IT has been already explained, though briefly, that one reason which seems to have guided the Spirit of God, if we may reverently venture so to speak, in putting the Sermon on the Mount out of its historical place in Matthew, and giving it to us before many of the events which, in point of fact, took place subsequently, was this: that the whole Gospel was written upon the principle of convincing Jews, first, who Jesus was, their Messiah — a man, but Jehovah — the LORD God of Israel; that next, the fullest proofs were given of what He really was as their Messiah, according to prophecy, miracle, moral principles and ways, both in His own person and in His doctrine. In order to give the greater weight to His doctrine, the Spirit of God, in my opinion, has been pleased, first, to give as a general sketch the deeds of miraculous power which roused universal attention. The report went abroad everywhere, so that there was no possible ground of excuse for unbelief to argue that there was not sufficient publicity; that God had not sounded the trumpet loud enough for the tribes of Israel to hear. Far from that: throughout all Syria His fame had gone forth, and great multitudes followed Him from Galilee, and Decapolis, and Jerusalem, and Judæa, and from beyond Jordan. All this is brought forward here, and grouped together at the end of chapter 4.
And just as there is this grouping of the miracles of Christ, which might have been severed from one another by a long space of time, so I apprehend the Sermon on the Mount was not necessarily a continuous discourse, unbroken by time or circumstances, but that the Holy Ghost has seen fit to arrange it so as to give the whole moral unity of the doctrine of Christ as to the kingdom of heaven, and specially so as to counteract the earthly views of the people of Israel.
Luke, on the contrary, was inspired of the Holy Ghost to give the questions that originated certain portions of the discourse, and the circumstances that accompanied it; and, again, to keep certain parts of that discourse back, connecting them with facts that occurred from time to time in our Lord’s ministry, the actual incidents being thus interwoven in moral correspondence with any particular doctrine of our Lord. In some places of Luke, the Spirit of God takes the liberty, according to His sovereign wisdom, of keeping back certain portions, and bringing in a part here and there, according to the object He has in view. The great feature of Luke’s Gospel, which runs through it from beginning to end, being its moral aim, we can perfectly understand how suitable it was that, if there were circumstances in Christ’s life which were a sort of practical comment on His discourse, there you should have the discourse and the facts put together.
Now, as to the discourse itself, the Lord here clearly speaks as the Messiah, the Prophet-King of the Jews. But, besides, all through you will find that the discourse supposes the rejection of the King. It is not yet brought clearly out, but this is what underlies it all. The King has the sense of the true state of the people, who had no heart for Him. Hence there is a sweet tinge of sorrow that runs through it. That must ever characterize real godliness in the world as it is: a strange thing for Israel, and specially strange in the lips of the King, of One, too, possessed of such power, that had it been a question of using His resources, He could have changed all in a moment. The miracles which accompanied His every word proved that there was nothing beyond His reach, if Himself only were looked at. But you will find, whatever be the ways of God, that He always makes good His counsels. Thus, if in predicting a purpose, He takes in hand to set up a kingdom, He will certainly accomplish it, since He never gives up a single thought that has proceeded from His heart. Nevertheless, He first presents the thought to man, that is, to Israel, because they were the chosen race among men. Man has thus the responsibility of receiving, or rejecting, that which is the mind of God, before grace and power give it effect. But man always fails, no matter what God’s purpose may be. Be it good, and holy, and true, it is that which exalts Himself, whilst it no less abases the sinner. This is enough for man. Feeling that he is made nothing of, he rejects whatever does not gratify his vanity. Man invariably sets himself against the thoughts of God: consequently there is not only sin and sorrow, but rejection of God Himself. And the wonderful thing that the history of this world exhibits, is God submitting to be rejected and insulted; allowing poor weak man, a worm, to repel His benign advances and refuse His goodness, to turn everything that God gives and promises into the display of his own pride and glory against the majesty and will of God. You will find that as all this is the truth about man, so the tinge of it runs through this blessed discourse of our Lord. And when He is now bringing out (which is the great purport of the early part of this chapter) the character of the people who would suit the kingdom of heaven, He proclaims that their character was to be formed by His own. If we know men’s dislike and contempt for what is of God, He shows that those who really belong to Him must have a spirit and ways flowing from knowledge of, and communion with, His own. Nevertheless, you will find that the truth of a divine life given to the believer is not spoken of in this discourse. Nor is redemption ever touched upon. Neither is the subject of the Sermon on the Mount. If a person, therefore, wanted to know how to be saved, he ought not to look here with the thought of finding an answer. Elsewhere these truths are revealed. Here the Lord is bringing out the kingdom of heaven and the sort of people that are suitable to that kingdom. It is clear that He is speaking of His own disciples, and, therefore, is not, could not be, setting out how one that belongs not to Himself can be delivered from the enemy. He is speaking about saints, not about sinners. He here lays down what is according to His mind; not at all the way for a sinner at a distance from God to be brought near. The Sermon on the Mount treats not of salvation, but of the character and conduct of those that belong to Christ — the true, yet rejected, King. But when these beatitudes are examined closely, we shall find an astonishing depth in them, and a beautiful order too.
The first blessedness, then, attaches to a fundamental trait which is inseparable from every soul that is brought to God, and that knows God. “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Nothing more contrary to man. What people call “a man of spirit,” is exactly the opposite of being poor in spirit. A man of spirit is one who is such as Cain was — a person determined not to be beaten; a soul that dares to fight it out with God Himself. The very grace of God is perverted into a reason never to bend. Now he who is “poor in spirit” is the very opposite of this. It is a person who is nothing in his own eyes, and feels that the dust is his right place. And every soul that knows God must, more or less, be there. He may quit this place; for although it is a solemn discovery, yet it is easy enough for self to rise, and forget our right place before God; and it may remain a danger for those who have been brought into the liberty of Christ. When there is exercised self-judgment, a man is apt to be low, specially if not quite sure that all is clear between his soul and God. But when full relief is brought to his soul through the fullness and certainty of redemption in Christ Jesus, if then he look away from Jesus and slip from dependence on grace, there you will have the old spirit revived, the spirit of man in self-confidence: so terrible is the effect of a departure from God in order to mingle with men.
The first in order the Lord lays down as a sort of foundation. It is, indeed, inseparable from a soul that is brought to God. One may not even know what full liberty is: but there is this stamp that never can be absent where the Holy Ghost works in the soul — and that is poverty of spirit. It may be encroached on by others, or it may fade away through the influence of false doctrine, from worldly thoughts and practice; but still there it was, and there, in the midst of all the rubbish, it is; and God knows how to bring a man down again, if he has slipped from his true place. “Blessed the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens.” (vs. 3.)
In speaking about the kingdom, Christ does not hide that these are the people to whom it belongs. By the “kingdom of the heavens” He does not mean heaven the scene of glory on high, but rather looks at the earth as under the rule of heaven. It is notorious that many, otherwise intelligent, are in the habit of confounding these things. “Theirs is the kingdom of the heavens,” they think means “theirs is heaven”; whereas the Lord really refers to the rule of the heavens over that which is here. He reverses the Jewish expectation of a Conqueror. Those who are poor in spirit belong to that system of which He is the King. He does not speak of the Church here. There might have been the kingdom of heaven and no church at all. It is not till the sixteenth chapter of this Gospel that the subject of the Church is broached; and then it is a thing promised, but expressly distinguished from the kingdom of heaven. There is not in all scripture a single passage where the kingdom of heaven is confounded with the church, or vice versa. “Blessed the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens.” This is the primary foundation, the broad characteristic feature of all that belong to Jesus.
“Blessed they that mourn” is the second feature. There is more activity of life, more depth of feeling, more entrance into the condition of things around them. To be “poor in spirit” would be true if there were not a single other soul in the world. A saint thus feels because of what he is in himself; it is a question between him and God, that makes him to be poor in spirit. But “blessed they that mourn” is not merely what we find in our own condition, but the holy sorrow that a saint tastes in finding himself in such a world as this, and, oh, how little able to maintain the glory of God! So that there is this holy sorrow very prominent indeed in the second blessedness. The first is the child of God experiencing the earliest rudimental feeling of holiness in his soul; the second is the sense of what is due to God — a feeling it may be of great weakness, and yet of what becomes the honor of God, and how little it is upheld by himself or others. “Blessed they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.” (vs. 4.) There is not a single sigh that goes up to God but He treasures and will answer it; “ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves.” Here, then, we have the sorrowing of the godly soul.
But in the third case we come to that which is deeper and more chastened. It is a condition of soul produced by a fuller acquaintance with God, and is especially the way in which God elsewhere describes the blessed One Himself, “He was meek and lowly in heart”; and this was what the Lord said after He had been groaning in spirit, for He knew what it was to have a deeper sorrow than any spoken of, over the condition of men and the rejection of God that He witnessed here below. He could only say “Woe” to those cities in which He had done so many mighty works; and then Capernaum comes in for the deepest condemnation, because the mightiest works of all were done there in vain. And what could Jesus do but groan in spirit as He thought of such utter spurning of God, and indifference to His own love? But at the same hour we find He rejoices in spirit, and says, “I thank (I praise) thee, Father.” Such is the blessed expression of matchless meekness in Jesus. The same hour which sees the depth of His sorrow over man sees also His perfect bowing to God, though at the cost of everything to Himself. Conscious of this, He says, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me: for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”
Here, then, may I not be bold to say, that the meekness, which was found in its absolute perfectness in Jesus, is also what the gradually deepening knowledge of the ways of God, even in the sense of the abounding wickedness of this world, and of the failure of what bears the name of Christ, produces in the saint of God. For, in the midst of all that he sees around him, there is the discerning of the hidden purpose of God that is going on in spite of everything; so that the heart, instead of being fretted by the evil which it witnesses, and which it cannot set aside, instead of the least feeling of envy at the prosperity of the wicked, finds its resource in God — the “Lord of heaven and earth” — an expression most blessed because it marks the absolute control in which everything is held by God. Jesus is the meek One, and those that belong to Jesus are trained to this meekness also. “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” (vs. 5.) The earth — why not heaven? The earth is the scene of all this evil that had given occasion to such sorrow and mourning. But now, having better learned God’s ways, they can commit all to Him. Meekness is not merely to have a sense of nothingness in ourselves, or to be filled with sorrow for the opposition to God here below; but it is rather the calmness which leaves things with God, and bends to God, and thankfully owns the will of God, even where naturally it may be most trying to ourselves.
The fourth blessedness is more active. “Blessed they that hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” (vs. 6.) Perfect soul-satisfaction they shall have. Whatever was the form of the spiritual feeling of the heart, there is always the assured answer to it on God’s part. If there was sorrow, they shall be comforted; if there was meekness, they shall inherit the earth, the very place of their trial here. Now we hear of this activity of spiritual feeling, the going out after what was according to God, and what maintained the will of God, specially as made known to a Jew in the Old Testament. Therefore, it is called hungering and thirsting after righteousness. Deeper principles still are disclosed in the New Testament, which had to be brought out when the disciples were able to bear them.
This closes what we may call the first section of the beatitudes. It is plain that they are divided, as the series of scripture often are, into four and three. We have had four classes of persons pronounced “blessed.” All the traits ought to be found in each individual, but some may be more prominent in one than another. For instance, considerable activity is in one saint, edifying meekness in another. The principle of all is in every soul that is born of God. In verse 7 we enter upon a rather different class: and it will be found that the last three have got a common character, as the first four have.
“Blessed the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.” (vs. 7) As righteousness is the key note of the first four, so grace is that which lies at the root of the latter three; and, therefore, the very first of them demonstrates not merely that they are righteous, and that they feel what is due to God, but they appreciate the love of God, and maintain it in the midst of surrounding evil. Yea, there is something more blessed still, and what is that? “Blessed the merciful.” There is nothing on which God more takes His stand (as the active principle of His being in a world of sin) than His mercy. The only possibility of salvation to a single soul, is that there is mercy in God; that He is rich in mercy, that there is no bound to His mercy; that there is nothing in the heart of man, if he only bows to His Son, which can hinder His constant flowing spring of mercy. “Blessed,” then, “are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.” It is not merely a question of the forgiveness of their sins, but of mercy in everything. It is a blessed thing to hail the smallest sign of mercy, to take the little and look for much more. “Blessed the merciful.” They will find, not that there is not difficulty and trial, but that though they shall know the cost of it, they shall know the sweetness of it; they shall taste afresh what the mercy of God is towards their own souls, in the exercise of mercy towards others. This is the characteristic feature of the new class of blessing; just as poverty of spirit was the introduction to the first blessings, so mercy is to these.
The next is the consequence of this, as in the former class. If a man does not think much of himself, men will take advantage of him. If a man is bold, and boastful, and self-exalting, saints may suffer it. (2 Cor. 11) If he does well to himself, men will praise him. (Psa. 49) But the contrary of all this is what God works in the saint. No matter what he may be, he is broken down before God: he learns the vanity of what man is; he is content to be nothing. And the effect is that he suffers. Poverty of spirit will be followed by mourning. Then there is the meekness, as there is deepening acquaintance with God, and withal the hungering and thirsting after righteousness.
But now it is mercy; and the effect of mercy is not a compromising of the holiness of God, but a larger and deeper standard of it. The fuller your hold of grace is, the higher will be your maintenance of holiness. If you only regard grace as a wretched, selfish being, trying to find an excuse for sin, no doubt it will be perverted. And so, He speaks at once of the simple, normal effect of tasting of this spring of mercy. They are “pure in heart.” This is the next class, and it is, I believe, the consequence of the first — of being merciful. “Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God.” It is exactly what is proper to God; for He alone is pure absolutely. Thus, also He was perfectly reflected in His beloved Son. For not a single thought, or feeling, ever sullied divine perfectness in the heart of Jesus. In this case He is just telling out what He Himself was. How could He but put His own characteristics before those who belonged to Him? For indeed He is their life. It is Christ in us that produces what is according to God by the Holy Ghost — that blessed One, whose very coming into the world was the witness of perfect grace and mercy on God’s part; for we know God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son for it. And He was there, a man — the faithful witness of the mercy and of the purity of God. He, when He came with His heart full of mercy towards the vilest, was yet the very fullness and pattern of the purity of God in its perfection. “He that sent me,” He could say, “is with me ... for I do always those things that please him.” The only way of doing anything to please God is by the cherished consciousness of being in the presence of God; and there is no possibility of this, except as I am drawn there in the liberty of grace, and as knowing that what Christ was to God, in His own person, is given to me, as far as it could be, by redemption. Christ had, of course, a title to be ever there, because of what He Himself is: and we are there through faith of Christ, because of the nearness that is given us, founded on the blotting out of our sins through His blood. But this is not revealed here; for the Lord is rather unfolding the moral qualities of those that belong to Him.
The third and closing form of these blessedness’s is, “Blessed are the peace-makers; for they shall be called the children of God.” (vs. 9.) Here we have the active side again, as we saw an analogy in the closing one of the first four. These go out making peace. If there is the smallest possibility of the peace of God being brought into the scene, they are sure to find out where it can be, or may be; and if it cannot be, they are content to wait on God, and look up to Him, that He may make this peace in His own time. And as this peacemaking can belong only to God Himself, so these saints that are enriched with these blessed qualities of the grace of God as well as His righteousness, with His active mercy, and its effects — are equally found now characterized as peacemakers. “They shall be called the children of God.” Oh! this is a sweet title — sons of God! Is it not because it was the reflection of His own nature — of what God Himself is? They bore the stamp of God upon them. There is no one thing that more indicates God manifested in His children than peacemaking. This was what God was doing, what His heart is set upon. Here are found men upon the earth who shall be called the sons of God. What belonged to them naturally is merged; and they have a new title from God Himself.
Then follow two blessings of exceeding interest. They add much to the force of the truth, and complete the picture in a most striking way. “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (vs. 10.) This is evidently to begin over again. The first blessedness was, “Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”; and the next three were all marked by righteousness. It is the first thing that God produces in a newborn soul. He who is awakened takes up God’s cause against himself. He is, in measure, broken down, poor in spirit; and God looks for him to grow in poverty of spirit to the last. But here it is not so much what they were, as what their lot was from others. The last two blessedness’s speak of their portion in the world from the hands of other people. The first four are characterized by intrinsic righteousness — the last three by intrinsic grace. These two, then, answer, one to the first four, and the other to the last three. “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” This does not go beyond the blessed state of things that the power of God will bring in over the earth in connection with the Messiah. Being rejected, the kingdom of heaven is His, only, as it were, with a stronger and deeper title — certainly with the means of blessing by grace for the lost. A suffering and despised Messiah is still dearer to the heart of God than if one could conceive Him received all at once. And if He does not lose the kingdom because He was persecuted, neither do they. “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Persecuted, not merely by the Gentiles, or by the Jews, but for righteousness’ sake. Do not be looking at the people that persecute you, but at the reason why you are persecuted. If it is because you desire to be found in obedience to the will of God, blessed are you. You fear to sin — you suffer for it. Blessed are they which suffer for righteousness’ sake: they will have their portion under the Messiah Himself.
But now we have, finally, another blessedness. And mark the change. “Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake.” This change to ye is exceedingly precious. It is not merely put in an abstract form — “blessed are they”; but made a personal thing. He looks at the disciples there, knows what they were to go through for His sake, and gives them the highest and nearest place in His love. “Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you.... for my sake.” It is not now for righteousness’ sake, but “for my sake.” There is something still more precious than righteousness, even Christ Himself. And when you have Christ you can have nothing higher. Blessed indeed to be persecuted for His sake!
The difference is just this: when a man suffers for righteousness’ sake, it supposes that some evil has been put before him, which he refuses. He would have perhaps to subscribe something against his conscience, and he cannot, nor would he dare, do it. He is offered a tempting bait, but it involves that which he knows is contrary to God. All is in vain: the tempter’s object is seen. Righteousness prevails, and he suffers. He not only loses what is offered, but he is evil spoken of too. Blessed are they who suffer thus for righteousness’ sake! But for Christ’s sake is a totally different thing. There the enemy essays greater subtlety. He tempts the soul with such questions as these: Is there any reason why you should speak about Jesus and the gospel? Where is the need for being so zealous for the truth? Why go out of your way so far for this person, or that thing? Now, in these cases it is not a question of a sin, open or covert. For in the case of suffering for Christ’s sake, it is the activity of grace that goes out to others. It is not a question of righteousness, but answers to the last three of the seven beatitudes.
A soul that is filled with a sense of mercy cannot refrain his lips. He who knows what God is could not be silent merely because of what men think or do. Blessed are ye who thus suffer for the sake of Christ’s name! The power of grace prevails there. Too often alas! motives of prudence come in: people are afraid of giving offense to others — of losing influence for self — of spoiling the prospect of the children, &c. But the energy of grace, knowing all this, can still say Christ is worth infinitely more; Christ commands my soul for everything. I must follow Him. In suffering for righteousness’ sake, a soul eschews evil, earnestly and peremptorily, committing itself at all cost to what is right; but in suffering for Christ’s sake, it discerns the story, will, and path of Christ — that which the gospel, the worship, or the word of the Lord calls to, and at once throws itself with its whole heart on His side. Then comes in the comfort of these very words, “Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you... for my sake.”
We may notice that the Lord does not refrain the expression of His soul’s delight in His saints: “Blessed are ye... Rejoice, and be exceeding glad; for great is your reward in heaven.” Observe it is not now in the kingdom of heaven, but “in heaven.” He identifies these with the source of the rule itself. It is not only the reign of God over the earth, and His giving them a portion here; but grace takes them out of the earthly scene to be with Himself above. “For so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.” What an honor to follow in earthly rejection and scorn those who preceded us in special communion with God — the heralds of Him for whom we suffer now! We may clearly, then, consider that these two final blessedness’s, the persecutions for righteousness’ sake and for Christ’s sake, answer respectively to the first four blessings and to the last three.
In Luke, where we have these blessings brought before us, we have none for righteousness’ sake — only for His name’s sake. Hence in all the cases there it is, “Blessed are ye.” To some it may seem a delicate shade, but the difference is characteristic of the two Gospels. Matthew takes in the largest view, and specially that view of the principles of the kingdom of heaven which was suited to the understanding of a Jew, to bring him out of his mere Judaism, or to show him higher principles. Luke, whatever the principles, gives them all under the form of grace, and treats them as our Lord’s direct addresses to the disciples before Him — “Blessed are ye.” Even if he takes up the subject of the poor, he drops the abstract form of Matthew, and makes it all personal. Everything is connected with the Lord Himself, and not merely with righteousness. This is exceedingly beautiful.
If we pursue, further, the next few verses, which give, not so much the characteristics of the people as their general attitude in the world — the place in which they are set in the earth by God, we have it in a very few words, and strongly confirming the distinction which has been drawn between suffering for righteousness’ sake, and for Christ’s name’s sake. Also, those who examine the First Epistle of Peter, will find this remarkably corroborated there also.
“Ye are the salt of the earth.” Salt is the only thing that cannot be salted, because it is the preservative principle itself; but if this is gone, it cannot be replaced. “If the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted?” The salt of the earth is the relation of the disciples here to that which already had the testimony of God, and therefore the expression “earth” or “land,” which was specially true of the Jewish land then. If you speak about the earth now, it is Christendom — the place that enjoys, either really or professedly, the light of God’s truth. This is what may be called the earth. And this is the place which will finally be the scene of the greatest apostasy; for such evil is only possible where light has been enjoyed and departed from. In the Revelation, where the closing results of the age are given, the earth appears in a most solemn manner; and then we have the peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues — what we should call heathen lands. But the earth means the once-favored scene of professing Christianity, where there have been all the energies of the mind of men at work, the scene where the testimony of God had once shed its light, then, alas! abandoned to utter apostasy.
“Ye are the salt of the earth.” They were the real preservative principle there: all the rest, the Lord intimates were good for nothing. But more than that. He gives a solemn warning that there is a danger that the salt should lose its savor. He is not now speaking of the question of whether a saint can fall away, or not. People go with their own questions of scripture, and pervert the word of God to suit their previous thoughts. The Lord is not raising the question whether life is ever lost; but He is speaking of certain persons who are in a given position; and among them there might be persons who had taken it heedlessly, or even falsely, and then there would be the fading away of all that they had once possessed. He announces the, judgment — the most contemptuous possible — to be passed upon that which took so high a place without reality. And so it will be still more evidently yet.
“Ye are the light of the world.” This is quite another figure. Bearing in mind the distinction drawn in the series of the beatitudes and of the persecutions, we have the key to these two verses. The salt of the earth represents the righteous principle. This evidently involves the clinging to the eternal rights of God, and the maintenance before the world of what is due to His character; but it was gone when what bore the name of God fell below what even men thought proper. You can hardly read a newspaper now but what you find scoffs against what is called religion. All respect vanishes, and men think that the condition of Christian is a fair subject for ridicule. But now, in verse 14, we have not only the principle of righteousness, but of grace — the outflowing and strength of grace. And here we find a new title given to the disciples, as descriptive of their public testimony― “the light of the world.” The light is clearly that which diffuses itself. The salt is what ought to be inward, but the, light is that which scatters itself abroad. “A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.” There was a diffusion of its testimony everywhere.
Man does not light a candle to put it under a corn measure, but on a candlestick, “and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.” After this manner let your light shine before men, “that they may see your works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” Mark it well.
We have looked at these two striking sketches of the testimony of believers here below, as the salt of the earth, the preservative energy in the midst of profession; and as the light of the world going out in activity and love towards the poor world; and the danger of the salt losing its savor, and of the light being put under a bushel. Now we find the great object of God in this twofold testimony. It is not merely a question of the blessing of souls, for there is not a word about evangelization, or saving sinners, but of the walk of saints. There is a grave question that God raises about His saints, and this is about their own ways apart from other people. Calls to the unconverted we find abundantly elsewhere, and none can exaggerate their importance for the world; but the Sermon on the Mount is God’s call to the converted. It is their character, their position, their testimony distinctively; and if others are thought of throughout, it is not so much a question of winning them, as of the saints reflecting what comes from above. This light is what comes from Christ. It is not, Let your good works shine before men. When people talk about this verse, they are usually thinking about their own works, and when that is the case, there are generally no good works at all; but even if there were, works are not light. Light is that which comes from God directly and purely without admixture of man. Good works are the fruit of its action upon the soul; but it is the light which is to shine before men. It is the disciple’s confession of Himself; that is the point before God. Confess Christ in everything. Let this be the aim of your heart. It is not merely certain things to be done. The light shining is the great object here, though doing good ought to flow from it. If I make doing good everything, it is a lower thought than that which is before the mind of God. An infidel can feel that a shivering man needs a coat or a blanket. The natural man may be fully alive to the wants of others; but if I merely take these works and make them the prominent aim, I really do nothing more than an unbeliever might. The moment you make good works the object, and their shining before men, you find yourself on common ground with Jews and heathen. God’s people are apt thus to destroy their testimony. What so bad in the way of a thing done professedly for God, as a work that leaves out Christ, and that shows a man who loves Christ to be on comfortable terms with those that hate Him? This is what the Lord warns the saints against. They are not to be thinking about their works, but that the light of God should shine. Works will follow, and much better works than where a person is always occupied with them. “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” (vs. 16.) Let your confession of what God is in His nature and of what Christ is in His own person and ways — let your acknowledgment of Him be the thing that is felt by, and brought before, men; and then when they see your good works, they will glorify your Father which is in heaven. Instead of saying, ‘What a good man such a one is,’ they will glorify God on your behalf. If your light shines, men then connect what you do with your confession of Christ.
The Lord grant, then, that this, as it is the word and the will of Christ, may be that to which we surrender ourselves, and which we desire, above all things, for our own souls and for those who are dear to us; and if we see the forgetfulness of it in any saints of God, may we remember them in prayer, and seek to help them by the testimony of His truth, which, if it does not carry the heart with it, may at least, more or less, reach the conscience, and be remembered another time!
We have seen our Lord’s statement of the character, and then of the position proper to the heirs of the kingdom of heaven. We have found Him pronouncing those “blessed” whom man would have counted it folly to have so thought. Our Lord has shown us the perfect pattern of the same blessedness; for what could have sounded more unreasonable, specially to a Jew, than to hear one deliberately and emphatically call those blessed and happy, who were despised, scorned, hated, persecuted, yea, thought ill of, and treated as malefactors? No doubt it was expressly for righteousness’ sake, and for Christ’s sake. But then, to the Jew, the coming and reception of the Messiah were ever looked forward to as the crown of his joy — that most auspicious event on which all was to turn for Israel, both as to the accomplishment of God’s promises made to the fathers, and as to the fulfillment of the magnificent predictions which involve the overthrow of their enemies, the humiliation of every Gentile and the glory of Israel. And, therefore, to suppose that the receiving of Him who was the Messiah would now entail inevitable shame and suffering in the world, was, indeed, an enormous shock to all their most cherished expectations. But our Lord insists upon it, declaring such, and such only, to be blessed — blessed with a new kind of blessedness far beyond what a Jew could conceive. And this is part of the privileges into which we, too, are brought by faith of Christ. The instruction of our Lord, in the Sermon on the Mount, only comes out in stronger forms now that He has taken His place in heaven. The enmity of man has also come out to its full measure. It has not been merely the world’s enmity. The Jews themselves were the bitterest persecutors of the children of God. And so the last book of the New Testament shows us that those who take the name of Jews, without the present living reality, would remain to the end the most hostile to all true testimony of Christ on the earth.
In the portion that follows, we enter on a most important subject. If there was this new and amazing kind of blessedness, so foreign to the thoughts of Israel after the flesh, what was the relation to the law of Christ’s doctrine, and of the new state of things about to be introduced? If Messiah came from God, did not the law? It was given by Moses, indeed, but from the same source. If Christ brought in that which was so unexpected even by the disciples, what would be the bearing of this truth upon that which they had previously received through God’s inspired servants, and for which they had His own authority? Weaken the authority of the law, and it is clear that you destroy the foundation on which the gospel rests, because the law was of God, as certainly as the gospel. Hence came in a most weighty question, especially for an Israelite: what was the bearing of the kingdom of heaven, of the doctrine of Christ respecting it, upon the precepts of the law? The Lord opens this subject (from verse 17, to the end of the chapter we have the question entered into) with these words: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets.” They might have thought so from the fact of His having introduced something not mentioned in either; but “Think not,” He says, “that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.” I take this word “fulfill” in its largest sense. In His own person the Lord fulfilled the law and the prophets, in His own ways, in righteous subjection and obedience. His life here below exhibited its beauty for the first time without flaw. His death was the most solemn sanction which the law ever did, or could, receive; because the curse it pronounced upon the guilty the Saviour took upon Himself. Rather than God should have dishonor there was nothing, the Saviour would not undergo. But, besides, our Lord’s words warrant, I think, a further application. There is an expansion of the law, or δικαίωυα, giving to its moral element the largest scope, so that all which was honoring to God in it should be brought out in its fullest power and extent. The light of heaven was now let fall upon the law, and the law interpreted, not by weak, failing men, but by One who had no reason to evade one jot of its requirements; whose heart, full of love, only thought of the honor and the will of God; whose zeal for His Father’s house consumed Him; and who restored that which He took not away. Who but He could expound the law thus, not as the scribes, but in the heavenly light? For the commandment of God is exceeding broad, whether we look at the end of all perfection in man, or the sum of it in Christ.
Far from annulling the law, the Lord, on the contrary, illustrated it more brightly than ever, and gave it a spiritual application that man was entirely unprepared for before He came. And this is what the Lord proceeds to do in part of the wonderful discourse that follows. After having said “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled,” He adds, “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” (vss. 18-20.) Our Lord is going to expand the great moral principles of the law into commandments that flow from Himself, and not merely from Moses, and shows that this would be the great thing whereby persons would be tested. It would no longer be merely a question of the ten words spoken on Sinai; but, while recognizing their full value, He was about to open out the mind of God in a way so much deeper than had ever been thought of before, that this would henceforth be the great test.
Hence He says, when referring to the practical use of these commandments of His, “Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven” — an expression that has not the smallest reference to justification, but to the practical appreciation of, and walking in, the right relations of the believer towards God and towards men. The righteousness spoken of here is entirely of a practical kind. This will strike many persons rather sharply. They may be somewhat perplexed to understand how practical righteousness is made to be the means of entering into the kingdom of heaven. But let me repeat, the Sermon on the Mount never shows us how a sinner is to be saved. If there were the smallest allusion to practical righteousness where a sinner’s justification is concerned, there would be ground to be startled; but there can be none whatever for the saint who understands and is subject to God’s will. God insists upon godliness in His people. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord. There can be no question that the Lord shows in John 15 that the unfruitful branches must be cut off, and that just as the withered branches of the natural vine are cast into the fire to be burned, so fruitless professors of the name of Christ can look for no better portion.
Bearing fruit is the test of life. These things are stated in the strongest terms all through scripture. In John 5:28, 2928Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, 29And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. (John 5:28‑29) it is said, “The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation,” or “judgment.” Clearly, there is no disguising the solemn truth that God will, and must, have that which is good, and holy, and righteous in His own people. They are not God’s people at all, who are not characterized as the doers of that which is acceptable in His sight. If this were put before a sinner as a means of reconciliation with God, or of having sins blotted out before Him, it would be the denial of Christ and of His redemption. But only hold fast that all the means of being brought nigh to God are found in Christ — that the sole way by which a sinner is connected with the blessing of Christ is by faith, without the works of the law — only maintain this, and there is not the least inconsistency, nor difficulty, in understanding that the same God who gives a soul to believe in Christ, works in that soul by the Holy Ghost to produce what is practically according to Himself. For what does He give him the life of Christ and the Holy Ghost, if only the remission of the sins were needed? But God is not satisfied with this. He imparts the life of Christ to a soul, and He gives that soul a divine person to dwell in him; and as the Spirit is not the spring of weakness, or of fear, “but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind,” God looks for suited ways, and for the exercise of spiritual wisdom and judgment in passing through the present, trying scene.
While they looked up with ignorant eyes to the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, our Lord declares that so low a sort of righteousness will not suffice. The righteousness that goes up to the temple every day, that prides itself upon long prayers, large alms, and broad phylacteries, will not stand in the sight of God. There must be something far deeper, and more according to the holy, loving nature of God. Because with all that appearance of outward religion, there might be always, as there generally was in fact, no sense of sin, nor of the grace of God. This proves the all-importance of being right, first, in our thoughts about God; and we can only be so by receiving the testimony of God about His Son. In the case of the Pharisees we have sinful man denying his sin, and utterly obscuring and denying God’s true character as the God of grace. These things were rejected by the outward religionists, and their righteousness was such as you might expect from people who were ignorant of themselves, and of God. It gained reputation for them, but there it all ended; they looked for their reward now, and they had it. But our Lord says to the disciples, “Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
Allow me to ask the question here, How is it that God accomplishes this in regard to a soul that believes now? There is a great secret that does not come out in this sermon. First of all, there is a load of unrighteousness on the sinner. How is that to be dealt with, and the sinner to be made fit for, and introduced into, the kingdom of heaven? He is born again; he acquires a new nature, a life which as much flows from the grace of God as the bearing of his sins hung upon the cross of Christ. There is the foundation of practical righteousness. The true beginning of all moral goodness in a sinner, as it has been said, and as it deserves to be often repeated, is the sense and confession of his lack of it, nay, of his badness. Never have we anything right with God in a man till he gives himself up as all wrong. When he is brought down to this, he is thrown upon God, and God reveals Christ as His gift to the poor sinner. He is morally broken down, feeling and owning that he is lost, unless God appears for him; he receives Christ, and what then? “He that believeth hath everlasting life.” What is the nature of that life? In its character perfectly righteous and holy. The man is then at once fitted for God’s kingdom. “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” But when he is born again, he does enter there. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” The scribes and Pharisees were only working on, and by, the flesh; they did not believe that they were dead in the sight of God; neither do men now. But what the believer begins with is, that he is a dead man, that he requires a new life, and that the new life which he receives in Christ is suitable to the kingdom of heaven. It is upon this new nature that God acts, and works by the Spirit this practical righteousness; so that it remains in every sense true, “Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
But the Lord does not here explain how this would be. He declares that what was suitable to God’s nature was not to be found in human, Jewish righteousness, and that it must be for the kingdom.
Now He takes up the law in its various parts, at least what has to do with men. Here He does not enter into what touches God directly, but first of all takes up that which flows from human violence, and after this the great flagrant example of human corruption; for violence and corruption are the two standing forms of human iniquity. Before the flood even such was the condition of men: “The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.” Here then in verse 21 we have the light of the kingdom cast on the command, “Thou shalt not kill: and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment.” The law took cognizance of this extreme form of violence; but our Lord gives length, breadth, height, and depth to it. “But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.” (vs. 22.) That is, our Lord treats as now coming under the same category with murder in the sight of God every kind of violence, and feeling, and expression, anything of contempt and hatred, whatever expresses the ill-feeling of the heart, any putting down of another, the will to annihilate others as far as character or influence is concerned: all this is no better than murder in God’s searching eye. He is expanding the law; He is showing now One who looks at, and judges, the feeling of the heart. Therefore, it is not at all a question merely of the consequences of violence to a man — for there might be no very bad effect produced by these words of anger, but they proved the state of the heart; and this is what the Lord is dealing with here. “Therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way: first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.” (vss. 23-24.) He is not yet manifesting the Christian in his entire separation from the Jewish system. These words clearly show a connection with Israel, though the principle of a Christian; for the altar has no reference to the Lord’s table.
“Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou past paid the uttermost farthing.” (vss. 25-26.) I believe that Israel were guilty of that very folly — Israel as a people — that they did not agree with the adversary quickly. There was the Messiah, and they, being adversaries of Him, treated Him as their adversary, and compelled God to be against them by their unbelief. The position of Israel morally, in the sight of God, was very much the one shown us here. There was a murderous feeling in their heart against Jesus. Herod was the expression of it at His birth and it went through all the ministry of Christ; as the cross proved how utterly there was that unrelenting hatred in the heart of the Jews against their own Messiah. They did not agree with their adversary quickly, and the judge could only deliver them to the officer to be cast into prison; and there they remain until this day. The Jewish nation, from their rejection of the Messiah, have been shut out from all the promises of God; as a nation they have been committed to prison, and there they must remain till the uttermost farthing is paid. In Isaiah we have the Lord speaking comfortably to Jerusalem “Cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she hath received of Jehovah’s hand double for all her sins.” Thus, while we come into His favor now, while we, through the grace of God, receive the fullness of blessing through Christ Jesus now, yet I cannot doubt that there is rich blessing in store for Jerusalem, For God in His mercy will one day say to her, You have had punishment enough: I do not mean to make you any longer the witness of My vengeance on the earth. And why is Israel not permitted to this day to amalgamate with the nations? There they remain, kept apart from all other people by God. But God has in store for them His signal mercy. “Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem.... for she hath received at Jehovah’s hand double for all her sins.” This figure we find elsewhere beautifully set forth in the case of the man guilty of blood, who fled to the city of refuge provided by God. And the book of Numbers teaches that there the man abode, out of the land of his possession, till the death, not of the manslayer, but of the high priest that is anointed with oil. The priesthood of our Lord is referred to there. When the Lord has completed His heavenly people and gathered them in where they do not need the activity of His intercession; when we are in the full results of all that Christ has wrought for us, the High Priest shall then take His place, no longer at the right hand of God, but as the Priest on His own throne. Then will be the termination of His present heavenly priesthood, and blood-guilty Israel will return to the land of their possession. I have no doubt that this is the just application of that beautiful type. I cannot understand what proper interpretation there could be of the death of the High Priest anointed with oil, if you appropriate it to a Christian now; but apply it to the Jew, and nothing is plainer. Christ will terminate that character of priesthood that He is engaged in for us now, and will enter on a new form of blessing for Israel.
We have then the Lord closing this subject with the light that the kingdom of heaven throws upon the sin of killing, and the extension of the sin to every expression of the heart’s anger. This is a very solemn thing when we know how little importance we attach to our words, and how apt we are to excuse any explosion of strong feeling. They are clearly here shown in their full contrariety to the nature of God.
But there is another thing — the corrupt element that is in the heart of man — the heart lusting for that which it has not. This is taken up in the next word of our Lord: “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: but I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee.... And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.” (vss. 27-30). That is, whatever in our walk, or in our ways, or in our service, whatever it might be that exposes a soul to the danger of yielding to these unholy feelings, should never be spared. There must be the excision of everything that is hurtful to the soul, the members of the body, such as the eye and the hand, being only used as showing the various ways in which the heart might be entangled. The cutting off of these members sets forth a heart thoroughly exercised in self-judgment; not prompted to excuse itself by saying that it had not actually committed the sin, but whatever exposed to it must be given up. Following this, our Lord denounces the easy dissolution of the tie of marriage: “It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement. But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.” (vss. 31-32). Thus, our Lord shows that though there might be the most serious difficulties, still this human relationship receives the strongest sanction of the Lord. Though an earthly relationship, the light of heaven is thrown upon it, the sanctity of marriage held up, and the possibility of allowing anything to interfere with its holiness entirely put down by Christ, save only where there was that which interrupted it in the sight of God, in which case the act of separation would be only a declaration of its being already broken by sin in the sight of God.
The next case (vss. 33-37) brings us into a different order of things: it is the use of the name of the Lord. Here the reference is not to a judicial oath, i.e., an oath administered by a magistrate. In some countries this might savor of heathenism or popery, and no Christian ought to take such an oath. But if the declaration were simply the authority of God introduced by the magistrate to declare the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, I do not see that the Lord in any wise absolves the Christian from his obligation to competent authority. The matter here is expressly private communication between man and man. “Swear not at all; neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; nor by the earth, for it is his footstool;. neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.” None of these was a judicial oath; they were the asseverations of common life among the Jews.
If our Lord had meant to forbid the Christian from taking judicial oaths, would He not have instanced the oath that was usual in the courts of those days? But it was not so. All the oaths that He brings before us were what the Jews were in the habit of using when their word was questioned by their fellow men, not what was employed before the magistrate. For my own part, so far from thinking that a Christian is doing right in refusing a judicial oath, I believe that he is doing wrong not to take it, provided the magistrate required his testimony, and there be nothing to offend conscience in the form of the oath. If the magistrate does not acknowledge God in the oath, still the Christian is bound to acknowledge God in the magistrate. He is one who is, to the Christian, a servant of God in the outward things of this world. Even the Assyrian was the rod of God, all the while that he thought only of carrying out his own purpose against Israel. Much more the magistrate, let him be who, or what, he may, represents the truth of God’s external authority in the world, and the Christian ought to respect this, more by far than the men of the world; and therefore the oath, which simply demands the truth on the ground of that authority, is a holy thing and not to be refused.
The Christian, doubtless, has no business with prosecuting another himself. On the contrary, he owes it to Christ and His grace to let the world, if it will, abuse him; he may protest by word against it, and then leave it with the Lord. When our Lord Himself was dealt with unrighteously, He convicts the person of it, and there it ends, as man would think, forever. When He stood before the high priest, He was silent till He was adjured, as the oath was put according to the principle of Lev. 5. Then He spoke at once; and so should we at the call of lawful authority, however evil the officer may be. There is no such thing for Christ as seeking to get present reparation of His wrongs; and so should it be with Christians. There may be the moral conviction of those that do the wrong, but the taking it patiently is acceptable with God; and so is the true recognition of divine authority in the world.
There is no way in which the Christian so shows how much he is above the world, as when he seeks not the world’s vindication in anything. If we belong to the world, we ought all to be volunteers. If the world is our home, a man is called upon to do battle for it. But for the Christian this world is not the scene of his interests, and why fight for what does not belong to him? If a Christian fight in, and with, the world (save his own spiritual warfare), he is a mere mercenary. It is the duty of men, as such, to fight, if need be, and repel wrong; and if the Lord uses the world in order to put down revolution and make peace, the Christian may well look up and give thanks.
It is a great mercy. But the grand truth as to that, which the believer has to get firmly settled in his own soul, is that “they are not of the world.” Up to what measure are they not of the world? “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.”
In John 17, where our Lord repeats this wondrous word, He speaks in view of going to heaven, as if He no longer were on earth at all. Thus, in the spirit of one away from the world, He says, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” A little before He had said, “Now I am no more in the world.” His going up to heaven is what gives its character to the Christian and to the Church. A Christian is not merely a believer, but a believer called to the enjoyment of Christ while He is in heaven. And, as Christ our Head is out of the world, so the Christian is in spirit lifted above the world, and his business is to show the strength of his faith as above his mere natural feeling. Nothing makes a man look so foolish as having no side in this world. Christians do not like to be nonentities; they are apt to wish one way or another to have their influence felt. But this is what the Lord delivers us from. It is natural in men who are desperately clinging to the only scene they possess of positive enjoyment, or of real hope.
It is below our calling, then, to indulge even in strong statements. “Let your communication be, Yea, yea; nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.” (vs. 37.) It is worthy of note, as a practical proof of the distinction here drawn, how our Lord acted when He was before the High Priest. He was silent till the High Priest put the oath to Him then at once He answers. Who can doubt that He shows us the right pattern there?
But He comes next to the case of any practical injury that may be done us. It is not that it is wrong for a man to punish according to the injury that has been inflicted upon another. “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth” is perfectly righteous; but our Lord intimates that we ought to be much more than righteous, we ought to be gracious; and He presses this as the climax of this part of the discourse. First, He had strengthened the righteousness of the law, extended its depth, and put aside its license; but now He goes farther. He shows that there is a principle in His own ways and life which teaches the Christian that he is not to seek retaliation. “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: but I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.” It is clear the Lord has no reference here to what governments have to do. The New Testament is written for the Christian, for that which has a separate existence and a peculiar calling in the midst of earthly systems and peoples. It belongs to those who are heavenly while they are walking through the earth. We become such by the reception of Christ now, and to such the Lord says, “Resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.” There personal injury is meant. Perhaps the evil to the person may be ever so intended and undeserved, but it has to be overcome with good. Show that you are willing to take even more for Christ’s sake.
“And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.” There the law is evoked: that is, a man lays a claim, perhaps falsely, to one part of your clothing, and if he will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, “let him have thy cloak also.” Here it seems not exactly a man appealing to the law, but the public officers themselves. “And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.” The great principle our Lord marks is this — whether it is human violence, or the law applied ever so hardly or tryingly — that while, according to the law, you might go one step, according to the gospel you would go two. Grace does twice as much as the law, whatever may be the point in hand. It was never intended in any wise to supplant obligations, or to lower responsibilities, but, on the contrary, to give power and force to everything that is righteous in the sight of God.
The law might say, “an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.” Here there is not only the endurance of that which is positively wrong, but grace that gives more than is asked. “The law was given by Moses; but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” And this is one way of practically showing how far we value grace. It is not a question of the mere letter of our Lord’s words. If you were to limit it merely to a blow on the face, it would be a very poor thing; but the word of Christ is that which conveys to the believer the spirit that pleases God, and imprints the reality of grace. And grace is not the vindication of self, nor the punishment of a wrong that is done, but the endurance of evil, and the triumph of good over it. Christ is speaking of what a Christian has to put up with from the world through which he passes. He is to receive tribulation as the discipline which God sees to be good for his soul; the great spectacle before men and angels that there are men on this earth who are allowed, and rejoice, to suffer for Christ, because they have learned to give up their own will, to sacrifice their own rights, and to suffer wrongfully, looking onward to the day when the Lord will own whatever has been their sorrow for His sake, and when all evil shall be judged most solemnly at His appearing and kingdom.
Our Lord had said, in verse 42, “Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee, turn not thou away.” It is merely a particular example of a great general principle that the Lord is insisting upon; and as He had laid bare the character of violence, so here of another thing — the solicitation that addresses itself to the kindness of heart of a Christian man. “Give to him that asketh thee.” Now, nothing can be more certain than that this is a comely and a gracious thing. But then it is perfectly plain that the Lord had not the least idea of pressing it as a moral principle upon His people, that the thing was to be done heedlessly, and as a mere gratification of their feelings — it must be done with a conscience towards God. Supposing a person asks you for something, and you have reason to think that he will spend it improperly, you must limit it. Why not? He might say to you, Did not the Lord enjoin, “Give to him that asketh thee?” Certainly; but the Lord has given me certain other words of His, by which I judge as to the propriety of giving in each particular case. The asker might be going to do that which I am sure would be absurd, or wrong; am I still to give? or is there not at once introduced another principle, namely, due discrimination? From what I have reason to believe, perhaps from what he that asks tells me, I find out that he has plans of his own which I believe to be worldly: am I to gratify his worldliness? The believer is told to “owe no man anything”: is not he also to obey? It is clear that what the Lord has in view is real need; and as there was wont to be excessive indifference to this among the Jews more particularly — indeed such is apt to be the case always and everywhere — the Lord not merely insists upon the Christian helping his brother, but takes up the broadest grounds, and urges the habit of generous giving, not, of course, for anything we may get by it, but out of a present, energetic love according to God.
“Give to him that asketh thee.” We all know that there are those who would impose. This shuts up, and often hinders, pity; though it may be oftener still an excuse for it. The Lord is guarding against the snare, and shows the great moral value, for our own souls and for the glory of God, of habitual, considerate, ungrudging, kindness towards the distressed in this world. Not that I am always to give what a person asks, for he may seek something foolish; but still “Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.” Do you count up how often you have been deceived? Even then, why be sore? You are entitled, at the word of Jesus, to do what you do to your Father. The receiver of your bounty may apply it to a bad use: that is his responsibility. I am bound to cultivate unsuspicious generosity, and this quite independent of mere friendship. Even the publicans and sinners are kind to those who are kind to them: human nature in its most degraded form is capable of this; but what ought a Christian to be? Christ determines the position, conduct, and spirit of the Christian. As He was a sufferer, they are not to resist evil. If there was need, the Lord’s heart went out to it. They might turn His love against Himself, and use the gifts of His grace for their own purposes, like the man who was healed, throwing aside the Lord’s warning and the sense of His benefits. But the Lord, perfectly knowing it all, goes on steadfastly in His path of doing good, not in the mere vague thought of benevolence to man, but in holy service of His Father. He did His Father’s will; this was His meat and drink, and so it should be ours. That is, there is not the slightest thought of binding persons in a mere legal way, so that in every case absolutely we are to give what is asked. This the flesh might do to the uttermost without divine love, and without real profit. (1 Cor. 13:33And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:3).) Spiritual wisdom, the word of God, must be used by us to judge of each case on its own merits, and as before God. But still the general principle is to be taken in its fullest extent. We are to cultivate this habit and the spirit of mind that it flows from, looking up to its heavenly pattern and its source.
But now a word as to what follows. It is most weighty, the very pith and essence of that which concerns our relation towards others here below; the great active principle from which all right conduct flows. This is the question of the true character and limits of love. “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy.” (vs. 43.) This was the expression that the Jews drew from the general tenor of the law. There had been the sanction of God for the extermination of their enemies; and from that they drew the principle, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” It was not merely a question about loving the neighbor, which was a duty of common righteousness; but here was a thing that no righteousness would ever have discovered, because it goes beyond the law — it is grace. In a thousand practical instances, the question is not whether the thing is right. We often hear Christians asking, Is such a thing wrong? But this is not the sole question for the Christian. He is never at liberty to do what is wrong, and most surely he does the thing that is right. But supposing there is a wrong done him, what is to be his feeling then? If there is enmity to him in another, what is he to cherish in his own heart? “Love your enemies.... do good to them that hate you.... that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven”; thus they show that they belonged to such a parentage in practical ways, “for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust ... Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” (vss. 44-48.)
This has no reference to the question of whether there is sin in our nature or not. There is always the evil principle in a man as long as he lives here below. But what the Lord insists on is this: Our Father is the perfect pattern in His ways with His enemies now, and He calls upon us to be thorough in that same grace and love in which our Father deals. It is in pointed contrast with the Jew, or with anything that had ever been introduced before. Abraham was not called to walk in this way. He was, I believe, justified in arming his servants for the recovery of Lot; as were the Israelites in taking up the sword against the Canaanites. But we are never so to feel, or act, under any circumstances. We are called on (as the rule of Christian life, as that which governs our thoughts, and feelings, and ways, and supplies us with true feelings for our guidance day by day) to walk upon the principle of gracious longsuffering. We are in the midst of the enemies of Christ, of our enemies, too, because of Him. It may not come out at once, nor always. Persecution may pass out of fashion, but the enmity is always there; and if God were only to remove certain restraints, the old hatred would burst out with greater violence than ever. Nevertheless, there is only one course open to the Christian who desires to walk as Christ walked. “Love your enemies,” and this really is not by a show of smooth ways, or words. A Christian might know very well that, in certain cases, to go and speak to an angry person would only draw out bitterness of wrath, and there the right course would be to keep away; but under all circumstances there should be all readiness to seek the blessing of our adversary. To do real kindness, even if it should never be known by a creature upon earth, to the one who has injured me, is the only thing worthy of a Christian man; and this we are called upon to do, specially towards those who despise and persecute us. We ought to ask the Lord to give us the opportunities of showing love to those that hate us. When the provocation occurs, we should have it settled in our souls that the Christian is here for the purpose of expressing Christ; for, indeed, we are His epistle, known and read of all men. We ought to desire to reflect what Christ would have done under the same circumstances. We are never at liberty to indulge in anything else.
May the Lord grant that this may be true of our own souls, first in secret feeling with Him, and then as manifested lowlily and unselfishly towards others. Let us remember that there is no battle for us that is ever decisive with others, but what is an outward reflection of the secret victory over self with the Lord. Begin there, and it is surely won in the presence of men, though we may have to wait for it.