The Sermon on the Mount

The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) is the most influential ethical discourse in history. In it Jesus presents the Beatitudes, which overturn the values of the world by declaring blessed the poor in spirit, those who mourn, and the peacemakers (Matthew 5:3-12). He calls his disciples to be "the salt of the earth" and "the light of the world" (Matthew 5:13-16). Then he intensifies the law of Moses: it is not enough not to kill, one must renounce anger; it is not enough not to commit adultery, one must keep the heart's gaze pure (Matthew 5:17-48). Jesus teaches on prayer by giving the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13), on fasting practiced in secret, on forgiving offenses, and on trusting the Father who feeds the birds of the air (Matthew 6:26). The discourse ends with the call to build one's house on the rock rather than on the sand (Matthew 7:24-27). The Sermon on the Mount is not a code of impossible laws but a portrait of the character of the citizen of God's kingdom. It is the ethic of grace: not what we must do to be accepted, but the way those whom God has already received come to live. When the Spirit dwells in the believer, these virtues begin to rise like natural fruit (Galatians 5:22-23). Read it not as a burden but as a promise of the life God is forming in those who are his.