Matthew 5-7 Sermon On The Mount

Matthew 5-7 is commonly known as the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus’s teachings in this passage are often times known as the ethics of the kingdom of God. One particular aspect that separates Jesus’s teachings from all other religious teaching is that it focuses on the inward condition of the heart, rather than just outward actions. This is one of the main reasons that the Pharisees did not like Jesus’s teachings. He constantly rebuked their hard-heartedness, and in the Sermon on the Mount the Pharisees’ attitudes were used to contrast the right motives. The Pharisees were seen to be extremely moral Jews, so did Jesus’s stance against the Pharisees mean that he was going to abolish the law? Jesus answers this question in Matthew 5:17 when he claims, “I have not come to abolish them [the laws and Prophets] but fulfill them.” This verse is one of the central verses of this
passage on how Jesus desires Christians to implement ethics because he shows how Christ has given Christians the ability to please God. John Bunyan is credited with writing the famous poem “Run, John, Run!” In this poem Bunyan claims, “Run, John, run, the law commands.
But gives us neither feet nor hands, Far better news the gospel brings: It bids us fly and gives us wings.” Anyone who is not a Christian is under the law. God gave his people His law, but man’s sinfulness makes him unable to follow the law perfectly. Man is unable to please God on his own because even his outwardly good deeds are still tainted with sin. Jesus made a way for believers to please God. He did not do it by lowing the standards, but by raising them. One example from the Sermon on the Mount where this is seen is when Jesus uses the example of how the law said to not commit adultery. Jesus raises the standard by saying, “everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matthew 5:28).” However, even though Jesus raises the standard, he enables believers to follow His commands and be pleasing to God. Believers are indwelled by the Holy Spirit and continually being made in the image of Christ every
day. As Jesus’s sermon goes on He continues to encourage His followers and teach them how to live lives that are pleasing to God. He teaches on giving, fasting, prayer, and other spiritual disciplines. He teaches on trusting God, loving God, and faithfulness. While this sermon shows both inward and outward ways to please God, Jesus shows the importance of the inward motives in outward signs. When He teaches His followers how to pray, He contrasts the attitude they should have to the attitude of the hypocrites. This shows that while prayer is a spiritual discipline, it has a meaningful purpose in allowing us to praise God and communicate with Him. Jesus shows that Ethics has a purpose! Its purpose is to conform us more into the image of Christ and for us to delight in God.