls (the devil) intends their actions to destroy your faith.  However, what do you think God intends to do by your actions back towards them?  He intends to break them free from the devil’s hold on their life.  He intends to break them free from a life of anger, contempt, fear, rage, abuse, etc.

The natural question rises at this point, “Who in their right mind would love those who curse, hate, and persecute them?”  Jesus follows up quickly with the answer why in verse 45.

Every person ought to ask the question, “Who is my Father, and what is He like?”  Jesus points us to God who is firstly our Creator, and for those who have responded by faith, a spiritual Father.  This new birth is necessary to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  This picture of a child beginning to look like its father is important.  If you want to be a child of God, then you need to pay attention to what He is like. 

The image of God is more about spiritual things then it is about our physical appearance.  We automatically have the status of an imager of God by simply being human, natural birth.  However, status is not enough.  The activity of my life needs to be a portrayal of the Father.  This may sound extremely abstract, but look at the examples that Jesus gives following this.  “[He] makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”  God gives sunshine and rain to everyone.  Yes, God can affect the weather and send droughts.  However, don’t miss the fact that God generally gives these things to all peoples.  Even with these particular judgments, God gives far more grace to the wicked than they deserve. 

This can cause those who are trying to be righteous to have a crisis of faith.  We may begin to doubt the goodness of God.  “Why does He bless those who curse Him?”  And, it may even cause us to doubt His very existence.  “What good is it to serve God, if the wicked are blessed too?”  Of course, these are very short-sighted questions.  What good is it if a person never has drought, nor an empty belly, but they go into eternity and are found lacking by the Judge?  Why am I having a crisis of faith because God is being kind and showing goodness?

To love your enemy is not to say that what they do is good.  To love your enemy does not justify them in what they are doing.  It could be said that it increases their guilt, if they don’t cease their enemy-ways.  Yes, God will judge all people, and He will judge all the nations at once in what is called the Last Days.  If God is good, then why does He delay judgment?  It is because He is not willing that any should perish.  To love your enemy is to recognize that they will be judged and found guilty.  Yet, God doesn’t want them to perish.  God desires them to have a change of heart, repent, and enter His Kingdom like little children.

Romans 2:4 says, “…the goodness of God leads you to repentance.” They may never repent, but God’s goodness gives them a chance.  If we choose to go into eternity over the top of all of God’s goodness, then He will judge you.  But, always remember this.  He doesn’t want you to be His enemy.

This becomes a heart check in which we all fail.  We do not naturally want this for our enemies.  We are not this compassionate and selfless, but God is; Jesus is.  Yet, don’t be discouraged.  This is what it means to follow Jesus.  Our flesh fights it, but the Spirit of God helps us to overcome.  Lord, change our hearts with each trial and decision that we face.  Let us become more like you!

In verse 46 Jesus gives some if-statements that challenge the kind of love that we might have for others.  He uses the verb form of agape for love here.  It is the idea of choosing to love, as opposed to a love that is more based in the heart (i.e., familial love, brotherly love, or romantic love).  If you only choose to love those who chose to love you, then how are you different than the world?  Tax collectors and Gentiles tend do this with those who choose to love them.  Notice that God chooses to love His enemies (i.e., act for their benefit).  Their life is still limited.  They will face judgment.  But, He is good to them while they live.

In fact, one of the greatest good things that God has done is design the universe with a principle of cause-and-effect.  Even when people dismiss the word of God, and refuse to listen to His followers, cause and effect meets them at every poor choice that they make.  Their evil acts themselves draw them into evil consequences that naturally follow their actions, words, and inner life.  Through consequences, God is calling them back away from the ledge that they are intent on plunging off.  This reality, along with His goodness, is a powerful part of everyone’s life.  There is a goodness to consequences that we may not yet even understand fully.

Jesus asks his followers to leave judgment in the hands of the only One who can do so perfectly.  We can trust God to do the right thing.  In fact, our hunger for justice and setting things right often leads to all kinds of evil things that we do.  You risk losing your own soul when you rise up to be an enemy to your enemies, when you hate them.  Besides, we really stink at getting justice for ourselves.  We carry the bloody flag against everyone else, but do not recognize that this is a conflict of interest.  It would be like having you play in the Super Bowl, but also be the only one who is the referee in the game.  There is too much at stake to expect that you will always make a righteous call.  So, why not leave it to God?  Why not work to make your enemy your brother instead?  Why not save yourself from a lifetime of hate, contempt, rage, death, and then a fearful judgment from God?

Finally, Jesus lays down a statement that is very fearful on its face.  “You shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”  I’m sure there were some gasps on that one as well.

This phrase is interesting because it is in the future tense.  Therefore, Jesus is stating that you (plural) will be perfect in the future.  There is an encouragement of assurance in this.  He who has begun a good work in you will be faithful to complete it. 

However, the Hebrews also used the second person future as a way of giving a command to someone about something ahead.  This nuance adds another dimension to the statement.  There is no question that God will do His part in this.  However, this sermon has had several places of warning throughout it.  We might hear these wonderful words, but not persevere in following the Messiah.  We might grow weary, lose faith, and walk away.  Thus, this is also a command to be perfect.

Of course, the flesh of every human who has ever lived protests such a statement.  How can God expect us to be perfect?  First, let me point out that the Greek word for “perfect” here does not mean to never mess up.  It is actually a term that is used in building, growing, planning, etc.  A building has many stages to it, but we call the last stage the finish work.  When the house is ready, it is perfect, finished, completed.  It is what we intended it to be.  You are a child spiritually, but children grow up and become adults.  You shall be perfect, complete, finished.  God essentially guarantees it.  Yet, you must have faith in Him, in Jesus, and persevere in this fight against our flesh by the Spirit.

When we say a baby is perfect, we mean that it is exactly what it should be for the stage it is in.  However, if the baby never grew, we would quickly become concerned and not think of it as perfect.  Quit thinking of this like a legalist, and begin thinking of it in terms of the love of God.  As you die to your righteousness, come alive to His righteousness, and rely upon His Spirit to help you learn to love your enemies, then you will be a perfect baby Christian learning to walk, then run, and finally fly.  It is our relationship with Jesus through the Holy Spirit that makes our life perfect, even when there are dumb choices, and sin that we need to repent of.

In this life, Christians are not instantly zapped and made into the image of God.  Ephesians 4 12-13 pictures us growing up into the measure and the stature and the fullness of Christ.  This may feel hopeless at times, but should not co-labor with the Holy Spirit in hopelessness.  God is on your side.  How can you lose?  And how can you lose even when you fall down from time to time?  Jesus is the author (it was his idea) and the finisher (he will complete you) of our faith.  Guess when you will be done becoming like Jesus?  At the resurrection, God will accomplish the coupe de grâce (I mean that in an artistic way and not a military way).  Can we just take a deep breath right now and rest in the truth that we shall be like Him?  Yes, there is plenty of hard things to go through down here, and there is plenty of things that we may suffer.  However, we do these things with our LORD!  There is a certain glory that we have to go to war against our flesh, and against the devil’s work on this planet.  We were made to destroy the works of the devil with the help of Jesus!  We start by destroying the works of the devil in our own heart and mind by the help of His Holy Spirit.  Let’s go to work with Jesus this week!

Law of Enemies audio

The Sermon on the Mount IV

Subtitle: Fulfilling the Torah and the Prophets of God II

Matthew 5:21-26.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on December 31, 2023.

We will continue looking at the Sermon on the Mount today.

We looked at the Introduction that Jesus gives to the Kingdom in Matthew 5:3-16.  There he challenged his audience to quit looking at what they don’t have and to start seeing what they do have.  God was opening the door to the Kingdom for them in Jesus, in fact, he is The Door to The Kingdom (John 10:1-9).

Jesus then gave them three metaphors to help them see what God was wanting to do through those who entered the Kingdom.  He wanted them to be the salt of the earth, the light of the world, and a city on a hill.  Each of these speak to the spiritual impact believers in Jesus would have on the world around them.

Just like a door is a transitional spot between two different places, so the presence of Jesus brought Israel into a transitional spot between being the nation through whom God was primarily working to choosing to follow Messiah into a new reality.

In verse 17, Jesus begins to develop his first major point by stating his purpose to fulfill the Law of Moses, rather than destroying it.  In verse 21, he then points to six places in the Law of Moses in order to show how Israel’s leaders were missing the mark and how they could hit it.  Let’s look at our passage.

Six case studies in fulfilling the Torah and Prophets of God (v. 21-48)

Verses 21-26 are the first look at the Law, which focuses on the Sixth Commandment of The Ten Commandments in Exodus 20.  “You shall not murder.”

Before we get into looking at what Jesus says about murder, there are some structural issues to take note of in each of these six case studies.

Jesus will always start out with what they have heard from their teachers in expounding the Law.  He will then contrast that with what he teaches them now.  Lastly, Jesus then moves to give some “therefore” statements, which highlight the fact that he intends us to think about the implications of what he teaches.  The therefore sections flesh out what it would look like to heed his teaching.

In each of these, if we treat Jesus like another rabbi, and if we approach his words like the Pharisees approached the Law of Moses, then we will only be focused  on the letter.  Jesus would simply be adding more laws to the 613 that they already had.  Yet, this is not what Jesus intends.  The words that he speak are a representation of him and what is in his heart.  They draw us into relationship with The One who spoke them so that we can be led by His Holy Spirit to “flesh out” his intention for us.

Another issue is this.  Any honest look at the Law of Moses will see that they are not all of the same kind.  There are different types of laws.  The most obvious are the moral laws, which say things like, “You shall not murder.”  Murdering is inherently wrong, evil.  It will always be wrong because we do not have the authority to murder people, any more than to rape them or take all of their things.

A second category are the ritual laws, sometimes called ceremonial laws.  These have to do with how the tabernacle, the temple, would work.  You will notice in these laws about sacrifices, etc., that there is nothing inherently good about killing a bull in a special way, and in a special place, every time you sin.  They were symbolically pointing to greater spiritual truths.  This is part of the tutor, or schoolmaster, purpose of the Law.  They are only a moral obligation because Israel covenanted with God to do them.  Like a parent telling a child what they should do, the moral issue is not something like what time you go to bed, but rather about whether or not you will listen to your parents, even greater, God.

Lastly, there are civil laws that described how Israeli society would operate and the things they would do to set themselves apart from the world around them, whether in diet or dress, etc.  Some of these categories have overlaps.

In the first century, Jesus had to qualify his teaching by stating that he is not trying to abolish the Law of Moses.  It is interesting to me that most would accuse me of trying to bring people back under the law.  This is not what I am doing.  To be clear, Christians are not under the covenant of the Law that began at Sinai.  Yet, we need to hear the heart of our master here.

The Law of Murder

There were laws that also talked about manslaughter and what to do in those cases, but let us stick to what Jesus is doing here.

Jesus begins with the phrase, “You have heard that it was said to those of old…”  As I said earlier, this points to the teachers that they are hearing in their day.  Jesus refers to their teaching in order to set up a contrast with his own teaching. 

More than contrasting, he is demonstrating that there is something that these teachers are doing that is in error.  On one hand, Jesus will show us how God intended the Law to be followed, and yet on the other hand, Jesus is preparing to cut a new covenant that would require his death and resurrection.  This gives us a dual point of how the law should be heard, but also moving on to the new thing that God is doing.

The shepherd of their day are not good shepherds.  So, what was their error?

Their teachers have been focusing on the letter of the Law, which over time had accreted a large number of precedents and rabbinical “case-law.”  They emphasized the outward conformity to the Law, but ignore that these are the instructions of a loving Father who is more concerned about the moral character that would drive their actions, than simply wanting outward conformity.

Have you ever listened to lawyers twisting every word that is said by someone in order to get their client off, or if you are the prosecutor, to nail the defendant to the wall?  To a lawyer, the law is merely a challenge.  It simply becomes something to be manipulated to your favor.  Surely, God could never be pleased by people twisting His words.

In the case of murder, they simply taught that you would be liable to the judgment if you murdered someone.  Of course, it is not bad to teach this.  The error is in what is missing, the heart of the One who gave the Law, and the heart of those who were receiving it.
It is interesting that the Bible begins with two chapters about the work of God in making all things “very good.”  However, the next two chapters are very bad.  Genesis chapter four is often seen as the first murder.  Cain murders his brother, Abel.  Notice that God sees that Cain’s heart is wrong (i.e., Cain hasn’t murdered anyone yet).  Like a good father, God speaks to Cain about what happened and what was going on in his heart.  He warns Cain to control himself because sin sought to have mastery over him.  Any true father is not content to merely have sons who don’t murder one another.  You want sons who have his heart for their brother.  He wants us to honor how He feels towards our brother, our neighbor, even our enemy.

By the way, Genesis four is actually a story about two murders.  Lamech kills a young man who had injured him, and we see him justifying himself.  The chapter ends with violence filling the earth.

Yet, don’t miss that Genesis three is also a story about two murders (or potentially, the murder of the human race).  The serpent, the devil, seduces Adam and Even into an action that brings death into their lives.  The pre-flood civilizations did not go deep enough.  They abused the mercy of God to Cain (not capital punishment) and refused to go deeper into their hearts.  In the end, the world was filled with murder because the hearts of men were full of murder.  All of this begs the Genesis :26 question, just who were they imaging?  It wasn’t their Creator, it was their own murderer, Satan.

After laying out what they were being taught, Jesus turns on the phrase, “but I say to you…”  Jesus does not have the kind of credentials that their teachers had.  Just who does he think he is?  Well, he is the One sent from God, and thus, he has credentials that none of them had.

Jesus gives three statements.  The first is about being angry with your brother.  The version that I have been using adds the phrase, “without a cause.”  This phrase is debated because there are some early manuscripts that do not have it.  The question then becomes, was it added or was it taken out?  There doesn’t seem to be a good reason to take it out.  But, if it wasn’t there, putting it in would soften a harsher statement.  I would simply say that the apostles would later teach us to be angry and sin not (Ephesians 4:26 quoting Psalm 4:4).  Anger isn’t so much the problem, as it is the source of our problem.  Anger has a lot of power and our flesh tends to use the force of anger in order to push us into sinful actions.  James 1:20 tells us that “the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.”

So, even if my brother did something that I am rightly angry over, I am still in danger of sinning.  I will come back to deal with the warning Jesus gives.

This first one had to do with internal thoughts and feelings of anger.  Jesus then moves to two outward actions that show contempt for our brother who has angered us.  Calling someone “Raca” was essentially calling them an empty-headed person, a numbskull, a dunderhead, an idiot, and I could go on.  It is contempt for them intellectually.  Calling someone “You fool! (the Gk is from the word where we get moron) also had a sense of poor intellect.  However, for Hebrews this word also had spiritual connotations (it generally doesn’t for us).  The fool is a person who willfully ignores the teaching and ways of God in order to make their own way.  Yes, it is foolish, but it is also a rejection of God.  There is a immoral component to it.  Thus, this is to have contempt for your brother intellectually and spiritually.

Notice that as Jesus moves through these three things that he starts with them being liable to the judgment, and then to the Council (the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem), and finally to the “Gehenna of fire” (my version says hellfire).  No human can put you in the Gehenna of fire, which was a phrase used to speak of God’s judgment.  This then begs the question of what judgment and what council he was speaking about before?  Regardless, something as small as calling your brother a name is coming from a dark place that God will not put up with.  They were definitely not thinking that they were in danger of God throwing them into Gehenna for calling their brother a moron. 

They should have gone deeper, but under the New Covenant that Jesus would cut with God at the cross and give to his followers, we do not serve as if following more stringent laws.  We follow and serve the purposes of Jesus by the help of the Spirit of God in order to do the spirit of the law.  We see this in Romans 7:6; 8:2,4; 9:29; and 1 Corinthians 5:7-8.

In verse 23, Jesus moves to his first therefore statement.  Notice that he has repeated the word “brother.”  It is reminding us of that first actual slaying of a human being, which was done between brothers.  Like Cain, our contempt and anger can push us to do heinous things against our brother, whom God loves.

This very same God desires us to reconcile and make things right.  Cain needed to see that he wasn’t imaging God and turn back from anger.  Even if there had been cause to be angry (in Cain’s situation, there wasn’t), Matthew 18 would later deal with what to do if you had cause to be angry.  You will notice there that Jesus is promoting the same thing that he does here, reconciliation.  We cannot come before God and pretend we are worshipping him while we know we have done our brother wrong.  Jesus actually puts the onus on the brother who did the offending.

We can’t force reconciliation, but we can do what Romans 12:18 says.  “If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men…”  Then verse 21 says, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

This is why Jesus boils the whole law and the prophets down to having a heart of love for God and our neighbor.  Such a heart of love will express itself in actions of love.  Yes, that is a hard task, but Jesus has done two huge things to help us.  He has removed our sins and their judgment from over our heads, and he has given us his Holy Spirit to help us battle sin in our life.  We first die to our own righteousness and then we die to our flesh.  We try to make things right with all who would have ought against us before approaching God in worship.

Jesus ends this section with a second practical therefore statement, even though he does not repeat the word. People who are angry do not always think well.  They are not as innocent as they may deem.  In such a case, you can end up getting yourself in a pickle.  Jesus envisions two angry men going to a judge and one of them is going to be shocked.  Jesus thus brings up the idea of settling out of court.  Would I push the issue if I was brought into court every time I became angry and ran the risk of a penalty?  Imagine how many times we become angry with people and don’t give it a second thought.  Yet, this is the turn of this small parable in verse 25.  Just who is your adversary?  Ultimately, your adversary is the devil.  He seeks to prosecute you before God.  You are even now on your way to the Judge of all men, the Lord Jesus.  Jesus is no respecter of persons.  You may win some judgments regarding your anger, but will you win them all?  Wouldn’t it be wiser to make your peace with your brother in this life while you can, before you end up at the judgment seat?  If something is settled out of court, then it seems that Jesus will not judge it.

Just as the fires of Gehenna were the danger earlier, here the danger is to be thrown into the prison.  The prison, the holding place of wicked spirits, is not a good place to go.  Some will point to the phrase, “you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny,” as hope that Gehenna is not without end.  Be careful of that.  It doesn’t say that you can pay it off.  Rather, it emphasizes that you won’t get out until you have.  This begs the question.  How does a person pay off a debt when they are in prison?  If the price for removing my sin was the perfect Son of God dying on a cross on my behalf, then it seems very unlikely that I will ever “pay it off.”  This is intended to scare the anger out of you, or at least, wake you up to the true dangers you face.

None of us would survive such a judgment.  Our only hope is to try and reconcile with our brother and throw ourselves on the mercy of the court, which is merciful to those who have shown mercy.

Instead of using the lack of a murderous action as a cloak, through Jesus, God is calling us to overcome evil by dying to our righteousness, and coming alive to his righteousness.  This is that righteousness which laid itself down that we might live.

May God fill us with repentance, and then with His Holy Spirit, so that we can live out the righteousness of God.

Fulfill II audio