1...2...3...GO
Ok, so i found myself forewarding all my emails so i figured it best just put all these thoughts in one place. I've been reading the gospel of Matthew in preperation to start a Bible study (on Matthew). I just got to chapter 5, the beattitudes, and stuff really started jumping out at me. I can go through that later if anyone reading this wants to know, but now I'm just gonna pick up right at the end of that with verse 13. (Matthew 5)
After the beattitudes he starts talking about the salt and the light, these are things that I've heard thousends of times and i get it. One of Jesus' more simple of parables in my opinion. But soon after that he starts talking about Anger.
He starts to relate anger and murder. wow. To me these are 2 completely different things. He also ties in insult with with anger and goes on to say [23] So if you are offering your gift at the alter and there remember that your brother has something agaist you,[24] leave your gift there before the alter and go. First be reconciled with your brother, and then come offer your gift. This didn't really impact me until i thought of ALL the people i have wrong in my life so far, and believe me, the list is long. There are 2 cases in my mind that specifically come to light.
The first is my friend Chris, I've known this kid for years. We've always got along very well and about a year ago when I returned home to CT we met up and became great friends. I was hurt on the job day working, my right hand was crushed in a one ton hydraulic lift. Chris got a job at the same company picking up the slack doing things i couldnt do, which was awsome. Chris and I worked so well together that we decided to start a clothing company. Long story short, bad descions were made on both of our accounts and company flopped. Since then Chris hasn't even really spoken to me. Looking back, I can't say I can blame him. I was a different person. But now, I feel like I should look him up and apologize for the whole mishap. But I was so bitter about the whole clothing company thing, I lost a lot of time, money, friends, credit. Most of that I've blamed on him. What really hit me is that what if he gets saved and I'm still holding this against him? This is HARD. I feel like i need to go back, humble myself, and apologize for shattering this kids dream and our friendship. To make the situation even more difficult is that I started taking the steps to sue this kid. So now i have to call off my lawyer and eat that charge too.
The second case is the company I worked for. Im trying to sue them for the whole getting my hand crushed thing. To make that even more difficult I left the company without giving a 2 weeks notice. I felt justified in doing so. I felt mistreated. I had a right to leave. Bull. I didn't want to man up. So Im gonna email the owner and apologize, which is a little bit easier than chris. I'm gonna call off that lawsuit too. EVEN though they deserve it. I might not always understand why God has us do the things we do I just know if its from him its right.
Changing gears not so gracefully....
Verse 27 starts talking about lust. Ok so he just got done saying if you make fun of people or are angry with people you will be liable to judgement. Heres the kicker verse [28] But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultry with her in his heart.
Then he starts talking about crazy things like tearing out your eyes and chopping off hands. So according to this, Im gonna deffinatly be blind and cripple. But after I chop off my right hand, how can i chop off the left? While BLIND? just kidding. This is a really difficult subject for me, and I know for lots of people too so Im not gonna sugar coat this. Actually Im gonna steal what pastor wes preached on this. Jesus is talking about radical things here, chopping off hands and such. To overcome these sins its gonna take radical change. I'm not talking about ripping out your eyes, but cancelling your cable, tossing out garbage movies, cancel the....internet. For me, I know I've got some DVDs hidden that are porn. I am going to throw them away as soon as i go out to my trailer. I've had them for years, and i felt God telling me, nows the time....they gotta go. Also, Im gonna download that webpage scanner. Basically it reports any "pages of ill refute" to your accountability partners. I need it. I can't trust myself alone with a world of garbage, I'll want to check it out.
The next passage is interesting. He starts talking about divorce. I think what he's really talking about though, is marrage. Just like back in the day people got married for the wrong reasons. I think hes emphasizing the importance of marrage. It makes sense that right after he talks about lust he talks about marrage.
Then he starts talking about Oaths. I think this can be largely related to that passage in James that says the tounge is the rudder of a ship. I think here hes emphasising the power of what we say. Vows, curses, oaths, blessings all come from our mouth. It seems far too commonplace nowadays for us to say, "i swear to God" or "on my mothers grave". I feel like America as a whole has kinda forgotten the power of speech. God SPOKE the entire universe into existance and here we are speaking terrible things to each other and not even realizing it. I did it last night. I was sitting around the table with friends and just started tearing into this girl for no reason. It seems like whenever the conversation heads that way i need to point out that im witty and sharp and say something clever and mean and disrespectful. What really bothers me is that some people dont know how else to communicate. I don't think it was very much different in Jesus' day. I'd like to find out how the whole "i swear by..." came about.
So after he talks about oaths He goes on to the famous turn the other cheek thing. Great. After everything that I decided to change in my life, now I have to turn the other cheek. But its more than that. In verse 39 He says "But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil." Well I've done a good job of that. I've done pretty much everything the "one who is evil" wants for most of my life.....What hes saying here is people are going to hurt you, physically, emotionally, anyway they can, but that doesnt mean these people are not your brothers.
Here it comes, hes about to tie together everything from anger, lust, divorce, oaths. He says is someone is suing you for all your clothes, give them all your shoes too. He says if anyone holds a gun to your head and makes you drive for 10 mile, drive 20. He says Love your enemies. He says the sun rises and the rain falls on all people good, bad, rightous, unlawful. Equal. Everyone is Equal. It doesn't matter if you've never murdered anyone, if you hate them with all your heart, your just as guilty. You can be celibate and have lustful, perverted thoughts all day. In otherwords, The Law won't save you, Jesus will. Its not about what you do, Its about whats in your heart. He tops it off saying [48] You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Hes saying If you want to follow this law, you need to be perfect. hes saying "good luck, let me know how that works out for you" Your good deads dont save you, its whats in your heart. The Law wont save you, Jesus will.
thats the end of chapter 5
let me know what you all think.
After the beattitudes he starts talking about the salt and the light, these are things that I've heard thousends of times and i get it. One of Jesus' more simple of parables in my opinion. But soon after that he starts talking about Anger.
He starts to relate anger and murder. wow. To me these are 2 completely different things. He also ties in insult with with anger and goes on to say [23] So if you are offering your gift at the alter and there remember that your brother has something agaist you,[24] leave your gift there before the alter and go. First be reconciled with your brother, and then come offer your gift. This didn't really impact me until i thought of ALL the people i have wrong in my life so far, and believe me, the list is long. There are 2 cases in my mind that specifically come to light.
The first is my friend Chris, I've known this kid for years. We've always got along very well and about a year ago when I returned home to CT we met up and became great friends. I was hurt on the job day working, my right hand was crushed in a one ton hydraulic lift. Chris got a job at the same company picking up the slack doing things i couldnt do, which was awsome. Chris and I worked so well together that we decided to start a clothing company. Long story short, bad descions were made on both of our accounts and company flopped. Since then Chris hasn't even really spoken to me. Looking back, I can't say I can blame him. I was a different person. But now, I feel like I should look him up and apologize for the whole mishap. But I was so bitter about the whole clothing company thing, I lost a lot of time, money, friends, credit. Most of that I've blamed on him. What really hit me is that what if he gets saved and I'm still holding this against him? This is HARD. I feel like i need to go back, humble myself, and apologize for shattering this kids dream and our friendship. To make the situation even more difficult is that I started taking the steps to sue this kid. So now i have to call off my lawyer and eat that charge too.
The second case is the company I worked for. Im trying to sue them for the whole getting my hand crushed thing. To make that even more difficult I left the company without giving a 2 weeks notice. I felt justified in doing so. I felt mistreated. I had a right to leave. Bull. I didn't want to man up. So Im gonna email the owner and apologize, which is a little bit easier than chris. I'm gonna call off that lawsuit too. EVEN though they deserve it. I might not always understand why God has us do the things we do I just know if its from him its right.
Changing gears not so gracefully....
Verse 27 starts talking about lust. Ok so he just got done saying if you make fun of people or are angry with people you will be liable to judgement. Heres the kicker verse [28] But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultry with her in his heart.
Then he starts talking about crazy things like tearing out your eyes and chopping off hands. So according to this, Im gonna deffinatly be blind and cripple. But after I chop off my right hand, how can i chop off the left? While BLIND? just kidding. This is a really difficult subject for me, and I know for lots of people too so Im not gonna sugar coat this. Actually Im gonna steal what pastor wes preached on this. Jesus is talking about radical things here, chopping off hands and such. To overcome these sins its gonna take radical change. I'm not talking about ripping out your eyes, but cancelling your cable, tossing out garbage movies, cancel the....internet. For me, I know I've got some DVDs hidden that are porn. I am going to throw them away as soon as i go out to my trailer. I've had them for years, and i felt God telling me, nows the time....they gotta go. Also, Im gonna download that webpage scanner. Basically it reports any "pages of ill refute" to your accountability partners. I need it. I can't trust myself alone with a world of garbage, I'll want to check it out.
The next passage is interesting. He starts talking about divorce. I think what he's really talking about though, is marrage. Just like back in the day people got married for the wrong reasons. I think hes emphasizing the importance of marrage. It makes sense that right after he talks about lust he talks about marrage.
Then he starts talking about Oaths. I think this can be largely related to that passage in James that says the tounge is the rudder of a ship. I think here hes emphasising the power of what we say. Vows, curses, oaths, blessings all come from our mouth. It seems far too commonplace nowadays for us to say, "i swear to God" or "on my mothers grave". I feel like America as a whole has kinda forgotten the power of speech. God SPOKE the entire universe into existance and here we are speaking terrible things to each other and not even realizing it. I did it last night. I was sitting around the table with friends and just started tearing into this girl for no reason. It seems like whenever the conversation heads that way i need to point out that im witty and sharp and say something clever and mean and disrespectful. What really bothers me is that some people dont know how else to communicate. I don't think it was very much different in Jesus' day. I'd like to find out how the whole "i swear by..." came about.
So after he talks about oaths He goes on to the famous turn the other cheek thing. Great. After everything that I decided to change in my life, now I have to turn the other cheek. But its more than that. In verse 39 He says "But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil." Well I've done a good job of that. I've done pretty much everything the "one who is evil" wants for most of my life.....What hes saying here is people are going to hurt you, physically, emotionally, anyway they can, but that doesnt mean these people are not your brothers.
Here it comes, hes about to tie together everything from anger, lust, divorce, oaths. He says is someone is suing you for all your clothes, give them all your shoes too. He says if anyone holds a gun to your head and makes you drive for 10 mile, drive 20. He says Love your enemies. He says the sun rises and the rain falls on all people good, bad, rightous, unlawful. Equal. Everyone is Equal. It doesn't matter if you've never murdered anyone, if you hate them with all your heart, your just as guilty. You can be celibate and have lustful, perverted thoughts all day. In otherwords, The Law won't save you, Jesus will. Its not about what you do, Its about whats in your heart. He tops it off saying [48] You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Hes saying If you want to follow this law, you need to be perfect. hes saying "good luck, let me know how that works out for you" Your good deads dont save you, its whats in your heart. The Law wont save you, Jesus will.
thats the end of chapter 5
let me know what you all think.
posted by Its not about Perfection, Its about Progress at 8:50 AM
1 Comments:
Dude... you totally nailed that passage. Everytime I look at that I am astounded by what appears to be a complete and utter paradox but the more you look at it the more you see that this is Jesus saying how broad the law is... just how UNDER the law we really ALL are. You can't shield yourself from it at all. We're all held accountable for it and not just for a piece of it but for ALL of it. So... you are so right in pointing out that last line that Jesus says there. The "perfection" line. Yeah... we would DEFINATELY have to be perfect to do all that. And thats totally what he was trying to teach these people. We just don't meet God's standards because of our sin. Praise God we have an intercessor!! Its almost like... sarcastic Jesus in that last verse. I never saw it that way before!
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