(Matthew) ch.5:21-48 — Zac Poonen

Anger Against Personal Injury

Let's turn today to Matthew's gospel chapter 5. In our last study, we were considering how Jesus began his description of nine wrong attitudes at Matthew 5 .21. And the first of those wrong attitudes was anger towards a brother.

There may be cause for it, but where it concerns our own rights and our own honor and our own self, the word of God is very clear. We must not be angry with our brother. Many Christians have never overcome anger because they have never taken this command seriously.

They live under the old covenant, following Moses, not Jesus Christ. Think of a command like this. Ephesians 4 verse 31. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you.

Let all wrath and all anger be put away from you. And yet in verse 26, there is a verse which many believers like to remember. Remember, be angry yet do not sin. Let not the sun go down on your anger and do not give the devil an opportunity.

Many people justify their anger saying that is just righteous indignation. Whatever name you may call it, the Bible calls it anger. And yet people may say, doesn't it say, be angry and yet do not sin?

That's right. But five verses down in Ephesians 4 verse 31, it also says, let all anger be put away from you. Compare scripture with scripture and if you're honest, you'll discover that that anger which is caused by the harm or hurt or injury or inconvenience that another person has caused to me is selfish anger and must be put away completely.

What then is the anger which is free from sin? It is an anger that concerns the purity of God's house. For example, when Jesus came to the temple and saw people making money there in the name of religion, he was angry with them.

When Jesus once went into a synagogue in Mark chapter 3 and the people there were so selfish that they didn't want a man with a withered hand to be healed, it says he looked at them with anger in Mark 3 verse 5.

But when the people pulled out the hairs from his face and spat on him, he was not angry. What do we learn from Jesus Christ? That he was never angry when it concerned anything done to his own person, whether they called him the devil or spat on his face.

But when it concerned the purity of God's house, when it concerned other people being delivered from their satanic bondages and people hindering them, then he was angry. He was angry in things that concerned God and other people but never in anything concerning himself.

Anger, which has its root cause in some inconvenience or injury done to me, is always sinful and must be put away one hundred percent. The anger that we need to retain is the anger that we should feel when God's house is being dishonored, God's name is being dishonored, His house is being abused, the church is being abused to make money in the name of religion, etc.

Unfortunately, in many Christians, it is the other way round. They see evil in God's house and they are not angry at that, but they are angry when it concerns themselves and somebody hurting them. Take it seriously, dear friends.

God wants you to overcome anger. Then he goes on to say in verse 27 about another thing. In the old covenant it was written, you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that everyone who looks on a woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her already in his heart.

Sexual Lust and Radical Purity

And if your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you. For it is better for you that one of the parts of your body perish than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you.

It is better for you that one of the parts of your body perish than for your whole body to go to hell. It is amazing how Jesus spoke about going to hell. In the sermon on the mount, He says, if you are angry with your brother and you don't control it, you go on to call him raka and fool.

Verse 22, you can go to hell. Likewise, He says in relation to adultery, if you don't control those dirty thoughts and overcome them and it leads on to sin with your eyes, verse 29, and with your right hand, verse 30, your whole body can be thrown into hell.

How many people believe that? How many people believe that sinning with the eye can lead to a person being thrown into hell? Many have never taken God's word seriously. They think that God doesn't mean what He says.

Jesus said in John chapter 12, He said, I do not judge anyone. In the final day, if somebody has rejected Me, John 12, verse 48, and does not accept My sayings, the word that I spoke will judge him at the last day.

And here are the words that Jesus spoke. If your right eye causes you to stumble, tear it out. It's better for you that one of your parts of your body perish than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

What is the context? The context is looking, verse 28, on a woman to lust for her. You haven't touched her, you haven't gone anywhere near her. You have looked. Your right eye has caused you to stumble.

Right eye or left eye, doesn't matter which. But it's caused you to stumble. It's caused you to sin. And you haven't taken it seriously. This is the standard that God expects of us in the new covenant.

You say, that's far too high a standard. That's right. That's why it's impossible, humanly speaking, to attain to it. That's why we need grace. That's why we need the power of the Holy Spirit. That's why we need to come to the throne of grace and ask God to give us grace and we'll find that grace is sufficient, as He told Paul, for every need of us.

My grace is sufficient for you, even to overcome dirty looks, dirty thoughts. I wonder how many people have taken seriously this matter of keeping our eyes pure. Even in the Old Testament, Job considered this as a very serious offense.

He lived before Old Testament times. We read in Job 31, verse 1, I made a covenant with my eyes. He made a covenant with his eyes. How then could he look upon a woman sinfully? So there we see that it was a serious thing, even in Job's eyes, before the Old Covenant was given.

How much more today to look and lust is a sin, Jesus said. Jesus expects purity in the inside, in our thoughts. And if a man's committed adultery in his mind, Jesus said, as far as he's concerned, that is adultery.

He has committed adultery with her already in his heart. And in that context, He said, deal with it radically. It's not the physical pulling out of the eye, of the right eye. It obviously cannot mean that because you could still sin with your left eye.

No, it means a radical attitude towards sin, lest your whole body be thrown to hell. So Jesus used hellfire as a means to warn people to stay away from sin. Then He went on to speak about divorce. In verse 31 and 32, whoever divorces his wife, in the Old Testament it was said, let him give her a certificate of dismissal.

Divorce, Remarriage, and Covenant Faithfulness

And as we considered in a previous study, Jesus said in Matthew chapter 19, that was due to the hardness of men's hearts that God permitted that under the Old Covenant. Now that the Holy Spirit is given, Jesus says in Matthew 5 .32, I say to you that everyone, and there is no exception here, whether he calls himself believer or unbeliever, who divorces his wife, except for the cause of unchastity, there is one exception, unchastity, where divorce is permitted, even under the New Covenant.

That's where a man or a woman has broken their covenant in marriage. In such a case, it's permitted, but for any other reason. If a man divorces his wife or a wife divorces her husband, they are committing adultery.

And if you marry a divorced woman, you commit adultery. For the cause of unchastity, divorce is permitted, but remarriage is not permitted, even in such a case. And that is very clear when you look at the parallel passages, which are mentioned in Mark chapter 10 and Luke chapter 16 and 1 Corinthians 7, verse 11 onwards.

It's clear that though divorce is permitted in the New Covenant for unchastity, remarriage is not. Whoever, without exception, marries a divorced person commits adultery. We need to establish these standards once again in these days of compromise, where Christians consider divorce and consider marrying those who are divorced and marrying again.

Everyone, without exception, the Lord says, who divorces his wife, except for unchastity, commits adultery. And so we see that in this sexual area, there is a very high standard that God expects in the New Covenant.

In the area of anger and sexual lust, two wrong attitudes. In the area of anger and sexual lust, God expects us to overcome, to seek Him for grace, that we might live according to the standard that He has prescribed for us under the New Covenant.

Lying Through Words and Hypocrisy

Let's turn today to Matthew's Gospel, chapter 5 and verse 33. Continuing our study on the nine wrong attitudes that Jesus said we are to be delivered from as New Covenant disciples, if our salt is to remain strong and with taste, and if our light is to shine so that we fulfil our function as the light of the world, as Jesus spoke of in verse 13 and 14 of this chapter, in contrast to the nine right attitudes that we need to have, which Jesus described in the first few verses, Matthew 5, verses 3 to 12, He goes on to describe nine wrong attitudes.

First of all, anger. Second, sexual lust. And third, in verses 33 to 37, He speaks about lying. You have heard, He said, that the ancients were told, You shall not make false vows, but shall fulfil your vows to the Lord.

But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black.

But let your statement be yes, yes, or no, no, and anything beyond these is of evil. In Psalm 58, in the Old Testament, there is a verse which says that the children of men go astray from their mother's womb, telling lies.

Psalm 58, verse 3. They speak lies from the mother's womb. In other words, it's when they are babies, they begin to tell lies, which means it is not just a question of speaking words from the mother's womb, which means that they can tell lies without speaking.

And this is what we need to see, that it is possible for us to tell a lie without opening our mouths. In other words, lying is more than just the words. It's speaking about deception by expressions, by a certain impression that we convey on others.

In other words, it's referring to this whole area of hypocrisy. Consider Ananias and Sapphira, for example, whom we read of in Acts of the Apostles, chapter 5, where Peter spoke to them and told them, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit, he says in verse 3.

And yet, if you read that passage, you find that Ananias had not opened his mouth. And yet, Peter says, you have lied to the Holy Spirit. It's possible to tell a lie without opening our mouths. We lie when we do something or act in a particular way to give people a certain impression about ourselves, which is not true.

In that particular case, Ananias came into the meeting of the church, bringing some money with him, giving the impression that he was giving everything when he was not giving everything. There was no sin in holding back part of the money.

But there was a great sin in pretending. And he was judged not for giving all his money. God doesn't want one pie of our money. But he was judged for pretending in the presence of others. For being a hypocrite.

And in contrast to the Old Testament standard, which said that you must speak the truth when you are under oath, Jesus says here, don't make an oath at all. Under any circumstances, there are people who lay their hands on the Bible and take an oath.

Notice what it says here in James 5, verse 12. Above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath, even by laying your hand on the Bible. Let your yes be yes and your no be no, so that you may not fall under judgment.

James is repeating what Jesus said. Let your yes be yes and your no be no. There is no need to take an oath and to say, I swear by the Bible or I swear by God or any such thing. The very Bible on which you lay your hands tells you very clearly in Matthew 5, verse 36 and James 5, verse 12, that you are not to make an oath.

That's clear. And he who has ears to hear will hear. These are the small commandments of God's word that we can take so lightly. You're not to make an oath. For, as we said in an earlier study, what is a person saying when he's taking an oath?

He's saying that I tell lies most of the time, but right now I'm speaking the truth because I'm under oath. But that's not the testimony a Christian should have. The testimony of a Christian is, I speak the truth all the time and so I don't need to take an oath.

Your yes is yes and your no is no. When you have to qualify your yes and no with other things, but this and but that, Jesus says in Matthew 5, verse 37, that is all evil. It's evil. It's not just substandard.

It's evil and we need to see it as evil. So there we see the seriousness of telling lies. We notice that with children, how easy it is for them to tell lies and we need to teach them right from childhood, as parents, the seriousness of lying.

Children need to be punished severely for telling lies when they seek to deceive their parents. That's one of the most serious things that children can do, to tell lies to their parents. And if parents don't take the lies that their children say seriously, they can prepare their children for hellfire.

Truthfulness and the Judgment of God

Notice the emphasis on hellfire, hellfire, hellfire, again and again, in these first three attitudes. Anger, Matthew 5, verse 22, you're in danger of hellfire. Sexual lust, Matthew 5, verse 29, you're in danger of hellfire.

Sexual abuse, Matthew 5, verse 30, you're in danger of hellfire. And telling lies, Revelation 21, verse 8, it says, all liars will have their part in the lake that burns with fire in Brimstone. All liars, black liars, white liars, every type of liars, it says in Revelation 21, 7, 21, 8 and in verse, it's repeated in verse 27, all those who practice lying will be outside the city.

All those who practice lying. In contrast to this, we read in the book of Revelation, a group of people described in Revelation 14, who stand with Jesus on Mount Zion. And it says about them in Revelation 14, 5, no lie was found in their mouth.

Here are people who were born of the same race of Adam, but who had received Jesus Christ and who had taken their Christian life seriously, not like many other Christians, being filled with the Holy Spirit, and who had cleansed themselves of this lying nature that they had inherited from Adam.

Jesus said in Matthew chapter 12, and verse 36 and 37, that every careless word that men shall speak, they will render account in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.

And so we see here that our words are very serious, because by our words we can be condemned. Have you been cleansed from all lying, from giving a wrong impression to others? Is it only when you are under oath that you speak the truth?

Or has speaking the truth become a way of life with you? Think of a situation in your office when you're in a tight spot, and you can tell a lie and get out of that tight spot. Or you can speak the truth and perhaps lose your job, or get into a difficult situation.

What will you do? The devil comes to you and says, a lie is powerful now, a lie is almighty, it can deliver you from this tight spot. The Holy Spirit says, God is almighty, he can deliver you, if you will honor him by speaking the truth.

Now it's a question at that point whether you're going to believe the devil, or you're going to believe the Holy Spirit. Whether you believe a lie is almighty to deliver you from a tight spot, or whether God is almighty.

Many, even those who call themselves believers, very often in a tight spot they tell a lie because they believe the lie is almighty. They lose faith in the almighty power of God at that situation. And here is where our faith is tested.

And that's why lying is very serious. If we have lied and hurt others, we need to go and make restitution and confess it and set it right. Anyone who wants to be salt that has not lost its taste, light that's burning brightly, will take these commandments seriously.

Lying is a wrong attitude that dwells deeply in our flesh. We will lie when it's convenient for us, when we will gain something from it. Think of the false statements people sign in offices in order to make a little profit.

Many things are covered under this commandment. Let your yes be yes and your no, no. Take this seriously, dear friends, so that we can be cleansed from this evil nature through the power of the Holy Spirit and live as Jesus wanted us to.

Honest and truthful under all circumstances, whatever the pressure. Let's turn now to Matthew's Gospel chapter 5 and verse 38. Continuing our study in the Sermon on the Mount, having looked at the nine right attitudes that Jesus described at the beginning in verses 3 to 12, he continues with nine wrong attitudes that we need to be cleansed from.

Vengeance and Nonretaliation

Beginning at Matthew 5 .21, which he prefaced with this introduction, that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. The first wrong attitude that he said we need to really be cleansed from is anger.

Verse 21 to 26. The second one, sexual lust and all that arises from that, verses 27 to 32. The third one is lying, which we considered in our last study, verses 33 to 37. And the fourth one that Jesus speaks of here is vengeance.

All these wrong attitudes are wrong attitudes that dwell deeply within our flesh. Anger, sexual lust and lying have penetrated every fiber of our being. So also the desire for vengeance, to take revenge on someone who has hurt us or inconvenienced us in some way.

And Jesus said here in verse 38, you've heard that it was said, this was an Old Testament law, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. That's mentioned in Exodus 21, verse 24 and also in Leviticus 24, verse 20.

And in both those passages, what the Old Testament law said was that if a person took another person's life, you must take his life. Life for life. And if in a fight that two people had, one person knocked out another person's tooth, the punishment is that you take out one of the offending person's tooth, one of his teeth.

And if he injured a person's eye so that it was damaged, you take out that person's eye as a punishment. Now, this does not mean that we are to do it. In the Old Testament, a person who was God's representative in the state, as his authority was to do it, were not to take the law into our own hands.

But under the New Covenant, the Lord says, I'm teaching you a higher standard, forgiveness, where you don't take vengeance. If somebody has taken out your eye, there's no need to take out his eye. Do not resist him who is evil in this sense.

We must not misunderstand that verse by taking it out of context. Do not take his eye if he has taken yours. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your shirt, that is your inner garment, let him have your outer garment as well.

And whoever forces you to go one mile, that is the Roman soldiers who compelled the Jews to carry their burdens for one mile, have a good attitude towards him and help him and carry his burden. Carry it for two miles.

Give to him who asks of you and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. This is quite a high standard. Jesus is not saying here that there is no need to have law where people's rights are protected, that if someone steals your property, you just let him take it.

He is speaking about personal attitudes here. He is not speaking about established law in society, but about a personal attitude of vengeance. He says we must not have that. In other words, don't take the law into your own hands and slap him back.

But have an attitude which is free from covetousness and from the love of material things and from defending your own personal rights. Leave that to God. In Romans chapter 12, we read, the Lord says, never take your own revenge, Romans 12, 19.

Beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God. Let God do it. For it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. If somebody has harmed you, God will repay him. Leave it to God. As far as you are concerned, forgive him.

What should you do then? If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him a drink. Overcome evil with good. We'll come to that a little more when we come to the next section. But for the moment, on the matter of revenge.

That's a quotation there in Romans 12 from Proverbs 24. So we find that this was something that God commanded even in the Old Testament. Proverbs chapter 24, verse 17 and Proverbs 25, verse 21 onwards.

What is the right attitude towards an enemy? If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him to drink. Proverbs 24, 17 says, do not rejoice when your enemy falls. That would be an attitude of revenge.

Do not rejoice when your enemy falls. But have an attitude of love. There are many ways in which we can seek to take vengeance on others. It's possible for parents to take vengeance on their own children when their children cause them some inconvenience.

There are many countries today where child abuse has become so bad that people torture and there are even cases of people who have pulled out their children's eyes in anger and burnt their tongues in anger because those children caused inconvenience to them.

Now we may say we never do such things, but consider something lesser than burning their tongue or burning their eyes or maiming them. It's right that we must discipline our children when they are disobedient.

Not because they cause us inconvenience, but when they are disobedient. But consider a case like this. Supposing you were to ask your child to drink up its milk and it is disobeyed and you don't take it seriously.

You just keep on telling it until finally the child spills the milk and it falls all over your clothes. Then you whip him. You need to ask yourself whether your whipping the child at that time is for its disobedience or because it has caused you so much inconvenience by messing up your clothes.

It may not be discipline, but revenge. We can take revenge against our own children. It's amazing how much evil dwells in the flesh. And so we need to cleanse ourselves from this revengeful attitude to be happy as we read in Proverbs 24 .17 when your enemy falls.

Somebody who has done some wrong to you. Are you happy when God judges him? Then you have a revengeful attitude. Even though you didn't take revenge yourself, your attitude is one of revenge that you rejoice when your enemy falls even under the old covenant that was forbidden.

No, we are not to have an attitude of revenge even in our hearts. As I said Jesus was not teaching the abdication and the abolition of all law. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn the other cheek.

What did Jesus himself do? In John chapter 18 we read in verse 23 that when he was standing before the high priest and somebody slapped him, Jesus replied, If I have spoken wrongly, bear witness of the wrong, but if rightly, why do you strike me?

He didn't turn the other cheek. He asked for justice, but when it was not given to him, then he accepted it. What does that teach us? We have every right to ask for justice on the basis of John 18 .23.

But we do not fight for it. If they continue to slap us, we do not hit back. That's the point. We can ask for justice. Law has not been abolished in society, but it's a question of attitude. What about this verse which says, Give to him who asks of you and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.

Here again we need wisdom. Jesus said that no one can be his disciple if he does not forsake all that he has. Luke 14 .33. Everything that we have we need to forsake if we are to be disciples. And this commandment is only for disciples.

Supposing you have earned your salary on the first of the month, maybe a thousand rupees. You need to forsake that to God if you want to be a disciple. Not 10%, but 100%. In other words, you need to recognize that that entire salary which you earned that month belongs to God.

God allows you to use it for house rent, food, clothing, children's education and many other things, but it belongs to God. No, we need to obey the commandment which says, Give to him who asks of you and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.

When somebody comes and asks you for that money, if it's yours, you can give it. If it belongs to God, what shall you do? You have to ask God, Shall I give it to this man? Just like if you were keeping money with you that belonged to somebody else, you couldn't give it away without asking the owner's permission.

And there's not a single pie that we have in our home or in our bank account that should really belong to us. It should all belong to the Lord. Then we understand how to obey this commandment. That when somebody asks of us, we go and ask the owner.

We say, I have to ask the owner, the Lord. If he permits me to give it to you, I give it to you. Otherwise, I cannot. If he permits me to lend it to you, I lend it. Otherwise, I cannot. Thus, we can obey even this command in all situations.

It's all a question of attitude. When we are disciples, we understand how to do everything right in all situations. Let's turn to Matthew chapter 5 and verse 43. We were considering in these last studies the wrong attitudes that Christians can have, that they need to cleanse themselves from if they are to be disciples of Jesus Christ.

Loving Enemies Without Selectiveness

Having described the nine right attitudes in verses 3 to 12, Jesus begins to describe the nine wrong attitudes that we need to cleanse ourselves from. First of all, verse 21 to 26 of Matthew 5, anger.

Second, verse 27 to 32, sexual lust. Third, lying, verse 33 to 37. Fourth, vengeance, the spirit of vengeance, from verse 38 to 42. Now we come to verse 43 to 48, where Jesus speaks about selectiveness in love as a wrong attitude that we need to cleanse ourselves from.

He said, you have heard that it was said under the old covenant, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. Of course, the children of Israel, when they came into the land of Canaan, were taught to show no mercy to their enemies, to the Canaanites.

There was a reason for that. The Canaanites had indulged in various types of evil described in Leviticus 18 and Leviticus 19. The Lord said very clearly there that there were all types of abominations and idolatry in the areas of sex that they had indulged in.

That if they had been permitted to live, the Israelites were not strong enough to resist the temptation that would come through the evil of these people around them. They would have been corrupted and the testimony of God in Israel would have been corrupted.

Their hearts were hard, they were not yet ready to resist the evil around them and therefore the only way to keep the testimony pure was to destroy the people around them. That's why there was a command to destroy all the Canaanites.

It's something like cutting off a gangrenous hand or leg. We love the hand and leg, yet it needs to be cut off lest it corrupt and destroy the whole body. We need to see Old Testament destruction of Canaanites in this light.

But in the New Covenant, God has given us the Holy Spirit. There's no need to destroy the people around us in order to keep ourselves pure. We live in the Spirit, by the power of the Spirit and grace that strengthens our heart, we keep ourselves pure.

So this is the context in which we need to understand this Old Testament commandment about hating our enemy. It was never God's will. It was for a period because of the hardness of the hearts of people.

But Jesus said, now I will tell you what God's will has been from the beginning. Love your enemies. That's God's nature. God doesn't hate his enemies. He loves his enemies. Pray for those who persecute you, Jesus said, in order that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven for he causes his son to rise on the evil and the good and sends the rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

Here is a standard God has given for us to follow, that Jesus has given to us. To be like our Heavenly Father. How does God make the sun shine? He makes the sun shine on evil people and on good people.

Does God send rain on the fields of the righteous only? No. There are unrighteous people whose fields are prospering because God sends rain on them. Why? If God were to bless only the righteous with material things, that is, then the unrighteous would have a terrible time on this earth.