Chapter 5

The occasion for the sermon on the mount is now given in verses one and two. It should be noted that Jesus Christ never attempted to deal with the large masses by Himself. He called the disciples and He organised them to assist Him in reaching the masses. No one can do it by himself and that is the principle of spiritual gifts. It takes a team; it takes administration. You have to have a team and that is exactly why Jesus Christ walked out on the crowd. as He does in chapter 5 verse 1.

“And seeing the multitudes” — the “multitudes” refers to this fantastic crowd which has gathered as a result of our Lord’s ministry.

“he went up into a mountain.” It is very difficult for a large crowd to follow anyone in the mountains and so the only way to shake the crowd is to get up into the mountains. It became necessary for our Lord to ordain and train the disciples and this is exactly the purpose of the sermon on the mount. It was a briefing, a crash program for a staff that must go to work almost immediately and which must operate under the dispensation of Israel, which is the age of the law. The word “seeing” also means to make an estimate of the situation, to estimate the needs and the problems of the multitude — and to walk out.

“and when he was set” — old English. It means to sit. “When he was seated” is better English. Jesus Christ actually sits down in order to teach. There is a principle here. If you are going to teach you have to be relaxed. And Jesus Christ is not teaching 50,000 people, He starts out teaching twelve disciples. The actual appointment of these disciples we will discover in Matthew chapter 10. Chronologically, Matthew chapter 5 is after chapter 10 but logically it is placed at this point because we are dealing with a problem of crowds. How do you handle crowds? It takes a great deal of administration to handle a crowd. When Jesus sees the crowd what does He do? He walks away from the crowd. He is not ready to handle this type of a crowd. He must have an organisation to handle crowds and He must train that organisation.

“his disciples came unto him” — these men are going to be the staff for a period of three years and during that time they are going to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and they must understand more about the law than is taught in the Old Testament. And they must not only understand more about the law but they must also get ready for the transition from law to grace. Therefore, some of the things that are given in the sermon on the mount pertain to the Church Age and some do not, and some do not pertain until Christ will personally rule upon the earth for a part of this is His kingdom platform. For example, “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth,” and the meek do not inherit the earth now and will never inherit the earth until the second advent of Jesus Christ. The sermon on the mount is the most difficult to interpret (easy to apply) because it is not only a crash program but it is a transitional program. It finds teaching for three dispensations: the Age of Israel, the Church and the Millennium.

Verse 2 — “And he opened his mouth,” the primary means of communication is public speaking. Since Christ was seated He was a relaxed public speaker. This is conversational public speaking, He was not a ranting and raving preacher, He was a relaxed conversational type speaker, firm, strong, and dogmatic.

“and taught them” — [kept on teaching them] the imperfect tense is linear aktionsart in past time and it indicates that He kept on teaching, teaching, teaching, until His disciples got it; “saying,” present active participle, the communication begins. The concept is He kept on teaching them and He repeated over and over again, although it is only recorded once in the scripture.

Verses 3-12 — the beatitudes. The beatitudes are blessings. It should be remembered that the Mosaic law is more than the ten commandments and Codex #3 of the Mosaic law has a system called blessings and cursings. There are certain blessings if you line of with a program and plan and there are certain cursings if you don’t .Blessing is a reference to the Mosaic law but we have to go beyond the law now because the King is present on the earth, Messiah is there, and that means we must go beyond the law with the blessing concept. If Messiah is accepted then these blessings will become more than a reality. And so we take the blessing concept of the Mosaic law and adopt it to the presence of the King. The word “blessed” is makarioj, which is a very old word. In Homer’s day it meant lucky or fortunate and eventually in Homer’s day it came to be used for a person who was successful or wealthy. Later it became not just a person who was successful on his own but a person who became wealthy or successful because of a relationship — wealthy father, uncle, etc. And then eventually in the time of classical Greek the word came to mean a person who because of a relationship had great happiness. When it gets into the Koine Greek it is used only in one way. It has the concept of inner happiness because of relationship with God.

Verse 3 — “Blessed [inner happiness] the poor in spirit.” The word “are” does not occur in the original. There is no verb and this emphasises the word “blessed.” A better translation would be: “Inner happiness to the poor of spirit.” The word “poor” is ptoxoj in the Greek, and it does not mean poor. It is also translated “beggar” which is also a very bad translation. The word actually means a person who is helpless or destitute. The word “spirit” in the dative case (as it is here) often means spiritual assets rather than spirit. So the translation should be: “Inner happiness to the destitute of spiritual assets.” So the poor in spirit is actually the destitute of spiritual assets. The question arises as to what kind of a person is a person who is destitute of spiritual assets? He is man when he comes into the world. In other words, the first of the beatitudes is the beatitude of salvation. God has taken cognisance of man’s situation — destitute of spiritual assets. Man has no way, therefore, of gaining the approbation of God. What is it that makes him destitute? It is his old sin nature.

It is possible for members of the human race, though destitute of spiritual assets, to have spiritual assets. The only possible way is by entering the plan of God, operation grace, phase one: salvation; phase two: believer in time; phase three: believer in eternity. So the one who is destitute has come to the cross, minus spiritual assets, and when he has believed in Christ he immediately picks up spiritual assets. The cross (believing in Christ) makes the difference, he is then in the inner happiness category.

What is meant by inner happiness? It is a happiness that does not depend upon circumstances. Most people are happy when the circumstances are pleasant, and when the circumstances are unpleasant they are miserable. This is circumstantial happiness. But inner happiness which the Bible calls joy is something you have whether things are pleasant or unpleasant. In other words, the circumstances of life do not determine your happiness. This is something that is only possible for one who is born again.

“for theirs” — this is not “theirs” at all. It should be “because of them.” “Because of them is the kingdom of heaven” is the correct translation.

“the kingdom of heaven” — is a kingdom of those who are born again. It is an eternal kingdom of regenerate. In other words, for those who are destitute of spiritual assets [describing the human race] there is something for them. There is an eternal kingdom which is called here “the kingdom of heaven,” and sometimes it is called “the kingdom of God.” All this is saying in effect is that you can search for the rest of your life and you will never find it except in one place, the cross. The cross means not only inner happiness but it means eternal happiness. Because you are saved doesn’t mean that you are happy but it means that inner happiness is available to the one who is saved. Because man does not have any spiritual assets God has set up for him the kingdom of heaven, and he can enter it.

So the first beatitude is the beatitude of salvation. The second beatitude is the beatitude of suffering.

The beatitude of suffering: the beatitude for phase two.

Verse 4 — “Blessed are they that mourn” — “blessed” mean inner happiness. “Mourning” here is a present active participle and it means to be in a constant condition of mourning or to be in a constant condition of suffering. This particular beatitude is designed for believers during prolonged periods of intense suffering. One of the by-products of the born-again or the regenerate life is happiness in the midst of sorrows and the pressures and the adversities of life. Christianity, when the divine operating assets are utilised, is designed to give you great inner peace and great inner happiness whether we are experiencing times of success or times of adversity. But without the faith-rest technique and the application of Bible doctrine to experience inner happiness is impossible. So the beatitude of suffering reminds us of the principle that we as believers can have constant inner happiness regardless of circumstances in life.

“for they shall be comforted” — future tense, which shows logical progression. If you are mourning it is logical that what you need is comforting and you are going to receive comfort. This is not a future tense as in the English sense but a future tense in the sense of a logical progression. However, this is only true of a person who is born again. Comfort means oriented to pressure in such a way that you have an inner peace and an inner happiness. The future tense means comfort from Bible doctrine is the logical result when you are in suffering. It is logical but it doesn’t always occur. Once a person is saved he is going to have a certain amount of suffering and regardless of the initial cause of the suffering you can have inner happiness. However, whether you have this inner happiness or not depends upon your understanding of doctrine. “They shall be comforted” means that suffering can be dispelled by Bible doctrine. It is in the passive voice, which is important for this reason: you do not earn it or deserve it, and you cannot work for it. You receive comfort, it is based upon the principle of grace.

Principle: God has provided for the believer an inner happiness to be perpetuated both in prosperity and in adversity. This is the monopoly of Christianity.

Verse 5 — the beatitude for phase three. “Blessed” — makarioj, inner happiness in relationship to God. In this case the inner happiness is connected with a certain category; “to the meek” (there is no verb “are” here); the Greek word prauj, which does not mean some person who expresses overt activities of humility. The Greek word means a person who thinks a certain way and it has to do with the thought pattern of grace. True humility is not an overt act, it is a mental attitude of orientation to grace. It means that you understand that every blessing that you will receive in time or in eternity is based upon who and what God is and not who and what man is.

“for they shall inherit the earth” — there is no way today in which we can find a meek person who is inheriting the earth, but that isn’t really what this verse says. The person who is a believer and who is oriented to grace is said to inherit something. The word “inherit” is a future active indicative and it has to do with a logical progression again. What do they inherit? The word “earth” here actually refers to the land. And this is where we have to go back again to the interpretation of the sermon on the mount, a crash program to take up the slack for the three years of the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ. After His death, burial, resurrection and ascension the Church Age would start and the disciples were being trained to operate, going to the house of Israel for those three years and announcing that the King was here. One of the things that they had to learn was that the one who is oriented to grace is going to inherit the land, and it refers to the land of Canaan, the land of Palestine. It is a reference to the fact that these disciples were to go out and to tell the Jews that even though the King was here; and, of course, He wasn’t going to stay very long, He was going to depart, and when the King departed this did not mean that all was over with Israel. This goes back to all of the Old Testament promises that Israel would have a future.

The King is Jesus Christ and after His ascension He is seated at the right hand of the Father. The Jews will shortly go under the 5th cycle of discipline, which mean they will be scattered, and operation Church will begin. All of this is a very discouraging picture for the Jews. So in this period of the crash program they were to go out and to tell the Jews that if they were oriented to grace — that means the cross first of all — they would still have a future in the land. The meek are those who are born again. They are oriented to grace at least once in their life and they inherit this land in the glorious Millennial reign of Jesus Christ, the land which was promised to the Jews forever. So Israel has a future. So there is inner happiness for the Jew who is oriented to grace, even though he has a very dark future in the 5th cycle of discipline and the scattering connected with it.

Principle: There is blessing in every phase of God’s plan and inner happiness is the order of the day for every facet of it.

Verse 6 — the beatitude of thirst for doctrine (or the beatitude of scale of values). If Bible doctrine is first on your scale of values you are going to develop a thirst for doctrine. Let’s face it: all Christians are not interested in doctrine, in fact very few Christians are. There must be a thirst for doctrine.

“Blessed” again means inner happiness, happiness in relationship to God. Happiness in this life depends upon love for and absorption of Bible doctrine, and the believer who desires doctrine and learns doctrine also applies doctrine, and when he applies doctrine he has reached the point of maturity and stability.

“are they which do hunger and thirst.” “Hunger and thirst” are again present active participles. The active voice is important because it indicates a desire for something connected with positive volition. You can do what you want to do; if you want to learn doctrine you can get it. “Hunger and thirst” here is an analogy to a desire for doctrine.

“after righteousness” — the Greek word which is used for righteousness here means righteousness in the sense of fulfilling divine statutes. Divine statutes simply means application of doctrine to experience. God’s righteousness can only be fulfilled in the believer and by the believer when he has God’s mental attitude, i.e. doctrine in the frontal lobe. John 13:17 is a parallel verse to this: “If ye know [and you do] these things [doctrine], happy [The “blessed” (inner happiness) of Matthew 5:6] are ye if [depending on your volition] ye do [apply] them.”

“for they shall be filled” — the result is that they will be filled with doctrine. This again is a gnomic future tense which indicates a logical progression. If you are hungry for doctrine you can get it, and when you get it you will be filled or satisfied. The word “filled” here means to be satisfied. When a person is hungry and he eats something the food gives him a sense of well-being, of peace and relaxation. This is exactly what happens when you take in doctrine. If you learn doctrine and get it in your frontal lobe, then you have this marvellous inner happiness and peace. Often the secret as far as phase two is concerned is simply knowing doctrine.

The first two chapters on the sermon on the mount, chapters 5 & 6, are directed toward the disciples, and chapter 7 is directed toward the multitude which eventually filters in and comes to the same mountain.

Verse 7 — the beatitude of operation grace. “Blessed are the merciful” — the word” merciful” refers to a compassionate believer, and to treating people in mercy. Mercy is simply grace in action or grace applied. “Blessed are the merciful” means two things: first of all, a person who has enough doctrine in his frontal lobe to be completely oriented to grace and, secondly, having enough doctrine to be oriented to grace that he treats others in grace, not on the basis of what they earn or deserve, and so on.

This particular verse is the making of a gentleman, someone who shows thoughtfulness toward others regardless of who or what they are. In order to be merciful you must first of all think grace. It is impossible to think grace unless you know Bible doctrine. So we have the principle that divine happiness is manifested by the expression of grace when grace is the thought pattern, the motivation, in fact the whole mental life of the believer.

“they shall obtain mercy” — refers to the believer who operates on the principle of grace. Grace is always met with grace from God. If you think grace, if you live by grace, if you are oriented to grace, then God can only deal with you in grace. When God deals with you in grace you have received the maximum blessing you can have in this life. So “they shall obtain mercy” is actually “they shall obtain grace in action.”

Operation grace

1. Grace always depends upon the character of the person, not upon the merit of another. When you treat people in grace you do this not because they deserve it but because it is a part of your inherent character. (Inherent character depends on what you think)

2. Under grace no one ever earns or deserves anything from God; under grace no one ever earns or deserves anything from you. Treatment of others does not depend upon their attitude toward you.

3. When the believer operates under grace he fulfils the Christian way of life: forgive as Christ forgave, love the brethren, no illusions about human ability, relying entirely upon the divine operating assets, and so on.

Grace in the one thing that man cannot stand up against, it mows him down. Man is geared in his human realm and in his thinking to stand up against anything but he cant stand up against grace.

4. The believer must know doctrine to orient to grace. You cannot orient to grace apart from Bible doctrine. By knowing doctrine you eventually come to the place where you think grace, and when you think grace you practice grace.

Warning: Knowing how to be filled with the Spirit is very important but if you are a baby-type believer, filled with the Spirit, your production is limited to a babies production. If you are a mature believer, filled with the Spirit, your production is maximum. This should be remembered because it is possible to be filled with the Sprit and never grow up. What is the difference between a baby and a mature believer? Knowledge of doctrine. It is possible to be filled with the Spirit and to log a lot of time filled with the Spirit and never grow up. So the great objective is not only to be filled with the Spirit — the filling of the Spirit doesn’t handle everything — but to grow up. The filling of the Spirit does not cause you to grow, it simply gives you the ability to grow; it gives you perceptive ability but without knowledge of doctrine you never grow up. This is what Jesus is saying in some of these beatitudes, he is warning them of the importance of maximum knowledge of doctrine so that they can grow up and be productive.

Verse 8 — the beatitude of rebound. “Blessed are the pure in heart.” The previous beatitude has to do with mental attitude, mental attitude grace. But that is only the end of the line. Where do you begin? The “pure in heart” is pure in the frontal lobe, it simply means the believer in fellowship. Verse 7 describes a believer who has maximum knowledge of doctrine and is a mature believer filled with the Spirit and producing the maximum. Verse 8 describes the baby. This is where you start. Once you accept Christ as saviour the big objective is to stay in the place of the filling of the Spirit. “Pure in heart” does not mean any kind of an emotional pattern, the word “heart” is the thinking part of the mind. Purity is a mental attitude which results from the filling of the Spirit, not a phoney facade of hypocritical self-righteousness. The mental attitude is important because you learn with your mind and if you are not controlled by the Spirit you cannot learn spiritual phenomena — doctrine.

“for they shall see” — you do not see God in this life. Even though this is a future tense again it is an ethical future which means logical result. It doesn’t mean to see God in the future. It means to see God now. How? Through the Word. Principle: If you are going to learn the Word you must be in fellowship. If you are not in fellowship you cannot learn doctrine. Inner happiness to the pure in the frontal lobe simply means a system of perception and you develop a system of perception by being filled with the Spirit. All the filling of the Spirit can do by way of moving you along to maturity is to open up your mind to doctrine — “they shall see God’ simply has to do with perception, it doesn’t means to see as you see a person but it means to perceive or to understand. How do you understand God? 1 Corinthians 2:16 — the Bible is the mind of Christ. The more you know about the Bible the more you know about God; the less you know about the Bible the less you know about God. It is possible to be saved and never know anything about God.

Verse 9 — the beatitude of witnessing. “Inner happiness to the peacemakers” — the peacemaker is the believer who clearly declares the gospel. Peace is the doctrine of reconciliation; the peacemaker is the believer who is able to say: “Be ye reconciled to God,” as per 2 Corinthians 5:17-21; Ephesians 2:13-18. Every believer is an ambassador for Christ; every believer is to be a peacemaker. The peacemaker is a believer witnessing for the Lord Jesus Christ.

The doctrine of evangelism

1. Knowledge of salvation is absolutely necessary to evangelise. You must know the doctrines of salvation in order to make the issue clear — 2 Corinthians 5:17-21.

2. Witnessing for Christ is the responsibility of every believer — Acts 1:8; 2 Timothy 4:5.

3. Effectiveness and clarity of witnessing depends upon the believer’s understanding of the last judgement — Revelation 20:12-15. The basis of judgement: “judged according to their works.” Works is simply a reference to human good, called in Hebrews 6:1 “dead works.” Sins were all judged at the cross; the cross takes care of our sins. Human good is not judged and at the last judgement (the unbeliever is the only one there) the unbeliever’s human good is judged and the unbeliever and human good are wrapped up in one package because the unbeliever rejected divine good, the cross. Both the unbeliever and his human good are tossed into the lake of fire. That is the last judgement. The unbeliever has trusted in his own works rather than the work of Christ. All human good is relegated to burning; it has never been judged; it was rejected at the cross.

4. Witnessing is impossible apart from the ministry of the Holy Spirit — John 16:8-11. Sin: the only sin is unbelief; righteousness: “because I go to my Father” — the issue of +R; judgement: “because the prince of this world is judged” (Matthew 25:41), and those who reject Christ share his judgement.

5. The pertinent content of the scripture is the believer’s weapon in evangelism. All parts of the scripture are not pertinent as far as the unbeliever is concerned. So the Bible has the power but it is necessary to use the right part of the Bible, those parts which deal with salvation, the gospel only.

6. The dynamics of witnessing include the mental attitude of the believer. There is a certain mental attitude that you should have when you are witnessing and it has nothing to do with being ashamed, embarrassed, frightened, etc. Romans 1:14-16 should be remembered.

7. There are two areas of witnessing for Christ. One is the area of the testimony of the lips — 2 Corinthians 5:17-21, and the other is the area of the life — 2 Corinthians 3:3.

8. There is a reward for witnessing — 2 Corinthians 3:11-16.

Verses 10-12, the beatitude of persecution. You can expect persecution as a result of witnessing and other things. By persecution is not meant a believer who is full of sour grapes and antagonisms and envy and hostility and self-pity, who makes himself miserable. With many Christians, when people are down on them, it has nothing to do with their witnessing or faithfulness to the Lord. They are not being persecuted, they are just plain knuckle-heads ignorant of doctrine and filled with mental attitude sins. They make themselves miserable, and those kind of people don’t have friends for very long. People avoid kooks!

Verse 10 — Some people are persecuted under this principle. “Blessed” — inner happiness — “to them which are persecuted for righteousness sake” — literally, on account of righteousness. So the people who are persecuted are first of all said to be righteous, and on account of righteousness they are persecuted. That means they are in the place of the filling of the Holy Spirit and they are producing the character of Christ — love, joy, peace, and so on, and/or divine righteousness — and because they are producing this righteousness they are persecuted. (There are some people who just can’t stand to see people with inner happiness at all, or inner peace, etc. They resent it because they don’t have it themselves; they resent those who do) The word “persecuted” is a perfect tense, which means they are persecuted with results that continue. The results are given: inner happiness. If you have your eyes on the Lord and are filled with the Spirit it means inner happiness.

“for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” — wrong. It should be: “of them is the kingdom of heaven.” They are born again and they are filled with the Spirit and they are obviously of the kingdom of heaven, and because of the kingdom of heaven on earth there will be persecution because of the devil’s world. When you are on the earth as a believer and are filled with the Holy Spirit you produce heaven on earth, and this is the devil’s world. The persecution usually comes from the devil’s strongest fortification which is religion. This explains religious persecution down through the ages. Religion cannot stand any bit of heaven on earth, that is, any of the kingdom of Christ being manifested in the devil’s world.

Verse 11 — “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you.” The word “revile” means to insult. It means to use opprobrious language, and that means of course scurrilous language. When people insult you with scurrilous language you can still have inner happiness and be totally relaxed.

“and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake [on account of me]” — What should be your attitude?

Verse 12 — “Rejoice, and be exceeding glad.” This is what blessed actually means. This is an outer manifestation of inner mental happiness. In other words, when people put the heat on you by ridicule and running you down you simply relax and smile — manifestation of the inner happiness. You have the inner happiness and so you let it come through. They will probably scream all the louder but you just stay with it.

“for great is your reward in heaven” — some day in the future there will be great reward for this type of operation; “for so persecuted they the prophets which were before them” — men such as Isaiah and Jeremiah, men who have great rewards coming.

Verses 13-20, Jesus now declares the way of life for His disciples during the closing days of the Age of Israel. The Age of Israel is about to be interrupted by the death, burial, resurrection and ascension. There is a period of about three years of the public ministry of our Lord and during that time this will be the way of life for the disciples. This transitional program is a type of modus operandi which will continue until the day of Pentecost when the Church Age will begin and the way of life which goes with it. Many of the things that we study in the crash program are pertinent to the Church Age and are actually the same. Others are quite different due to the fact that we are dealing with the Mosaic law and living under the Mosaic law. So we could call this the interim program: the way of life for the disciples for the three years of the public ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. Application to our own age will be seen immediately in verse 13, a dissertation on salt.

Verse 13 — “Ye are” is present linear aktionsart, verb of absolute status quo: “ye keep on being the salt of the earth.” The application is immediately obvious. The believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is the salt of the earth. Salt has two concepts: it is an unseen preservative and it provides flavour.

Salt as a preservative is a picture of the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ on the earth. The presence of the believer in any national entity or any society is the basis of the preservation of that national entity or society. Many nations have survived for no reason other than a maximum number of believers in the national group. That is the concept we have first of all. The principle which is involved in this first concept of salt: divine judgement against a nation is often restrained because of the presence of believers in that nation.

The second concept: salt provides flavour, the concept of the believer’s impact on society through evangelism. The believer’s impact on society is measured in terms of evangelism. This is important because in our day most people think that the solution to man’s problems is the improvement of man’s environment and making all races or all people equal. Both are totally impossible for man to achieve. As a believer it is not our responsibility to improve the devil’s world. This is whitewash and you can’t do any good in this field. Your impact on society is measured by your witness for Jesus Christ and then your impact on society is the predominance of divine viewpoint.

“but if the salt has lost his [its] savour” — “if” is a third class condition which says maybe you will and maybe you won’t; “has lost its savour” means to become tasteless, insipid. When salt becomes tasteless it is no good and one of the worst things that can happen today in the Church Age is for believers to become tasteless. Every believer is the salt of the earth and if you as a believer are tasteless you are useless in God’s plan; “wherewith shall it be salted?” as the Greek says, how shall it function as a preservative? In other words, how can you as a believer function as a preservative unless you are filled with the Spirit and unless you have a knowledge of doctrine. You cannot function in God’s plan if you are out of fellowship and/or you are ignorant of doctrine; “it is good for nothing” — the Greek says “it has ability for nothing.” As a believer in Jesus Christ out of fellowship or as a believer in Jesus Christ ignorant of doctrine, what are you good for? Nothing.

Translation so far: “You keep on being the salt of the earth: if it becomes insipid, how shall it function as a preservative? it has ability for nothing … “

So what is it good for? —“but to be cast out” or literally, having been cast out. This is an aorist passive participle. The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb. The main verb, “to be trodden down.” Having been cast out [believer out of fellowship] it is trodden down [or trodden under foot, under the Lord’s foot]. Aorist tense: the moment the believer gets out of fellowship; passive voice: the believer receives discipline. The concept of the participle: you have to get out of fellowship before you can be spanked. So not only is the salt tasteless but it is trodden under foot, it is disciplined. The insipid believer is the believer out of fellowship.

The doctrine of human good

1. Human good is identified in the Bible as dead works — Hebrews 6:1.

2. Human good will not save mankind — Titus 3:5.

3. Human good is not ever acceptable to God — Isaiah 64:6; Romans 8:8.

4. Human good is condemned by God — in the believer: 1 Corinthians 3:11-16; in the unbeliever: Ecclesiastes 12:14.

5. Human good is the basis for the indictment of all unbelievers at the last judgement — Revelation 20:12-15.

The doctrine of morality

1. Christianity is not a morality but a relationship with God.

2. Morality is a by-product of Christianity [the Spirit-filled life] but it is not Christianity.

3. Morality has no personal dynamics (The rich young ruler is the illustration).

4. Dynamics of Christianity are found in the filling of the Spirit.

5. Morality is absolutely necessary for the orderly function of the human race under the principle of the divine institutions — freewill, marriage, the family, nationalism.

6. Therefore morality is for the entire human race, not just for Christians.

7. But morality cannot provide either salvation or spirituality.

8. Morality has several sources. First of all from the old sin nature in the area of strength. There is also morality in the filling of the Spirit which is over and above anything that man can produce because it starts in the mental attitude and works to the outside.

Verse 14-16, the analogy to light.

Verse 14 — “Ye [plural] are the light of the world"— “Ye” should be “you all,” present linear aktionsart, verb of absolute status quo [e)imi]. It should be: “You keep on being the light of the world” .Jesus Christ is the light of the world, but now Jesus Christ is absent from the earth and every believer is an ambassador for Christ. As an ambassador for Christ the believer is the light of the world. The light of the world has the concept in the principle of witnessing — making an issue out of Christ — and that is exactly what true evangelism is. Jesus now appoints His disciples light.

“A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid” — you see the lights of a city at night. That is the believer who is filled with the Spirit and who knows doctrine.

Verse 15 — “Neither do men light a candle [lamp], and put it under a bushel” — a bushel is actually a big basket or clay pot for measuring grain. If you put a big pot over a candle you don’t see the lamp any more, you just see darkness. And that is what you do when you get out of fellowship or if you are ignorant of doctrine. Do not contribute to the world’s darkness by darkness. That means don’t make an issue out of things in life, make an issue out of Christ. That is what you are here for.

“but on a candlestick [lampstand]” — in order to light the room of a house you do not place the lamp under a clay pot, you put it on a lampstand, and this a picture of making an issue out of Christ; “it giveth light unto the whole house” — the house is comparable to the whole world.

Verse 16 — the exhortation. “Let your light so shine” — aorist active imperative. Aorist tense: a point of time when you are filled with the Spirit; active voice: you do the witnessing; imperative mood: you are commanded to do so; “before men [mankind], that [purpose clause] they may see your good” — the word for good is good of intrinsic value, and good of intrinsic value is divine good in contrast to good of relative value which is human good. So here we have good of intrinsic value and it stands for the production of the Spirit-filled life, 2 Corinthians 3:3. Good works refers to that which is produced by the filling of the Holy Spirit.

The doctrine of spirituality

1. You must distinguish between the salvation and the post-salvation ministry of the Spirit. There are 40 things that God does for the believer at the moment of salvation. Here is the salvation ministry of the Spirit: He is the agent of regeneration; He seals the believer. This is the basis of eternal security of the believer; He indwells the believer. This is the basis of being filled with the Spirit; He baptises every believer — baptism of the Spirit, referring to the Holy Spirit taking the believer at the moment of salvation and entering him into union with Christ. And He disseminates spiritual gifts to every believer. The post-salvation ministry of the Spirit is the filling of the Spirit, and there is only one way to be filled with the Spirit, 1 John 1:9, although there are many results of being filled with the Spirit.

2. Spirituality and carnality are mutually exclusive, like darkness and light, and therefore absolutes. You are either spiritual or carnal; it’s either/or, it’s never both/and.

3. In the spirituality or the spiritual life imitation is the great issue. If you are controlled by the Holy Spirit you imitate God — Ephesians 5:1; if you are controlled by the old sin nature you imitate the unbeliever.

4. The spiritual believer accomplishes three general objectives in the Christian life — to imitate God, Ephesians 5:1; 2 Corinthians 3:3; to glorify Christ, John 7:39; 16:14; to fulfil the law, Romans 8:2-4; 13:8.

5. The spiritual believer is not subject to the Mosaic law because he is under a higher law, the law of the Spirit of life — Romans 8:2-4; 10:4; Galatians 5:18,23.

6. The spiritual believer produces the very character of the humanity of Christ — Galatians 4:19; 5:22-23; 1 John 2:5-6.

7. Apart from his own volition or ignorance the spiritual believer cannot sin — 1 John 3:9. When can’t you sin? You cannot sin when you are filled with the Spirit. But the minute that you are tempted you are on the line: Am I going to stay controlled by the Spirit or am I going to be controlled by the old sin nature? The carnal believer grieves or quenches the Spirit but the spiritual believer magnifies Christ in this life — Ephesians 3:16,17 (in the Greek); 2 Corinthians 3:3; Philippians 1:20,21.

8. Production which is rewarded in the Christian way of life depends on the filling of the Spirit.

9. The results of the filling of the Spirit. There are many: prayer, witnessing, worship, imitation of Christ, understanding the Word, guidance, assurance, etc.

10 Emotion or ecstatics is not characteristic of spirituality during the Church Age — 2 Corinthians 6:11,12; Romans 16:17,18.

“and glorify your Father which is in heaven” — aorist tense: the word “glorify” means the point of time when you are filled with the Spirit. The active voice: you must be filled with the Spirit; subjunctive mood: glorifying God is potential, depending on whether you are filled with the Spirit or not.

Verse 17 — the necessity for the interim program. “Think not” means do not presume. This is not an ordinary word for thinking, it is usually a word for a presumption, a type of thinking which is connected with the ego and often with pride. Sometimes it means to think something that is not true and therefore to misunderstand, to misinterpret the life of another. And so Jesus is saying to His disciples at this particular moment — their heads are full of this — that they are the salt of the earth, they are the light of the world, they now understand their responsibility and they begin to wonder: Is the kingdom here? Is the King going to stay? Is this the beginning of the Millennium? — that this is an interim program, and He says: “Do not presume that I am come to destroy the law.” By destroying the law He means that this is not the Millennium. “I am come” refers to the first advent, and it is an aorist tense [the point of the first advent]; active voice: Christ came into the world a unique person in the first advent; the indicative mood is the reality of the first advent; “to destroy” — the word “destroy” means to abrogate, to nullify — “the law,” the aorist tense means at this time.

The doctrine of the Mosaic law

1. There are three sections to the Mosaic law — each section is a codex, a part of a book. The first section is called the commandments [the ten commandments] or the moral code — Exodus 20; secondly, the spiritual code which is called Biblically the ordinances, the spiritual code. This is codex number two, a complete Christology, a revelation of the person and the work of Jesus Christ. And the content of codex #2 includes the feast days, the various types of Levitical activities, Leviticus 1-6, the modus operandi of the priesthood, the organisation and material of the tabernacle and its significance, and so on; thirdly, codex #3 is called the judgements — a social code. This deals with things which should be eaten and not eaten, the dietary laws, the laws of isolation of communicable diseases and the handling of them, laws of marriage, etc.

The relationship: the moral code proves that I am a sinner and need a saviour; codex #2 presents the saviour; codex #3 presents a way of life for the Jews.

2. The Mosaic law was given to Israel only — Exodus 19:3; Leviticus 26:46; Romans 3:19; 9:4.

3. The law was not given to the Gentiles — Deuteronomy 4:8; Romans 2:12-14.

4. The Christian is not under the Mosaic law — Acts 15:5,24; Romans 6:14; Galatians 2:19.

5. Christians operate under a higher law, the law of spirituality — Romans 8:2-4; 10:4; Galatians 5:18,23.

6. The present purpose of the Mosaic law — Romans 3:20 [to convict of sin of unbelief]; 1 Timothy 1:9-10; Galatians 3:23,24 (The Holy Spirit does not convict the unbeliever of sin, except the sin of unbelief, rejection of Christ); the believer is convicted of personal sin by the Word.

7. Limitations of the Mosaic law: the law cannot justify — Galatians 2:16 (another word for the works of the law is “human good"); the law cannot give life — Galatians 3:21; the law cannot provide the Holy Spirit — Galatians 3:2; the law cannot produce miracles — Galatians 3:5. The law has a purpose but it must be kept within its design.

“but” — conjunction of contrast; “to fulfil.” The word “fulfil” is in the aorist tense, a point of time divorced from time and perpetuated forever. The law will be fulfilled in two ways: by His life and by His death. The life of Christ fulfils codex #.1 For thousands of years no member of the human race had ever been able to live up to the ten commandments perfectly. And so for thousands of years the Mosaic law lives on and no one can live it, no one can complete it, no one can fulfil it. Until along comes Jesus Christ, minus the old sin nature, indwelt in His humanity by the Holy Spirit, and Jesus Christ lived a perfect life and by His 33 years of perfect living He fulfilled codex #1, the commandments. He fulfilled codex #2 on the cross. The Mosaic law had been describing the Lamb who would be taking away the sin of the world, but Jesus said: “I am come to fulfil it.” His death fulfilled codex #2 when He was judged in our place.

Now, with the fulfilment of the law — both codex #1 and #2 — and the scattering of Israel under the fifth cycle of discipline, the function of the law to Israel is abrogated as an instrument in the function of the nation Israel. Israel under the fifth cycle of discipline is persona non grata with God.

The present purpose of the law has been modified to conform to the Church Age

1. The law teaches that man, the unbeliever, is a sinner and needs a saviour — Romans 3:20,28.

2. The law presents the Lord Jesus Christ — Codex #2.

3. The law provides a norm for stability in a national entity — Codex #3.

Verse 18 — the passing of the law.

“For verily I say unto you” — “I say” is present linear aktionsart, indicating that this stands, it goes on the record. “Verily” in front of “I say” is an idiom which says: “This is for the record.” And since this is the Word of God this is for the permanent record, “Til heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.”

you” is dative of advantage, it is always to your advantage to know any point of doctrine — “heaven and earth” refers to the universe in its present state. The word “pass” means to depart, the word “jot” refers to the smallest of all Hebrew letters, the word “tittle” comes from a Latin word which means a stroke and it is the Latin way of describing another Hebrew letter which is one stroke of a pen.

“from [the ultimate source of] the law, until all be fulfilled,” the law was completely fulfilled at the cross. So Jesus is telling the disciples that they were going to have to live by the law during this crash program. “Until all be fulfilled,” aorist active subjunctive. The verb “fulfilled” is ginomai in the Greek, and it doesn’t mean to be fulfilled, it means to come to pass, to become something that it wasn’t before. What was the law in Old Testament times? Hebrews 10:1 — “the law having a shadow of good things to come.” All of the time that the law was in operation it was a shadow because it had no reality. A shadow has no substance, no reality, and the law is a shadow. The law fulfilled a job in the Old Testament but it was a shadow and Christ is the reality. Once Christ comes you have minus law. The law was never fulfilled until Christ came, so the verb to fulfil [ginomai] means to become something that it was not before. The aorist tense recognises the cross and the 33 years which preceded it; the active voice: Christ fulfilled the law and made it something it was not before. The law was always a shadow and Christ made it a reality. Note: a shadow indicates the presence of reality. The law is a shadow and it points to reality but remember this: the law is not reality. Christ is the reality, and so the law became something it was not before because of the first advent.

Verse 19 — spirituality under a crash program. We have already seen that the Mosaic law remains in operation until the day of Pentecost and so these disciples are going to operate under the law. After the resurrection they will have a new way of life. In the meantime, what is the designation of the great one and the unsuccessful one? First of all we have “the least.”

“Whosoever therefore shall break [infringe] one of these least commandments.” He puts them under the law until the day of Pentecost; “and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven” .He not only infringes himself but he teaches others to do likewise.

Then we have the concept “great.” This isn’t actually spirituality but it is a category of disciples under the crash program — “but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus points out that the law is not fulfilled yet and that they were still under the law. They were not to take a jot or a tittle out of the Mosaic law. The great ones are the ones who will do it and teach it, and the least are the ones who will infringe upon it and teach others to infringe. But this doesn’t have anything to do with us in the Church Age. This is where we have to have some discernment.

Verse 20 — there is one unsaved disciple: Judas Iscariot. This verse it for Judas Iscariot only. Codex #1 is to prove to man that he is a sinner, that he is bankrupt, that he needs a saviour.

“For I say unto you, That except your righteousness,” referring to —R ^[1] or human good, “shall exceed,” the aorist tense is the point of time when the person believes in Christ and receives the righteousness of God, “the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees.” When their righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees then their righteousness becomes +R^[2] or divine good. This was directed to Judas who has -R. The only way Judas could have +R was to believe in Christ. Judas might try to keep the Mosaic law to be save but the Mosaic law cannot save.

We have come to that phase of the sermon on the mount which deals with the problem of mental attitude in sin. By way of introduction we should look at Proverbs chapter 6:16. These seven abomination sins are the worst of all of the overt sins. There are three categories: mental, tongue, and overt. Mental attitude sins are by far the worst.

“A proud look” is a Hebrew idiom for the mental attitude sin of pride. Pride was the original sin of Satan, it was involved in the original sin of mankind [“ye shall be as gods”], and pride is one of the most subtle of all sins. The average uninformed individual immediately assumes pride if you stand erect, if you speak with authority, but the proudest people in the world today are round-shouldered, they lower their eyes to half mast, and they practice all of the peculiarities of hypocrisy and self-righteousness. Legalism is still the greatest manifestation of pride so include the proud look the concept of legalism, that which is antagonistic to grace.

“a lying tongue” — “a heart that deviseth wicked imaginations.” This is actually operation hatred and hostility in the mind; “feet that are swift in running to mischief,” a sin of the tongue, a system of gossip; “a false witness that speaketh lies,” another sin of the tongue [perjury]; “he that soweth discord among the brethren,” maligning. We have here three categories of personal sin: pride and hatred covering the mental attitude; there are four sins that deal with the tongue; one overt sin only out of the seven — murder.

We are going to see this list in operation, in part, in the sermon on the mount because it is connected with the Mosaic law.

Matthew 5:21 — Jesus is speaking to His disciples who are going to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and in order to go to the lost sheep of Israel they must be able to handle the law properly. This means that they are going to deal with people like the rich young ruler, a self-righteous, unsaved, religious type person. But there are many such people in Israel. A religious nation is a spawning ground for self-righteousness and self-righteousness is the greatest enemy of grace. Therefore to break down this self-righteousness the intent of codex #1 must be thoroughly understood and that is the reason for this particular segment.

Murder is one of the seven worst sins; it is the only overt sin. We are going to have in verse 21 a citation of the sixth commandment and then its amplification in verse 22.

“Ye have heard” refers to the sixth commandment; “that it was said by them of old time,” the teaching of the Word of God in the past, and “Ye have heard” refers to Exodus 20:13 — “Thou shalt not kill.” This is erroneously translated both here and in Exodus 20:13. Because it is not correctly translated it has been abused in many ways. It should be translated: “Thou shalt not murder.” It is one word in the Hebrew. It should be remembered that there are times when the Bible authorises killing. Under divine institution #4 killing is commanded under the principle of capital punishment. Capital punishment is vitally necessary for the enforcement of the law. It is also a part of divine judgement to actually exterminate certain races when they become like a mad dog and must be removed, as in the case of the Canaanites, Sodom and Gomorra, certain of the descendants of Ham such as the Carthaginians. Were it not for these divine judgements we would not be here today. So it should be understood that this does not say “thou shalt not kill,” it says “thou shalt not murder.” You have no right to take another life under the concept of living in the divine institution #4, you have no right to take a life. But as a member of a military organisation defending of fighting for your country it is your job to do so.

“and whosoever shall kill [murder],” aorist active subjunctive. The aorist tense means in a point of time when you violate common law and murder someone. The active voice: you actually commit the murder; the subjunctive mood says that murder is potential, you do not have to do so, in fact you are restrained by the common law of divine institution #4; “shall be in danger of judgement,” but this is temporal judgement, judgement from the legal system of the national entity — Romans 13:4.

What is murder? It is an infringement upon the right of some individual, an infringement upon his volition. It is the elimination of their freedom permanently, of their right to accept Christ as saviour, to get married, or take some kind of a job, etc. However, in a military situation the principle is different. The enemy’s job is to kill you and your attitude is to kill or be killed, and in a military situation it is a part of your Christian testimony to do the best possible job of killing the enemy.

Verse 22 — “whosoever is angry.” The most vicious type of murder is anger and hatred. What is anger? It is a mental attitude. What is hatred? It is a mental attitude. When you are angry at someone or you hate someone, that is murder.

“But I say unto you” — “but” is a conjunction of contrast. Jesus is saying in effect: “In contrast to what you have heard with regard to the sixth commandment as an overt sin I want to point out to you that it is an inner sin.” The Greek word for “angry” is o)rgizw, and it means to have an object and to have an attitude toward that object which is totally negative — hatred, the desire to destroy, desire to hurt, hostility. It means also to be enraged because you envy someone; it means to be angry because of your pride and your pride is hurt, like when you are “chewed out” by someone in authority. Murder extends itself; it begins with a mental attitude. The mental attitude of murder becomes implacability. When Jesus gets to the sin part of the sermon on the mount the first thing He does is mention mental attitude murder — o)rgizw. And if you have o)rgizw in the frontal lobe you are a miserable creature.

“with his brother” — there is an object in o)rgizw, his brother, another believer; “without a cause shall be in danger of the judgement [of justice].” The word “justice” means discipline.

“and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca” — the question is: What does this mean? This is a very difficult word because it is a Hellenised Aramaic term. “Raca” actually is a derogatory word which approximates profanity. It is an expression of mental attitude murder toward a person.

“shall be in danger of the council” — the council refers to the Sanhedrin who sorted out all the fights and assessed penalties.

“but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire” — “fool” is morh in the Greek, and it means imbecile, a person who is mentally ill. This is an unbeliever calling a believer mentally ill. In our day an illustration would be a member of one of the religious organisations calling a fundamentalist “lunatic fringe,” and a person who calls a believer lunatic because he proclaims Christ or makes the issue of the gospel clear has a mental attitude of unbelief and is in danger of dying and going to hell. In other words, this is a common phrase of the day.

Verse 23 — the worship case. In this particular case we have a principle of where a person goes to the altar. Now we don’t have anything like that today and the Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written, a previous dispensation and a sacred building called a temple.

“Therefore if,” third class condition, maybe this situation will occur and maybe it will not; “thou bring thy gift to the altar” — bringing a gift to the altar was a system of worship. Bringing a gift meant bringing an animal sacrifice, bringing a food offering, bringing money, to the altar, and the altar was technically out in front of the temple though later on incorporated into the temple. We would say today, If you come to a service to worship; “and there rememberest thou that thy brother hath ought against thee” — something is remembered as you move into the service. Once again it must be remembered that the Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written. This person suddenly remembers that he is guilty of mental homicide. “Brother” in the Age of Israel meant a fellow Jew, a member of the same race. By application to us it means a fellow believer, one who is born again.

Here is a person who has had hatred toward another person. He is now coming to the altar with a gift and is about to engage in an act of worship and he knows he has committed a sin. What should he do? In this case he is told exactly what he is to do and it has to do with a principle of rebound. Principle: Worship is meaningless with the believer out of fellowship.

Verse 24 — the rebound procedure as they followed it. “Leave there thy gift” — leave it there in the sense that there is not sense in offering it if you are out of fellowship; “and go thy way.” As far as we are concerned this is very simple. In the Church Age we can sit in a worship service, know we are out of fellowship, and recover immediately by means of 1 John 1:9; “first be reconciled to thy brother.” The word we need to analyse here is the word to be reconciled. It is a long word in the Greek — diallassw. This is a compound verb for reconcile is very interesting. Dia is a preposition meaning through, by, or because of, and allasso means to change or to alter or to transform. The word actually means in its compound to change or transform or alter because of something or someone. In this case it is to be changed because of something, because of a principle. This doesn’t mean to be reconciled to somebody and make up with them, as we would understand it today. It doesn’t mean a spat and then a reconciliation, it means a transformation because of a principle — principle: 1 John 1:9 and/or rebound. As far as we are concerned it is, “if we name our sins.”

“and then come and offer thy gift” — “come” is an aorist tense and “offer” is a present tense, but this present tense is dramatic. It is a dramatic thing when a believer in fellowship enters into worship. It has impact for Christ. This may not be generally realised but the gathering together of believers, controlled by the Spirit, fulfilling the principle of assembly worship, has great impact for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Is there anything in the verb that indicates action toward the brother who had been wronged? The answer is very simple: no action at all because of the etymology of the verb diallassw. Remember to “be reconciled” doesn’t mean to be reconciled, it means to be transformed by a principle. The Greek helps us a great deal. “Go thy way” means to follow a course of action or procedure.

Verses 25-26, the lawsuit case.

Verse 25 — “Agree with thine adversary quickly.” The word “agree” is what is called a periphrastic of the present imperative. A periphrastic is a combination of two verbs, the verb “to be” plus another verb in order to show permanence of result. In this case we have the present active imperative of e)imi, and the present active imperative means to be something, and in this case what we are to be is explained by the participle which follows, e)unoew, a compound word which means good and to think. Noew means to think. So the word means to think good. It doesn’t mean to “agree” with anyone. The verb “to be” plus thinking good means to have kind thoughts toward someone continually, keep on having kind thoughts toward others.

What does it mean to have kind thoughts? It means to have minus hatred, minus hostility, minus envy, minus implacability, and all sinful attitudes; and it means plus a)gaph, mental attitude love produced by the Holy Spirit. The principle is very simple: You can only “agree with thine adversary” [have kind thought toward thine enemy] by observing the sixth commandment in the field of mental attitude. This means that if you observe the sixth commandment you do not hate, your are not bitter, you are not implacable, jealous, you do not have it in for anyone. The sixth commandment can only be fulfilled by a relaxed mental attitude toward people.

“quickly” — when he hates you, when he expresses it in maligning, when he does something to express his hostility. If you are filled with the Spirit you will stay loose.

“while thou art in the way” — “in the way” is an idiom meaning contact with a hostile person. While he is expressing his hostility to you, you stay relaxed. If you don’t you are going to hurt yourself as illustrated by the rest of this sentence.

“lest” — a negative result clause; “at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.” In other words, “quickly” means a reflex.

Verse 26 — In those days most people borrowed money on the their crops and harvest disaster or failure would put them in a place of indebtedness and an enemy could buy it out. (If you snarled at your enemy and you couldn’t pay he would buy you out and if you couldn’t pat you would go to jail)

“the utmost farthing” means until you have paid off the debt to the last penny. It is very difficult to pay off from inside jail and so the principle is that you hurt yourself. So to have mental attitude sin toward others results in self-imposed misery, and therefore we become our greatest enemies when we are not controlled by the Holy Spirit.

We have been studying the sermon on the mount whereby the Lord Jesus Christ leaves a great crowd and goes into the mountains with His disciples in order to brief them and orient them to the future operation of His ministry on the earth. A great part of this ministry deals with the principle of impact for the Lord Jesus Christ during His earthly ministry, and for these disciples to have impact for Christ during that transitional period during the Jewish Age and the Church Age they must be blessed of God. And in the first part of the sermon on the mount we find some of the basis of blessing in that transitional period in a dispensation prior to the Church Age. And, of course, the principle which comes to us is the principle that in order to have impact for Christ you must have blessing in time of great stress and trial as well as in time of great success. Anyone can be happy when the circumstances are favourable to them or when they are stimulated by them but when you have happiness and blessing and stability and peace when things are going wrong and are difficult and there are great pressures when the situation varies periodically, this is something else. Impact for Christ during the three years of His ministry is based upon many of those principles which we have already studied. We have also studied the impact principle, “Ye are the salt of the earth", and of course the thing that keeps a nation going and causes a nation to survive is the remnant of believers within that nation. As goes the remnant so goes the nation is the principle we saw under the salt of the earth and the light of the world concepts. Then, in addition to this, we began to study the Mosaic law because out of the Mosaic law had come a fantastic system of hypocrisy. The ten commandments were being observed, for example, by many of the Jews for salvation and then for the concept of reward after salvation. An illustration will be seen later on when we study the rich young ruler, a young man who thought he was saved because he kept the ten commandments. But the purpose of the ten commandments is to demonstrate to man that he is a sinner and that he can do nothing to save himself and that he must go outside of the ten commandments for salvation, namely to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus is going to be dealing with the most religious and the most self-righteous people who have ever existed, and because He is going to deal with the Pharisees and the scribes and the Sadducees, and because He is going to be dealing with a self-righteous nation, His disciples must be prepared to stand with Him as far as attitude toward self-righteousness is concerned. The Mosaic law has failed to fulfil its function to the Jewish people because they have rejected the doctrinal principle and have simply taken the overt principle of religion and used it as the system.

Background for this goes back again to the cross. Every member of the human race has an old sin nature, but specifically now, inside of these Jews to whom Jesus and the disciples will minister for a period for three years. From the area of weakness we have personal sins; from the area of strength we have human good. It was the human good factor which was causing part of the confusion and part of the confusion was caused by the personal sins factor, because all sins were overt as far as they were concerned. At the cross the sins of the world would be poured out upon Jesus Christ and when He was bearing our sins the Father would judge Him. This means that all sin is judged at that time and sin is no longer the issue in salvation, the only issue is Christ who actually bore our sins. The work of bearing our sins in divine good. Christ at the same time rejected our human good in the old sin nature, but since the old sin nature must be judged in its entirety the judgement of human good is future. In the meantime in Jesus’ day the disciples had to face the issue of self-righteousness by means of human good, and the scribes and the Pharisees and the Sadducees had formed a religious system which had permeated the entire nation, a system of terrible self-righteousness. Later on Jesus will condemn that system of self-righteousness but at this point He is not condemning the disciples who are the recipients of the sermon on the mount but He is explaining to them how self-righteousness gets its start and how to avoid self-righteousness and therefore have an impact for Christ. Human good will be judged in the believer at the judgement seat of Christ after the rapture; human good will be judged in the unbeliever immediately at the end of the Millennium at the time of the last judgement. So human good has still to be judged but before it is judged it will form a system called religion. In fact the human good in the old sin nature of an unbeliever often makes him very religious and very self-righteous. When a believer is controlled by his old sin nature he is exactly the same way, he performs human good and from this has self-righteousness and religion. Self-righteousness and human good come from the old sin nature.

Jesus is using the Mosaic law as a background to teach the disciples and to warn them with regard to self-righteousness. One of the greatest enemies of impact for Christ is the self-righteous believer. It is a terrible thing for a believer to be representing Jesus Christ and to be filled with this self-righteous system. The unbeliever rejects whatever is said by way of the gospel on the basis of a terrible phoney facade.

Verses 27-30 — the case of the seventh commandment. It will be used to demonstrate the fallacy of self-righteousness. You have to remember that the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the scribes, and that many of the Jewish religious leaders were extremely lascivious, but for the record and as a front to the people they emphasised the adultery paragraph in the Mosaic law. The trouble was that in their synagogues and in the temple they would literally have thousands of people who would stand and commit mental adultery, and yet they would have a straight face and would look so shocked and horrified if there was a case of overt adultery. The reason is that wherever religion dominates the by-product is self-righteousness.

Verse 27 — “Ye have heard.” The disciples had all heard the entire ten commandments and they knew the seventh commandment. A big issue had been made out of the seventh commandment by the high priest and the religious leaders — “that it was said by them of old time” — this is the teaching of the ten commandments — “Thou shalt not commit adultery” — a quotation from Exodus 20:14. But Jesus is going to point out that this is not the real issue and that the issue is mental attitude. You live in your mind and an overt act of adultery is not as bad as the mental attitude sin. The Pharisees put out a front, a facade of self-righteousness. While they were committing mental adultery they were going about and condemning those who committed overt adultery. The reason self-righteous people often do this is not because they understand the cross and understand the work of the cross but simply because they are self-righteous, and it is inner pride. Often the person who is criticising overt adultery and looking down his nose at someone is equally as guilty, in fact he is worse, because he is at number one on the list of the seven worst sins — pride. He is proud of himself, he hasn’t violated any of the ten commandments lately, and he has built up this tremendous pride on the inside and a facade of self-righteousness on the outside.

Verse 28 — in the amplification Jesus blasts self-righteousness. “But” is a conjunction that now amplifies the seventh commandment and takes it beyond the over act; “I say unto you” — this is Jesus speaking. He is the last authority and He puts this in the present tense to indicate that this stands forever as the final authority. “Unto you” is dative of advantage, it is to their advantage to get the amplification; “whosoever looketh on a woman” — in this case it is directed toward the Pharisees and the self-righteous religious crowd, and it is directed toward the men who are primarily guilty of this thing. The word “looketh” is the Greek verb blepw, which means to give one quick glance to get an image of the woman and then from that point on you don’t have to look at her any more, she is in your mind and there is adultery then carried on in the mind. The imagery is created at that point. This word blepw means to check her out and get a quick image in the mind. The worst sins are always committed in the mind and sometimes when you spot a person who is self-righteous you can almost count on it that they are heavy sinners in the mental attitude and no one has ever mentioned them.

“to lust” — lust comes from the old sin nature. Lust is actually used here for the mental fantasies which develop in the adultery operation; “hath committed adultery with her already in his heart [mind, frontal lobe]. ”

Verse 29 — the key is the right eye. This is the master eye of a right-handed person and the illustration that we have in verses 29-30 is a right-handed person. In verse 30 we have the right hand which is going to be used for overt adultery. The right eye of verse 29 is mental adultery. Mental adultery is the worst of the two actually because it is always accompanied by more sins, it produces more sins.

If you pluck out your eye or cut off your arm, what have you done? You have mutilated yourself. If you commit overt adultery, what have you done? You have mutilated yourself. And mutilation also has another concept: self-judgement. So if you pluck out your eye or cut off your arm you have gone in for self-judgement and/or 1 Corinthians 11:31 — “If we would judge ourselves we should not be judged", and this self-judgement is exactly the same as 1 John 1:9. But Jesus didn’t have a blackboard and He didn’t have the training aids that we have today and so He had to use some way to break up this self-righteous religious combination, and He uses the best system possible: shock. This is exactly what we have in this passage. He is going to use the shock of self-mutilation as an analogy for self-judgement.

The eye is the basis for mental adultery as seen by the word blepw in the previous verse. “And if” is a first class condition, assuming it is true; “thy right eye offend thee,” the right eye offends by committing mental adultery; “pluck it out and cast it from thee” — that really shocked them. But “pluck it out and cast it from thee” is the concept of rebound. In other words, Jesus is not advocating that they pull their eye out and they can have fellowship again. But that isn’t the point. The point is that you get back into fellowship by self-judgement — 1 John 1:9. It is necessary for the disciples to be clear in their thinking and the point that is being made right now is that under the Mosaic law the mental attitude sin is just as bad as the overt sin, and that the solution to the mental attitude sin is self-judgement and/or rebound.

After you cast out the eye in this case notice that Jesus adds a point to deal with the witnessing problem. Remember that we have taken up the witnessing problem under the light of the world and the salt of the earth. This was where Jesus was training the disciples to witness under the conditions in which they lived. And so He goes on to show them the witnessing principle in the middle of verse 29. He said: “It is profitable [from the principle of rebound/ filling of the Spirit] for thee that one of thy members should perish” — this is the way they are to go to the Jews. They are to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and as they do the greatest barrier in witnessing will be self-righteousness and they are to use this same shock method. They are to go to these unbelieving Jews and emphasise the lake of fire, the final hell for all unbelievers, and they are to emphasise in this particular mental attitude sin that it is better to have an eye dumped into hell than that the whole body should go there. And on getting them to agree on that through this shock method the suggestion would be that they should let the eye join the body and the whole thing get out of the hell concept once and for all by faith in Christ. This is the approach to the self-righteous person. Jesus is saying in the first part that they must rebound and be filled with the Spirit and to witness for Christ and, secondly, that they must go out and witness for Christ in a lost and dying world. The lost and dying world which they are going to reach specifically is a self-righteous lost and dying world, it is a religious lost and dying world, and so to the self-righteous and the religious they have to talk about hell. And when they talked about hell they were to point out to the hearers that just one sin in the life qualifies one for hell and that the one sin in this case is mental adultery and to tell them to pull their eye out so they wont go to hell. And when they say they don’t want to do that you tell them a better way, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the approach that is going to be used.

Verse 30 — He repeats this with overt adultery. The hand is used to portray overt adultery and in both cases we have the principle of self-judgement rather than self-mutilation. The part of the body which offends must be judged either at the cross or in the lake of fire and rebound for the believer is simply agreeing with the judgement of the cross. Jesus does not give the disciples the gospel and this doesn’t carry the gospel, it simply takes approach. The witnesser must be in fellowship, he must use rebound and/or self-judgement. You cannot witness for Christ unless you are in fellowship. The second principle is that when dealing with a self-righteous type of unbeliever a shock approach must be used to make him aware of hell.

We begin this part of the study of the sermon on the mount in Deuteronomy chapter 24. We are dealing with that phase of the sermon on the mount that amplifies the Mosaic law.

Verse 1 — this was codex #3 of the Mosaic law on the subject of divorce. Divorce was a legitimate modus operandi in the Old Testament and under certain conditions still is. Divorce always indicates the right of remarriage as it is covered in the Word of God.

“When a man hath taken a wife [divine institution #2], and married her, and it comes to pass” — this phrase in the Hebrew merely indicates an elapse of time; “she no longer finds favour in his eyes.” Jesus is going to demonstrate that in most cases this is mental murder. The man hates the woman, he comes to despise her, he comes to dislike her, and this phrase is used to indicate that she is no longer loved by her husband. The reason that it is stated this way is twofold. First of all the man is responsible for the marriage, he must initiate the love in the marriage, he is 51% of the team and he is responsible for the initiation of love. The woman is the responder and therefore the man is to initiate all of the action and, in this case, he initiates hate [the sin of mental murder] — “because he hath found some uncleanness in her.” Remember this word “uncleanness.” This man wants an excuse to get rid of this woman and he finds excuse in the Mosaic law under the word “uncleanness.”

There was a lot of uncleanness under codex #3. For example, in Leviticus chapter 5:3; 7:21; 10:10; the entire eleventh chapter, chapters 13 and 15; Numbers 19; Deuteronomy 23:10. There are many passages on this subject. For example, there were laws of isolation for those who had come into contact with people who had died because of the risk of disease.

“then [afterward] let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it into her hand, and send her out of the house.” Note that “send her out of the house” means complete and total separation from the former mate.

Verse 2 — “And when she is departed.” What rights does she have after departure? — “out of his house, she may go and be another man’s wife” — this is the meaning of divorce. She has the right to remarry.

Verse 3 — “And if the latter husband hate her” — this is her second marriage — “and write her a bill of divorcement, and giveth it into her hand, and sendeth her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, which took her to be his wife;” — in other words, the second marriage breaks up either through death or divorce.

Verse 4 — “Her former husband which sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife.” In other words, remarriage is possible unless there is another marriage in between.

This particular passage on marriage became the basis for a real gimmick and the principle is found in the words “some uncleanness” in verse one. Uncleanness became a system to get rid of a woman. The gimmick was simply this: you have a wife, you don’t like her, so you send her down to some house where someone has just died. As soon as she walk into that house you write a bill of divorcement and say, Look my wife is unclean, she just walked into a house where there was a dead person and therefore I am divorcing her. And it was passed. This led to many abuses and many problems.

Matthew 5:31 — “It hath been said.” This phrase introduces a quotation or a system of documentation, and He is now documenting, going back to Deuteronomy 24:1 — “whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement.” He had to issue an official document with regard to divorce. This had been abused through the uncleanness gimmick, so Jesus is going to clarify what is meant by uncleanness in Deuteronomy 24.

Verse 32 — “But I say [keep on saying] unto you.” The present linear aktionsart of “I say, “legw, means this is it, this is the doctrine; “that whosoever shall put away [divorce] his wife, saving [except] for the cause of fornication.” In other words, what does uncleanness mean in Deuteronomy 24:1? What it doesn’t mean is ceremonial uncleanness of which there were many kinds, such as entering into a home where there is a corps and being declared unclean. It actually refers to a moral uncleanness which is defined by the word “fornication” here. So fornication is the basis of Deuteronomy 24:1. Now it is not the only basis for divorce. There are three bona fide reasons for divorce and where these exist the right of remarriage goes along automatically.

So Jesus is going to amplify and He says: “I say unto you.” We have the case of Deuteronomy 24:1, under uncleanness, of mental homicide where a husband hates his wife and is simply looking for an excuse to get rid of her. He finds his excuse in this uncleanness gimmick and he gets his wife in some kind of ceremonial uncleanness situation, and there are many such situations in the Mosaic law. Jesus says that this isn’t really what it means.

“causeth her to commit adultery” — the phrase is in the passive sense [causes her to receive adultery]. The cause of divorce which is bona fide here is adultery — “except for the cause of fornication,” and whoever does this causes the woman to receive adultery (literal translation). The woman herself is not guilty of adultery by marrying someone else and living with him but she receives this particular designation.

“and whoever shall marry her that is divorced commiteth adultery.” So it is the man who marries her who commits the adultery and the difference here is between the active voice of the last use of the verb and the passive voice of the first use of the verb.

So it actually looks like this in the Greek. Here is a woman who has been the victim of the unclean gimmick and is divorced. Now she goes out and remarries. When she remarries she receives adultery. She is not guilty of adultery but the passive voice says she receives it. However the man who marries her — active voice — he commits the act of adultery. So the divorce case is used to demonstrate the principle of chain sinning. We are not actually dealing with the subject of divorce as such but behind this is the problem of chain sinning. First of all, Jesus said that if you hate anyone it is mental murder. He also said that if you think it or do it, it is adultery, it is mental as well. Then He puts both of these things together by using a divorce case. The uncleanness gimmick is, again, a sin on the man’s part, and then he commits another sin because the wife goes out and remarries and when she does she receives adultery. She is not an adulteress but she receives it, the tag of adultery, and the man whom she marries is the adulterer. So the point is chain sinning: he hates, he gets rid of the woman through a gimmick, and he causes her to be tagged, to receive adultery. Jesus is going to point out from this that two wrongs do not make a right. Chain sinning is a mental attitude thing. This person that Jesus had in mind when He gave this part of the sermon is a person who hated his wife — a mental attitude sin. He not only hated his wife but he started the chain. He then used the uncleanness gimmick to get rid of her. And that isn’t all. Some other man made her his wife and so he is in adultery and doesn’t even know it. And all of this is caused by one man’s hate, one man’s mental attitude which just keeps pushing this thing along as one sin is built upon another.

The real guilty one here is not the one who is divorced but the man who practised the uncleanness gimmick, and Jesus said the only true basis for the uncleanness gimmick and what uncleanness really means is just one thing in Deuteronomy 24:1, and that is fornication. So once again the Lord Jesus Christ has gone from the overt statement of the law and taken it back to the mental attitude to demonstrate that what you really are is what you think. As a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ your impact for Christ depends not upon overt action, not upon a facade of self-righteousness, but upon your mental attitude. The mental attitude not only demands rebound as an operation of grace but it demands doctrine or the divine viewpoint as the basis of orientation to grace.

Verses 33-37, the perjury case. Jesus Christ is continuing the same subject: clarification of the law, the proper interpretation of the law, what the Mosaic law really means. This is really necessary because religion has distorted the Mosaic law. Religion is always in the process of distorting the law; it is always trying to make the law a system of self-righteousness rather than what it really is, a norm or a standard indicating that man is sinful and bankrupt and therefore needs a saviour. And the whole purpose of the Mosaic was to prove man’s bankruptcy and to demonstrate the principle that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and to show that Jesus Christ is the only solution to that particular problem; to anticipate the cross through codex #2, and then to provide a way of life for those who personally trusted in Christ in Israel and a way of life which is made up partially of human good and partially of divine good. Many of the commands of codex #3 can be executed in the energy of the flesh and the reason why is because codex #3 is not a way of life for believers only but a way of life for everyone in Israel. Under this particular way of life everything that is commanded in codex #3 is for believer and unbeliever. For example, tithing. Tithing is a system of income tax, it is not spiritual giving. Also, the rotation of crops was something that a believer or an unbeliever could do, as was the isolation of communicable diseases and the dietary laws.

In principle the Mosaic law is very interesting because it was designed for a special nation — Israel. The Mosaic law was only given to Israel and to no other nation. Codex #1, which is the ten commandments, proves that man is a sinner and that is the purpose — a norm or a standard to show man’s bankruptcy — but it is always for the unbeliever. Later on when a person accepts Christ it forms the principle that morality is necessary to operate the divine institutions. Codex #2 is a complete Christology, and in it we have the answer to man’s problem in the challenge for a person to believe in Jesus Christ. For the believer we find the principle of the importance of being occupied with Christ. Codex #3, which was simply the way of life for Israel and only Israel, was for the unbeliever as well as the believer under the principle of divine institution #4.

Now, what has happened is this: the system of religion which has developed by the time that Jesus is on the earth — religion is always Satanic — had developed to the point where legalism was the order of the day. For Jesus Christ to have an effective ministry in Israel He must rip the cover off from legalism and must destroy self-righteousness for this reason: Jesus Christ is going to the cross to solve the problem of the sin nature. He will bear all sins in His own body on the tree and when He does the Father will judge those sins and that will be, of course, the basis for salvation. But Jesus Christ will reject human good. Phariseeism is the operation of human good — salvation by works; spirituality by works. Jesus has demonstrated in Matthew chapter five that human good can neither provide salvation nor does it form a basis for any spirituality nor any relationship with God. Therefore these things must be eliminated. Human good is going to be judged. The sins of the unbeliever were judged at the cross; the human good of the old sin nature will be judged in the future. The human good of the unbeliever will be judged at the great white throne — Revelation 20:12-15; the human good of the believer will be judged at the judgement seat of Christ, right after the Rapture of the Church. So we have the principle that human good is not acceptable and Jesus is teaching this to His disciples so that they can have an effective and dynamic ministry, a ministry which anticipates the great modus operandi for the Church Age. Therefore there is a sense in which the sermon on the mount is a transitional message, a transition between the Age of Israel and the Church Age, and therefore there are certain parts of the sermon on the mount which anticipate the Church Age and which parallel the modus operandi of the Church Age.

The sermon on the mount is very difficult to interpret. Most of it is in the framework of the Age of Israel. Much of it is built around the concept of the Mosaic law. Other facets of it deal with the personal responsibility of the disciples ministering under the Lord Jesus Christ for a period of three years. The very last verse of this chapter anticipates the Church Age.

Verses 33 — “Again,” we continue, we are citing another case in the Mosaic law and showing its proper context and interpretation; “ye have heard,” aorist tense, referring to the point of time when these disciples were taught the Mosaic law. It is a reference to another part of the Mosaic law, Exodus 20:7; Leviticus 19:12; “that it hath been said by them of old time,” an idiom for reference to the Old Testament; “Thou shalt not forswear thyself.” “Forswear” is an old English word which doesn’t help us very much. The Greek means never make a statement in the name of something which is reliable and try to make that something which is reliable stand responsible for your statement.

Simple illustration: A woman says: “I love you.” As a man you have to take a good look at that statement and you would say to yourself: Who is it that says this? Is this a very stable person? Or is it an unstable person? Is this a person who changes her mind every hour on the hour? The principle is that what you say is no stronger than your character. If an unstable person says, “I love you,” they may be very sincere at the moment but it doesn’t mean any more than the person. But if this woman says: “By Jesus Christ I love you” or “It’s God’s will that I love you", she is now mentioning someone greater than she is, she mentions God. If the woman is unstable it still doesn’t mean anything, but she is now trying to bring God in and make you believe it on the basis of the fact that God is faithful, God is perfect, God is absolute stability, and she is trying to make you believe that because she brought in the name of God that somehow this makes it real. The point is very simple. To forswear means to make a statement and to try to convince someone of the validity of that statement by bringing in someone greater than the person speaking. What is wrong with forswearing? Any statement you make you are responsible for. To forswear is to try to bring someone else in and make them a co-signer. Everyone is responsible for his own statements. Jesus is telling the disciples to smarten up, to take a good look at the person who says what. If it is an irresponsible person the statement doesn’t mean anything because a statement is no stronger than the person who makes it.

“but shalt perform unto the Lord” — to perform means to discharge an obligation. If you say you are going to do it, no matter what it costs you, do it. In other words, always keep your word. If you promise someone you will do something, you do it, or don’t promise it. This passage is saying that you and I as believers are responsible for our own statements, for our promises, for our declaration of attitude.

Verse 34 — “But I say unto you, Swear not at all.” The word “swear” means do not make a promise with an oath; “neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne” — this was common in the Jews’ days.

Verse 35; “nor by earth; for it is his footstool.” The reason the earth is called His footstool is because the earth is the area of the world ruled by Satan and demons today under the angelic conflict, and it is called God’s footstool because through the Lord Jesus Christ the earth will become His footstool in due time. It is an idiom indicating the rulership of the earth and it has to do with operation footstool: “Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool.”

“neither by Jerusalem” — Jerusalem is mentioned, and this is the literal city, because it is the holy city greater than the individual who speaks. In the framework of the Jews to promise by Jerusalem was a very solemn thing; “the great King” refers to Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, and this is making a promise by Messiah.

Verse 36 — “Neither shalt thou swear by thy head,” also a Jewish system for taking an oath; “because thou canst not make one hair white or black,” means you can’t make it by thinking. The point is, don’t swear by something greater than yourself because you can’t even think greater than you are.

Verse 38 — “Ye have heard that it hath been said,” and we have a quotation again from the Mosaic law, Exodus 21:24; Deuteronomy 19:21; Leviticus 24:20, “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.” This had been distorted in Jesus’ day. It was a system of justice under divine institution #4, nationalism, and it was a system for meting out justice. It was a principle of law to be used by a judge sitting on a bench after the trial. It was never to be used as a means of personal vengeance or personal retaliation, but it had been distorted into that. Personal retaliation always hurts you more than it hurts someone else. It is a guarantee of a miserable life. Jesus is going to clarify. This is not personal retaliation, this is a principle of justice which a judge sitting in the court of Israel should use as he tries a case.

Verse 39 — “But I say unto you, That ye resist not.” The word “resist not” is a)ntisthmi. Anti means to be against; a)ntiisthmi means to stand against. It can actually come to mean to retaliate; “evil” should be literally, the evil person. It could be translated: “Do not retaliate against the low-down [the evil person].” When you retaliate you lower yourself to the level of the evil person. So the principle is: do not try to solve the problem of evil with evil. Life is too short to become involved in any personal vendetta. What is the answer to retaliation? How do you stay in fellowship when someone wrongs you? Romans 12:19 — faith-rest: “Avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” So don’t get in the Lord’s way.

This principle is personal, it is not national. (This is where the liberal distorts the sermon on the mount and says that it is wrong for a Christian to go to war) This verse does not promote pacifism or submitting to crime, it applies to personal relationship with others whereby they seek your harm apart from criminal action.

“whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.” Jesus is speaking in the framework of His day and this was very easily understood by them. It is greatly misunderstood by us. “Whosoever shall smite” means to slap. Often people publicly insulted others by stepping up and slapping them. The word “slap” is used here for a very important reason. The disciples understood slapping and that when someone was opposed to them or antagonistic and that they hadn’t taken the attitude that someone demanded, that slapping was the order of the day, someone would quite possibly come up and slap them. People were slapped all over the place in the ancient world. But slapping does something to the mental attitude and kings did this for a very definite purpose. (By the way, parents should never slap their children) If you slap someone and they get mad they might try to go for you, but if you keep slapping them and keep slapping them they finally submit mentally. They may not want to but either they will become a mad, angry person and try to kill you or they will submit. This was the modus operandi of the kings of the ancient world. If you slap a person a couple of times and they go for you, what is going to happen to that person? He is going to die. That’s why the kings had bodyguards. The kings of the ancient world looked at it this way: if you were slapped and you got down on your knees, they had won the battle because they had whipped you mentally.

The point is that when you are slapped you respond mentally, and this is a perfect illustration of what Jesus is saying. Sometimes it is a verbal slap, a mental slap, or it is a physical slap, but the physical slap covers the whole thing. He is saying that if someone slaps you, why do they slap you? Because they have a mental attitude, they hate you, they are implacable, they are unmerciful, they despise you, etc. In other words, the have a negative mental attitude. It is a sin and they express that sin by an overt slap. If you slap back it indicates that you have gone to their level, that you too have a negative mental attitude. This introduces a principle in the Christian way of life: the Word of God provides through divine operating assets, through doctrine in the soul, a mental attitude which can go through everything in life without being disturbed. The slap becomes the maximum pressure situation to illustrate this. So turning the other cheek does not connote pacifism or allowing yourself to be robbed by some criminal — crime, in other words — but it does mean specifically that when people do things to you in personal relationships the great issue is not your overt reaction but your mental attitude which dictates your overt action.

What does it take to turn the other cheek? A mental attitude. And what would be the ingredients of that mental attitude? Occupation with Christ — maturity; doctrine in the frontal lobe — divine viewpoint; faith-rest technique, filling of the Holy Spirit. In other words, Jesus has just said something that is humanly impossible. Why? Because anger becomes quick and instinctive when one is slapped, and to avoid the quick, instinctive anger, to avoid the sudden change from noble person to low-down requires a supernatural power, a supernatural modus operandi, and this verse must be connected with the last verse in the chapter — “You shall be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.” This anticipates the Church Age and the coming of the Holy Spirit. It anticipates that through the filling of the Spirit, instead of a natural way of life you have a supernatural way of life. The turning of the cheek is not a non-violent demand or implication but it is introducing the fact that the Christian way of life is a supernatural way of life which demands a supernatural execution and which demands a mental attitude of orientation to grace which can handle any situation which comes up suddenly. Apart from criminal action you take that situation and put it in the Lord’s hands and let Him handle it. How does He handle it? Vengeance! So stay out of the way, stay relaxed, and let Him handle it. This requires mental attitude and this mental attitude gives great impact.

Lessons from this verse

1. Two wrongs do not make a right. This means you can never solve a wrong by a wrong.

2. Do not retaliate by anger and violence. Anger is a mental attitude; violence is overt.

3. This principle of violence cannot be carried to the point of submission to criminal activity, nor does this passage authorise pacifism and disarmament.

4. But the passage teaches the faith-rest principle of placing retaliation in the hands of the Lord.

5. Retaliation lowers you to the level of the vindictive and the implacable.

Verse 40 — the judicial illustration. “And if any man will sue thee at law” — the eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth deals with the law of the land; criminal law and other types of law. Here we have in contrast to criminal law, civil law. “If any man will sue thee” is a liability case in civil law — “and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.” Again, the Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written. We do not have clothing comparable to this particular situation. Take the word “coat.” It isn’t coat at all. The Greek word is xitwn, which referred to a kind of tee shirt, which had an open neck, shoulders and sleeves, and it went down to just above the knees. This was the common garment of the day and practically everyone wore a xitwn. Then, the next word, “let him have thy cloak also,” the cloak is the i(mation. The i(mation was simply a cloak that went over the xitwn, it was a kind of a mantle.

If we were going to run this into modern English, if someone sues you for your coat we would perhaps say: “Give them your trousers also.” The suit goes together, in other words. There are two principles here. First of all someone is trying to take away from you something that belongs to you, something that is classified as property. In this case the property illustration is clothing and they are only suing you for one item of clothing, so give them the whole suit, in other words. The point is this: what you possess as property is merely a detail of your life. In reality your life is the Lord Jesus Christ, your relationship to Him. Your life is operation grace and the things that you possess are not the important things, the One to whom you are related is important. So in your perspective as a believer it is nice to have things and if you have things you can enjoy them, but whether you have or have not things is inconsequential. Why would someone sue you for something you have? Because they want it. This is an attempt to get something from someone and do it in a legal way. We might call it legal stealing, to try to get something from someone else through courtroom procedure. And the point is, if they have to have it, well fine, because it doesn’t make that much difference to you. Your life belongs to the Lord and if you do not have it the Lord is still providing for you, you are still His ambassador, you are still making an issue out of Him. And so all this principle is really doing is saying this: Look the things you possess, do not let them hinder your testimony for the Lord. What you possess is not important, it is who you represent. Our life is a relationship, not possessions. Materialistic things are not the important things in life. Our relationship with the Lord is the basis of our happiness and our joy and our blessing, not what we possess. If we possess things, fine. If we do not possess things, fine. We still have the Lord.

Verse 41 — the public service illustration. Most people, when they read this verse think that here is a person who wants me to walk a mile with them and just to show them my heart’s in the right place I’ll walk two miles with them. But suppose one mile is the destination. How can you walk two miles with them? You can’t .But the good news is that this is not what the verse means at all. Walking miles doesn’t have anything remotely to do with this verse because this isn’t what the Greek says at all. The real secret to this verse is the word “compel.” It doesn’t mean compel at all, not in our modern sense. The Greek word is a)ggareuw, which does not mean to compel anyone to do anything. It means to draft someone into the Persian army. The Persians controlled the part of the world at one time where the Jews were located, and the Jews were under the protection of the Persians. It simply means to draft someone into military service. A)ggareuw is taken from a noun, a)ggaroj. An a)ggaroj was a Persian officer, a Persian official, who had the authority to draft someone into the Persian army, and if he gave an order to deliver to a destination fifty miles away then you went fifty miles but you went another fifty if necessary. In other words, when you are in the service of your country you do the best possible job whatever it happens to be. This is a part of your Christian testimony. It has nothing to do with walking.

Verse 42 — “Give to him that asketh thee.” There are two kinds who are going to be in poverty. One of them is simply going to ask for help and the other is going to ask for temporary help or he is going to try to borrow. The one who is going to borrow has ideas that he can get back on his feet and therefore he has some hope. The one who asks for help is in a hopeless situation and there is no daylight as far as he is concerned. So believers who are down and are having difficulty are going to fall into one of these two categories and the attitude toward both of them is described. The one who is in a hopeless situation and asks for money, give if you are able to do so. “Give” is an aorist active imperative. The aorist tense means in the point of time when they ask, because they are in a hopeless situation and they are desperate; “and from him that would borrow” — there is the second category, he thinks he could work his way out of it, and therefore he doesn’t want you to give to him, he just wants a loan to tide him over. Again, the principle is operation grace to be applied here, “turn thou not away,” aorist passive subjunctive. Aorist tense: in the point of time help him; the passive voice: you have been helped through grace and therefore you should help others in grace; the subjunctive mood is a command but it recognises human volition. Again there is the mental attitude to the brother in need situation. The mental attitude is the issue. It is easy to resent someone who seeks to borrow money from you, especially if he is not capable or has mishandled and made his own errors. Here is a new impact that is to come into a legalistic Jewish society, the impact of grace. It is the impact of a testimony for the Lord because you have a mental attitude of grace and you treat others in grace. It is the mental attitude that reveals itself and has the impact.

Verses 43-47, operation grace. Verse 43 — a citation from codex #3 of the Mosaic law. “Ye have heard that it hath been said,” a reference to Leviticus 19:18; “thou shalt love thy neighbour,” which is all that Lev.19:18 says, but Jesus is going to add what the legalists and the rabbis have been teaching; “and thou shalt hate thine enemy” — something which is not found in the Word but has been added by the rabbis. Remember that legalism sponsors implacability, hostility, hatred, antagonism, and so on.

Verse 44 — “But I say unto you.” Here is the final authority. We have a principle here: grace adds up to a relaxed mental attitude. This relaxed mental attitude is going to prevail through this principle. Now we have a fourfold application of the grace principle: “love your enemies” this is a principle. The law said: “Love your neighbour [the people with whom you have contact from day to day]” .What does Jesus say? “Love your enemies.” The system of the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the scribes, the religious people, said: “Hate your enemies.” And why have they been saying this? Because the shadow of Rome was over Judah and they wanted all the Jews to hate the Romans. As a matter of fact religion always sponsors hate. The religion in Judah eventually sponsored such hate toward the Romans that the Romans had to come in and destroy. So great was the hatred that the Jews would not be reasonable, and that is why in 70 AD Titus destroyed the Jews. The Jews actually destroyed themselves; religion sponsored hatred. In actual fact the Romans were extremely fair to the Jews but the Jews were implacable and hostile and hateful. This was 58 AD when this passage was written (Jesus said it between 30-32 AD) and 12 years later, down they went. Principle: “Love you enemies” — present active imperative, which is literally: “Keep on loving your enemies.” An enemy is someone who doesn’t deserve your love and this is the principle of grace and this is the mental attitude. They do not deserve your love but grace does not depend upon the nature of your enemy, grace depends on who and what you are. If you are strong enough you can love your enemies in all three categories of their hostility — the tongue, mental hostility, overt hostility. You have to be strong to do this but God provides the strength — divine operating assets.

“bless them that curse you” — the word “curse” here refers to verbal opposition, maligning, judging, nit-picking, etc. How do you handle that? Bless them — present active imperative, keep on blessing them. You do not treat people on the basis of what kind of people they are, you treat people on the basis of what kind of character you have. You are a strong person because of your relationship with the Lord and therefore you do not lower yourself to their level. To “bless” means you speak about them in a favourable way, but if it doesn’t come from doctrine you can’t do it, if it doesn’t come from the filling of the Holy Spirit you can’t do it; “do good to them that hate you” — hate is a mental attitude. To “do good” is a present active imperative, it is an order to keep on doing good. In other words, if you have the opportunity to treat them kindly and to do something nice for them, do it. Life is too short to get upset about people who run you down and malign you and hate you. Just place it in the Lord’s hands and move right on; “pray for them which despitefully use you” — the word “despitefully use” means harass; “and persecute you” — overt opposition of any kind. It could be violence, ostracism, and so on. Love your enemies is a principle and here are three ways in which you demonstrate love for your enemies. You have to have it in the mental attitude first. This love is a mental attitude, it is a)gaph type love. When it is the tongue — verbal opposition, bless them; when it is mental opposition do good to them; when it is overt opposition pray for them. This is the dynamics of the grace life and, of course, anticipating the Church Age just around the corner, the Holy Spirit produces this. In their case this was produced by the faith-rest technique and occupation with Christ in the previous dispensation, the Age of Israel.

Verse 45 — the illustration of grace plus the challenge to the believer to live by grace. “That” introduces a purpose clause; “ye may be,” literally, “that ye may become,” and this word means to become obvious. They are the children of God, they are saved (with the exception of Judas), and so “That ye may be” should be “That ye may become obviously the children of your Father” .In other words, it might even mean manifest, that others might realise that you belong to God, that you are in the family of God. This is the purpose of operation grace. Grace is a characteristic of God, and since He is our Father and we are His sons the son ought to manifest the characteristic of the Father, so grace ought to be manifest in our lives. In other words, our walk should reflect our position in Christ.

Illustrations of the Father’s grace: “He maketh the sun to rise on the evil and the good” .Have you ever noticed that some of the worst people in the world have been successful in business? And some of the nicest people have too. There is professional success and success in any field and it happens to all kinds of people. It is a matter of grace, and you ought to be thankful that no matter how much of a stinker a person is if the sun shines on him as much as it does you it indicates the plan of God by which you were saved — grace. “He maketh the sun to rise on the evil and the good,” the deserving and the undeserving receive the same sunlight. That is grace; it is a manifestation of the character of God; “and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust,” illustration from an agricultural economy. This has to do with business. In the agricultural economy it took rain for production. Among the farmers there were saved and unsaved but when the rain fell it fell on all alike. Once again, this is the principle of grace.

Verse 46 — “For if ye love them which love you” — it is generally true that if someone loves you, you love them to some extent; “what reward have you?” But the unbeliever can do the same — love someone who loves them. “Do not the publicans [tax collectors] the same?” The tax collector was low in the social structure of Israel and was ostracised by all of society. If the low-down unbeliever can actually love someone who loves him, what have you accomplished if you love someone who loves you? Any unbeliever can do that. This tells us many things. First of all it tells us that morality is not Christianity and that Christianity is not morality; Christianity is something much greater than morality. Unbelievers can be moral and can do good things, and the point is that if you as a believer can crank out human good, how is that any different from the unbeliever cranking out human good. Christianity is not a system of performing good deeds [human good]; it is much greater than that. So we have to recognise again that the believer performing human good in status quo carnality simply imitates the unbeliever doing the same thing.

Verse 47 — a second illustration. “And if you salute [greet] your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans [tax collectors] so?” Unbelievers do the same thing. The Christian way of life is something that the unbeliever cannot execute. Unbelievers can execute human good, they can be good lovers, they can be good friends, so what do you prove when you love those who love you? You don’t do anything more than unbelievers. You can’t have impact for Christ through human good.

Verse 48 — the anticipation of the Church Age. “Be ye therefore perfect” is incorrectly translated. It is a future tense and the Greek says: “You shall be perfect.” This anticipates the only way which during the absence of Christ there can be impact for Christ and this is actually a prophecy of the Church Age. “You shall be perfect” recognises two things: every believer being in union with Christ and being in the filling of the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ is God and Christ is perfect. His perfection becomes our perfection when we are in union with Him and from the filling of the Holy Spirit we produce the impossible, we produce the supernatural, we produce something — “love your enemies” — that turns the world upside down. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, etc.

“even as your Father in heaven is perfect” — the Father is perfect, the Son is perfect, the Holy Spirit is perfect. In the Church Age we are entered into union with Christ and we share His perfection. We are perfect as He is perfect. Because we are in union with Christ and because He is absent during the Church Age, seated at the right hand of the Father, this must be known on the earth and so we have the filling of the Holy Spirit which is the only way that we can reflect our position in Christ. So this is not a command to be perfect, it says “Ye shall be perfect,” anticipating the Church Age and positional truth.

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^[1]-R = human good, as per Isaiah 64:6.

^[2]+R = imputed righteousness.