Matthew 5
(1-12) We began our year with a section that we came back to again and again. What is the heart attitude of a true follower of Christ? What does obedience to Christ look like? What does it require? We ended with the call of Christ, in light of all that you have heard, what will you choose?

 

8 Heart Attitudes and Realities:

  1. Poor in spirit, a humility that recognizes a dependence on God a need for God.
  2. Mourning, they know that they are sinful and cannot save themselves. They mourn over their sin.
  3. Gentleness or Meekness, kindness, humility and consideration in our dealings with others.
  4. Hungering and thirsting for righteousness, eagerly desiring the things of God, pursuing them, longing for them.
  5. Merciful, compassion towards someone suffering or in need.
  6. Pure in heart, to have a heart with one devotion and that is a devotion for God.
  7. Peacemakers, strive for unity, not only in your own life, but with others as well, requires you to deal with sin quickly.
  8. Persecuted and insulted, having all kinds of false evil said against you for the sake of righteousness. The world hates Christ and so it will hate us too, the more we look like Christ the more this will happen and the less we look like Christ the less this will happen

8 Rewards for Faithfulness:

The kingdom of heaven. They shall be comforted, inherit the earth, be satisfied, receive mercy, shall see God, and shall be called sons of God. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven, our final reward is in heaven.

Those who are poor in spirit, mourn over their sin, who are meek, and hunger and thirst for righteousness will have the favor of God on them and will be happy and blessed. They will be shown to be true children of God and receive forgiveness for their sins and eternal life with God. Because they are these things they will be able to be merciful to others, have a pure heart before God, and make peace with all people. Also because of these things they should expect to face persecution, but even in the persecution they will be blessed and have a great reward waiting for them in heaven.

HEART CHECK: Are you a disciple of Christ? Do you often sit at His feet to learn?

(13-16) Verse 13 starts to tell us what the life of a follower of Christ should look like, it should be different. We are to be salt, to add flavor, to be a preservative, to cause others to thirst for what we have, and to be healing. We are to be light, that which dispels the darkness, shows Christ to a watching world, and cannot be hidden because of how brightly it shines. When we attempt to not shine our lights, or when our salt loses its flavor, we are not useful to the King.

HEART CHECK: Are you being salt to the earth and letting your light shine before others? If not, why not?

(17-20) Christ now begins to talk about the law, how keeping the law does not get us into heaven, not even the way that the Scribes and Pharisees kept the law was enough. Even one violation of the law condemns us. We are also warned about causing others to sin.

HEART CHECK: Why do you do the things that you do; serve where you serve? For the praise of men or of God? To lovingly obey God or to appear righteous before others?

(Matthew 5:21-27) Christ begins to show us that it is not enough to keep the law outwardly, according to human standards. Instead, we must keep to God’s intent for the law and our hearts must be right before Him as well. It is not enough to abstain from physically murdering someone; we cannot murder them in our hearts by our anger against them. We also cannot murder them through our words and contempt for them. We must quickly deal with conflicts between us.

HEART CHECK: Is there anyone in your life that you have something against, or that you know has something against you? What do you need to do to make things right between you?

(28-32) We must not commit adultery, but that is not enough. We must not look at, think about, or act towards other people with lust in our hearts. Although it is said that Christ is using hyperbole here, it would be better to maim our bodies than to continue to sin. We must take sin seriously and put it to death!
Marriage is to be considered sacred, we cannot divorce because it is pleasing to us to do so, if we do so we may be guilty of adultery.

HEART CHECK: How serious are you about sexual sin? This could include the movies that you watch, the books you read, and the websites that you look at. Is there anything in your life that you need to cut off to deal with sin?

(33-37) We must keep our word! We are not to be clever with words so that we can say one thing and mean another. We must speak the truth in all things.

HEART CHECK: How reliable is your word? Can people trust you to do what you say you will do?

(38-42) We must never retaliate against those who we think have wronged us. Instead, we are to treat them with kindness and gentleness, offering to help them and treat them well. This would include how we think about them, it will never be enough to outwardly smile while inwardly we stew in anger.

HEART CHECK: How do you respond when wronged? Do you desire to retaliate or seek vengeance? Are you willing to give up your rights for the sake of God’s glory?

(43-48) We are to love our neighbor, but we are also to love our enemies. In fact, our enemies are our neighbors! We are to love all, pray for all, and when we are persecuted, nothing changes, we are still to love and pray. This can seem hard to us, but we are called to be holy. Because as God is holy, His followers are to be holy too.

HEART CHECK: Is there anyone who you would consider an enemy? Anyone who you find hard to love? How can you apply this passage to that situation?

by Dawn F.