Week 19: Deeper Morality

• Key verses: Matthew 5:20,44
• Right or righteous?
• Love your enemies
• Parting thoughts

Key verses

Matthew 5:20 (NLT)

But I warn you—unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven!

Matthew 5:44 (NLT)

But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!

Right or righteous?

Jesus calls us out on just doing right. We may say the right things, do good deeds, and generally look like a good person, but if our hearts are not right, we aren’t righteous.

Jesus follows up his audacious statement with multiple examples. “You have it said…But I say.” He compares committing adultery with lust. In today’s world, watching porn is no different from performing the acts yourself. He also calls out vow breaking. Your word should be enough. Are you truly trustworthy?

Now I am going to get even more personal. Are you a murderer? Jesus compares anger, name calling, and curses to murder.

But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell.

Jesus, Matthew 5:22 (NLT)

Have you seen the news, social media, or even protests in your streets? None of these things are bad in and of themselves. You may think you are right. But are you acting righteously? Are you expressing belittling words on social media? Are you reposting those words? My point is that being right without being righteous puts you in conflict with God.

Love your enemies

Jesus wraps up with the hardest teaching of all. Love and pray for those you don’t like and those who don’t like you. Think about that for a few minutes. This applies to neighbors, coworkers, bosses, political figures, and strangers. It’s really difficult to hate someone you are praying for.

When we do this we are more like God. A better reflection of God’s image.

But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. 

Romans 5:8 (NLT)

When you or your character is attacked on social media, pray for your attacker. If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything. It is better to be thought of as weak to them rather than act unrighteously. This is crazy difficult teaching. Thankfully, God made the difficult choice to love us despite our sin. We need to follow his example.

Parting thoughts

Jesus doesn’t hold back. Being right before God is way more difficult than being right before others. This teaching can be disheartening. If you have trusted in the sacrifice of Jesus, we have been declared righteous before God. That’s unchanging. Now, we need to live like it! We were never promised easy.