WEEKLY SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON
An international Sunday school lesson commentary
For Sunday July 14, 2019
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JESUS
TEACHES US TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER
(We
should concern ourselves with reconciliation with GOD and others)
(Matthew
5:21-32)
After
hearing the statement by JESUS in verse 20 concerning the fate of the Pharisees
and Scribes, where HE tells the crowd of Israelites that, “Unless you obey GOD better than the teachers of religious law and the
Pharisees do, you can’t enter into the Kingdom of Heaven at all” (NLT),
they must have been extremely shocked, angry, and confused. It is no wonder
that JESUS’ next statement here in this passage (verse 21) is concerning
“murder” and “anger”.
Perhaps a fly on the wall could tell you
that the Scribes and Pharisees, who were present, were, no doubt, angry enough
to crucify JESUS right then and there. In this passage, maybe JESUS is seeking
to remind HIS stunned adversaries of the consequences of such an act after
seeing the looks on their faces. JESUS also talks about the dangerous
repercussions of “fire and brimstone judgment” one would face, even for calling
someone an idiot in anger, or cursing them, let alone doing physical harm to
them (one could imagine they were probably cursing and calling JESUS an idiot
right about then) (v.22).
In verses 23-26, JESUS goes on to inform
the people there, that, if they are standing before the altar in the temple
offering sacrifices to GOD, and are reminded that someone has something against
them, they should leave the sacrifice at the altar and go and be reconciled to
that person. Afterwards, they will be clear to come back to the altar and offer
sacrifices to GOD. And JESUS warns that a person should do this quickly,
without hesitation, for they do not know how much time they have left to live,
or when or if they will ever have another opportunity.
At
its core, this passage is mostly about reverence and respect, and JESUS did
come, in real human life-form, to show mankind exactly what reverence for GOD,
and respect for our fellowman is really like. Reverence and respect does not
consist of sacrifice, as much as it does, of mercy. It does not consist of
legalism, but rather, it consists of love. It does not consist of prohibitions
which demand that men should “not do”, but rather, it consists of instructions
on “how to do”, using the positive commandment of love. And justice consists of
giving to GOD, and to man, that which is their just due.
And so the message that JESUS is seeking to
convey in this passage is that the reverence and respect, which is the
foundation of the Ten Commandments, will never be allowed to pass away. They
represent the eternal make-up of a man’s relationship with GOD, and, his
relationship with his fellowman.
In verses 27-30 JESUS begins to teach about
how sin actually begins in “the thinking stages” (thought process) before it
progresses into an actual physical act. Here in this passage (Vs.27-28) he uses
the sin of “adultery”, “moicheia” (moy-khah-ah) in the Greek, as an example. HE
says here that, “anyone who even looks at
a woman with “lust” in his eye has already committed adultery with her in his
heart” (NLT).
Here the word used for “heart”, in the
biblical Greek is “kardia”, and it always means “the way we think”. And so “the
sin is in the thought”, and that is when we need to “repent” (“metanoia”- “change
our mind”), before we commit “the physical act”, which would call for “consequences”.
If we repent, change our minds, and don’t go through with the actual physical
act of sin, there are no consequences for us to have to pay for, or, deal with
afterwards.
In Deuteronomy 22, verses 13-21, and
Deuteronomy 24, verses 1-4 we get a pretty good picture of what JESUS is
speaking about in HIS Sermon on the Mount in this passage of Matthew 5. Here
JESUS is highlighting to these biblical scholars, the only excusable reason, “that
GOD gives”, for a man to divorce his wife, and that is, “if she committed “fornication”,
(“ervah” in the Hebrew, and “porneia” here in the biblical Greek (Vs.31-32), or,
in other words, “had sex before she was married” (as JESUS explains more
clearly later on in the next passage).
Fornication is a “sexual sin” that can only
be committed by a person who has “never been married before”. Once a person is
married, any sexual act that they carry out outside of their marriage is called
“adultery”. If a woman has had sex with a man “before she marries”, and she hides
this fact from the man she marries, he can divorce her for that reason if he
chooses to. However, if she exposes this fact to him before he marries her, and
he marries her anyway, he can’t divorce her even for that reason later on.
Sandwiched in between JESUS’ talk on
adultery, fornication, and divorce, he takes a minute to stress the seriousness
of the consequences of living a continued sinful life, and where it can land
the person’s soul if they choose to die in sin (Vs.29-30). Here HE says that “It is better for you to lose one part of
your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell” (v.30b-)(NLT).
Here in this passage, JESUS is not saying
that a person should maim themselves, or cut off the part of the body that they
feel causes them to sin, but rather, HE’s saying figuratively, that, the
penalty of living a continued sinful life with one’s body is so dire that,
going to Heaven with body parts missing, is better than going to hell with a
completely “intact” body. Sin begins in the mind, which instructs the body to physically
carry out the thought. The mind is responsible for what the body does, and not
the other way around.
We as human beings, have to make up in our
minds that we are going to show reverence for GOD, and love and respect for
each other, through our behavior. JESUS teaches us that loosely here, through a
somewhat subtle reference and insight into the Ten Commandments. And HE tells
us plainly later on in Matthew 25, verses 31-46, that, when HE returns (HIS
second coming), HE is going to judge us according to “how we reacted to human
need”, or, in other words, “how we showed reverence for GOD, by showing love
and respect for each other”. Amen.
A Sunday school lesson
by,
Larry D. Alexander
LARRY D. ALEXANDER- Official Website
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