{"id":1308,"date":"2020-10-25T13:05:20","date_gmt":"2020-10-25T12:05:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=1308"},"modified":"2020-10-25T13:05:21","modified_gmt":"2020-10-25T12:05:21","slug":"a-greater-righteousness-your-mind-matters-matthew-521-30","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=1308","title":{"rendered":"A Greater Righteousness – Your Mind Matters Matthew 5:21-30"},"content":{"rendered":"

A greater righteousness \u2013 your mind matters! Matthew 5:21-30
\nIn the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus sets out the pattern and the standard for Christian living for all who follow him. But as we saw two weeks ago, Jesus doesn\u2019t in any way replace the Old Testament commandments with a new set of rules. Nor does he just raise the bar for right living a bit higher than that of the most religious people of his day, the Pharisees. What God expects of his people as they live under his rule as King is in a different league altogether. Christian living is a whole new ball game.
\nMatthew 5:20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
\nJesus is asking for a different kind of righteousness altogether. My old professor Dick France paraphrased the words of Jesus like this. \u201cDo not imagine that simply keeping all those rules will bring salvation. For I tell you truly: it is only those whose righteousness of life goes far beyond the old policy of literal rule-keeping which the scribes and Pharisees represent who will prove to be God\u2019s true people in this era of fulfillment\u201d
\nAs we said last time, it is not that Christians have to achieve this new level of right living in order to be saved. We are only ever saved by grace alone through faith alone. But now we are saved, the standard we must aim at is the standard of righteousness of God himself. Matthew 5:48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
\nWe are seeking to live like Jesus who embodied the Sermon on the Mount in everything he said and did. We are not trying to live by some set of rules but rather by the simple question, \u201cWhat Would Jesus Do?\u201d So the Sermon on the Mount gives us a number of examples and principles and we each need to work out how these will apply in our own lives. And the first general principle we find is in many ways the most demanding. Because Jesus teaches us that God doesn\u2019t just care about our actions and our words. Righteous living starts with our thoughts and with our attitudes.
\nMatthew 5:21 21 \u201cYou have heard that it was said to our ancestors, Do not murder,, and whoever murders will be subject to judgment. 22 But I tell you, everyone who is angry with his brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Whoever insults his brother or sister, will be subject to the court. Whoever says, \u2018You fool!\u2019 will be subject to hellfire.,
\nIn God\u2019s eyes, anger and hatred are just as much sins as murder. When we are seeking to please God in everything we say and do, we have to start by taking control of the things we think about and over the attitudes we have towards other people. And Jesus then teaches us that this principle applies just as much in the area of sex.
\n27 \u201cYou have heard that it was said, Do not commit adultery., 28 But I tell you, everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
\nSinful thoughts are as serious as sinful actions. The Seventh Commandment says do not commit adultery, but we can break that commandment in our heart by dwelling on lustful thoughts. The root problem in murder is anger and hatred. The root problem in adultery is lust. To avoid sin we must deal with the underlying issues and resist the temptations to sinful thoughts and sinful attitudes.
\nWe thought about this four years ago in our series of sermons on the Ten Commandments when we came to the tenth Commandment. Nine of the Ten Commandments are concerned with actions \u2013 the things God\u2019s people should and should not do or say. But the principle that holy living begins with holy thinking was already there in the Tenth Commandment. Sinful actions and sinful words arise from sinful thoughts. So the Tenth Commandment says, \u201cDo not covet.\u201d Coveting, craving, hankering after, longing for, simply means an illegitimate desire for something which belongs to somebody else. Coveting other people\u2019s stuff.
\nExodus 20:17 \u201cYou shall not covet your neighbor\u2019s house. You shall not covet your neighbor\u2019s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.\u201d
\nThe Message: \u201cNo lusting after your neighbor\u2019s house\u2014or wife or servant or maid or ox or donkey. Don\u2019t set your heart on anything that is your neighbor\u2019s.\u201d
\nSinful actions and sinful words spring from sinful thoughts. Indeed we see this right from the very beginning of human history when sin entered the world when the devil tempted Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. Genesis 3 6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.
\nSin entered God\u2019s perfect creation at the moment when Eve took something she was not allowed to have. She saw the stuff and she coveted the stuff and so she took the stuff. God\u2019s perfect Creation was wrecked by sinful thoughts.
\nThe Letter of James explains how temptation works like this.
\nJames 1 13 When tempted, no one should say, \u201cGod is tempting me.\u201d For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
\nSo temptation begins with evil desires and sinful thoughts. If we want to live holy lives, the challenge is not to give in to those evil desires or sinful thoughts. The first impulse is not a sin. But dwelling on a sinful thought so that it becomes a sinful desire is asking for trouble. Martin Luther once said, \u201cYou can\u2019t stop a bird from landing on your head, but you can stop him from building a nest in your hair.\u201d
\nThe old saying is true. \u201cSow a thought, you reap an action. Sow an action, you reap a habit. Sow a habit, you reap a character. Sow a character, you reap a destiny.\u201d
\nIf we are serious about living holy lives and resisting temptation we need to start with our thought life.
\n\u201cThe mind is a garden that could be cultivated to produce the harvest that we desire.
\nThe mind is a workshop where the important decisions of life and eternity are made.
\nThe mind is an armoury where we forge the weapons for our victory or our destruction.
\nThe mind is a battlefield where all the decisive battles of life are won or lost.\u201d
\nPaul wrote in Romans 12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God\u2019s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God\u2014this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God\u2019s will is\u2014his good, pleasing and perfect will.
\nYour mind matters! Our minds need to be renewed.
\n\u201cDon\u2019t let the world around squeeze you into its own mould, but let God remould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.\u201d (Romans 12:2 in J.B.Phillips translation)
\nIn the Beatitudes at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus had already said, \u201cBlessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.\u201d (Matthew 5:8)<\/p>\n

As the old hymn puts it:
\nBlessed are the pure in heart For they shall see their God
\nThe secret of the Lord is theirs, Their soul is Christ\u2019s abode
\nStill to the lowly soul He doth Himself impart
\nAnd for His dwelling and His throne chooseth the pure in heart.
\nIn our modern thinking the heart is all about feeling and emotions. But in Jesus\u2019s time the heart was the centre of human thinking and choosing and deciding. A pure heart was all about pure thinking. About character and personality. Becoming holy through and through. Developing a pure heart is about developing a Christ-like mind. A mind and character unspoiled by sin. God sees our thoughts and our attitudes as clearly as He sees our actions. So our thoughts and our attitudes affect our relationship with God just as much as our actions. Being pure in heart is about a mind unspoiled by sinful thoughts and equally a mind unspoiled by sinful attitudes. Unspoiled by pride or selfishness or greed. If we want to become holy through and through, if we want to develop the mind of Christ in our own lives, we need to keep sin out of our thinking. So we need to watch carefully what we read, what we listen to and the company we keep. In today\u2019s world we need to think hard about what we watch on television and read on the internet. We can\u2019t pray \u201clead us not into temptation\u201d if we deliberately put ourselves into situations where we know we are likely to be tempted.
\nWhat will this kind of righteous living look like in practice? The battle to live a holy life begins with holy thoughts.
\n1 Peter 2 11 Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.
\nAbstain from sinful desires. This tells us that evil desires are something we can choose to abstain from, just as some people choose to abstain from alcohol, or indeed some of us might need to abstain from chocolate cake. The challenge is that abstaining from sinful desires is a much more inward and personal battle. Other people can\u2019t see what we are thinking about. But God still does.
\nOur minds need to be renewed. If we want to avoid falling into sin we need to get rid of the deceitful desires of our old self. And it also helps to give our attention good and wholesome things.
\nPhilippians 4 8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable\u2014if anything is excellent or praiseworthy\u2014think about such things.
\nWe can crowd sin out by filling our minds with good and wholesome things. By reading the Bible. By reading Christian books and magazines and wholesome websites and blogs. By joining in Bible study and discussion and sharing in fellowship. By worship and praise and prayer.
\nRighteous living starts with pure thinking. And the stakes could not be higher! As Jesus immediately goes on to say this.
\n29 If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out 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. 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 go into hell.
\nHere Jesus is using a form of language called hyperbole. Hyperbole just means making a point by using exaggeration or overstatement, by using words which are not meant to be taken literally. We say, \u201cit\u2019s raining cats and dogs\u201d. We know that isn\u2019t literally true \u2013 it just means it is raining very heavily. The Jews used hyperbole a lot, and Jesus did too. Remember how Jesus criticized his opponents, \u201cYou strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.\u201d These verses are hyperbole. Through the centuries Christians have not generally felt led to obey these commands and mutilate themselves. The language is extreme to emphasise just how serious a problem sin is. If the things we are looking at are causing us to have evil thoughts, we would be better off blind. If we are tempted to sinful actions we would be better off if we lost our hand than if we sinned. Of course that is because sin carries the death penalty \u2013 and not just murder or adultery as in the Law of Moses. All sin bring the consequence of separation from God which is eternal death. Jesus is saying we would be better off blind than dead. Better off maimed than dead. Sin is that serious!
\nJesus is using exaggeration and overstatement. But his point is very clear. Avoiding sin is a matter of life and death. Hatred is as much a sin as murder. Lust is as much a sin as adultery. Holy living has to begin with holy thinking. When it comes to this whole new ball game of righteous living \u2013 your mind matters!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A greater righteousness \u2013 your mind matters! Matthew 5:21-30 In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus sets out the pattern and the standard for…<\/span><\/p>\n

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