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Wednesday, March 02, 2005
The Sermon on the Mount
I had Matthew 5-7 as my reading allotment this morning. It had been quite a while since I'd just sat and read through "the sermon on the Mount", and wow. Just so much in there to bless me and teach me. Especially convicting and empowering this morning were the following sections:
Matt 5:13-16 13 "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how will it be made salty {again} It is good for nothing anymore, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men. 14 "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 "Nor do {men} light a lamp, and put it under the peck-measure, but on the lampstand; and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. (NAS)I've read/heard these verses with some regularity since I was a baby. I remember doing a skit about them at "church camp" when I was a little ten-year-old Methodist. And yet it was as I was reading them this morning that for the first time I read verse 16 to mean the following:
"Let people know that you love Jesus so that when they see your good works, they glorify God in heaven, and not you."
In the context of the rest of the teaching, that's the reading that makes the most sense -- we are to change the earth, to light it up, not to just go along our own little ways and leave the world unchanged. Wow.
Also, I got a new "take" on chapter 6, verses 19-21:
Matt 6:19-21
19 "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
20 "But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal;
21 for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
(NAS)
These verses are often used to encourage people to spend less money gathering up possessions, and more money helping others. And this is one application, but in a larger sense, these verses are about more than just money. "Treasures" here doesn't just mean money; it means the approval and admiration of our fellow men. Again, the key is context. This admonition comes after a long section about not putting on a "show" with our works in various ways -- we're told not to give so that others will see us and be impressed, or to put on a show about fasting or praying. The chapter begins with this:
Matt 6:6 6 "But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will repay you. (NAS)and then we have these verses:
Matt 6:6 6 "But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will repay you. (NAS)Matt 6:16
16 "And whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites {do,} for they neglect their appearance in order to be seen fasting by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.
(NAS)
In other words, if you do what you do hoping for the praise of men, then the praise of men is your reward. If you're doing it for the Lord, you don't need the praise of men. We can have treasure on earth (the praise of men) or treasure in heaven (reward/blessing from God).
At first glance the teaching about doing our good deeds in secret may seem to contradict the "city on a hill" idea, but when you look more closely, it doesn't. To hide our lamp under a bushel would be to keep our faith to ourselves, so that the good things we do give glory to ourselves, as opposed to letting the world know that we love Jesus so that credit for our deeds goes to Him. And when Jesus was telling the crowd to look healthy when they fasted and to pray in private and give secretly, He was teaching toward the same end. We don't want people to look at us and go, "WOW. That person is SO SPIRITUAL." We want them to look at us, and then say, "Wow. God is SO GOOD." There's a difference, no?
If you have ten minutes today (that's all it takes for a quick read-through), why not pull out a Bible and read Matthew 5-7? It's one of the most user-friendly sections of Scripture, it's basic and yet no matter how many times you've read it you'll never finish plumbing the depths of it. And besides, I'm itching for someone with whom to discuss it. ;-)
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