In Matthew 5-7, we find the most famous sermon that Jesus preached. We refer to it as the “Sermon on the Mount.” This is because Matthew 5:1 says that He retreated from the multitudes to a mountain. His disciples gathered around Him and He delivered this sermon to them. In Luke 6, much of this same content was proclaimed to the multitudes, but this time, He preached from a plain (Luke 6:17).
Many preachers have interpreted these chapters as describing the way a person is to live in the earthly kingdom of Jesus Christ. They say that this kingdom was rejected by the Jews, and so these chapters describe the morality in the Millennial reign of Christ in the future. This interpretation does great violence to the context. Remember, this message was not delivered to unbelievers to describe a kingdom that they must accept. It was delivered to the disciples- men who were already believers. Additionally, Jesus clearly taught that His kingdom was not merely a future event, but a present reality. He said (to the Pharisees) in Matthew 12:28, “the kingdom of God has come upon you.” He said in Luke 17:21 that “the kingdom of God is within you.” In the opening verses of the sermon, He taught the disciples what they were to be as a result of His work in them (Matthew 5:3-11), and then He taught them what the result of that would be in Matthew 5:13-16. They would be salt and light. These verses do not describe how to be saved, but the characteristics of believers. But these verses do not describe a passive reality, but instead an active pursuit of holiness that the believer will engage in. Philippians 2:12-13 describes this when it says that we must work out our salvation with fear and trembling because God is working in us. Saving faith is active faith.
Over the next several devotionals, we will focus on the first section of the Sermon on the Mount, the beatitudes. Many have remembered these as the “be attitudes”- that which the believer must be. “Beatitude” comes from the Latin translation of the word that we translate “blessed” in English. These verses do not describe material prosperity, but the inward working of the Spirit of God in the life of the believer to make him more like Jesus every day.
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