Death by Rules

John 5:6-10

When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?”  The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.”  And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.”

...............

Rules.

Everyone has them. State rules, city rules, traffic rules, dinner etiquette, church etiquette, sports rules. Some rules save lives by preventing and restraining foolish decisions. Like, don't drive the wrong way down a one way street. Some rules are outdated and should change with time and context. Like, don't eat pork (mmmm bacon). And other rules are actually quite deadly. That's what we see in John 5.

For example, when your Maker has shown up in the flesh and starts radically transforming people's lives, your first thought shouldn't be: "Well, we don't do things like that around here! Today is a special day, a religious day! No work allowed, even if it is powerfully loving and kind! No exceptions!"

I say this kind of rule is deadly because of how the passage continues:

And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”  This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. (John 5:16-18)

Ah, now we see why breaking their rules would make them thirsty for blood. Those rules represented their pride, their self- righteousness, and everything that set them apart as God's special elite chosen ones. They had their identities wrapped up in these rules - to belittle the rule was treasonous to them. The rules had blinded them from the purpose of those rules, which was to point them to their holy and loving God.

Paul makes this contrast in 2 Corinthians 3:4-6. He shows us a way to be right with God apart from self-righteous devotion to arbitrary rules:

Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

The letter kills. We've seen that. But in John 5 we clearly see the life-giving Spirit at work in the healing act of Jesus.

Notice how he initiates the healing, how he notices the man, how this man was overlooked for years. Everyone had given up on him, but not Jesus. Notice how others got to the pool before him. The invisible hand of the free market was not going to do him any favors. But the visible hand of Jesus would.

I come away from this passage challenged. I don't want to fall into introspection, examining how I might be letting my rules and self-righteousness lead to being overly critical of others who are doing genuinely good and loving things. There's a time for that. But I want to run a away from the letter that kills and let the life-giving Spirit change and use me in new ways! I want to show initiating love to someone who is overlooked and undeserving. I want to be like Jesus in this way.

Lord, open my eyes today to the needs around me and use me to initiate the love of the Savior toward them in some concrete way.

The Bitter Son Who Stayed

Luke 15:1, 2

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, "This man receives sinners and eats with them."

Luke 15:25-32

"Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, "Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound." But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, "Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!" And he said to him, "Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found." 

...............

It was tempting to focus today's meditation on the parts of the chapter where forgiveness, compassion, and joy are so colorfully portrayed. The shepherd rejoicing over his lost sheep, the woman rejoicing over the valuable coin she had searched for so diligently, and the emotional reunion of a patient father with his wayward son - these parables tug at our heart strings and whispers to us that God has reached across the chasm of human evil and welcomed us home to be his children forever. Few chapters of the Bible receive more attention and rightly so.

But, if the opening and closing statements of this chapter are any indicator, Luke appears to be drawing our attention not only to the mercy of our Abba Father, but to the folly of ignoring and spurning this mercy. Jesus is telling us that there is something about this heartwarming narrative that many people will ignore and even despise.

Perhaps what is considered folly here is the idea that God has welcomed even those that we ourselves hate and distrust. Jesus dined with sinners and tax collectors - the outcasts of his day. This was outlandish to the religious leaders.

Perhaps it was the quickness of God's mercy that struck the leaders. Jesus paints the older son in the place of the Pharisees, and his reaction to the feast for his brother is anything but positive. This feast seemed completely unfair and seemed to ignore completely the gravity of the younger son's shameful lifestyle. He had humiliated his father! Now he is being celebrated? And so quickly? So soon after the shame had took place? This was scandalous!

Perhaps what seemed so foolish to the religious leaders was that the gravitational center of their worldview was so publicly discarded by Jesus and his love for sinners. The older brother's objections revolved around himself! Where's my party? How about a goat? I've served you and I get nothing!

Which shows so clearly who they were really serving, doesn't it? They were serving themselves, even with all their knowledge of Scripture and zealous practice of rituals. It was about justifying themselves in the eyes of their Father, rather than admitting their utter inability and running to him for the unfair grace that he so freely offers.

Unfair grace.

It is unfair for the younger son to get a feast! Ever fiber of our sense of justice agrees with the older son. But that's because we have gotten things so wrong, and missed who is really at the center.

My confession is that I've often acted like the older son, especially at my job at Humana. I get pretty competitive sometimes, and I am often tempted to wish for the misfortune of others, rather than celebrate when they succeed, even if they are promoted or recognized before me or more than me. This feeling of envy is the opposite of Christlike love, as Schaeffer pointed out in his True Spirituality:

"Natural desires have become coveting against a fellow creature, one of our kind, a fellow man, when we have a mentality that would give us secret satisfaction at his misfortune. If a man has something, and he loses it, do we have an inward pleasure?"

To covet, envy, and lust for my own superiority is the height of self-idolatry and is utterly offensive to God. The lesson for us is to apply the picture of the younger son to our immediate context, instead of living out the self-righteousness of the older son.

For me, that means working at Humana in such a way that seeks the betterment of others, that serves them without expectation of return or even recognition. It means being more shocked at my selfish interest than I am shocked at God's unfair grace. It means trusting that the feast will come and that my Father himself alone is reward enough for life's trials and tests.

It means joining the feast, for it is really all about Him.

Damned if you do...

Luke 7:31-35

To what then shall I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like?  They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, 

"We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge, and you did not weep."

For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, 'He has a demon.'  The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, 'Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!'  Yet wisdom is justified by all her children.

...............

The healings of the centurion's servant and the widow's son are amazing stories in and of themselves. But Luke also uses them to introduce John's question about who this Jesus really is. Likewise, the concluding account of the immoral woman interrupting the pharisee party is a bookend example of Jesus as the "friend of sinners," a title he  took from the pharisees' misplaced accusations.

In the center of this action is the cryptic little saying quoted above, where I will now turn my attention - "we played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not weep." What does this mean?

Jesus uses this phrase as a way to define the generation of people before him, but this could just as easily refer to our modern era and the elemental nature of our fallen humanity. Jesus goes on to rephrase and clarify his own words - "For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, 'He has a demon.'; The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, 'Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!'; Yet wisdom is justified by all her children."

In other words, you hate and condemn those who live for God, whether they are ascetics like John, or free to enjoy food and drink like Jesus was during his ministry. The Pharisees were so blinded by their judgmentalism that they could condemn two men of opposite offenses without batting an eye. They were so fixed on the external trappings of religiosity that they could not see the glorious fruit of God's wisdom staring them in the face.

How do we see this happening today? In our culture of tolerance we do not always see clear examples of overt judgment like this. What we do experience on a regular basis are the silent accusations of our Enemy howling against us in often contradictory ways. In the church, we imagine our dear brothers and sisters condemning us for being either too strict or too lenient as parents. In the world, we imagine our non-believing friends either offended by our God-talk or perhaps condemning us in an imaginary hell because we did not say or do enough to bring them to Jesus. In our own minds, we are "damned if you do, or damned if you don't."

These are the illogical accusations we face from day to day. But it is the simple truth of the gospel that can quickly set us free from these earthly fears. Romans 8 tells us: "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." If we truly believe this, then we know we have been forever declared "not guilty" by the only Judge who will ever really matter. He is our hope and confidence now. In him we can stand assured. Our faith will be proved genuine, not by the petty judgments of our Enemy, but rather by the Son who took our judgment upon Himself: a wisdom that is truly justified by her children.

Mercy Without Rest

Luke 6:9, 35, 36, 42, 45

And Jesus said to them, "I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?..."

But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful....

How can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,' when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye....

The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

...............

There is so much going on in this chapter that it is difficult to pick any one section to focus on. So, let's see how each of these fit together in an overall theme.

Much of this passage consists of Luke's version of the Sermon on the Mount. Luke and Matthew may have shared a common source (the hypothetical Q source), Luke may have borrowed from Matthew directly (since the prologue admits he was familiar with other accounts), or more likely, these pithy sayings were frequent topics in Jesus' teaching, repeated on several occasions and recalled in various oral and written traditions.

In Luke's context, these teachings follow two encounters with the religious leaders in which Jesus is questioned about his apparent disregard for the Sabbath. Few traditions were cherished by the Jews more than their observance of rest on the seventh day - an ordinance commanded by Moses and rooted in God's rest after the six-day creation account recorded in Genesis. But, over time, there were many man-made traditions that evolved around Sabbath observance - extra requirements that turned this day of celebration into a religious straight-jacket. The idea that picking heads of grain or healing a man with a withered hand should be forbidden of the Sabbath speaks to the petty and trivial nature of these man-made traditions. They were missing the point entirely!

In this context, the subsequent sermon appears to address these hypocrites with some of the most penetrating words of Jesus' entire ministry. The call to humility, the acceptance of persecution, our willingness to bless enemies, warnings against hypocritical judgmentalism, a focus on heart motivations, and an emphasis on founding one's life on God's word - all of this directly contradicts the petty, trivial, externalized, and ultimately fraudulent version of spirituality being offered by the scribes and Pharisees. God demands a changed life, one that is fundamentally reoriented toward His purposes from the inside out. This demand is impossible to realize in our own strength, which is part of why men prefer to use their man-made traditions like a self righteous mask.

Note how verse 36 roots this call to mercy in the character of God himself:

Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. (Luke 6:36)

By missing the central command to show mercy, these teachers had missed the very nature of the God they claimed to follow. Failure to live out of a heart of mercy is practical heresy and gives the completely wrong impression of the God we serve. It's no wonder that Paul would further claim that this hypocrisy was actually driving Gentiles away from faith, rather than toward faith (Romans 2:23-24).

I pray that I will know this God of mercy, that I will understand his heart and let my life be shaped by His Spirit. I pray that I will lead a life of unexpected love and thus convey that there is a infinite personal God with the heart of a father, and whose character is mercy. Help me, even on a Sabbath, to never rest from showing mercy. Amen.

Worse than Diarrhea

Mark 7:18-22

"Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?" (Thus he declared all foods clean.)  And he said, "What comes out of a person is what defiles him.  For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.  All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person."

...............

Apparently, the only appropriate way to rebuke religious hypocrisy is to resort to potty language.  At least, this is the case in Mark 7 as Jesus responds to the Pharisees' insistence upon ceremonial hand washings.  When confronted with strict rules for external rituals, Jesus counters with his own well-aimed rebuke: You Pharisees bend and break the commandments of God for the sake of your man-made traditions.  Don't you know that what comes out of your sinful heart and mind is far worse than mere food which is eaten and expelled?

Much could be said about how religious people today are continuing this Pharasaic legacy of restricted pietism (making a short list of extrabiblical rules that will supposedly gain the special favor of God).  There are preachers and congregations who rail against cultural trends and lifestyles, and yet conveniently overlook their own gluttony, laziness, or private marital problems.  There are average folks who thumb their noses at certain classes of people, or discount certain forms of art because of its rating or reputation.  And there are even non-religious pietists as well, who rail against what they see as religious "bigotry" or traditional definitions of family and society.

So, how do we know if our convictions are more like the Pharisees or like Jesus himself?  The answer from the immediate context is that we should hold tightly to the clear commands of Scripture and be willing to quickly let go of our extrabiblical religious habits when they contradict with Scripture (9:9-13).  This is especially the case when our extra rituals are culturally irrelevant or even detrimental to ourselves and others (cf. Romans 14 & 1 Cor. 9).  Another answer from the broader context of the Gospels is to first point the finger at yourself, long before you consider pointing out someone else's weakness or sin (Matt. 7:1-5; note: this passage is often misused to argue that ALL judging is forbidden by God, when in reality it merely forbids "judgmentalism" as an attitude of thoughtless self-righteousness).

An example in my own life may prove to be an appropriate conclusion.

One night, many months ago, I had the opportunity to sit down with my mother-in-law and share this very passage (Mark 7) with her, in an attempt to explain some of my beliefs.  I have witnessed in her life the paralyzing effects of restricted pietism. Her disciplined habits of prayer, Bible-reading, and healthy diet are truly remarkable, but in and of themselves, they are hollow forms which provide little substance (see Col. 2:16ff). As I sat with her for over two hours, while Donna and Gracie slept, I sought desperately to show her, as humbly as I possibly could, that her ascetic lifestyle was in fact enslaving her and emaciating her - a result that runs completely counter to the glory and goodness of God, in whose image every person has been created.  However, she looked directly at verses like Mark 7:19 (thus he declared all foods clean) and quite simply refused to accept it.  She said, No.

I pray that someday she sees how trivial and petty her vision of God appears to be.  The One who paints the sunsets each day and formed every human heart to beat and to long for meaning, it is He who created her to be free from the bonds of pietism which keep her depending upon rituals rather than a dynamic relationship with the Living God.  Lord, have mercy on each of us as we continue to fight this fight for freedom, through the One who covers us completely in His righteousness.  Amen.

The Short List

Matthew 15:3

He answered them, "And why do you break the commandments of God for the sake of your tradition?"

...............

This passage describes a form of hypocrisy that is still rampant in the religious world today: restricted pietism. In Matthew 15:1-9, we get a definition of restricted pietism that is pretty basic: disobedience and hypocrisy. By making a short list of what is required to be truly acceptable to God, the Pharisees were actually disobeying God's clear commands in Scripture. The motive behind this short list was driven by self-worship and self-rule ("their heart is far from me"). This is a clear example of hypocrisy -- having a pretense of holiness, but with alterior motives.

Restricted...

"Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat" (15:2). Here, we see the aspect of restriction in the piety of the Pharisees. They had added to God's commands a practice that may have been wise and good, but not a basic criteria that one must meet to be accepted by God. In fact, by focusing on points of man-made tradition, rather than the clear commands of Scripture, the Pharisees were really attempting to make God's law more feasible, more practical, and essentially less impossible to fulfill. Sounds like a good idea, right? Wrong! The law of God, among other purposes, was meant to be the highest standard imaginable. It is the pathway of complete holiness and righteousness. Later, the apostle Paul will reveal further that the Law was meant to convict us of sin, expose our inability before God, and drive us to Him as our only Hope and Savior. To water down the Law by replacing it with man-made rules is also to water down our desperate need for a Savior.

...Pietism

"But you say, 'If anyone tells his father or his mother, What you would have gained from me is given to God, he need not honor his father.' So for the sake of your tradition you have made the word of God void. You hypocrites!" (15:5-7). What makes this watering down of the law even more heinous is that the Pharisees claim they are being even more pious by doing so. When we claim that we are more pious than God, we are total fools! God commanded all of his people to honor their fathers and mothers, which implies a level of care and respect that would include financial assistance when necessary. The Pharisees found a way to be even more pious than that -- to give to God what they were supposed to give to their families. Today, Christian ministers face the same situation, in which their families are sacrificed "for the good of the ministry." We live in a Christian sub-culture that has exalted highly-visible, program-based, event-driven ministry, to the detriment of those core relationships that make up our families and the next generation of God's kingdom. I don't condemn programs or sacrifice. But, I do condemn any pious activity that begins to encroach upon the basic expectations of a child of God.

Family. Church. Society. These are the spheres in which every one of us plays an active role. Let's not get them confused and pretend that we are more pious because of it.

A Tall Glass of Perfection - Part 3

Matthew 7:23

And then will I declare to them, "I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness."

...............

I promised to give some practical encouragement on how to avoid hypocrisy. Well, the more I thought about it, and thought about the Sermon on the Mount, the harder it became to make this practical. I've already said that this issue is one of internal transformation, rather than a superficial spirituality. The heart of the matter is a matter of the heart. Our Father sees what is done in secret and rewards us accordingly.

A wise man once said, "Integrity is who you are when no one else is around." That's true to an extent, but I think Matthew 7 gives us some clues to how a person of integrity (in contrast to a hypocrite) would act around other people. Rather than giving you another spiritual "to-do" list, Matthew 7 provides some characteristics, some signs, that someone is genuinely living for God from the heart.

(1) A person of integrity will search their souls carefully before confronting sin in others. "You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye" (7:5). It is important to note that rebuking someone is not forbidden here, and confronting someone's sin is not antithetical to having integrity. Rather, the sign of a true believer is confronting self before confronting others.

(2) A person of integrity will treat others the same way that they want to be treated. "So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets" (7:12). The Golden Rule. 'Nough said.

(3) A person of integrity will be careful not to follow the teaching hypocrites. "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves" (7:15). How do we know if we're following a false teacher? "You will know them by their fruits" (It's so important, he says it twice in this passage, and gives an illustration).

(4) A person of integrity is more interested in knowing God than impressing Him. Matthew 7:23, quoted at the top, is the key verse here. False teachers will be known by their bad fruits, and one of those bad fruits is a showmanship that is for one's own glory. If we are truly seeking first His kingdom and His righteousness, we will avoid this kind of self-glorifying behavior. Let us be careful too, that our tendency toward works-righteousness does not lead us to trust in ourselves and our own merit rather than only in the blood of Christ - the once for all sacrifice that has torn the veil and brought us back into the presence of our Creator.

(5) A person of integrity will build his life on the promises and commands of God. "Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock" (7:24). It's easy to yawn at this point and say, "Every sermon application I've ever heard tells me to read the Bible more!" Well, it kind of looks like that is how Jesus is ending His sermon, too! But, look carefully and notice that it is not about the quantity of Scripture that you take in to your life. Rather, the man who will withstand life's stormy trials (and eventually withstand the storm of God's judgment) is the one who trusts in those promises and banks on the wisdom and goodness of those commands. Such a person will remain standing no matter what happens.

Again, this is not a spiritual "to-do" list. The glass of perfection is still too tall for us to handle in our own strength. We would end up like the man who built his house on the sand if we tried to impress God with our own wisdom and strength. And He wouldn't want it that way. He would rather that we come to him, trust him like a child with a father, and let our hearts be transformed from the inside out.

A Tall Glass of Perfection - Part 2

Matthew 6:33

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you.

...............

We've seen that hypocrisy is at the center of Jesus' critique of the Pharisees and the common spirituality of his day. What is this hypocrisy and how do we avoid it? A quick definition from Webster's may be helpful:

Hypocrisy
"1: a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not ; especially : the false assumption of an appearance of virtue or religion."

The word comes from the Greek for "play-acting," a technical term from the world of the theater. Jesus was accusing the religious leaders of being insincere in their beliefs and practices. They were wearing a mask of sorts, a crime that is condemned again and again in the New Testament. For example, Paul argues that "no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly," but rather "a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter" (Rom. 2:28-29). The author of Hebrews quotes from the prophet Jeremiah concerning the new covenant that will be written on our hearts (Heb. 8:8-12; Jer. 31:31-34). There is yet another reference to God giving us a new heart in the prophet Ezekiel (Ezek. 11:19-21). In both prophets there is a concluding vision of what this new heart is really all about: "And they shall be my people, and I will be their God" (Jer. 31:33 & Ezek. 11:20).

Matthew 6:33 gives us a similar conclusion when Jesus is wrapping up his critique of superficial spirituality, i.e. being consumed with the worries of the present moment.

Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness.

You may check off everything on your spiritual "to-do" list, but if you leave this out, everything is in vain. The problem is that the glass of perfection is still too tall. The Bible won't settle for external conformity to some religious "to-do" list. The Word of God demands genuine love, for our Creator, for his kingdom, and for his creatures. The fact that the prophets described this love as coming from a "new heart" (not to mention the teaching that Jesus gives about the necessity of a "new birth" in John 3) reminds us that we are utterly incapable of producing the righteousness that God requires. Hence, the command to seek "His righteouness;" that is, the righteousness that comes through faith in Christ and banks everything on the substitutionary atonement that he accomplished on the cross. It is what theologians call an "alien righteousness," something outside of ourselves that has been imputed to us. (Check out Romans 4 and 5 for a refresher on "faith counted as righteousness.")

So, if we are utterly incapable of giving ourselves this "new heart," what can I do to follow Jesus' teaching? How can I avoid the hypocrisy he condemned and instead "Seek first His kingdom?" Maybe we'll get to some practical encouragement on this matter tomorrow!

To be continued...

A Tall Glass of Perfection - Part 1

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Matthew 5:48

You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

...............

What can be said about Matthew 5 and the Sermon on the Mount that hasn't already been said? Men and women have spent lifetimes studying this passage, attempting to tease out the meaning of "the Law" and whether Jesus really meant for us to obey these commands, or whether the apparent impossibility of the commands was meant to be instructive concerning our depravity and utter need for a Savior. My short answer is: both.

This is yet another great opportunity for a lesson in interpretation. There are many key verses in this passage. I was inclined to think that 5:17 was really the window to understanding the whole chapter. But, I also think that 5:48 is a good candidate. Two reasons: It comes at the conclusion of this section (Jesus often summarized parables and teachings with memorable one-liners at the very end), and the verse contains a "therefore," adding more weight to the idea that Jesus is summing up all that he has just said. And the conclusion is, you must be perfect as your Father is perfect. No big deal, right?

Well, this verse is quite discouraging at first. It parallels verse 20, where Jesus said that our righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees. In what sense is our righteousness supposed to exceed theirs? I think from the examples that Jesus subsequently gives, it is clear that the kind of righteousness he is commanding is a lifestyle of obedience without hypocrisy.

You could say, with some weight, that the entire sermon is merely a scathing critique of religious hypocrisy. Your loving actions mean nothing if there is anger in your heart, or if you only love those who love you. Your chastity is nothing if there is lust in your heart. Your "certificate" of divorce means nothing, period! Your just retribution is nothing, since God also wants to display mercy on the righteous and unrighteous. Furthermore, Jesus exposes in the hypocritical motives behind the religious leaders' alms, their prayers, and their fasting in chapter 6.

So, what is this tall order of "perfection?" It is probably referring to obedience to the whole counsel of God, the whole Law, and more importantly, obedience in such a way that is completely heart-felt and motivated by love for God and all people. And you thought the Ten Commandments were a tall order on their own!

To be continued...