(Day 21)
Yesterday we saw that Jesus did not
come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it. He taught us to do so as well.
Jesus said:
(John 14:21) Whoever has my commandments
and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my
Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.
The fulfillment of the Law is not a
matter of salvation, because we know that no one is perfect. Salvation comes by
faith. On the other hand, obedience is a matter of sanctification, and
blessing. It is the order we must live by in the Kingdom of Heaven
(Deuteronomy 10:12-13) And now, Israel, what does
the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all
his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with
all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I
am commanding you today for your good?
That is why Jesus said:
(Matthew 5:20) For I tell you, unless your
righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter
the kingdom of heaven.
Even though many of the Pharisees
obeyed the law, they did not do it from their heart.
In the second part of chapter 5 of
the gospel of Matthew, Jesus mentions some commandments saying: “You have heard…”, then he adds: “…but I tell you…” On plain sight, it
seems that Jesus is contradicting the Law, but that is not the case. We will
see that Jesus is actually validating the commandments, and taking them to a new
level. He mentions some commandments and encourages us to not just follow “the
letter of the Law”, but to understand its meaning and spiritual purpose.
One by one, we will examine each of
the commandments Jesus mentioned during the Sermon on the Mount…
* Commandment: “You shall not murder”
(Matthew 5:21-22) You have heard that it was said to those of old,
'You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.'
But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his
brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable
to the council; and whoever says, 'You fool!' will be liable to the hell of
fire.
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| You Shall Not Murder |
Jesus referred to the commandment:
“You shall not murder”, which is in the Torah (or Pentateuch), specifically, it
is one of the Ten Commandments.
(Exodus 20:13; Deuteronomy
5:17) You shall
not murder. (Notice
that the word for “murder” is used in Hebrew, not the word for “kill”.)
Also:
(Numbers 35:30-34) If anyone kills a person, the
murderer shall be put to death on the evidence of witnesses. But no person
shall be put to death on the testimony of one witness. Moreover, you shall
accept no ransom for the life of a murderer, who is guilty of death, but he
shall be put to death. And you shall accept no ransom for him who has fled to
his city of refuge, that he may return to dwell in the land before the death of
the high priest. You shall not pollute the land in which you live, for blood
pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land for the blood that
is shed in it, except by the blood of the one who shed it. You shall not defile
the land in which you live, in the midst of which I dwell, for I the LORD dwell
in the midst of the people of Israel
Jesus did not contradict the law, but
went a step further… to the intention of the heart. If you get angry with those
around you and curse them, you open the door to death. We must be careful with
the intentions of our heart.
Jesus taught that it is not enough to
control your actions, but you must also control your thoughts and your
intentions. Paul also wrote:
(2 Corinthians 10:3-7) For though we walk in the
flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our
warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We
destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God,
and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every
disobedience, when your obedience is complete. Look at what is before your
eyes. If anyone is confident that he is Christ's, let him remind himself that
just as he is Christ's, so also are we.
PRAYER
Lord, today I recognize that what you
require of me is to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly. Therefore,
I will walk in all your ways, keep your commandments and serve you with all my
heart and all my soul. I may have not paid attention to your commandments as I
should have, but I want to start to do it today. Help me to understand your
Law, and teach me how to put it into practice in my life and how to teach it to
my children.
Lord, maybe I did not kill anyone in
the flesh, but in the spirit I have done it, whenever I have called someone a
fool. That is why I come before you today to ask you to please forgive me. Your
words have confronted me; I don’t want to do it again. I want not only to
follow your Law, but also live it in spirit. Help me. Teach me.
[Micah 6:8; John 14:21; Deuteronomy
10:12-13]
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