Loopholes and the Heart of the Matter

Read Matthew 5:21-48

      It’s human nature (in our fallen state) to look for loopholes.  A high school friend in Kingston was forbidden by his parents to drive to Oak Ridge – but hey, they didn’t say anything about Cleveland, Tennessee.  In times more ancient than that, there was a rabbinical ruling that to carry an item ten consecutive steps constituted working on the Sabbath, which was forbidden.  Better make it nine steps, said the rabbis, in case you miscount.  But clever people got around the rule by carrying an item eight steps, putting it down, and carrying it eight more, and so on. 

      Jesus’ approach to God’s moral law is exactly opposite.  The law tells us that murder is a sin, Jesus says, but so is hating and angry and ugly talk, for murder is just the ultimate outworking of internal hatreds.  The law tells us that adultery is a sin, but so is lust, for all adultery starts with lust. 

      The moral precepts of the Bible are not given us so that we can know how closely we can skirt sin without slipping into it.  They are given us to show us what sort of people we are to be.  “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect,” Jesus says (5:48). 

      No one will ever get there without God’s gracious enablement, but no one will ever get there without his own cooperation, either.