Laws of the Kingdom: Not This

Matthew 6:1-7:6

Welcome! Today we continue our series into the book of Matthew, continuing with what is known as the Sermon on the Mount. Our Title is a follow-up to last week’s title, which was “Laws of the Kingdom: Do This.” What we will see as we go through today’s passage is Jesus telling people what not to do in multiple areas of life.

One of the amazing things about Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount to me is how it speaks simultaneously to people in very different situations, and the message is quite different to different people even though they are the same words. This was true for those in Jesus’ audience on that day the message was given (and on other days Jesus gave similar words), and it is also true today to listeners like you and me.

An example is at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus says that the poor in spirit, the meek, and others with struggles such as those in mourning and those experiencing persecution because of their faith are all blessed, favored by God. To the poor in spirit, the meek, and those with these struggles, the message is incredibly uplifting, encouraging, and comforting. God sees, and He is filled with compassion. To these people, hearing these words causes them to love God even more. God’s words give them hope and peace.

But to others, people of “privilege” who look down on the poor and have little compassion for those who struggle, to those who care little for the things of God, Jesus’ words cause them to dislike Jesus. They don’t like the idea that Jesus cares little about the social conventions of the day. These people are used to being admired by other people and view themselves as A-listers, people on the top of the social hierarchy. They don’t like the fact that Jesus doesn’t seem at all impressed by them.

People today say that America is more divided on politics than ever. Well, Jesus had a similar effect in His time. By the end of Jesus’ time on Earth, some people were ready to worship Him while others were shouting “Crucify, crucify!” This division began at the time of Jesus’ traveling ministry, and the Sermon on the Mount is an early example of how Jesus had such different effects on people.

As a very brief recap, following the “Blessed are those” statements, Jesus then spoke about how people who follow Him should be like salt and light. He then explained that He did not come to abolish the law, not at all. Next, He expounded on the law, showing that the law went far deeper than people presumed, not just to outward actions, but to the heart. Specifically, He expounded on the commandments not to murder and not to commit adultery, pointing out being angry with someone or lusting for someone also violated these laws.

Jesus then spoke about divorce, saying that the requirement that someone who divorced his wife was required to give her a certificate did not go far enough; Jesus said that divorce was actually adultery unless the reason was due to a breaking of the marriage vows of being faithful to one another. I believe what Jesus was getting at was the idea that lots of men were choosing to divorce their wives for poor reasons, such as financial reasons, just falling “out” of love, or wanting to marry someone else.  Jesus’ message was that such reasons were not appropriate. This is a good example of how the one message would be received very differently by different people. Women would love Jesus for this, because to be divorced was financially and socially an extremely traumatic experience for women at that time. Men who wanted to divorce for inappropriate reasons, and those who had already done so, on the other hand, were almost certainly furious with Jesus for saying these things.

Jesus next turned to the making of oaths, which was often done publicly with great show. Public oath-making often increased one’s honor status, as the public declaration showed the crowds how generous or magnanimous or otherwise principled someone appeared to be. But Jesus said to just do what you are planning to do; don’t use your decision to do what is right to, well, increase your social media presence, or to use another modern phrase, to increase your “street cred.”  

Finally, Jesus addressed two sayings, the Biblical “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth” idea of getting justice, and the saying to “love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” This saying was a combination of two ideas, the requirement to love your neighbor as yourself, and the idea, often expressed in the Psalms, that people could join God in His opposition to those who sook to harm or destroy the people of God. The problem here in both cases was that people mis-applied these sayings. The point of eye for an eye was that retribution could never exceed the original offense; that is, it was actually a command to give up your anger towards those who harmed you. And the idea of hating your enemy was really about agreeing with God about His vengeance, in His time and His way, as opposed to seeking out your own vengeance. Jesus told people to not seek retribution and not to hate, but to do the opposite. This was not a new commandment, but as with His teachings on murder, adultery, and the other topics, an explanation that the people didn’t at all go far enough.

This brings us to today’s passage.

Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. – Matthew 6:1

Hear Jesus teaches with authority, stating that this show-off style behavior is not something that impresses God. This type of behavior was exactly what the Pharisees and teachers of the Law did on a daily basis. Their robes, their public displays of mitvot (good deeds), everything was done at least in part to impress others and build their own reputation. If you were one of these people, these words were like a bullet shot right at you.

Do we do this? We can, although not in the same way. Today it is most often expressed through what we say rather than what public actions we take or what we wear. A modern pejorative term for this is virtue signaling.  Social media brings with it a great temptation to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. Lots of people present their lives on social media as if it is perfect, happy, and so on. Reputation building is every bit as much a thing on social media as it was at the Temple and on the streets of Jerusalem when the Pharisees were doing it. Jesus says that good deeds do not receive God’s praise if this is the actual motivation. Instead, we should do our good deeds in secret, in private. Do I think nobody should use social media? No. But I think we need to be careful to not let our own reputations become the point of what we do.

Jesus then goes on to give examples of how this principle applies to specific areas:

So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. – Matthew 6:2-4

Historically, even churches were guilty of this. Churches sometimes engraved pews and other parts of the sanctuary with the names of big donors. You still see this as people giving to charities are named “silver donors,” “gold donors,” “platinum donors,” and so on. You find this even among Christian charities. Named giving is to this day a key part of giving to a university, and Clemson is no exception. For a few million dollars you can fund a named professorship. For a few million more you can even have an entire department named after you.

 

And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. – Matthew 6:5-8

In our secular society, public prayer done to receive the praise of men is not something you see anymore. You can still find it at many places around the world. I would say that very similar to public prayer is the religious “holy man” who wears clothing that lets everyone know that is what he is. In many more traditional denominations today, the priests/pastors/clergy wear special clothing.

By the way, in both these verses and the ones before them, Jesus calls people who do these things a word the NIV and most other Bible versions translates as hypocrites. This word is used in the translations because this is the actual Greek word. But it may not be the best word choice today. In modern usage, a hypocrite is very specifically a person who says one thing, who promotes a virtuous thing, but does another thing, a far less virtuous thing. The Greek word includes this idea, but perhaps the most literal translation is “stage actor.” Here the idea is not so much someone acting in a stage production, but someone who, all their life, acts out a part so as to get approval and praise from people around them.

This problem is a much deeper problem than it appears at first glance. It means that the person’s identity, their self-worth, their purpose in life – all these things are completely wrong. They seek praise from man rather than God. They base their identity on their relationship with man rather than God. When Jesus talks about giving and prayer in public, He is showing you how to tell if you have these much deeper problems. There will be some people who love God who just fell into doing these wrong things. When Jesus tells them what to do instead, they will be able to thank Jesus for this wise advice and easily make the switch. But there will be far more people who hear this message and say, I can’t make this change; it is who I am. Their problem is not their actions, but their lack of a true relationship with God.

A note on the “babbling like pagans”: Jesus is pointing out that not only can a person use public prayer to seek to impress people, even in private a person can foolishly try to impress God with how they pray. A person can be a “stage actor” in private as well as in public. Jesus’ message is: stop. This is not like the old SAT essay that, despite efforts to the contrary, tended to reward longer essays higher marks than shorter ones – independent of the quality of the content.

Jesus doesn’t leave the topic of prayer only with instructions on what not to do; He also guides us positively:

This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’ – Matthew 6:9-13

We could do an entire teaching, or even a series of teachings on this one prayer. Let me here just say a few things. “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name” is about worship. Praise and worship of God is where prayer begins in Jesus’ model prayer. “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” I think people often misunderstand this part of the prayer entirely, or they just don’t think about it. Does it make sense to tell an omnipotent being to do what He already wants to do? No. How is Jesus kingdom being built on earth? Through people! Through His followers. This part of the prayer is a prayer for others to follow God and serve Him as God leads. And it is also a prayer for the person praying to follow God and serve Him as God leads. Your will be done in my life. life. Your will be done in other believers’ lives. This is what we are to pray for. “Give us today our daily bread.” This part of the prayer is where we ask for our needs. This is far from a “name it, claim it” kind of prayer; “daily bread” is a humble provision, far from a shiny new sports car. “And forgive us our debts.” Yes, we should reflect on our sins, our falling short, our living in our own strength, in the flesh, and confess these things to God and ask forgiveness. “As we also have forgiven our debtors.” Ouch. Jesus will elaborate on this next, so let’s put off discussion of this for a minute. “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” This is an admission of our weakness, of our inability in our own strength to live out the will of God. In this final part of the prayer we are telling God that we need Him, we need Jesus, we need the Holy Spirit. We need help. We need deliverance. This is Jesus’ model prayer.

Next, Jesus expands on the uncomfortable phrase “as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. – Matthew 6:14-15

I am convinced these verses are not talking about the forgiveness of God associated with our eternal destiny; that forgiveness is based on the cross alone. This is talking about our day-to-day relationship with God; this relationship will be damaged, strained, not what it could be until we forgive others. It is hypocritical in the modern and original sense to expect a perfect and perfectly holy God to forgive us of our sins if we refuse to accept the expression of contrition of a fellow sinner. Due to the parallelism here, I do not personally believe that this is asking us to forgive someone who is unrepentant; rather, I believe it is asking us to forgive someone who has come to us, expressed remorse for what they have done to us, and has asked us for forgiveness. Jesus will speak on this theme again in the parable of the unforgiving lender.  Paul also addresses the need for us to forgive one another in Eph. 4:32 which says, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” Here the idea is that it would be hypocritical for us to not forgive one another knowing that God forgave us of so much more and at an infinitely higher cost than what it costs us to forgive.

Jesus continues His expounding on the command to not practice one’s righteousness out in public so as to get praise from men with the following third application:

When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.- Matthew 6:16-18

Dressing yourself up to look starved while fasting is not something we do in our culture anymore. Fasting itself is an extremely rare practice in our culture. But it is a big part of Hinduism, and on certain fasts Hindus where special clothing. It is also a big part of Islam, one of the “five pillars.” It is also practiced among Buddhists and in Judaism.

My experiences in Judaism growing up illustrates another way a person can lose the point of fasting. Once I had my bar-mitzvah at age 13, I was expected to fast on the holiday of Yom Kippur each year. I took great pride in being a grown up who would do this. This fast was from sundown to sundown. The fast was a complete fast, no water or food. In the early afternoon I became quite hungry and also developed a significant headache. I would tell my father about the headache and boast how I wasn’t going to quit. But several years I secretly ate some food and yet pretended that I hadn’t! I can’t tell you on how many levels this is messed up! The whole point of fasting for me was my pride and receiving the praise of my family and friends. So not only did I do it for entirely the wrong reasons, I also lied to everyone about completing the fast when I had not! I then felt guilty and worried that God would punish me! (Maybe He should have!) I really didn’t have a clue. Praise God that He rescued me from my sin and my idiocy!

Based on my past, I feel very unqualified to talk about fasting. But the one suggestion I might make, if you are new to fasting, is to simply skip a single meal, say a lunch. Tell no one. Then use that time to pray. Then, in the afternoon, if you feel sluggish or hungry, just eat something. It’s not about how long you fasted, but about the simple fact that for one meal, you fed on God rather than food. If you never fast longer than this, that’s fine, that’s great. Don’t let it become a competition, or training. It’s not about beating your personal best! And if you fast for health reasons, such as limiting your “eating window” each day, a practice called intermittent fasting, don’t pretend that you are doing this for spiritual reasons.  

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. – Matthew 6:19-21

At this point the theme shifts. We are no longer talking about doing things for the praise of men. Now, we are talking about doing things for one’s personal gain in this world verses working for eternity. This verse reminds us of the truth that worldly wealth is hard to hold on to. Not only can we not take it with us, we often cannot even hold on to it while we are here! Living for God’s kingdom, choosing to make serving Him your priority in life, is so much better! Not only does it have an infinite “return,” it is also the source of joy. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be. Wouldn’t you rather have your heart intimate with God, focused on Him, in an intimate relationship with Him, rather than constantly stressed and worrying about your precarious hold on stuff in this world? 

The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. – Matthew 6:22-24

Let me explain verse 24 before I discuss the somewhat cryptic verses 22 to 23. “No one can serve two masters.” Some translations say “No one can be a slave to two masters.” I like the NIV translation here, because we associate slavery as a negative thing. But this verse is talking about a positive thing. You cannot have two “first loves”; you can only have one. When two people try to be your leader, and you only have time for one, you will start to resent the one that you have placed in second place. Serving the second one will seem like a chore, and over time you will start to resent the second one. That is the situation for us between the God of the universe and Mammon, the God of this secular world. Choose God! Love God! Make Him number one!

As for verses 22 to 23, note that it is sandwiched between verses about storing up money (verses 19-21) and the verse about serving money (verse 24). Might verses 22-23 also really be about money? I believe so. In Matthew 20:15, the person in the parable says, using the Greek literally, “Is your eye bad because I am good?” This is an idiom. The NIV translates it as “Are you envious because I am generous?” What is the context? Matthew 20:1-15 is the parable of the workers in the vineyard, in which a landowner hires different people at different times of the day to work the rest of the day but pays them all the same.

I would argue that verses 22-23 are similarly using this idiom. We could translate it like this: “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good (seeing heavenly treasure as infinitely more precious than worldly treasure), your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad (seeing worldly treasure as more precious than heavenly treasure), your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” Jesus then goes on to talk about how you cannot serve both God and money, that is, both light and darkness.

Jesus then gives examples explaining this principle of putting God above worldly desires and even needs, just as He gave examples of His first principle about seeking the praise of men over the praise of God:

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will He not much more clothe you—you of little faith? – Matthew 6:25-30

Note that this is saying not to worry. It is not saying not to prepare and plan and be responsible and mature. Do these things! Be these things! But worrying is not going to help, and more seriously, it is a lack of faith. One reason people choose Mammon over God is worry.

Now most of us probably have some issues with worrying, but our worries are generally more minor than those described here. We worry about the next test, or our grades, or whether we will get a good job review, or countless other things. I am not saying that these things are not important, but I am saying that most of us have not had to worry about where our next meal would come from or how we could afford to get a pair of used shoes. We have lived our lives in a country that has experienced God’s undeserved blessing. My point is that if God tells people not to worry who are struggling to get by so badly that they don’t know whether they will have a meal, then God would certainly also tell us not to worry!

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. – Matthew 6:31-34

Do these verses mean that Christians never go hungry? No. Christians have experienced hunger and thirst and much worse. Christians have experienced cancer, and plagues, and torture. I don’t think we can take these verses as an absolute promise. But the promise we can hold on to is that God sees and God knows and God cares. If we do experience hard things, the answer is not to forsake God and decide that since God isn’t for us, we need to worry on our own. Instead, we need to, as the passage says, seek first God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness.

As I have reflected on these verses my thoughts have turned to the many Christians in China currently experiencing lockdown amidst tremendous uncertainty about how widespread and how lethal the novel coronavirus really is. It seems that the government is ensuring that food is still available, although there have been some cases of panic buying up of food, especially in Hong Kong and Beijing. Ultimately, though, it is not the government that people must rely on, but God.

Given the level of worry I see here in America about this virus, I cannot even begin to imagine what it must be like in China, especially in Wuhan and the other cities in Hubei province. We should pray for our brothers and sisters of faith there that they seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.

I am reminded of Phil 4:6-7, which is both a command and a promise: Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. – Matthew 7:1-5

Here, we see the word hypocrite used in the specific way that we use it today. People who are not Christians often refer vaguely to these verses to tell Christians not to judge them for sins such as sexual sin, but that is not what these verses are saying. These verses are not saying we cannot judge our society. They are talking about our “brothers,” fellow people of faith, and they encourage helping our brother deal with his sin, his “speck.” What the passage says, though, is to not be one of those people who points out every minor fault with everyone else while meanwhile refusing to see or address the major faults within themselves. We all need to deal with our “planks.”

By the way, I just want to point out that humor is a part of this passage. Jesus repeatedly creates clever word pictures that help Him point out painful truth in a way that people can receive. His strong medicine comes is heavily sweetened. A plank in someone’s eye is a humorous image, much like Pinnochio’s long nose getting in the way in a restaurant, as a recent commercial shows. And the earlier personification of worry is another humorous word picture. It is as if Tomorrow is a person that says, “Don’t worry about me! I’ll take care of that!”

Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces. – Matthew 7:6

Again, a humorous picture is presented. A dog is given something from the Temple! A pig is given your finest jewelry! They look at you quizzically, shrug, and proceed to destroy them. What is the deeper meaning?

It may again seem like this is a standalone verse, but like the verse about good eyes and bad eyes, this verse fits in context. We have just talked about how people should not judge the little things wrong with others while they themselves have much larger sin problems, and how, once they have dealt with their own issues, only then should they gently and lovingly help the other people with their more minor problems.

Well, there is a danger of taking this to mean that we should, after dealing with our own issues, try to help everyone with their sin problems. To this, Jesus says “No.” There are people who are not ready to be helped in this way, who will not appreciate spiritual advice, who at this point only have disdain for the ways of God, who only seek what benefits themselves. Such people are like the dogs and pigs given holy relics and pearls. Pray for them? Yes. Discuss the overall message of Scripture, the gospel? Yes, but they may not listen. Focus on their particular sin issues? No. Not only will they be uninterested, they may even retaliate, “turn and tear you to pieces.” I feel like this is especially true in our current cultural and social climate.

To me, the Sermon on the Mount is all about Jesus explaining to the people that they thought they knew and followed the Law, but they didn’t actually understand it, and they certainly weren’t following it in the way that God had intended. There were two ways people responded to this message: dismissing Jesus and wishing He would mind His own business, or realizing that Jesus was right, and repenting of their sinful ways and corrupt hearts before God. As Jesus had opened with in the beatitudes, it was the second group that was blessed, for it was they who would inherit the kingdom as the gospel – the explanation of Jesus’ future crucifixion and resurrection – would be later proclaimed to them and by faith they would joyfully accept it.

As for us, we too have a choice. Will we take to heart the many powerful messages of Jesus’ sermon? Or will we dismiss them, saying we have heard it many times before? Will we continue to live for the approval of others or for self, or will we truly live for God? Will we act like atheists and be consumed by worry, or will we trust God? Will we focus on the faults of others, or will we come before God and deal with our own sin? May we truly take Jesus’ message to heart and become those He calls blessed.