Matthew 5: The Sermon on the Mount: Righteousness (7)

Pray Psalm 15.1, 2.
Lord, who may abide in Your tabernacle?
Who may dwell in Your holy hill?
He who walks uprightly,
And works righteousness,
And speaks the truth in his heart…

Sing joyfully Psalm 15.1, 2.
(Arlington: This Is the Day the Lord Has Made)
Lord, who may dwell within Your tent, or on Your holy hill?
All those who keep Your covenant and walk within Your will.

All they who with integrity work peace and righteousness,
forever in God’s house shall be forgiven, kept, and blessed.

Read Matthew 5.1-20; meditate on verses 13-20.

Prepare.
1. What is the righteousness of God’s Kingdom like?

2. What is it not like?

Meditate.
Having explained in the beatitudes that hungering and thirsting for righteousness are identifying marks of those who are blessed in the Kingdom of God, Jesus immediately launched into a fuller explanation of what righteousness entails. In verses 13-20, He emphasizes the effects of righteousness, indicates its source, and then begins a deeper analysis of true righteousness by telling us what it is not.

Righteousness is like salt and light. It brings out the goodness God has established in the world, and preserves against decaying influences. Righteousness shines like a light in a dark place. The effect of this salt-and-light presence is that people realize that God is at work, and they give Him glory and honor (vv. 13-16). Our calling is to make ourselves as salty and as light-filled as we can, for the Kingdom of God is righteousness (Rom. 14.17, 18).

That means we must devote ourselves to reading, meditating on, studying, obeying, and teaching God’s Law (vv. 17-19). The Law of God is the source of our understanding about the true nature of righteousness, especially as we see the Law fulfilled and explained by Jesus. Jesus embodies the Law. He fulfilled all its righteous requirements, and He calls us to walk the same path (1 Jn. 2.1-6). We will not make progress in seeking or advancing the Kingdom if we neglect the Law of God, or deny its relevance for our lives. Kingdom greatness awaits all those who mine the source of righteousness in God’s Law, and show others how to do so as well.

But we must not make the mistake of thinking that righteousness is something we can merely patch-on, or make up to suit our own ideas about what’s best. This was the practice of the scribes and Pharisees, and Jesus denounced their merely superficial righteousness as insufficient for life in His Kingdom. In the verses that follow, He will explain the real meaning of inside-out righteousness.

All true citizens of the Kingdom of God hunger and thirst for righteousness. As they do, God fills them with His righteousness – our Lord Jesus Christ (Matt. 5.6). In His power, we become salt and light for a dark and lost world.

Reflect.
1. How can we know when we are hungering and thirsting for righteousness?

2. Why are salt and light excellent ways of thinking about righteousness?

3. Can we learn true righteousness apart from the Law of God? Explain.

Consequently nothing in the divine commandments must be abolished, nothing altered. Everything must be preserved and taught faithfully and devotedly that the glory of the heavenly kingdom may not be lost. Indeed, those things considered least important and small by the unfaithful or by worldly people are not small before God but necessary. For the Lord taught the commandments and did them. Chromatius (fl. ca. 400), Tractate on Matthew 20.2.1-3

Make me hungry and thirsty for righteousness today, O Lord, especially as I…

Pray Psalm 15.1-5.
Pray that God will work the righteousness of Jesus into your life, and out into your Personal Mission Field today.

Sing Psalm 15.1-5.
Psalm 15.1-5 (Arlington: This Is the Day the Lord Has Made)
Lord, who may dwell within Your tent, or on Your holy hill?
All those who keep Your covenant and walk within Your will.

All they who with integrity work peace and righteousness,
Forever in God’s house shall be forgiven, kept, and blessed.

Let truth from every heart proceed, and slander disappear:
Thus shall we know God’s grace indeed and feel His presence near.

No evil to your neighbor speak, nor turn against your friend:
Thus shall you know the end you seek – God’s presence without end.

Let every sinner be despised; but those who fear the Lord
Shall honor have before our eyes, according to God’s Word.

All they who keep their word in faith, though suffering may ensue,
Shall know the favor of God’s grace, His presence ever true.

No greed and no injustice shall they do who seek the Lord;
But on His mercy ever call and stand upon His Word.

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).