Christian Righteousness (Matthew 5:17-37)

One issue that arose with the public ministry of the Saviour was what he taught about the law of God. It is obvious from the Gospel accounts that scribes and the Pharisees did not think that Jesus honoured the law. It is obvious too that Jesus did not think that they kept it. So there was a clear difference between them in that regard.

Jesus and the law

Jesus made it very clear from the onset of his public ministry that he had a very high regard for the law. We can see at least five features of his teaching. First, he taught that it was a permanent feature of the way God deals with his creatures wherever they are. Second, he regarded it as a whole and no one was allowed to take away commands that were difficult to obey. Third, he said that there were degrees of importance, with some of them called ‘least’; yet although there were degrees, obedience to the least was required. Fourth, the standard of obedience for his disciples was total commitment (he used the standard of the scribes and Pharisees, which was regarded by the public as very high, and said that his disciples would have greater obedience to the law of God). Fifth, no one should be a teacher of the law if he does not obey it himself (we can see the relevance of this requirement to those he was teaching to become apostles and leaders of his church).

The Saviour told his disciples that his role was to bring the law to a state of fulfilment. At a basic level of interpretation, this means that since Jesus has come the law can be understood better and obeyed more fully. It means that some details that were connected to it previously would not be needed now that a higher level had been reached in God’s plan. The higher level would take place because the law would be written on the hearts and minds of disciples rather than being an external set of instructions and rules.

Disciples and the law

Jesus then proceeds to give several examples of how his followers should obey the law. Among them, he mentions the importance of relationships, of inner attitudes, of revenge, of compassion, of inner sins, and of the use of the tongue. There are connected matters as well, such as how one responds to the authorities when they force a disciple to carry a load. So we can consider each briefly.

We should notice that he contrasts his teaching with longstanding tradition when he uses the clause, ‘You have heard that it was said to those of old….’ It is likely that he is referring to some of the traditions followed by the Pharisees.

The sixth commandment

Tradition accepted that a murderer should face judgement. Yet Jesus teaches that the sixth commandment goes far deeper than physical murder. Words of anger are a breach of the sixth commandment – Jesus means sinful anger. Moreover, there are degrees of anger that could lead to degrees of punishment in the future. In the present, such anger prevents worship of God.

What should a disciple of Jesus do? His priority is to be reconciled with the person to whom he expressed anger. The reconciliation takes priority over continuing in worship of God. The implication is that worship from unreconciled persons is unacceptable by God. The follower of Jesus must rush to be reconciled with the one he has offended. Jesus uses an illustration from a courtroom to picture what will happen to the person who does not do this – he will find himself in a prison.

The seventh commandment

Again, the traditional viewpoint had limited breaking the commandment to physical immorality. Jesus points out that thoughts of lust are sinful. Moreover, his followers will not be content to have sinful thoughts and will take appropriate steps to deal with them. Why? Because tolerated sinful thoughts mark those who are on the road to hell.

Jesus does not say that his followers would not have such thoughts, but he does say that they are not content to have them in their minds. In fact, they so oppose such thoughts that they will take radical steps to deal with them. The Saviour is not suggesting physical destruction of one’s body here. He knows that cutting off your hand would not stop sinful thoughts.

Tolerated sinful thoughts will lead to wrong actions. Wrong looking by the eye will lead to wrong actions by the hand. The point that Jesus makes is to use your mind to ask where sinful actions lead. If persisted in, they indicate we are on the broad road.

Connected to immoral behaviour was the practice of easy divorce. The Bible allows divorce for two reasons – immorality and desertion. However, it was traditionally acceptable for a man to divorce his wife for no other reason apart from wanting to replace her. John Stott mentions that some thought it was legitimate to divorce one’s wife if she burned bread. The outcome was that there were numerous wrong relationships. Jesus makes it clear that his followers will not engage in such an immoral practice, which is based on selfishness and cruelty.

Oaths

The next issue that Jesus mentions is misuse of oaths. He is not forbidding making promises to God. Rather he is rebuking those who imagined that if they replaced God’s name with something else, such as heaven, or earth, or Jerusalem, or something to do with themselves, then they were free of the responsibility of keeping oaths. In contrast, his followers would use straightforward speech.

Retaliation

Legally, it was appropriate to have an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. If a person steals a cow, he should restore what he stole plus any loss of income to the owner. Jesus is not suggesting that governments should ignore wrong actions. Instead he is teaching that his followers will rise above personal circumstances and respond differently when necessary. He gives four examples.

First, what should a disciple do when he is insulted by a slap on the cheek? Normally, the response would be to slap the assaulter. Jesus says that instead his disciple will offer the other cheek. Second, what would a disciple do if he is wrongly taken to court and told to give his accuser a tunic? Jesus says to give the accuser a cloak as well. Third, if the civil authority causes a disciple to carry a load for a mile, the disciple should carry it for two miles (in the process, he would be relieving another person of the burden of carrying it for a mile). Fourth, a disciple should be willing to help people in need.

Obviously, the teaching of Jesus is very demanding. I suspect what Jesus is requiring from his disciple is that he thinks of the spiritual good of the other person. In each of the four examples, the other person would be surprised and probably ask why the disciple had given such an unusual response, and this would give an opportunity for explanation that he served another King.

And in each of the examples, Jesus tells his disciple to show grace to the other person. Turning the other cheek instead of hitting back is not a sign of weakness. Weakness would be to try and run away. Running away and retaliation are both wrong, so what other option is there? Merely giving a tunic because a court orders a disciple to do is not a sign of him showing grace. Grace is shown when he gives more. Carrying a load for a soldier for one thousand steps was a legal obligation, but to carry it for two thousand steps voluntarily showed grace. Giving to the needy is showing grace.

Love Your Enemies

The Old Testament does say that we should love our neighbours, but it does not say that we should hate our enemies. Of course, the enemies of Christians are not defined in the same way as enemies of Israel would have been. Enemies of Israel would usually be external to the country whereas the opponents of disciples could be within their own communities. Jesus says that the evidence of love for enemies is prayer for them, which indicates that his disciples should pray for those who oppose them. In a sense, he is saying that in our daily prayer list there should space for those who stand against us.

The reason for doing this is that such a response indicates that his disciples are like their heavenly Father. He does good to everyone whether or not they serve him. The followers of Jesus are not to be like the Pharisees and their standards, nor are they to be only like those who do good to those who do good to them. For Jesus, the standard for his disciples was the attitude and actions of the heavenly Father. I read this quotation from a commentator called Alfred Plummer which sums up the options: ‘To return evil for good is devilish; to return good for good is human; to return good for evil is divine.’

What does Jesus mean when he says that his disciples are to be as perfect as the heavenly Father? He cannot mean that his disciples are to help as many people as the Father does, nor can he mean that they should do it for as long as the Father does. Nor can he mean that they should be sinless because that would be impossible in this life and the situations described would not exist in the next. Maybe the meaning is that since the Father here does everything out of love for the unworthy, so should the disciples of Jesus. Or does Jesus give to his disciples a goal to aim at, to become as perfect as the Father, even if it is impossible for them to attain to it completely.

Applications

There are several applications that we can make from this passage. The first concerns the authority of Jesus. He does not depend on the opinion of others. Instead he claims for himself full and final authority to say what the Word of God means. He does not offer suggestions, instead he provides the correct understanding regarding how the Lord requires his Word to be obeyed. Jesus had this authority because he is God.

Second, it is clear from the way that Jesus interpreted the examples he mentioned that it is crucial for his disciples to remember the reality of eternity. The reason why we don’t get angry and the reason why we don’t allow immoral thoughts is that there are eternal consequences if we do not repent of such sins. It is a question that is worth pondering – did we think of eternity today? I don’t mean that we should recognise that we will die, because that is obvious. Instead, the question is, where will we be in eternity?

Third, it is required of Christ’s disciples that they treat other humans with dignity, even when they are not treating the disciples in such a manner. Such a respect is seen in the examples that Jesus gives about turning the other cheek, carrying a load and helping the needy. A disciple of Jesus recognises that other people are made in the image of God.

Fourth, it is obvious that Jesus taught that the heart of the matter is the matter of the heart. God’s law is not mainly about outward conformity to its requirements, although outward alignment is important. Instead he is concerned about what we think about and why we say things and do things. Refraining from the physical acts of murder and adultery does not mean that we are obeying God’s law from the heart. If that is all that we are doing, the Bible says that we are hypocrites. There has to be inner change as well.

What does it mean to have a right heart? Is it to replace a wrong thought with a right one? So if I have hateful thoughts about someone, do I replace them with nice thoughts about that person? I would suggest that is to aim too low. We can only have right thoughts about other people when the One who fills our heart is God. I would suggest that is why Jesus tells his disciples to model themselves on God and not on what they might deduce are good intentions. If we love sinners the way God does, then we will do our best for them. If we love purity the way that God does, we will fill our minds with thoughts about his holiness and will admire his beauty.

Fourth, we can ask what life would be like if people lived like this?