THE ETHICS OF THE KINGDOM
Ethics of the kingdom of God is embedded in the Sermon the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount is the most important and longest piece of teaching from Jesus in the New Testament. It occupies chapters 5, 6 and 7 of the Gospel of Matthew. Before this episode, Jesus had been “all about Galilee” preaching, as in Matthew 4:23, and “great crowds followed him” from all around the area.
The Sermon begins with the Beatitudes, and their call to humility, peacemaking, purity, and righteousness, and continues on to sharp condemnations of anger, lust, revenge, and hypocrisy, and then to the beautiful exemplar of the Lord’s Prayer. This is followed by strong admonitions against materialism, worry, and judging others. But it’s not all about “thou shalt not,” for the Sermon on the Mount ends with Jesus’ encouragement to his followers to pray frequently and fervently, to live by the Golden Rule, to bear good fruit, and to build on the rock.
Humanly speaking, we could understand and interpret the Sermon on the Mount in a thousand different ways. Jesus knows only one possibility: simple surrender and obedience, not interpreting it or applying it, but doing and obeying it. Precisely speaking what then is the sermon all about in our daily lives:
• It is not a new law or moral teaching, but a guide to the heart of discipleship
• It is not theoretical or theological but quite practical: a call to unconditional forgiveness, renunciation of violence, faithfulness in marriage, and freedom from wealth
• It is not an impossible ideal, but good news: the news that the despair and death that rule the present age can be overcome through a life lived according to perfect love.
The teachings of the sermon are often referred to as the Ethics of the Kingdom: they place a high level of emphasis on “purity of the heart” and embody the basic standard of Christian righteousness.
Have a blessed week!
