Category: Devotions

The eighth chapter of St. Matthew’s Gospel is full of our Lord’s miracles: no less than five are specially recorded. There is a beautiful fitness in this. It was fitting that the greatest sermon ever preached should be immediately followed by mighty proofs that the preacher was the Son of God. Those who heard the Sermon on the Mount would be obliged to confess, that, as none “spake such words as this man,” so also none did such works.

The verses we have now read contain three great miracles: a leper is healed with a touch; a palsied person is made well by a word; a woman sick with a fever is restored in a moment to health and strength. On the face of these three miracles we may read three striking lessons. Let us examine them, and lay them to heart.

The Lord Jesus winds up the Sermon on the Mount by a passage of heart-piercing application. He turns from false prophets to false professors, from unsound teachers to unsound hearers. Here is a word for all. May we have grace to apply it to our own hearts!

The first lesson here is the uselessness of a mere outward profession of Christianity. Not everyone that saith “Lord, Lord” shall enter the kingdom of heaven. Not all that profess and call themselves Christians shall be saved.

In this part of the Sermon on the Mount our Lord begins to draw His discourse to a conclusion. The lessons He here enforces on our notice, are broad, general, and full of the deepest wisdom. Let us mark them in succession.

He lays down a general principle for our guidance in all doubtful questions between man and man.

We are “to do to others as we would have others do to us.” We are not to deal with others as others deal with us: this is mere selfishness and heathenism. We are to deal with others as we would like others to deal with us: this is real Christianity.

The first portion of these verses is one of those passages of Scripture, which we must be careful not to strain beyond its proper meaning. It is frequently abused and misapplied by the enemies of true religion. It is possible to press the words of the Bible so far that they yield not medicine, but poison.

When our Lord says, “Judge not”, He does not mean that it is wrong, under any circumstances, to pass an unfavourable judgment on the conduct and opinions of others. We ought to have decided opinions: we are to “prove all things”; we are to “try the spirits.’’ (1 Thess. 5:21; 1 John 4:1) Nor yet does He mean that it is wrong to reprove the sins and faults of others until we are perfect and faultless ourselves. Such an interpretation would contradict other parts of Scripture: it would make it impossible to condemn error and false doctrine; it would debar any one from attempting the office of a minister or a judge. The earth would be “given into the hands of the wicked“ (Job 9:24): heresy would flourish: wrong-doing would abound.

These verses are a striking example of the combined wisdom and compassion of our Lord Jesus Christ’s teaching. He knows the heart of a man: He knows that we are always ready to turn off warnings against worldliness, by the argument that we cannot help being anxious about the things of this life. “Have we not our families to provide for? Must not our bodily wants be supplied?

How can we possibly get through life if we think first of our souls?” The Lord Jesus foresaw such thoughts, and furnished an answer.

He forbids us to keep up an anxious spirit about the things of this world. Four times over He says, “Take no thought.” About life, about food, about clothing, about the morrow, “take no thought.” Be not over-careful: be not over-anxious. Prudent provision for the future is right: wearing, corroding, self-tormenting anxiety is wrong.

There are three subjects brought before us in this part of our Lord’s sermon on the mount. These three are fasting, worldliness, and singleness of purpose in religion.

Fasting, or occasional abstinence from food, in order to bring the body into subjection to the spirit, is a practice frequently mentioned in the Bible, and generally in connection with prayer. David fasted when his child was sick; Daniel fasted when he sought special light from God; Paul and Barnabas fasted when they appointed elders; Esther fasted before going in to Ahasuerus. It is a subject about which we find no direct command in the New Testament. It seems to be left to every one’s discretion, whether he will fast or not. In this absence of direct command, we may see great wisdom. Many a poor man never has enough to eat, and it would be an insult to tell him to fast: many a sickly person can hardly be kept well with the closest attention to diet, and could not fast without bringing on illness. It is a matter in which every one must be persuaded in his own mind, and not rashly condemn others who do not agree with him. One thing only must never be forgotten: those who fast should do it quietly, secretly, and without ostentation. Let them not “appear to men” to fast. Let them not fast to man, but to God.

These verses are few in number, and soon read, but they are of immense importance. They contain that wonderful pattern of prayer with which the Lord Jesus has supplied His people, commonly called “The Lord’s Prayer.”

Perhaps no part of Scripture is so well known as this: its words are familiar, wherever Christianity is found; thousands and tens of thousands, who never saw a Bible, or heard the pure Gospel, are acquainted with “Our Father,” or “Paternoster.” Happy would it be for the world if this prayer was as well known in the spirit as it is in the letter.

No part of Scripture is so full, and so simple at the same time as this: it is the first prayer which we learn to offer up, when we are little children: here is its simplicity. It contains the germ of everything which the most advanced saint can desire: here is its fullness. The more we ponder every word it contains the more we shall feel “this prayer is of God.”

In this part of the Sermon on the Mount the Lord Jesus gives us instruction on two subjects: one is that of giving alms; the other is that of prayer. Both were subjects to which the Jews attached great importance: both in themselves deserve the serious attention of all professing Christians.

Let us observe that our Lord takes it for granted that all who call themselves His disciples will give alms. He assumes as a matter of course that they will think it a solemn duty to give, according to their means, to relieve the wants of others; the only point He handles is the manner in which the duty should be done. This is a weighty lesson: it condemns the selfish stinginess of many in the matter of giving money. How many are “rich towards themselves,” but poor towards God! How many never give a farthing to do good to the bodies and souls of men! And have such persons any right to be called Christians in their present state of mind? It may well be doubted. A giving Saviour should have giving disciples.

We have here our Lord Jesus Christ’s rules for our conduct one towards another. He that would know how he ought to feel and act towards his fellow-men, should often study these verses. They deserve to be written in letters of gold: they have extorted praise even from the enemies of Christianity. Let us mark well what they contain.

The Lord Jesus forbids everything like an unforgiving and revengeful spirit. “I say unto you, That ye resist not evil.” A readiness to resent injuries, a quickness in taking offence, a quarrelsome and contentious disposition, a keenness in asserting our rights – all are contrary to the mind of Christ. The world may see no harm in these habits of mind; but they do not become the character of the Christian. Our Master says, ”Resist not evil.”

These verses deserve the closest attention of all readers of the Bible. A right understanding of the doctrines they contain lies at the very root of Christianity. The Lord Jesus here explains more fully the meaning of His words, “I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill.” He teaches us that His Gospel magnifies the Law, and exalts its authority: He shows us that the Law, as expounded by Him, was a far more spiritual and heartsearching rule than most of the Jews supposed; and He proves this by selecting three commandments out of the ten as examples of what He means.

He expounds the sixth commandment. Many thought that they kept this part of God’s law so long as they did not commit actual murder. The Lord Jesus shows that its requirements go much further than this. It condemns all angry and passionate language, and especially when used without a cause. Let us mark this well. We may be perfectly innocent of taking life away, and yet be guilty of breaking the sixth commandment!