Matthew 5:25-48

²⁵ Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.

²⁶ Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.

• When any kind of conflict arises between you and another person, find a solution to the conflict as quickly as possible. If you don’t, then things have a way of escalating so that you end up paying a heavy price. Small things become big things…minor irritation becomes rage…so, resolve disagreements quickly.

²⁷ Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:

• Jesus is quoting the Law here. Exodus 20:14- The 7th commandment, Thou shalt not commit adultery.

²⁸ But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.

• The sermon on the mount divided the religious from the true followers. Being a Christian is way more than outwardly following the commandments and keeping the Law. Being a Christian is about a transformed heart. A person can outwardly refrain from committing adultery, while inwardly being filled with the sinful lust of a heart that hasn’t been regenerated. They see no harm in their thought life fantasizing about forbidden things as long as they don’t physically do anything. Their actions of refraining from this sin comes from a religious place, not from a repentant regenerated heart. The dividing factor between a religious commitment and a regenerated heart is the religious person worries about the outward behavior of the flesh, but the born again person walks in repentances and refrains from evil even the very notion of it…because repentance is a change of mind… it recognizes how vile sin is and turns from following sin to following God…not just with the outward flesh, but with the heart. Proof of a regenerated born again heart is that they will not allow their mind to even think about sinning.
  The 2 new commandments Jesus gave…Love the Lord your God with you heart, soul, mind and strength… and your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:30-31) shows us that our hearts, soul, mind and strength are called to commit to God and love him. If those things are lined up with loving God… the flesh is going to follow… but if we simply act as if we respect and love God by keeping our flesh in line, but inwardly are the same old sinner… we are simply acting religious and are the people who will hear “Depart from me, I never knew you.” Because Jesus was never Lord of their heart.

²⁹ And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

³⁰ And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

• This is hyperbole which is used to show how important it is to fight against lusting in our minds. We need to go medieval about it… give no room for lust to grow… not in our minds or imaginations. If we know something causes us to stumble, we need to treat it like deadly poison and avoid it at all cost.

³¹ It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement:

³² But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.

³³ Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths:

³⁴ But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne:

³⁵ Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King.

³⁶ Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.

³⁷ But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.

• Christians need to be known for their honesty. We as Christians should not need to be under oath or to need to swear what we say is truth, it should be our character to be honest… to mean what we say and say what we mean in a truthful way at all times.

³⁸ Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:

³⁹ But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.

• This isn’t a verse that tells us to submit ourselves to repeated acts of abuse. This is a time when someone slaps us and instead of slapping them back we take the wrong and forgive them, then just move along. We show them mercy.

⁴⁰ And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.

⁴¹ And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.

⁴² Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.

• What happens when a person treats us disrespectfully…or they act abusively is we can become bitter and unloving… then revengeful towards them. Instead, we should settle it in our hearts to just take the wrong, walk in love and forgiveness and let it go so it doesn’t escalate and drag us down into bitterness, unforgiveness and sin. We become like the snake that bit us…when instead we can be an example of the change they need by being loving and merciful like Jesus. This doesn’t mean we have to keep going back to abusive people for more abuse.

⁴³ Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.

⁴⁴ But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

⁴⁵ That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

⁴⁶ For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?

⁴⁷ And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?

⁴⁸ Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

• The path of a Christian doesn’t look like the path of the world and if it does, then we need to check our spirit to see if we are walking in the Lord. In this world, we need to be ambassadors of Jesus, reflecting his way on those he brings across our path.