This is a Journal Entry reflecting on Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 5:21-48
Much like today in the church, in Jesus’ time there were different schools of thought within Rabbinic teaching.
Two of the big ones were:
School of Hillel
School of Shammai
In the case of divorce for instance, the school of Hillel believed you could divorce for any reason; whereas the school of Shammai believed you could only divorce over sexual immorality.
Jesus in this section of the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ takes what is the common teachings of the day and does the practice of what many rabbis did by giving his own teaching on the subject.
Jesus begins by putting on display the common teaching by saying:
“You have heard that it was said”
Jesus then speaks with authority on the subject by saying:
“But I tell you.”
Jesus here is taking the common teaching that his audience would be familiar with and he deconstructs the teachings and reconstructs with his own teaching on the subject.
What Jesus’ teaching is doing is literally going deeper.
The common teaching’s dealt with the action, the hands and feet of how we live our lives. Yet Jesus’ teaching went into the conversation around our character.
Jesus for instance does not just condemn murder. He also condemns a heart that wants to be divisive and harbors resentment.
Jesus in regards to another common teaching does not just condemn having an affair. Jesus also condemns having an imagination that is unfaithful.
Jesus goes on and on taking common teachings and providing a twist that really examines the motives in our hearts.
Along with his teachings is an urge to do whatever it takes to “kill the flesh.”
The flesh being the part of ourselves that does what we know we should not do.
“I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate.”
Romans 7:15 NLT
John Owen has this famous line that I first heard when I was a teenager being taught by a Youth Pastor who loved quoting the Puritans.
The saying goes: “Be killing sin, or sin will be killing you.”
It is not enough to just stop cheating on your girlfriend, you must radically alter your way of thinking. Before you move your hand, your brain triggered your body to move in alignment with your thoughts, so much so that you do not even really recognize that you thought about moving your hand when you did it. Your mind and your actions are so in sync that often times our actions are a good indicator of where our minds are.
Here’s an excerpt from the ‘The Desert Fathers’:
A hermit said about the temptation to lust, “Do you want to be saved? Go, and discipline yourself, “seek, and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you.”(Matt. 7:7). In the world there are boxers who are hit hard and yet stand firm and receive crowns. Sometimes one is set upon by two at once, and their blows give him strength so that he overcomes them. Have you not seen what strength exercise brings? So stand and be strong and the Lord will defeat your enemy for you.’
We teach ourselves how to brush our teeth by turning it into a discipline. Your parents made you get up every morning and before bed at night and taught you to brush your teeth. Hopefully now twenty or so years later, it is a regular habit of yours that contributes to your health without you putting much thought into it.
When it comes to our flesh, that unhealthy part of us that we wish would die, we must build disciplines and habits into our lives that actively wage war against it. “If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away”(Matthew 5:29 CSB).
For Reflection:
1.) What is a bad habit, a sin, a struggle with your self that keeps coming up that you wish to put a stop to?
2.) What are the environments, rituals, movements that regularly set you up to fall into that temptation?
3.) What are some practical steps, habits and rhythms you can set in place to make room for the Spirit to give you victory over this sin in your life?
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