Are You Game?

Matthew 5 is one of the hardest chapters in the Bible to live up to.

Why? Because it expands on the Ten Commandments. The Lord tells us, in His own words: "Think not that I am come to destroy the law [the old Testament], or the prophets [of the old Testament]. I am not come to destroy, but fulfill. For truly I say unto you, "Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." Matthew 5:17-18

The rest of the words that Jesus said that I refer to here I'll paraphrase, for brevity's sake.

He goes on to say, for example, regarding His commandment not to kill other people, that He equates being angry with others, if only to the point of verbally attacking each other, the same as killing and says that, even before you bring a gift to the altar, you are to make up with that person and be reconciled to him.

My Bible also refers to 1 Joh
3:15, which says that whoever hates another is a murderer and shall die and never enter heaven.

He then goes on to expand the commandment prohibiting adultery to say that just looking at a woman lustfully equates to adultery. (Matthew 5:28) Further, He says that if a person divorces a spouse (except for unfaithfulness) and causes that person to commit adultery—or if one marries a divorced person, that also equates to adultery!

The Lord goes on teaching in this manner all the way through Chapter 7. He covers way too much to go over here, but He makes one last point that you need to be particularly aware of. And that is in Matthew 5:43-48. There He expands upo
His commandment to love your neighbor. He says to love your enemies and to bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who persecute you and do you wrong.

This is all for the reason that we are to strive to be perfect as He is. And since He makes the sun and the rain to fall equally on the good and the bad, we should do no less.

And He poses the question that, if we love only those who love us, what sets us apart from the unGodly, who do likewise?

The conclusion is that we are to love those who do us wrong—of course, we need to enlist His help to do that. We have to remember always that He is pure Love, and we have to learn to love as He does. We are not to get even—He takes care of meting out justice for us all.

Wow, you say, I'll never be able to do all that. Remember, he also said that with men it is impossible, but with God, all things are possible!

And if you read back over this, you will realize that, if you can learn to love enough (be Christ-like), all this not only will be possible, but it will happen most naturally. This should be the goal of all Christians everywhere.

Love conquers all!