Old vs. New

Meditations on the Sermon on the Mount

March 20, 2020

Old vs. New

For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 5:20 (NRSV)

There was a pretty large crowd assembled on the shores of the Sea of Galilee as Jesus delivered his Sermon on the Mount. I can just hear the crowd murmuring when Jesus made the statement quoted above. They were incredulous. How could they outdo the scribes and Pharisees? If the religious leaders tithed – paid 10% to the Temple, would they have to pay 15%? If the religious leaders fasted two days per week, would they have to fast three? No.

By “exceeds,” Jesus wasn’t referring to a quantitative measure of the lives of the religious elite; he was referring to the quality of their offerings to God. Remember Saint Paul’s affirmation of God’s mission to form Christ within us: “For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him” (Philippians 2:13). God is not looking at how well we do stuff that we feel we have to do to please Him. God is looking at our heart; how well do we love doing the things that please God?

The good news is that God doesn’t leave us to our own devices to sort all this out. Again, as Saint Paul affirms, it is God working in us giving us the desire and the power to make the life in Christ our way of life. In the next passage, Matthew 5:21-48, Jesus gives a half-dozen examples of what it looks like to exceed the righteousness of the religious leaders.

My Takeaway: Over the weekend, I invite you to join me in taking time to ponder this summary of the quality of life that fulfills Jesus’ teaching:

“Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit” (Romans 7:6)

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Copyright © 2020 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

• Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

• The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.