In our reading for this week, we finish the section of Matthew that is known as ‘The Sermon on the Mount.’ This is the first of 5 teaching sections in Matthew’s Gospel and is recorded in chapters 5-7. While often considered by Christians and non-Christians alike as the greatest sermon ever preached, what are we to make of it?
Some Christians have argued that the Sermon on the Mount is of little or no use to Christians today but rather will find its use in the Millennial Kingdom. This view is often referred to as the ‘Kingdom View.’ Those holding this view argue that Christians today should find their ethics in the epistles addressed to the church and not this sermon of Jesus.
Another view advocated by some Christians is called the ‘Penitential View.’ This view sees the high standards found in the Sermon as designed to convict those reading or hearing it and thus lead them to repentance and faith.
A third view is one that was advocated by John Stott. He wrote the following about the Sermon:
For the last seven years at least I have been constantly pondering it. In consequence,
I have found my mind wrestling with its problems and my heart set on fire by the nobility of its ideals…
I have wanted above all to let it speak, or better to let Christ speak it again, and speak it to the contemporary world. So I have sought to face with integrity the dilemmas which the Sermon raises for modern Christians, and not to dodge them. For Jesus did not give us an academic treatise calculated merely to stimulate the mind. I believe he meant his Sermon on the Mount to be obeyed. Indeed, if the church realistically accepted his standards and values as here set forth, and lived by them, it would be the alternative society he always intended it to be, and would offer to the world an authentic Christian counter-culture.¹
James in his epistle seems familiar with the teaching of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount and doesn’t hesitate to give it as advice to whom he writes. Compare James 1:22-25 with Matt. 7:21-27, or James 1:14-15 with Matt. 5:28, (in James 1:14-15 your translation may have ‘desire’ where the Greek word comes from the same Greek root as the word in Matt. 5:28 translated ‘lust.’) Or compare James 1:19-20 with Matt. 5:22. Or again James 5:12 and Matt. 5:34-37. This is only a partial list; you can scan the cross-references in your reference Bible in the book of James looking for references to Matt chapter 5-7 and find many more.
Some teaching found in the Sermon on the Mount can also be found in Paul’s epistles, just not as abundantly as in James. In Rom. 2:1 Paul tells the church at Rome not to judge as did Jesus in Matt. 7:1. In Rom. 12:14 Paul advises to “bless those who persecute you,” compare with what Jesus said in Matt. 5:44. Or again Gal. 5:14 and Matt. 7:12.
How do you understand “The Sermon on the Mount?”
¹(Stott, John R. W., and John R. W. Stott. 1985. The Message of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7): Christian Counter-Culture. The Bible Speaks Today. Leicester; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press. (p.8)
Some Christians have argued that the Sermon on the Mount is of little or no use to Christians today but rather will find its use in the Millennial Kingdom. This view is often referred to as the ‘Kingdom View.’ Those holding this view argue that Christians today should find their ethics in the epistles addressed to the church and not this sermon of Jesus.
Another view advocated by some Christians is called the ‘Penitential View.’ This view sees the high standards found in the Sermon as designed to convict those reading or hearing it and thus lead them to repentance and faith.
A third view is one that was advocated by John Stott. He wrote the following about the Sermon:
For the last seven years at least I have been constantly pondering it. In consequence,
I have found my mind wrestling with its problems and my heart set on fire by the nobility of its ideals…
I have wanted above all to let it speak, or better to let Christ speak it again, and speak it to the contemporary world. So I have sought to face with integrity the dilemmas which the Sermon raises for modern Christians, and not to dodge them. For Jesus did not give us an academic treatise calculated merely to stimulate the mind. I believe he meant his Sermon on the Mount to be obeyed. Indeed, if the church realistically accepted his standards and values as here set forth, and lived by them, it would be the alternative society he always intended it to be, and would offer to the world an authentic Christian counter-culture.¹
James in his epistle seems familiar with the teaching of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount and doesn’t hesitate to give it as advice to whom he writes. Compare James 1:22-25 with Matt. 7:21-27, or James 1:14-15 with Matt. 5:28, (in James 1:14-15 your translation may have ‘desire’ where the Greek word comes from the same Greek root as the word in Matt. 5:28 translated ‘lust.’) Or compare James 1:19-20 with Matt. 5:22. Or again James 5:12 and Matt. 5:34-37. This is only a partial list; you can scan the cross-references in your reference Bible in the book of James looking for references to Matt chapter 5-7 and find many more.
Some teaching found in the Sermon on the Mount can also be found in Paul’s epistles, just not as abundantly as in James. In Rom. 2:1 Paul tells the church at Rome not to judge as did Jesus in Matt. 7:1. In Rom. 12:14 Paul advises to “bless those who persecute you,” compare with what Jesus said in Matt. 5:44. Or again Gal. 5:14 and Matt. 7:12.
How do you understand “The Sermon on the Mount?”
¹(Stott, John R. W., and John R. W. Stott. 1985. The Message of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7): Christian Counter-Culture. The Bible Speaks Today. Leicester; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press. (p.8)
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