"You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'YOU SHALL NOT MURDER, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.' But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, 'Raca!' shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, 'You fool!' shall be in danger of hell fire.”
Matthew 5:21-22
Having completed the introduction to the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1-2), the rest of chapter 5 contains six examples of how we should understand the spirit of the Law. Jesus addresses six topics from the Law, explaining the higher standard of the spirit of the Law, rather than thinking we are keeping the Law based on a cursory observance of the letter of the Law.
Don’t miss that thinking only of the letter of the Law often results in the abuse of legal loopholes. You know what legal loopholes are. They are a way of excusing disobedience to God’s Law, as He intended it to be obeyed, while seeking to justify ourselves and our disobedience.
The six examples are an illustrative rather than an exhaustive list. In other words, these six are not the whole of what Jesus would have us learn about the Law. The lessons contained in the six examples are to be applied to every aspect of God’s law. God does not want legalistic, half-hearted, partial obedience. He wants spiritual, whole hearted, complete obedience.
No one but Jesus ever has or will keep God’s Law as God requires. This is why we need a Savior. Jesus is the one and only Savior because He is the only one who: (a) kept the law perfectly for those He came to save; (b) died to pay the penalty for every sin committed by those He came to save; and (c) rose from the dead to defeat sin, death, and Hell for those He came to save.
I do not know if it is intentional, but I notice that all of these six examples are of sins of passion: Anger, Lust, Divorce, Oaths, Vengeance, and Love. Oh, that we would be more passionate about the Lord and obedience to Him more than being driven by passion for sin!
Next time: The difference between what we’ve heard and what God says…