"For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven."--Matthew 5:20. Jesus being straightforward about what this sermon is about, righteousness. Not just righteousness but the simple fact that if the people expected to enter the kingdom of heaven, they had to be more righteous than the Pharisees.
Righteousness. As I said, Jesus was being pretty straightforward here. The Pharisees appeared, emphasis on appeared, to be one of the most righteous people in society. But the more we read through the New Testament, the more we see they were anything but righteous.
Righteousness. I want to briefly lay some ground work. At this point in time, idolatry in itself was not as much of a problem with God's people so we must ask the question then what was the problem? Well as one of my professors put it, Israel was anxious to get rid of idolatry so the "pendulum" swung to the opposite extreme and created legalism. This was a form of righteousness but not the kind God was looking for. This is why Jesus says what He says in Matthew 5:20.
Righteousness. How does this apply to us? Well its no secret that legalism still exists even today and even in the Lord's church it is somewhat of a problem. Matthew 5:20 applies to us today in that our righteousness needs to surpass that of the legalists.
So how do we do it? Well over the next several days we are going to be looking at different passages from Matthew 5-7 which encompass the entirety of this great sermon known as the Sermon on the Mount. Surpassing the righteousness of the legalists begins with self-examination. Take some time to reflect on what it is you believe. Take some time to look into the Scriptures and see if what you might believe to be law matches up with what Christ expects of us in Scripture. On the other hand, take some time and see if what you believe to be a matter of opinion matches up with the Scripture. You never know, you might surprise yourself as to what you find.
SEE YA TOMORROW NIGHT! DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! LOVE Y'ALL! GOD BLESS!
No comments:
Post a Comment