YOUR WORD AND ATTITUDES IN ACTION

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Matthew 5:33-48
Lesson #13
YOUR WORD AND ATTITUDES IN ACTION

• Memory verse: Mat 5:37
• Read Mat 5:33-37 Your word is a pledge
  • Why do you think your word is so important that Jesus placed it in his sermon along with murder, anger, and adultery?
  • To God, keeping your word is as important as murder, anger, and adultery.
    • God presents himself as the example:
      • =1= God’s word is holy and displays the character of God. You come to know God by what He says about himself in his word.
      • =2= The validity of God’s word and his reputation is based on his faithfulness to fulfill his prophecies in the Bible.
    • You, the believer, are the example of God to non-believers.
      • Your word is important and displays your character to other people.
      • People come to know what kind of person you are by your word.
    • The validity of your word and your reputation is based on your faithfulness to keep your promises.
  • Background:
    • To the Jews, one who gave His word and changed it was as bad as an idolater.
    • Read Exo 20:7 Num 30:2 Deu 23:21,22
      • That commandment has nothing to do with swearing by using bad language about God’s name.
      • It condemns the person that swears something is true and it is not, or makes some promise in the name of God and doesn’t keep it.
      • In the time of Jesus, there were two unsatisfactory things about taking oaths:
        • Frivolous swearing

Taking an oath when it wasn’t necessary became a common custom.

They would say, “by thy life”, “by my Head”, “may I never see the comfort of Israel if…”.

• • • • • Evasive swearing

The Jews divided oaths into two areas.

Some oaths were those that were binding and some were those that were not binding.

Any oath that contained God’s name was binding, but any oath that did not contain God’s name was not binding.

Therefore, they would swear by all kinds of devious ways to keep from using God’s name. In this way they could deceive a person into thinking it was a real vow and then break it.

You don’t have to swear by “God” in order to make God a partner to your Transaction. Nor do you leave God out of any transaction by not using His name.

• • The principle which Jesus presents is that God is sovereign and involved in your life whether you use his name in an oath or not.
    • You cannot divide life into compartments, some areas where God is involved and some areas where God is not involved.
    • He is involved in all of your life.
    • Therefore, He requires that you keep your word whether you swear it by an oath or not.
      • The ideal:
        • A man should never need to take an oath. The man’s character and reputation make it unnecessary.
        • The practice taken to extreme: Some have refused to take any oath.

The Essenes

The Quakers

• • • • The practice in reality:
        • Paul took oaths (2Cor 1:23 Gal 1:20)
        • Where’s the balance?

Sometimes it is necessary to take an oath, because there is evil in man and the world, and because he has no prior knowledge of your character or reputation.

Always the believer should consider important those things that he promises to others.

• Read Mat 5:38-42 Resentment, retaliation, and giving
  • The world’s oldest law: Lex talionis
    • This law said, “an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth”
    • This law became a part of the Old Testament Law. (Exo 21:23-25 Lev 24:19,20 Deu 19:21)
    • This law was the beginning of mercy because it began to limit vengeance. Blood feuds and vendettas were characteristic of tribal society with no thought to equal payment of wrongs committed.
    • This law did not give the individual the right to administer justice and punishment. Instead it gave that authority to government. (Deu 19:18)
    • This law was never carried out literally in any civilized society. Even in the Old Testament, there are glimpses of mercy. (Lev 19:18 Pro 25:21 Pro 24:29 Lam 3:30)
  • According to Jesus, what place does resentment and retaliation have in the Christian’s life? None
    • Therefore, Jesus further restricted this principle of law because retaliation, even when it is controlled and restricted, has no place in the Christian life.
    • Three examples of the new spirit of non-retaliation:
      • =1= The slap on the right cheek (39)
        • Suppose a right-handed man is standing in front of you. To slap you on your right cheek, he must strike you with the back of his hand.
        • To the Jews, to strike a person with the back of his hand was the ultimate in insults.
        • Jesus is saying that a believer must never retaliate or resent an insult no matter how serious it is.
      • =2= The tunic won in a law suit (40)
        • The tunic Jesus is speaking about was a long inner garment made of cotton or linen. Even the poorest man would have a change of tunics.
        • The cloak was the large, blanket-like outer garment which a man wore as a robe by day and used as a blanket by night. A man would have only one of these.

According to Jewish Law, a man could take your tunic but never your cloak without returning it to you before the sun went down. (Exo 22:26,27)

A man had the right to a warm cloak to cover himself from the cold of night.

• • • • • Jesus is saying that the Christian does not think of his rights but of his duties, not of his privileges, but of his responsibilities.
        • If you make a list of personal rights that Christian’s have, it will be an empty list. Everything that we have is a gift of God that we do not deserve and must never demand.
      • =3= Going one mile or two (41)
        • In an occupied country, the army that occupied your country could compel you to do any manner of work. This was the case of the Roman army that occupied Israel. This is what happened when the Romans “compelled” Simon of Cyrene, a bystander, to carry Jesus cross to the crucifixion.
        • The word compel comes from a Persian word (aggareuein) which means = courier.

In the Persian postal system, each road was divided into stages lasting one day.

At each stage there was food and water for the courier, food for his horse, and a fresh horse.

If there was anything lacking, any citizen could be compelled to give the courier what he lacked.

The word came to mean any kind of forced impressment into the service of an occupying power.

• • • • • Jesus is saying that the Christian should not always be thinking of his own liberty to do as he likes, but to be thinking of his duty and privilege in serving others.
• Read Mat 5:43-48 Christian love
  • The Jewish Law of giving based on love from Deu 15:7-11
    • In every seventh year all debts were canceled. The grudging, calculating man might refuse to lend anything when the seventh year was near for fear the debt would be canceled.
    • Love your neighbor (43) love your enemies (44)
    • There are four Greek words for love;
      • =1= (storge) = a word for family love; Parents for children and children for parents
      • =2= (eros) = a word for the love of a man for a woman. There is always passion and sexual love in the meaning of this word.
      • =3= (philia) = a word for affection and warm feelings. It describes a man’s closest, dearest, and truest friend.
      • =4= (agape) = a word for unconquerable benevolence, invincible goodwill, unconditional love.
  • Jesus never asks us to love our enemies with the same kind of love we have for our closest friends (philia) and family (storge) and mate (eros).
    • The love for friends and family and a mate is a love that grows without our intending it to happen.
    • Jesus wants us to love our enemies with an (agape) love that begins with your will and not your emotions.
    • What this does not mean:
      • Jesus is not talking about international relations between countries.
      • He is not advocating pacifism. He is speaking about personal relationships.
      • Jesus is not saying that you should let people do whatever they like to you, but rather you should pray for them and avoid hatred and resentment.
    • Why does God demand that the Christian should love everyone? God requires it because He is the model of agape love.
      • His unconditional love sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to the cross for us. (45)
      • We are to become more like him.
      • The reward: (46-48) If you only love people who are lovable, that is a reward in itself, but the eternal reward is to love when it does not come naturally.
  • Perfection (48)
    • The Greek word, teleios, means = to achieve the purpose for which you were created and sent to do.
    • Basic principle to achieving perfection: Develop a love for other people that never stops caring for them no matter what they do!

Homework

Matthew 6:1-8

• Application of Mat 5:33-48
  • Circle which of the following areas of your life need the most work?
    • Keeping your word
    • Avoiding resentment and retaliation after insults
    • Loving the unlovely people and your enemies
  • What can you do specifically to become more like Christ in this area?
• Preparation for Mat 6:1-8 The Sermon on the Mount continued
  • Read Mat 6:1-8
    • What do you think should be one’s attitude toward rewards in the Christian life?
    • What is Jesus view of doing the right things with a wrong motive?
    • What should be the Christian’s motive for giving?
    • How does Jesus tell us not to pray?
• Memory verse: 1Timothy 2:8