Be Attitudes

Matthew 5

Jesus challenged the current thoughts and beliefs of the day. He did not dance around social issues. The pharisees tried to trap Jesus with questions on social issues. Jesus talked about the law of Moses from the perspective of Gods heart. He did not treat the law as a set of rules!

Do you treat Gods word as a list of rules or do you see Gods heart surrounding the law. The pharisees loved to police sin and they especially loved to police adultery. Jesus challenged their self righteous judgements!

Jesus demonstrated the need for grace that all of us need! There is a call in the bible to look out for and watch for the sin of your brother. The motive and intention is to help your brother and call them to repentance. Not to be judge and jury! There is no call to police sin someone else.

When people police sin they always draw the line on sin just a little bit past what they are doing. God is the standard and he defines sin. With his definition we all need grace and none of us can stand on our own merit.

Jesus did not replace the law with conscience! Jesus abolished a lot of the daily non moral requirements of the Old Testament but never changed or lightened any of the moral commands in the Old Testament. He increased the standard of the moral commands! Our conscience cannot be the guide to what is right and wrong!

Jesus revealed a shocking version of the law. Through these revelations many allowed his teachings to be a stumbling block. They could not get past their own hard heartedness and distorted beliefs. Jesus picture of the kingdom of God and His plan for salvation went against their idea of God and our relationship with him.