Bible Studies in the Gospel of Matthew

Bible Studies in the Gospel of Matthew
XXV

Matthew 5:43-47; John 1:12-13; 1 John 3:1. Again we see the tremendous difference between the old and the new covenant. The commandments and promises of the new covenant know of no limits to goodness. They lead us to the likeness of God Himself—to divine nature.

We became His true children when we were wholeheartedly converted to God; nevertheless, in effect, we were His children in name only. The spark of life that entered into us was as small as a mustard seed.

Here we are exhorted to live according to the Sermon on the Mount so we can be children of our heavenly Father, as if we had not become His children by faith. What does Jesus mean by that? He means that we shall be His children in deed and in truth so we can show that we are like Him in reality.

Loving someone with whom I sympathize, whom I like very much, who has the same taste and opinions as myself (as in comradeship, friendship, and cliques), that is worldly, pagan, selfish, and ungodly. The heathen, sinners, drunkards, backbiters, etc., do the same thing.

So-called well-bred people love their own kind; the rich usually socialize with other rich people; those who like to slander others keep together; those who are accusers plot together, etc., but God lets His sun rise over everyone and lets the rain fall on everyone. We will do the same as we become like Him.

Then we will be like a sun in the midst of the church of the living God, letting our light shine alike on everyone—on the faithful and the unfaithful, on the poor and the rich, on those who are content and on those who are discontented—without an evil eye. We are also like a cloud laden with rain, the rain of blessing, and let this rain fall on everyone by loving everyone with the same love.

In brotherly love we have love for everyone: for worldly and for religious people, for those who are nice and for those who are mean, wishing them all the same thing: namely, that it might go very well with them in the midst of the church. God’s longsuffering can be for the salvation of all of them directly, and through us.

We must not believe that this exalted, abundant life is heavy or difficult or unobtainable. Then we will never obtain it. We must simply believe that it is obtainable, blessed, and good, because He who is truthful and good has said it. Then we will obtain it.

At first we have to hear that a person is a child of God; otherwise we cannot know it. Afterwards, it can be seen and noticed in all his conduct, by all his deeds. Then he has become a child of our heavenly Father in deed and in truth.

Then he lives according to the Sermon on the Mount.