Matthew 6:1-4 - Giving

We need to read these verses in the light of what Jesus said earlier in Matthew 5:16, where he told us to let our light shine. What Jesus is teaching here is the importance of our heart attitude. In one sense it actually does not matter at all if people see what we are giving, what does matter is what is in our heart. But our hearts being the way they are, it is better to do most giving in secret.

The religious types of the day made a big show of giving. The key thing is to whom are you looking to for a reward? If it is to impress men with your so-called "righteousness" then having made a big show of giving, you have received everything you want, so God will not give you anything else. 

You see the frightening thing about God is that He often gives people exactly what they want. If someone wants nothing to do with God, then God may have nothing to do with him, and that is a terrible state to be in.

So it is wise to do most of our giving in private. What about rewards? Should we be giving in order to gain a reward? Well, yes and no. The notion pedalled by some that we should give so that God will make us rich is not what Jesus is talking about. When we give we should be looking for it to have an effect. If we give to the poor we should be looking for them to be made rich. If we are giving to a missionary organisation we should be looking for them to be fruitful. If we are giving to our church we should be looking for the church to grow in influence and in size. 

We should also be looking for our relationship with God to deepen, and the more we give the closer we come to God. For the nature of God is to give, so when we give we become more like Him.
Our focus should be in the person or organisation we are giving to, and seeking to see them or it prosper.

Matthew 5:43-48 - Love your enemy

The "Love your neighbour and hate your enemies" did not come from the Bible. The first bit did (Leviticus 19:18), but the second bit did not and was the saying of religious teachers. In fact it is worth looking at the whole of Leviticus 5:18 which says:

Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbour as yourself. I am the LORD

So we see that Jesus' teaching is actually in line with the heart of what the Law said. This is further illustrated by Exodus 23:4 where the command says if you come across your enemy's donkey you must return it.

We are to love everyone. Now note that love is not merely an emotion, it involves actions. The reason we are to do this is that we are to be like God. "Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect". Perfect here has the sense of complete. This is amazing, Jesus is saying we are to be like God. But this is not really amazing, for right back in Genesis 1 it says we were created in God's image. We were always meant to be like God, to reflect His character.

We are called to be extraordinary. Everyone is kind to their friends, but God gives good things to all people. We are to be likewise.

Loving our enemies can be very difficult. It can be difficult to do, and even when we do it it can be difficult to know if we truly love them, for there are often a whole load of emotions going on inside us. Here prayer is vital. Keep on praying a blessing on their life. God will then change our hearts.

Finally notice the mention of reward. We will say more about this later, but Jesus is always going on about rewards.

Matthew 5:38-42 - An eye for an eye

We now come to responding to evil. The "eye for an eye" instructions from the Law were not an excuse for revenge, but a limit on judgement. Ie they were intended to ensure that the punishment fitted the crime, but did not exceed it, ie it did not give excuse for an orgy of retribution. This is the way a governmental authority should act. The problem with our society is that all too often crimes do not receive just punishment. Conversely there are some cases where excessive penalty is paid.

However, as individuals, as God's citizens in this world, we are to act differently. "Do not resist an evil person". I think it is fair to take this as applying to ourselves where the price paid is paid by us. If we see someone doing harm to someone else, then, if it is within our power to do so, we should act. All the examples given here are ones where we pay the price.

Roman soldiers had the right to demand that a Jew carry his stuff for one mile. No doubt the people resented this. Jesus says that the response should be to offer to go two miles. This would have the benefit of totally confusing the soldier! There is more than one way to overcome evil. Straight forward opposition is not the only way.

One application to "do not resist evil" is reacting to abortion. There are some extreme groups (mostly in US) who have gone as far as bombing abortion clinics. This is not the way to respond. Proper protest is OK, but reacting to evil with evil is not. 

Matthew 5:33-37 - Always tell the truth

The core of this teaching is "simply tell the truth". Arguments about whether or not we can "swear on the Bible" in court or whatever are missing the point. What Jesus is teaching against is the notion that at some times we should be more diligent about telling the truth than at others. 

We should tell the truth at all times, it should be in our heart to tell the truth, it should be in our nature to tell the truth. 

The Pharisees had developed a whole system of swearing by oaths, hence Jesus' mention of various types. They thought that if they swore by something other than God then they were not fully bound by the oath. This is why Jesus refers to swearing by ones head, or by Jerusalem etc. The whole world belongs to God, all people were created by God, we are always in God's sight. So we must always tell the truth. Anything else tells of deception in our heart, and we need to root it out, not make excuses or cover-ups.
In an earlier post (5:21-26) I talked about it being foolish for authorities to try and judge attitudes and thoughts. This has a wider application, and is why it is vital that we do not treat all this teaching by Jesus as new laws. All of us are guilty of wrong attitudes, lust in our hearts, none of us has always told the absolute truth. When we repent and resolve to change, the change will not come about instantly. There will be times when we fail, at least in our hearts, if not in outward expression. God alone knows all our attitudes and what is in our heart, and He alone is able to handle the knowledge. He knows when we are moving in the right direction and a wrong attitude will eventually be overcome, He knows when a wrong attitude is something that will trigger a serious error. He knows when to be merciful, when to be patient, when to take action, and how to take action. We do not. Indeed if we knew every single thought that ever goes through each others head we probably could not handle it. 

Matthew 5:31,32 - Divorce

Now we come to one of the most contentious issues, divorce. We need to look at this in context, both its immediate textual context (ie what Jesus has just said, and is just about to say), and its religious and social context. 

There were two main schools of thought on divorce, One took a very strict interpretation. The other an ultra lax approach. Under the teaching of this latter group a man could effectively divorce his wife for burning the toast (I know, he should make his own toast). This is not an exaggeration. So advocates of this second school of thought could find, if they fancied another woman, find some flimsy pretext for divorce and marry the other woman. They would at the same time claim they were within the law.

So Jesus is lambasting these hypocrites. 

Laws of the time seemed to be very biased in favour of the man, holding the woman largely responsible for adultery. Here Jesus makes it plain that men are at least as guilty as women.

There is a much larger section on divorce later in Matthew, so I will wait till we get there before saying too much more on divorce and remarriage.

Here Jesus is focusing on heart issues, so I will do so also. You cannot avoid the righteousness of God by inventing rules and spurious justifications for your actions. God sees the heart and knows the evil that resides in there.

On a practical point, it is also worth noting that Jesus has just been talking about hatred and lust, and next will talk about lies. If we dealt with the hatred, lust and lies in our lives then there would be an awful lot less divorce, and an awful lot more happiness.

Matthew 5:27-30 - Lust

Jesus applies the same principle that He has just applied to murder and hatred to adultery and lust. Adultery, and other sexual sins, are the outworking of lust in the heart. So again we see that Jesus is concerned with what is going on inside our hearts. Jesus did not come to give us a new set of rules, but to give us a new life, to give us the new heart that is promised in Ezekiel. The concept of not having lust in our hearts was not new, Job had promised not to look lustfully at a girl (Job 31:1).

Jesus then uses hyperbole (ie exaggeration to prove a point) to demonstrate how seriously we should deal with the matter. He is not saying we should physically gouge out our eyes. Indeed the problem would still remain, for lust lies in our hearts, but we should deal with the matter most seriously. We should not put ourselves in temptations way. Jospeh is an excellent example here. He fled when Potiphar's wife tried to seduce him, and this was the best thing to do, even though it meant him being sent to prison.

We need to guard our hearts.

Matthew 5:21-26 - Attitudes of the heart

The "You have heard it said ..." here is not referring to the commandment "you shall not murder", but to the "anyone who murders shall be subject to judgement".  This is made clear by the next verse, "but I tell you ... will be subject to judgement". 

What is going on here? Well, with the "anyone who murders" bit most of us can then feel self-righteous, for most of us have not murdered anyone. So under the rabbinical teaching would not be subject to judgement. However, all of us have been angry with people, most or all of us have either said or thought harsh things against someone else. Jesus is telling us that it is the attitude of our heart that is crucial. The act of murder is the outworking of hatred within, and society must have laws against the outworking of wrong attitudes. Now it is futile and foolish for a society to try and have thought crimes, which our current idiotic society is intent on doing with various "hate crimes". But God can and does judge the attitudes of our heart.

Jesus then gives two illustrations. Remember He gave this teaching in Galilee, a few days journey from Jerusalem. So to leave a gift (probably a sheep or such like) at the altar, and to go back home to settle something would be impractical. But Jesus us making the point that as far as God is concerned it is more important that we have our attitude to others sorted out, rather than any religious rituals.

Then He tells us to settle matters quickly out of court. This is certainly good practical advice! However, that is not the main point that Jesus is making. Our case always seems right, we always convince ourself that we are in the right. Yet when someone else hears the whole story, and hears both sides, they may take a different view.