Today, I am reading and commenting on  Matthew 5-6.

Jesus starts the Sermon on the Mount with a series of sayings which would seem counterintuitive if we had not heard them so often.  Some of them make sense: Blessed are the pure in heart, Blessed are the merciful.  But others do not: Blessed are those who are persecuted, Blessed are you when people insult you.  Jesus goes on from saying that we are blessed when people insult and persecute us to talking about being salt without losing that which makes us salt.  Jesus gives us two more metaphors which clarify what He meant by that.  You can’t hide a town built on top of a hill and you don’t light a lamp in order to cover up the light it gives off.  In the same way, Jesus does not call secret followers.  That is, the actions of Jesus’ followers will always reveal that they serve Him.  Having laid the groundwork, Jesus goes on to tell us that it is not enough to not take sinful actions, we need to learn to not desire to commit sinful actions.  It is not enough to not commit murder, we must not desire to murder someone.  It is not enough to not commit adultery, we must not desire to commit adultery.  The Pharisees built a fence around the Law of Moses to keep from violating it.  Jesus teaches us to teach ourselves to not want to do the things which violate the Law.  And He teaches that the way to do that is to love others, even our enemies, as much as we love ourselves.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.