Sermon on the Mount
--- Discipleship ABC
Matthew Chapter 7
In the
previous two chapters, the Lord’s teaching included such aspects of disciple’s
life as Christian’s character, influence, righteousness, piety and ambition.
Continued in chapter 7, his emphasis is now on seven relationships: 1) to our
brothers; 2) to “dogs” and “pigs”; 3) to our heavenly Father to whom we come in
prayer; 4) to the general public; 5) to the paths and gates; 6) to false
prophets; and 7) to Lord Jesus himself.
To our brothers (1-5) --- in the Gospels, the ones who are
found to be very good at being judgmental are the Pharisees, they are so
courageous that they judge Jesus. From what these spiritual elites have been
doing the perhaps forms a social environment. People love to be judgmental.
Those who have been called to be disciples are not immune. Therefore, the Lord
warns: “You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you
will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.” Take note that
the Lord announces in second person plural, demanding them “do not be like
them” of their judgmental mindset. Indirectly, we see that the Pharisees are
once again used as a negative example.
The
problem of being judgmental is “I will make myself like the Most High” (Isa
14:14) and this is extremely dangerous. They believe they are righteous enough
to judge without resorting to God’s absoluteness. The apostle James understands
this well, teaching us, “There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is
able to save and destroy. But you--who are you to judge your neighbor?” (Jam
4:12); and the apostle Paul sets up a “Not Your Business” rule to the Church. “Who
are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls.
And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.” And he adds, “But
if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment.” The Church is the
body of Christ featuring being formed by a group of spiritual ex-convicts, and
they still sin, (I Joh 1:8) although not customarily. Therefore, if anything we
don’t like, let’s pray for it gracefully. St. Augustine says: we are obligated
to love the Church of Christ including loving her shortcomings.
We must
remind that be not judgmental does not apply to dealing with false prophets.
The prophets, apostles, and even the Lord himself all give not face to them. To
false prophets, we must “contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted
to the saints” as what the apostle Jude teaches. Nevertheless, however, it
requires us to unify in Christ first, or we are powerless to fight the
spiritual battle because all power is dissipated in judging each other.
To “dogs” and “pigs” (6) --- “Do not give dogs what is
sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them
under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.” This single verse is
not long. The translations do not even bother to add a subtitle for it. Indeed
the “dogs” and “pigs” seem to be a bit ambiguous for us to see their hidden
meanings.
In the Jewish culture back then,
dogs and pigs are considered unclean and cheap. A popular interpretation to
this verse has something to do in sharing the good news: if a listener chooses
to reject what we try to communicate to him, do not argue, just walk away. For
even if you are able to verbally answer all his fastidious questions, still he will
generate many other reasons to reject. This theory implies that people like
this are the dogs and pigs.
But this theory triggers some other
question. Should we persist to share the gospel with him if we come across him
again? In fact, many of us who are now zealous in preaching the gospel were
once the stubborn-minded listeners. My personal opinion, according to
Scripture, is that the dogs and pigs mentioned in this verse point to the
hypocritical Pharisees and the priests.
The
verse is not talking about the literal dogs and pigs. They are metaphors. What
about the secret gifts and the pearls? It
is found that secret gifts appear in the Pentateuch except Genesis. Also, it
appears on the History Books, Prophesies, and briefly in a Book of Wisdom. The
secret gifts are offerings that the people of Israel bring to the LORD. (Lev
22:2-3, Ezek 20:40), and are given by God to the priests as gifts. (Num 4:15)
The law repeatedly forbids those who are unclean and gentiles from touching and
eating the secret gifts. (Exod 29:33, Lev 22:10) As for pearls, they appear in Eden.
(Gen 1:12) At that time the universe was not polluted by sin. In Revelation
pearls appear again, representing the twelve gates of the New Jerusalem. (Rev
10:10) All these suggests that pearl symbolized something pure and clean. By the
duality feature in Jewish literature, since dogs and pigs are metaphors, the sacred
gifts and pearls are likewise metaphors opposite to the meaning dogs and pigs
carry. And since dogs and pigs are represent
the unclean and despised, sacred gifts and pearls, then, signify purity and nobility.
“Do not
give dogs what is sacred.” Regarding dogs,
- The apostle Paul calls false prophets as “dogs”. (Phi 3:2)
- The apostle Peter too calls them the same. (II Peter 2:22)
- Isaiah the prophet, on the other hand, addresses the negligent spiritual leaders as dogs. “Israel's watchmen are blind, they all lack knowledge; they are all mute dogs, they cannot bark; they lie around and dream, they love to sleep. They are dogs with mighty appetites; they never have enough. They are shepherds who lack understanding; they all turn to their own way, each seeks his own gain. "Come," each one cries, "let me get wine! Let us drink our fill of beer! And tomorrow will be like today, or even far better."” (Isa 56:10-12)
The
Lord of Truth declares, these hypocrites are the unclean dogs and pigs. Do not direct
your piety to God via these guys anymore. The true light is now here,
follow him. “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he
gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12)
To our heavenly Father (7-11) --- The Catholic Church exalts
the Pop (in Chinese translation his is literally called "The Emperor of the Religion") as the most authoritative and they follow the same principle in
biblical interpretation, this doctrine has arguably earned themselves numerous many
mistakes in history. After the Reformation, the Protestant Church has adopted a commonly accepted method for
hermeneutics is 1) original text; 2) the context; and 3) Scripture interprets
Scripture. The previous example of interpreting “dogs and pigs” is one of the
many examples in sound biblical interpretation by mainly 3) listed above.
Lord
Jesus tells his apostles not to continue in their following to the hypocritical
religious elites. Now what new direction should they go for? If we put aside
the subtitle between v. 7-12 and v.13-14 "The Narrow and Wide Gates", a fluent literary trace appears immediately. Jesus simply says: "follow me, instead". Verses
7 to 11 is a counter revolution against verse 6. Unlike the dogs and pigs, in him we are blessed with “Ask and it
will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened
to you.“ Why? “For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him
who knocks, the door will be opened.” This is like a morning radiance breaking
out of the darkness of long. Lord Jesus has hand us a spiritual open check. He already signed, and we fill in the rests.
How to
ask, seek, and knock? The Lord says: continuously. In the Greek original all
three verbs in verse 7 are present continuous tense, whereas their counter
parts in verse 8 are future tense. Therefore, continue to pray, our heavenly
Father will give the best to those who pray according to His will.
To the General Public (7:12) --- This is widely known,
including the pagan general public, as The Golden Rule. However, by the
coordinate conjunction “so” (or “therefore” ask in NKJV), we have to connect
this verse to its preceding vv. 10-11. “So in everything, do to others what you
would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” Employing the hermeneutics principle, the key
to understanding v. 12 is found to be the last clause "for this sums up the Law and the Prophets." What, then, is the Law
and the Prophets? The most authoritative answer comes from Matt 22:37-40. “Jesus
replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your
soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the
second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the
Prophets hang on these two commandments."” With what is reveled, we
conclude that 7:12 teaches about a full dimensional relationship of the
disciple. Of course, the first for us to love is God. Uncountable many
blessings are bestowed to the us freely. For this we respond with
our love to Him.
“And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as
yourself.'” The Lord requires us to shine the lights before the people in order
to glorify our heavenly Father. Now this requirement transcends the worldly
understanding as to treat each other the way, whatever it might be, we wish to. If we shine our lights
before the general public and show them the heavenly glory, we have hopes to
win them over to Christ, and they become our brothers and sisters. A true
brotherhood in the Lord! This is what we would have them do to us. For this
profound reason, treat the general public as if they are one of us, be meek,
merciful, and lead them to reconciliation to God. We are so blessed (7-11) and
the Lord wants us to be the conduit of the blessings from heaven.
To the Pedestrians on the opposite direction (13-14) --- Liberated
from the boundary of the false teachers, the disciples are heaven bound. At
Jesus' time, the Pax Romana is boastful on her transportation infrastructures and highways. They are wide and flat.
Jesus, however, directs the disciples to enter through the small gate and
narrow road. This depicts two pedestrian streams on two completely opposite
directions and road conditions.
One
direction, featuring a broad way and a wide gate, leads miserably to destruction. On this
direction people are hurried to go forward, not knowing that waiting for them
in the endpoint of the broad way is eternal perishing. Because the road is broad and the
gate is wide, it is a natural tendency that most people choose this “easy” direction as a bumper sticker you might have seen. On the sticker it is written: “Lead us
not into temptation --- I’ll find it.” These people do not realize that they
are like free-falling objects heading for the darkness irreversible .
The
narrow way and small gate, on the other hand, leads to eternity. “and only a
few find it.” The word “find” tells us that we are required to pay effort and price for it.
“The kingdom of heaven is forcefully advancing. The forceful men lay hold of
it.” Thus says the Lord in Matt 11:12. He has pointed us the direction to eternity. Now, following him we trod the narrow way and enter the small gate.
In the original language the participles
“enter” in v. 13 and “find” in v. 14 are both in present continuous tense and
middle voice. The former tells us that to enter and to find are out of our
continuous efforts. The sinners insist in actively walking on the broad way and
large gate. As for the disciples, we make up our sturdy mind to follow the Lord
on the narrow way and enter the small gate. Moreover, do
not forget, in the meantime, to tell those who are heading for the opposite direction that Jesus is
the way, the truth, and the life.
To False Prophets (15-23) --- The Lord explicitly criticized the Pharisees as hypocrites only once prior to this point (5:20), and he used them as negative
examples indirectly throughout the rest of the teachings. Now, in a straight forward manner, he warns the disciples:
“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but
inwardly they are ferocious wolves.” They possess tremendous negative energy,
because false prophets are “deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of
Christ.” (II Cor 11:13)
We
admit that the history of false prophet is even longer than that of the prophets of God, for the father of false prophet is Satan the spiritual being. He was
able to contaminate the universe with one single trickery, “’You will not
surely die,’ the serpent said to the woman. ‘For God knows that when you eat of
it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’”
(Gen 3:4-5) In the biblical history, not only the O.T. prophets fought the
false prophets, but in almost all books, they also dedicate sections to deal with them. The term “false prophet” is derived from the Greek compound
word yeudoprofh,thj. The red portion of the word is
“pseudo” in English, meaning that it looks alike but is not genuine. False
prophets are never ambassadors of Christ, but anti-Christ. They are deceitful by
sheep's clothing, but their fruit reveals their true identity. The
fruits are: they are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ; (Gal 1:7) they secretly
introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought
them--bringing swift destruction on themselves; (II Pet 2:1) They have taken
the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam's error; they have
been destroyed in Korah's rebellion; (Jud 1:11) Their mind is on earthly
things. (Phil 3:19) etc.
God has
given us the Bible. He wants us to grow in his word, “we all reach unity in the
faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to
the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants,
tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of
teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.”
(Eph 4:13-14) As Christians we are obligated to work hard in studying the word of God. Again, this is the price we have to pay.
To Christ himself (24-27) --- This is arranged in the ending
section of the Sermon. Christ expects us to be in an intimate relationship with
him.
The
expression of this intimacy is our obedience to his word. The Lord calls this
kind of disciple “wise man”, because his faith and good deeds are build upon
the rock of ages and his life shows forth the heavenly light, just as what Dan
12:3 says: “Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens,
and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.”
[The end， 01/20/2020]
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