The Way of Righteousness - Matthew 5:17-24; 43-38

The scripture for this week’s lesson continues the study into Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Last week, we discussed basic principles of the Kingdom of God - the Beatitudes. This week, we will study how to apply certain Kingdom principles to our lives.

Again, I think it is helpful for us to recognize how counter-cultural the principles of God’s Word are. The way Jesus wants His followers to live often doesn’t make common sense.

I think one of the dangers, therefore, is that while we read principles and parables in the Bible, we sometimes don’t seem how to bridge that into our contemporary context.

What does it mean to truly live by biblical principles? I recently came across a story that both illustrates the difficulty some Christians have in living out Kingdom principles and also illustrates one of the most well-known parables of Jesus.

If you would like to read the whole story, you can find it here. Briefly, this blogger tells a story about her life before she became a Christian. One night she went out drinking. When she returned, she found she had been burgled. Everything was gone. She felt devastated.

A few days later she saw a guy who was a Christian and knew she was not. She told her story to him. His response was: “God might be judging you.” He repeated that statement, giving a brief explanation why he thought that might be the case.

Later, she saw a lady with whom she knew very little. This other lady was a stripper and drug addict. Yet when she poured out her story, the stripper listened as she poured out her heart. The next day, the stripper brought some clothes and invited her to visit in the future.

Why do Christians so often find it easy to sit back and offer condemnation instead of living out Christ’s love in the world? Showing love practically does not mean we must compromise our convictions, for Jesus was called “the friend of sinners”, yet He said that our righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees if we want to enter the kingdom of Heaven.

Consider what Jesus said about living according to God’s laws as we look at our scripture.

Read Matthew 5:17-20, 43-48

Discussion: What did it mean for Jesus to “fulfill” the Law?

(He perfectly followed the Law in its entirety and according to how God wishes for all people to live.)

Discussion: What attitude/action should we then have toward the Law?

(We should recognize that Jesus did not come to get rid of the Law; therefore, we should be careful to follow God’s laws completely, instead of following our desires/opinions about how God wants us to live.)

Read verse comments on Matthew 5:19.

Discussion: How can our righteousness exceed that of the Pharisees?

(1. We do not gain righteousness through our good works as the Pharisees were attempting. Rather, we are made righteous through the shed blood of Jesus. 2. As followers of Christ, we then live according to the heart of the law instead of the letter of the law. Take the parable of the Good Samaritan as an example: because we refuse to allow petty prejudices to keep us from helping others, we truly love others as God desires us to do so.)

Discussion: Does our righteousness exceed that of the Pharisees only because we have received saving grace through Jesus? What are the dangers in believing this is true?

(It leads to us thinking righteousness is separated from living. We could then call ourselves more righteous than the Pharisees while living with just as little or less love than they did.)

Concerning verse twenty-two we should note that commentators agree that “without a cause” is not in the original Greek manuscripts. The scripture should read “That whosoever is angry with his brother shall be in danger of judgment.”

I preached a sermon on this some time ago and found that at least one commentator said that this phrase was added in the King James Version due to the insistence of King James, who had a terrible temper. (Unfortunately, I did not note my source, so I’m not sure from which commentary I found this.)

I realize that this could just start up the argument of which Bible to use, but I mention it in order to note that while translators do the best job possible in whichever version they produce, our allegiance should not be to any one version, but to the original manuscripts. (We should also note that the King James Version is widely considered the most accurate translation - especially, word-for-word translation - of the Bible.)

Discussion: Why does Jesus say there will be such stiff punishment for angry feelings and words?

Discussion: Can a person be “righteously” angry? How is that different from the anger Jesus refers to in this verse?

(I think it has to do with the object of one’s anger. In this verse, one is angry with his brother as opposed to being angry about sin.)

Consider the phrase “and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee” in verse twenty-three. This suggests that you may feel like you have done nothing wrong, yet your brother is upset with you.

Discussion: Why, in such a case, should you leave the place of worship to make reconciliation with your brother? Isn’t it just his problem?

(To read a real-life example of this kind of situation, read the “Opening the Word” devotional for June 12, 2006, pp. 17-18.)

Discussion: Why does Jesus command us to be reconciled with others before worshipping Him?

Discussion: In regards to verse twenty-four, who has mistreated you recently? In response, have you 1) determined to show love to them, 2) blessed them, 3) treated them nicely, 4) prayed for them? How can we put this principle in action practically?

Discussion: Verse 45 - Rain falls on the just and the unjust alike. This seems to imply that we often feel like we are special and therefore should not deserve the same as the “sinner”. We see how the Pharisees displayed this attitude? How do Christians sometimes also act similarly?

Discussion: What is Jesus saying in verse forty-six? What does He mean?

Discussion: What would it look like to “salute your brethren only”? Do we do this?

In verse forty-eight Jesus sums up His teaching by saying, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” I think we can find the main point for our lesson here.

Big Idea:The righteous life is patterned after Jesus, the Righteous One.

Reflection: Are you patterning your life after Jesus? What are some areas in your life that don’t match His life well?