my thoughts are not your thoughts matthew

He’s not disagreeing with the law, He’s clarifying the law. Remember, Jesus will say six times in this section of the sermon on the mountainside, “You have heard that it was said.

Let’s look now at these three ways that we sin. I want us to look at this passage as three ways in which we sin, while also looking at some specific issues along the way. We need to be sure to understand that correctly, so we’ll look at that as well. We also have to be careful to understand what Jesus means when He tells us to cut our hands off or gouge out our eyes. Yet, Jesus talks about them so we will talk about them. Obviously, there is some content in this passage that can be uncomfortable for some of us to discuss, particularly lust and divorce. Jesus is continuing line by line to give us standards of holiness for those that are following God, and He doesn’t pull any punches. And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. 32 But I tell you, everyone who divorces his wife, except in a case of sexual immorality, causes her to commit adultery. For it is better that you lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.ģ1 “It was also said, Whoever divorces his wife must give her a written notice of divorce. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. 28 But I tell you, everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Let’s look at this passage together as we begin.Ģ7 “You have heard that it was said, Do not commit adultery. Today, as we study this passage, I want us to think about our pursuit of holiness.Īs we do so, I want us to be aware of how sin affects us in our pursuit of godliness. Once we have been changed by Jesus, we are to pursue this picture of holiness and perfection given to us by Jesus. Yet, it is an aspirational standard for the true follower of God. Jesus will say later, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” That’s a pretty impossible standard. The standards that Jesus lays out for His followers in His sermon point us to our need for redemption. You see, the standards that Jesus lays out for us are extraordinarily difficult to keep for someone bound by the curse of sin, as all of us are, or once were. The InterVarsity Press commentary on Matthew says, “To read the Sermon on the Mount legalistically as a set of rules is to miss the point it represents demands more radical than any legislator could conceive, still less enforce.” We are in the middle of our study of Jesus’ famous sermon, the Sermon on the Mountainside.

My thoughts are not your thoughts matthew