| more sense. Genesis 19:17: "And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.". Genesis 19:26: "But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.". These two verses in Genesis show us that God expects us to retain no love for any thing beyond the marriage that we have agreed to; that of the Holy Spirit to our body and soul. This requires one and only one thing, total submersion of our will and total submission to God's will. What Jesus was saying was that if any thing is getting between you and him you should get rid of it! On the subject of oaths, we read in verses 33-37, "Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths: But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne: Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.". Verses 27-37 have so much more depth to them, than meets the eye in a casual inspection. These verses tie Old Testament prophecy to the Book of Revelation, and looking at some of the mysterious passages from the platform of the sermon on the mount they fall into place and make sense. This is a discussion unto itself, and won't be covered here. Setting that aside, we see that the Lord wants us to rely on the promises of his will, and since our will is now his will we can only echo his promises and not make any new ones which would be from our will. How many of us have sworn an oath, such as, for voter registration, entering into some form of employment or the like? Verses 38-48 are expanding on the theme of love, and as such the way is getting more narrow all the time, "Ye have heard that it hath been said, An 29 _______________________________________________________________________________ eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away. Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.". If we use the approach we have used all the way through, then the parable of the rich man in Matthew 19:16-24, takes on fuller meaning. Specifically, Matthew 19:23-24, which says, "Then Jesus said unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, then for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. Now, in context, Jesus in Matthew 5:3, told us that the poor in spirit would get the kingdom of God, and in verses 38-48 we are seeing the discussion turned very pointedly onto things of self will and personal comfort. Any who can't live up to these verses is rich in self will and poor in spirit, but they fail to recognize their poverty. This applies to the parable of the rich man as well. Thus far, we have seen that in order for man to be saved he must unconditionally surrender to God's will, and to some degree we have seen some of the price of that surrender. At this point we have completed Matthew Chapter 5. Next, we will continue, our study of the salvation message given in the sermon on the mount, Matthew chapters 6 and 7. 30 __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________ |
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