21 "You're familiar with the command to the ancients, 'Do not murder.' 22 I'm telling you that anyone who is so much as angry with a brother or sister is guilty of murder. Carelessly call a brother 'idiot!' and you just might find yourself hauled into court. Thoughtlessly yell 'stupid!' at a sister and you are on the brink of hellfire. The simple moral fact is that words kill.
27 "You know the next commandment pretty well, too: 'Don't go to bed with another's spouse.' 28 But don't think you've preserved your virtue simply by staying out of bed. Your heart can be corrupted by lust even quicker than your body. Those leering looks you think nobody notices - they also corrupt. 29 "Let's not pretend this is easier than it really is. If you want to live a morally pure life, here's what you have to do: You have to blind your right eye the moment you catch it in a lustful leer. You have to choose to live one-eyed or else be dumped on a moral trash pile. 30 And you have to chop off your right hand the moment you notice it raised threateningly. Better a bloody stump than your entire being discarded for good in the dump.
33 "And don't say anything you don't mean. This counsel is embedded deep in our traditions. 34 You only make things worse when you lay down a smoke screen of pious talk, saying, 'I'll pray for you,' and never doing it, or saying, 'God be with you,' and not meaning it. You don't make your words true by embellishing them with religious lace. In making your speech sound more religious, it becomes less true.”
Jesus words from the Sermon on the Mount sound harsh and blunt. Not the first words we turn to when we want a word of encouragement or hope.
Yet, they are words of encouragement and hope for they remind us that none of us can be moral enough or religious enough to make it on our own. We all need God’s forgiving grace and we all need to live with grace in our words and deeds. There is no righteousness which makes grace unnecessary!
None of us should think we have it made outside the grace of God which is inclusive beyond human understanding. As the Psalmist says, “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” Ps. 103:8
“No one can make it without grace!”
Prayer thought for the week: “Lord, thank you for loving me enough to not give up on me.
Help me to trust in your grace and live as a grace-full person.”
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