Matthew 5: The Sermon on the Mount (17)
Pray Psalm 37.4-6.
Delight yourself also in the LORD,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the LORD,
Trust also in Him,
And He shall bring it to pass.
He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light,
And your justice as the noonday.
Sing Psalm 37.4-6.
(Neumark: If Thou But Suffer God to Guide Thee)
Delight yourself in God’s salvation; He’ll give you all your heart’s desire.
Commit to Him your every station, and His good purpose will transpire.
Your righteousness a blazing light He will bring forth against the night.
Read Matthew 5.1-30; meditate on verses 27-30.
Where does sin begin? What does that mean?
Prepare.
1. What does Jesus mean by the “heart”?
2. How would you describe Jesus’ attitude toward sin?
Meditate.
Jesus doesn’t want us plucking out our eyes or cutting off our hands. He uses hyperbole here to show just how serious sin is. Sin will destroy us, and if there’s anything we can do to keep from falling into habitual, unrepentant sin, we should do it.
The passage begins by Jesus explaining how to deal with sin: Check it at the source. Sin begins in the heart. The heart is that spiritual component of the soul that nurtures and engages our affections, such as love or desire. If we fear the Lord, delight in and desire Him and His Kingdom, and love Him with all our heart, the other affections of our life will fall into place. This will be true of the affection of hate, which is a valid affection, and ought to be at all times engaged toward sin (cf. Ps. 97.10).
When Jesus equates lust with committing adultery, He’s making the point that sin begins in the heart. Check sin there, and you will increase in true righteousness, which is inside-out and not outside-in. Righteousness, as well as sin, begins in the heart. Cultivate true righteousness, and you will watch over your heart with all diligence, knowing that from it flow all the issues of life (Prov. 4.23).
There is something more to be said about plucking out our eyes and cutting off our hands. While we don’t need to mutilate our bodies, we can put out of sight or out of reach any temptations that might lead to sin, whether in our heart or otherwise. We need to recognize temptation from afar and pluck out or cut off from our lives anything which might become a trap or snare, leading to sin (Prov. 1.17). For one way to guard the heart is to refuse to expose it to what we know may cause us to fall through temptation into sin.
Treasure Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162
Where sin begins.
The slow creep—the small deviations that lead to—the insidious nature of the slippery and insidious slide that leads into sin is a dastardly wonder to behold. Especially since we have been warned, and warned again, against it.
The sin of adultery is particularly horrid in that it ruins marriages, tears apart families, destroys trust; and is, in truth, one of the oldest tricks in the book. It surely takes a real dolt to fall into it. The deception is as old as time itself. And yet, men and women keep falling for it—something that gives Satan a good laugh; yet breaks the heart of God (Matt. 19.8).
“Now therefore listen to me, my children; pay attention to the words of my mouth;
do not let your heart turn aside to her ways, do not stray into her paths;
for she has cast down many wounded, and all who were slain by her were strong men.
Her house is the way to hell, descending to the chambers of death” (Prov. 7.24-27).
“Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of evil.
Avoid it, do not travel on it; turn away from it and pass on.” (Prov. 4.14, 15).
“Therefore hear me now, my children, and do not depart from the words of my mouth.
Remove your way from her, and do not go near the door of her house,
lest you give your honor to others, and your years to the cruel one;
lest aliens be filled with your wealth, and your labors go to the house of a foreigner;
and you mourn at last, when your flesh and your body are consumed, and say:
‘How I have hated instruction, and my heart despised correction!
I have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined my ear to those who instructed me!
I was on the verge of total ruin, in the midst of the assembly and congregation” (Prov. 5.7-14).
Although these verses pertain to the sin of adultery,
replacements can be added to suit—any temptation lurking around our hearts,
desiring to pull us away from God—are things from which we must depart post haste.
Is it lying? Covetousness? Envy? Anger? Hatred?
An idol, of any sort, that detracts our love and attention away from God?
Is it disobedience? Is it, in fact, adultery?
“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
nor stands in the path of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and
in His law he meditates day and night” (Ps. 1.1, 2).
Where sin ends.
Reflect.
1. How does temptation begin? How did it begin with Adam and Eve (Gen. 3.1).?
2. What can you do to guard your heart—your desires, longings, loves—from temptation of any sort?
3. What can we as believers do to help one another resist the devil and overcome his temptations?
He speaks about the [members] of the body but employs hyperbole. It is not that one should literally “cut off one’s members.” Rather, one is called to mortify them and render them useless for sin, as the apostle has said. One should not spare even things thought most necessary, if through them any bad activity threatens to occur. Apollinaris (310-392), Fragment 23
Pray Psalm 37.7-9, 34-40.
Pray about the day ahead. Ask the Lord to give you strength to love Him at all times, to serve Him in everything you do, and to resist temptation as it appears.
Sing Psalm 37.7-9, 34-40.
Neumark: If Thou But Suffer God to Guide Thee)
Rest in the LORD and wait on Jesus; fret not at those who practice sin.
Forsake all wrath till anger ceases; let anxious fears not enter in.
The wicked perish from the LORD, but they are blessed who heed His Word!
Wait on the LORD, His way observing, and He will lift you up on high.
Those prone to wicked ways preserving, your eyes shall see cast down to die.
The blameless man shall stand upright, for God preserves him by His might!
Salvation comes from Christ our Savior; He is our strength in time of need.
On us does He bestow His favor, who all His holy judgments heed.
He is our help in troubled times; our refuge He, in Him we hide.
T. M. and Susie Moore
If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment to give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).
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Other columns of interest: This week: The Read Moore podcast continues readings from our book, The Kingdom Turn. Our Crosfigell teaching letter presses ahead in a series on the state of the Church in Europe at the time of the Celtic Revival. The ReVision column finishes our study of the Church as Jesus envisions it. Check out our other excellent writers. Click here to see all the other columns and writers available to you.
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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter.
