Matthew 5: The Sermon on the Mount: Righteousness (5)

Pray Psalm 119.1-4.
Blessed are the undefiled in the way,
Who walk in the law of the LORD!
Blessed are those who keep His testimonies,
Who seek Him with the whole heart!
They also do no iniquity;
They walk in His ways.
You have commanded us
To keep Your precepts diligently.

Sing joyfully Psalm 119.1-4.
(Ode to Joy: God All Nations Sing Thy Glory)
Blessed are they whose way is blameless, all who walk within God’s Law,
who, His testimonies keeping, seek Him, filled with joy and awe.
These are they who, no wrong doing, ever walk within God’s ways.
Lord, Your precepts You command us; we would keep them all our days.

Read Matthew 5.1-19; meditate on verse 19.

Prepare.
1. Who are least in the Kingdom of heaven?

2. Who are great in the Kingdom of heaven?

Meditate.
Jesus could hardly be more clear about the importance of the Law of God. He fulfilled it, and He expects His followers to walk the same path (1 Jn. 2.1-6). Those who break even the least of God’s commandments – whether willfully or in ignorance – hinder their ability to realize more of the Kingdom of God, and its purity, righteousness, mercy, peace, and joy. Moreover, by failing to keep the Law, they cause others to stumble by their example. Even worse is intentionally to teach that we need not heed the commandments of the Lord. Thus lawlessness spreads, and with it, lack of love (Matt. 24.12).

If your aspiration is to be merely least in the Kingdom of heaven, then you’re missing Jesus’ point here. When He calls us to seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matt. 6.33), He does not mean that we should do so a little bit, or when it’s convenient, or if we feel like it and aren’t otherwise too busy. Life in the Kingdom demands our full-time attention and effort; we seek the Kingdom and righteousness of God first, as the defining motif of everything else we do.

But we will not realize all the Kingdom promises apart from learning, obeying, and teaching the Law of God.

Kingdom greatness – flourishing and abounding in the character and power of the Kingdom of God (1 Cor. 4.20) – is directly connected to obedience to God’s Law. We must learn the Law, meditating in it throughout the day (Ps. 1), and we must work out our salvation in obedience to it (Phil. 2.12). As we do, submitting thus to the rule of King Jesus, the reality of that rule comes to us and through us, and His Kingdom advances on earth as it is in heaven.

Seek the Kingdom, and seek to be great in the Kingdom. Kingdom greatness is involved with serving others in love (Mk. 10.41-45), and we cannot do that effectively apart from the Law of God.

Reflect.
1. Why should we seek to be great in the Kingdom of heaven?

2. Why is the Law of God so important for life in the Kingdom of God?

3. What can you do to become more familiar with and obedient to the Law of God?

Whoever sets aside “one of the least of the commandments” of the law is set aside by God as God’s enemy and as an inventor of laws opposed to God. Cyril of Alexandria (375-444), Fragment 48

Help me to love, learn, and obey Your Law, O God, so that I…

Pray Psalm 119.5-8.
Pray that God will deepen your love for His Law, and that He might help you learn and obey His commandments.

Sing Psalm 119.5-8.
Psalm 119.5-8 (Ode to Joy: God All Nations Sing Thy Glory)
Let my ways steadfastly keep to all the statutes of Your Word.
Then shall I, no shame enduring, fix my eyes on You, O Lord!
With an upright heart I praise You, in Your rules will I abide.
I will keep Your statutes wholly; keep me ever by Your side.

T. M. Moore

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. All psalms for singing adapted from The Ailbe Psalter. All quotations from Church Fathers from Ancient Christian Commentary Series, General Editor Thomas C. Oden (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2006). All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter (available by clicking here).