Hey guys, I wanted your input on something. I was planning on preaching the text Matt. 5:17-48. Let me know what you think of my outline.
I. Christ came to fulfill the law (17-20). God's word stands. His law stands. Christ came to perfectly fulfill it. Therefore, we shouldn't relax his commands as the scribes and Pharisees did.
II. The deeper meaning of "You shall not murder" (21-26). Ungodly anger and verbal insults is worthy of punishment.
III. The deeper meaning of "You shall not commit adultery" (27-32). Looking with desire is adultery of the heart. Divorcing a person b/c of "sexual immorality" makes him commit adultery and remarrying a divorced person is adultery.
IV. The deeper meaning of "You shall not swear falsely" (33-37). Don't take an oath at all. Be true to your word.
V. On retaliation and loving your enemy (38-47). Pretty much just quote the text here.
VI. Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect (48). Here's where it gets tricky. I haven't found any commentaries supporting the way I read it. I read this verse as a summary statement of Jesus' teachings thus far. This is not just moralistic preaching on Jesus' part. Rather, he wants to humble those who want to justify themselves. The point is you can't be perfect (complete) in the way that God is. I read it as similar to Jesus' instruction to the rich young ruler to go sell everything and follow him if he wished to be perfect. Then, my last point would be about God's grace... though we deserve only punishment from a holy God, we can receive grace through Jesus Christ.
But the commentaries read it as going along with 43-47 (loving your enemies). We are to love others... even our enemies as God loves.
What do y'all think? Am I fudging the text to get my point across? I'd appreciate your help.
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1 comment:
Hope this helps. As I understand the passage, your view and that of the commentaries are not really different at all. You're emphasizing the overarching message of the SOTM - that perfect righteousness is required for entrance into the kingdom. They are emphasizing the particular message of that passage - that perfect love is required for entrance into the kingdom. You are emphasizing the overarching message of the SOTM, they one of its main subpoints. But the verse is meant to teach both - that perect righteousness (including perfect love) are required.
The most important verse in the SOTM is 5:20, where Jesus confronts the self-righteousness of everyone. Everything that follows is an exposition of that verse. At 5:48, Jesus is simply restating the same point that He made there: that the righteousness required for entrance to the kingdom is beyond what any person can obtain on his own.
The instinct to use this as a call for people to believe and be justified is a good one. However, the SOTM is not describing the person who has been counted righteous (justification), but the person who has been made righteous (sanctification). When I preached through these passages, I reminded Christians that one day we would in fact - by grace - have perfect righteousness, and that this is a gift of the Spirit that begins at conversion and continues throughout our lives. We should come to Christ not only to be counted righteous, but to actually be made righteous and to have the "holiness without which no one will see the Lord." Hebrews 12:14
JN
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