Matthew 5 Discussion

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Have you ever thought you were a "good person" until you encountered Jesus' words in Matthew 5? You're not alone. In this powerful exploration of the Sermon on the Mount, we dive deep into Jesus' radical redefinition of righteousness that moves beyond external behavior to the hidden places of our hearts.

One of our hosts shares his raw, emotional conversion story—how reading Matthew 5 reduced him to tears when he realized that by Jesus' standards, he was an adulterer and murderer in his heart despite never committing these acts physically. This moment of crushing conviction became the doorway to experiencing Christ's saving grace.

We unpack the chapter's structure, from the Beatitudes to Jesus' teaching on being salt and light, to his relationship with the Law, and finally to the six antitheses where Jesus contrasts traditional understanding with heart-level application. The oft-misunderstood teaching on non-retaliation receives special attention—does "turn the other cheek" mean Christians can't defend themselves? We explain how this passage addresses personal revenge rather than eliminating justice systems or self-defense.

Perhaps most challenging is Jesus' command to love our enemies. We clarify that following Jesus doesn't eliminate having enemies—in fact, it guarantees you'll make some—but transforms how we respond to them. The chapter culminates with the impossible standard: "Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect." This demand should drive us not to despair but to depend wholly on Christ's perfection applied to our account.

Ready to see Matthew 5 with fresh eyes? Listen now and discover how Jesus fulfilled the ceremonial law perfectly so he could forgive your moral failures and empower you to live faithfully wherever you are. Your understanding of righteousness will never be the same.

Episode Transcript

Pastor Plek (00:11):
And welcome back to A Chapter.
A Day Keeps the devil away.
We're talking Matthew 5.
I'm Pastor Plek, this is PastorHolland, and let's outline this
real quick for you.
First we got the Beatitudes inMatthew 5, 1 through 12.
Then this description of whatit is to be the salt of the

(00:31):
earth and the light of the worldin 13 through 16.
You've got Christ and the lawin 17 through 20.
Jesus fulfills the law, hedoesn't abolish it, and true
righteousness exceeds that ofthe Pharisees.
We'll talk about that in a bit.
Then you got verses 21 through48, which really gets into six
antitheses.
You've heard it said aboutmurder, but here's the deal with

(00:54):
anger.
You've heard about adultery.
Here is lust.
You've heard about divorce andhere's the reality of what
marriage means Oaths andtruthfulness, and then
non-retaliation in a social oreven maybe even further setting,
and then finally, love forenemies.
Okay, that's where he breaks itdown there, in verses 1 through

(01:15):
48, a little bit longer chapter.
What are some observations thatyou?

Pastor Holland (01:21):
Jesus explains that the meaning of God's law is
gets to the level of our hearts, our thoughts, our intentions,
our attitudes.
I think this was all.
This is always true about God'slaw, even if you go back to the
10 commandments.
You know, do not covet.

(01:41):
That's not just an action,that's a desire in your heart.
But reading this, this is how Ibecame a Christian this chapter
of the Bible, matthew 5.
Matthew 5.
Why different?
I'm curious.

(02:01):
I had some kind of weird demonicdream experiences that made me
like whoa, okay, hold on, I wantto learn more about Jesus.
I had a Christian roommate, youknow, and so he gave me a Bible
and I started reading the Bible.
And as I'm reading the Bible,matthew one through four, I'm
deciding I want to follow Jesus.
I think, you know, there'ssomething about him that I'm

(02:23):
drawn to.
And then I read about, you know, in the previous chapter, his
disciples leaving everything tofollow him.
And I go.
I want to do that, I want tofollow Jesus.
But then I get to chapter fiveand it brings me to tears,
because I read this and I'dalways thought of myself as a
good person.
And then I read these words um,like you know, you've heard it

(02:46):
said, verse 27, you should notcommit adultery.
But I say to you, everyone wholooks at a woman with lustful
intent has already committedadultery with her in his heart.
And I go, I'm an adulterer.
I thought I was a good person.
And I'm just reading throughthe whole sermon on the mountain
, every verse.
I'm like I'm a sinner, I'm asinner, I'm a sinner.
And by the end of chapter fiveI'm in tears, going.

(03:07):
Jesus would never take me.
And I thank God that I had aChristian roommate who came in
and he was like hey, why are youcrying?
And you know, I'm like I wantto follow Jesus, but he wouldn't
take me.
I'm just a sinner.
I've done this, I've lusted,I've hated.
You know I'm a murderer in myheart.
I've retaliated.

(03:27):
And he was like oh dude, I havereally good news for you.
Jesus loves sinners.
That's his whole deal is.
He's really into sinners and heforgives sinners and he saves
sinners.
And you know, he died on thecross for sinners and I was like
he, what?
And I didn't know that.
And then he was like well, andthen he rose from the dead and

(03:48):
I'm like he what?
Wow, that's crazy.
And so you know, he sharesgospel with me and I pray right
there, and I received Christ andwe started going to church
together, and so this chapterwas so pivotal, instrumental for
me in becoming a Christian andunderstanding that I'm a sinner
in need of grace and that Jesussaves sinners.

Pastor Plek (04:00):
Wow, okay, so let's talk about all how.
About a piece that I saw herewas true righteousness exceeds
that of the Pharisees, and Ithink because Pharisees would
have said I'm a good person,Right?
And they would have said Idon't do bad things, and they
would have um, they would haveif they got close to sinning.

(04:24):
They would probably.
What's it called when you smackyourself, or was it
flagellation, self-flagellation,self-flagellation?
Yeah, like bam bam, I'm goingto smack myself and I'm going to
take on the pain, because Ithink they were the most
hardcore about that.
They even got close to sinning.
However, they always consideredthemselves above sin, because

(04:48):
they only got angry about thepeople that deserved it.
They may have lusted, they onlywindow shopped, but they never
committed adultery, so I thinkthat was a powerful thing of
like.
Jesus reveals how every heart isso wicked that even the
Pharisees and the scribes didn'tlive up to the standard of

(05:09):
perfection.
How about this, though?
For one, that's sort ofchallenging the non-retaliation.
What is that about?
Is that like no self-defense,or is that a social construct of
let the Lord defend you, andwhat is that?
And are we allowed toself-defend ourselves?

Pastor Holland (05:28):
So, yeah, I think you're allowed to defend
yourselves.
I think that it's a good andrighteous thing to defend
yourselves.
I think that is that it's agood and righteous thing.
The context here, you know,when it says don't resist the
one who's evil.
Okay, what kind of evil personis this?
Someone who slaps you on theright cheek?
Someone who's trying to shameyou?
Right?
Shame you, right If anyonewould sue you and take your

(05:52):
tunic they're taking you tocourt.
Right, let them have your cloakas well If anyone forces you to
go a mile.
This is not someone who'strying to kill you and kill your
family.
This is someone who is kind ofbeing a bully to you, yeah and
yeah, trying to kind of takeadvantage of you in some way.

(06:15):
They have some kind of socialpower or something like that.
And Jesus says don't resist thatperson, because what he quotes
when he says you've heard itsaid an eye for an eye and a
tooth for a tooth.
This was an Old Testament law,in Deuteronomy, but it was in
the context of a judicialsetting.
He says you know, whensomething happens and you go to

(06:37):
the judge, a righteous judge isgoing to do an eye for an eye,
meaning a fair and justpunishment.
If someone takes one tooth fromyou, they're not going to lose
all their teeth.
It was a just and fairpunishment.
But what people did is appliedthat personally to these kind of

(06:57):
personal situations, not in ajudge, but just relationships.
And Jesus is saying— you got totrust the system, so to speak.
Yeah, don't take justice intoyour own hands, rather, love
your enemies and trust God withjustice.
And we see that.

Pastor Plek (07:15):
That is now codified law in Western
civilization, like if someonecommits a crime against you, you
don't have the right to just goback to their house and
demolish it.
You go to court and you takethem for all they're worth there
, yeah, which is sort of a wildway to sort of kind of wrap your
head around it.
Okay, that's huge, okay.
So the thing that I sort oftook from this is like people

(07:36):
are prone to externalrighteousness without inner
transformation, and I thinkthat's what he's getting at with
these like hey, don't just notmurder, don't hate your brother
in your heart, go make thingsright.

Pastor Holland (07:47):
Yeah, well, and go back, can I go?

Pastor Plek (07:50):
back to retaliation .

Pastor Holland (07:52):
Some people would read that and say, you
know, self-defense is bad andyou know?
Would say, if you sayChristians are not to retaliate
or defend or anything ever, youhave to take that to the level
of well then, we don't havecourts, we don't have cops, we

(08:12):
don't have government, we don'thave anyone enforcing anything.
I do not think that's what thispassage is teaching.
That would contradict otherpassages that talk about how
actually, like Romans 13, thegovernment, the authorities, are
actually God's servant inexecuting justice.

(08:32):
He doesn't bear the sword invain, exactly, and so God will
handle justice through hisappointed means.
So this is not talking abouthey, judges, just let everything
slide Right.
Hey, cops, don't arrest anyone,just turn the other cheek.
You know, when someone robs astore, just kind of let it go.
That is not what Jesus istalking about here.

(08:53):
In personal relationships, loveyour enemy and show mercy and
let God handle justice throughhis appointed means.
Yeah, yeah.

Pastor Plek (09:00):
Trust God and the government that is his servant,
which I think it's wild tosometimes think about that,
because sometimes we're kind oflike the government's out to get
us, but God is saying you'vegot to trust the institutions
he's put in place.

Pastor Holland (09:13):
Well, and if the government is very, it could be
very true that the governmentis out to get you, but it would
be in disobedience to God'spurpose for the government
rather than yeah, and you've gotto trust God ultimately with
everything.

Pastor Plek (09:23):
Okay, so let's get back to humans.
I think if you were to say likehere's an exegetical thought or
interpretation, here's aninterpretation from the text.
Humans tend to retaliate, anddon't do that, yeah.

Pastor Holland (09:42):
Love your enemies, love your enemies, and
he gives God's own character asan example of this.
Even God, who's a righteousjudge, still makes his sun rise
on the evil, sends rain on thejust and the unjust, and so
that's the common grace of God,that the evil can experience

(10:02):
sunshine and rain.
And so when people mistreat you, you can extend a grace to them
, say I'm not approving of whatyou're doing, I don't like what
you're doing, but I'm gonna showgrace and mercy to you the way
God has shown grace and mercy tome, in hopes that that person
might be saved, that they mightrealize the error of their ways,
that your mercy, like Proverbsand Romans says, would heap

(10:25):
burning coals on their head andcause them to be ashamed and
repent from their evil All right, how about this one?

Pastor Plek (10:31):
Here's another interpretation God is perfect
and calls his children toreflect his character, which
means he calls his children tobe perfect yeah, verse 48.
Means he calls his children tobe perfect yeah, verse 48.
Now that should cause you tofreak out, as I think it did for
you, like I can't do it.
And that's exactly, I think,the response that Jesus is
wanting to create in people thatyou can't fulfill the law

(10:57):
because your heart is wicked anddeceitful above all else.
Yeah, and so then, that causesyou to depend on Jesus.
His death, burial, resurrectionultimately has to be your hope?

Pastor Holland (11:08):
Yeah, and then, through the empowerment, the
indwelling of the empowerment ofthe Holy Spirit, we can be
sanctified to walk in thatholiness that we can only do by
God's power.

Pastor Plek (11:23):
Nice, all right.
So let's get some to someapplication.
What are some applicationpoints here for you?

Pastor Holland (11:30):
Love your enemies.
Sometimes we go yeah, being aChristian means I have no
enemies, but the Bible neversays that.
It doesn't say have no enemies.
It says love your enemies.
And in reality everyoneprobably has some enemies.
The only way you can getthrough life without having
enemies is to go live on a rocksomewhere.
Yeah, and to never open yourmouth about Jesus, because if

(11:52):
you're following Jesus andyou're, you know, speaking the
word you're going to make someenemies.
And instead of trying to neverhave enemies or hating your
enemies, jesus says love yourenemies, pray for them.
He says pray for those whopersecute you.
Only reason you're going to getpersecuted is if you're
standing up for the truth of theBible and preaching Jesus and
living your life for him.
And so maybe the applicationfor you is maybe you don't have

(12:17):
any enemies because you're notreally living faithfully for
Jesus.

Pastor Plek (12:20):
No, I love that.
I love this knowledge to believe.
For me and this might be alittle abstract, so hang with me
Jesus fulfilled the law, theceremonial law, perfectly, so
that, as well as the moral law,so that he could forgive your
moral transgressions of the law,so that you could live under

(12:40):
whatever civil law that God hasyou in now.
That's good, and so I feel likethat concept of that's the
knowledge.
It's like Jesus fulfilled theceremonial law so he could
forgive your breaking of themoral law in order that you may
live under the civil law ofwhere you're at.
And so that becomes like,because when you look at the Old

(13:01):
Testament, it's broken downinto a ceremonial law, moral law
and a civil law, and he allowsus to operate within all three
of those by what Jesus lived outhis perfect life and he is the
better Israel who fulfills theceremonial law and purpose of
Israel.
He then dies on the cross,takes the punishment you deserve
for the breaking of the morallaw, for even Gentiles who have

(13:22):
no ceremonial law, and then hegives you the Holy Spirit to
empower you to live under thecivil law, which is his servant,
according to Romans 13.

Pastor Holland (13:30):
Listeners.
You may need to listen to thatone a couple times in slow
motion to catch all thedifferent categories and
application of the law, but thatwas really good, well done.

Pastor Plek (13:42):
Well, thank you.
Hey, thank you so much forlistening.
Do you have any more?
That's it.
Thanks so much for listening.
We'll see you tomorrow on achapter a day.