BE PERFECT AS YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER IS PERFECT

Matthew 5:17-48

Key Verse 5:48

1. Read verses 17-20. What does "the Law" and "the prophets" refer to? What must Jesus' disciples know about Jesus and the Law? How did Jesus fulfill the law? What does this mean to disciples of Jesus? What standard must believers live up to? In what way did the Pharisees keep the law, yet not keep God's standard? What will be the consequence if we don't keep the word of God?

**The Law and the Prophets refer to the entire Old Testament. Specifically, the Law refers to five books of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy), and the Prophets refers to the rest of the books, including the History and Wisdom books, the Major and Minor prophets, which, together with Moses five books, make up the 39 books of the Old Testament.

**Verses 17-18: “17"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.” 

The word “fulfill” has the meaning of giving the full meaning of or accomplish. Jesus came to give the full meaning of the law and to accomplish everything written in it. 

** Probably, many people thought that he was giving a new teaching and trying to deviate from Moses’ law and the Prophets (cf. Mark 1:27). For example, he healed the sick on the Sabbath and had fellowship with sinners. He let his disciples pick grain to eat on the Sabbath. But Jesus makes clear that he did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. 

Two phrases we’ve seen repeated throughout Matthew’s gospel so far is, “as it is written,” and, “to fulfill what was said through the prophet…” (1:23; 2:5-6; 2:17-18; 2:23; 4:14-16). Through his life Jesus was fulfilling the words of God in the Law and the prophets. All of the Bible speaks about Jesus. Jesus said, “If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me” (John 5:46), and, “ 25He said to them, ‘How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?’ 27And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself” (Luke 24:25-27). In this way Jesus was fulfilling and accomplishing the word of God.

Jesus also fulfilled the law in meeting all of its righteous requirements. He was sinless and righteousness, and paid the price for sinners so that we could be found righteous in him. He did this through his own life of obedience, and met it in his death and resurrection. He met all the law’s requirements as no man could.

Also, Jesus came to give the full meaning of the law and the prophets, as he gives teaches for his disciples in this passage. 

**This means that Jesus’ disciples, all believers, are not “free” from God’s law, but are under God’s law in Jesus. To understand this the Apostle Paul said, “To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law” (1 Corinthians 9:21). Just as Paul didn’t require Gentile believers to keep the law of circumcision, he did require them to keep the full meaning of the law of circumcision, which was a circumcised heart. In this way, he helped them to keep God’s law. This was not a new idea, but what the prophets and godly men of ancient times knew as well (cf. Deuteronomy 10:16; 30:6; Jeremiah 4:4).

**Verses 19-20: “19Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Therefore Jesus’ disciples must live up to God’s standards. Jesus says here that 1) we must practice and teaching these commands, and 2) our righteousness (in regards to the Law and the Prophets) must surpass that of the Pharisees and the Teacher of the Law. 

**The Pharisees and teachers of the law denied themselves to obey the law. They were respected and honored highly because they lived such a life of discipline and obedience. But still they fell short of God’s standard, because they only obeyed outwardly and to gain praise from others, and not from God. They did not even help others on the Sabbath or help their parents in need under the excuse of obeying the Law (cf. Mark 7:10-12). When Jesus helped others on the Sabbath, they wanted to kill him. They did not know the heart of God or the full meaning of the Law. 

** “…you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” This is a strong warning that we must keep the word of God. 

2. Read verses 21-26. What does Jesus teach about murder and anger? About the real meaning of the command, "Do not murder"? What warning is there for someone who lives by their anger? What should we do when angry with others?

** Anger and hatred will receive the judgment for murder. If it exists in the heart, it is just as bad as carrying it out outwardly. 

** Through the command not to murder, God’s people could learn to have a pure heart towards each other and love each other. But when taken only at face value, many teachers turned it into an excuse to ignore others or even entertain anger-filled and hate-filled thoughts, as long as they didn’t do anything outwardly. But Jesus says that our hearts must be free from these things as well, not just outwardly.  God made man in his image and he must not commit murder, whether outwardly or inwardly (Genesis 9:6). 

**They will be danger of the fire of hell. It is a strong and clear warning that does not leave room for excuse or compromise. 

 ** We must make every effort to be reconciled to them first, because we try to bring any offering to God or come before him. Whether we feel that we are right or wrong in the situation, we must make every effort first to be reconciled. Then God will be pleased with our gifts and offerings. 

3. Read verses 27-32. What does Jesus teach about adultery and lust? About the real meaning of the command: "Do not commit adultery"? What warning is there for those who live by their lust? What does Jesus teach about divorce and adultery?

** Entertaining lust in the heart and mind is the same as doing so outwardly, in practice. 

** The command not to commit adultery was to help God’s people learn absolute purity in regards to relations with others, in heart, mind and body. It was not limited just to outward actions. (1 Timothy 5:1-2 says: “ 1Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, 2older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.”) Some people think that entertaining lustful thoughts in their minds or hearts or watching pornography is okay, because they are not doing anything outwardly or hurting anyone, and so they say that fantasizing and such are okay. But Jesus teaches that entertaining lust in the heart or mind is adultery and just as wrong. 

** Going to hell. But Jesus does not want us to go to hell. He teaches how we can fight against our lust. We must cut off the problem. In Genesis 39, Joseph set a good example of fighting against lust in the right way, by running away Mrs. Potiphar who was tempting him. We must not put ourselves in situations where we can be tempted by lust or remain in such environments. Before you take your eye out or cut off your hand, it is better to cut off the bad environments first and to run away from temptation. In this way, we can learn purity. But even if you gouge out your eye, or cut off your hand, and you did not learn purity, lust will still bother you. 

** Jesus teaches that divorce, except for the reason of marital unfaithfulness, leads to adultery. In the past, people made all kinds of excuses for divorce and felt justified by a certificate. Jesus teaches not to commit adultery or divorce. 

4. Read verses 33-37. Why do people swear? Why should we not swear? What does Jesus teach about simply saying, "Yes" and, "No"? How does such a command help a person live before God?

** People swear by something greater than themselves to justify what they are doing or convince others of their honesty. 

** We should not swear because we do not own greater things. They belong to God. We cannot even control the hairs on our head, so we should not swear against ourselves either.

** Verse 37: “Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.” 

** In this way, we can learn honesty before God and others, so that we do not need to swear by anything or be deceitful in anyway. We can build trusting relationships with God and others, and learn to treat others fairly, treating everything as belonging to God.

5. Read verses 38-48. How should we react to those who are unjust and to our enemies? Why? What does this passage teach us about our Heavenly Father? What can we learn about our aim as "sons of your Father in heaven"?

** Verse 44: “44But I tell you: Love your enemies…” To love them means not to resist an evil person, to turn the other cheek, to let them have what they take from us, to go the extra mile when forced to go just one, to give and not turn away from those who want to borrow, even though we know they might not give back, and to pray for them. 

** Even enemies are our neighbors because we are children of God. 

** Our heavenly father loves his enemies and helps them to enter his kingdom as well. Verse 45: “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” However, he does not ignore their evil ways. He sent Jesus to pay the punishment for all the evil we’ve done, even as God’s enemies, so that we wouldn’t be his enemies but become his children. Since this is what God has done for us, we must do the same for others. We are all under God and accountable to him. We should make efforts to help our enemies be reconciled to God.

** Our aim as children of God is: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (48). Jesus calls us to live up to the level of our heavenly Father and not settle for anything less. May God help us to learn of our heavenly Father and our Lord Jesus that, by his grace and the working of the Spirit, we may live up to God’s level of living.