Matthew 5: 17-28
Theme: Discipleship
THE MIND OF CHRIST
One man wrote; Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny. (Frank Outlaw quoted on
www.bible.org) It all begins in our minds, in our thought world. All of our actions first begin in our thought world. How many personal tragedies could have been prevented if someone had just thought about what they were saying? How many homes, how many churches, how many friendships would have been saved if someone would have just thought.Jesus was as concerned about our thoughts as he was about our actions. Our thought world has always been of a concern to God. Once in the book of Proverbs, the writer said "that as a man thinks within himself, so is he." In other words, who we are is not defined by what we do, but what we think.
In the sermon on the mount, Jesus speaks to a number of people who thought that they had God figured out. The people in general thought that the law was a burden and they believed that when the Messiah came he would do away with the law. The Pharisees thought that God desired a strict interpretation of the law and a strict keeping of the law. For them, the law required that men behave in certain ways. The Sadducees thought that with advanced understanding of God's law, one could do pretty much as you pleased. These represent the way most of us approach our religious life. Some think that righteous living is ridiculous and don't even try. Others think that because they do everything right by their standards that makes them better than the rest. While others think that God does not mind them tampering with the rules and doing things as they please.
Jesus said that all are wrong. He did not come to do away with the law or to make it stricter or modify the law. He came to fulfill the law. He not only affirms the Old Testament, He says that he comes to fulfill it. He brings it to fruition, It was to him that the entire Old Testament, the Law and the Prophets, point. He is the implementation of the Law!
Then he makes a most profound statement, "For I say to you, that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven." No one lived the law better than the Pharisees, who could be saved? If Salvation is a matter of keeping the Law, it sounds impossible doesn’t it. Jesus moved the Law from something that is fulfilled by action to something that is a state of being that affects the way we think as well as the way we act.
He said that from the ancients you have heard that you shall not commit murder. And that anyone who committed murder was accountable to stand before the court of judgement. But Jesus wants us to understand that there is far more to this command that just an act. What we do in our minds makes us just as guilty as what we do in our actions. Whoever is angry with his brother is guilty before the court. The anger referred to here is utter contempt for the other person. Jesus says that whoever calls his brother empty headed is guilty before the supreme court and whoever calls his brother a fool is guilty enough to be thrown into hell. All of these nuances of the law are acts of the mind. Suddenly all of us are guilty of murder. It does not matter that we do not act, it is the garbage of the mind that makes us guilty. If you are angry with your brother, your wife, your husband, your fellow church member, your friend, you are guilty of murder because as a man (or a woman) thinks so is he. There is a place for righteous anger against the terrible things that people can commit against others. But most of the time our anger is rooted in selfishness, our thoughts are evil, even murderous.
The thought world is so serious that Jesus said that if you go to worship and you have something against your brother, you are angry with him, we must go get right with our brother before we worship. If not, our worship is in vain.
Jesus takes us from our anger to the problem of adultery. Jesus said that you have heard that you shall not commit adultery. He again takes it from the arena of action to the arena of the thought world. If anyone looks on a woman to lust, he has committed adultery. Jesus is not talking about attraction or even admiration of beauty. He is talking about lust. We are encouraged by our society to lust through the advertisements, movies, TV programs, videos. There is an evil that wants us to degrade our own minds with what should not be there.
Jesus is literally telling us that sin begins in our thoughts. We violate the Law before we ever act. The law condemns not only our acts, but our thoughts as well.
Is there any hope? We might be inclined to say no. But Jesus did not give us these stern warnings so that we might just give up but that we might look to him for our salvation. Salvation is not in the Law but by faith. Even in The Old Testament that was so. According to a third century rabbi, Moses gave 365 prohibitions and 248 positive commands. David reduced them to eleven in Psalm 15. Isaiah made them six (Isaiah 33:14, 15). Micah 6:8 binds them into three commands. Habbakuk reduces them all to one great statement: The just shall live by faith.
Jesus was once asked what is the greatest commandment and his answer was MAT 22:37 "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." And "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." If you keep these two, you have kept the whole Law. We can only do this by following Jesus by faith. The result is that we must submit our minds to God. We must let God consciously transform our minds as well as our hearts.
Paul makes it very clear that we can submit our minds to Jesus. He said, ROM 12:2 "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect."
Furthermore we must take on the mind of Christ. Paul writing in Philippians 2:1 said:
If therefore there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
When we place our faith in Jesus, he transforms us so that we put on the mind of Christ. The mind of Christ transforms our thoughts. Our thoughts lead to words. Our words lead actions. Our actions become habits. Habits become character. Character becomes destiny.
Proverbs said, "As a man thinks so is he." Is your mind so far from the things of God that you know that you will not spend eternity with him? Are you a believer but you are miserable because you hold your brother or sister in contempt? Are you plagued by the lusts of the mind so much so that you cannot contemplate the things of God? And no matter how hard you try, you cannot keep the Law. The Law mocks you.
Only Jesus fulfilled the Law. Only in Christ can we keep the Law. Those who are in Christ are in the process of being transformed by his grace–even the renewing of our minds.