Matthew 5:
1. Rejoice and be glad in persecution (v.12)
2. Let your light shine through good works so that others may glorify God (v.16)
3. Uphold the law and teach others to keep it (v.19)
4. Be salt that remains useful (v. 13)
5. If any portion of your person causes you to sin, but it to death and destroy it (v.29-30)
6. Do not lust or commit adultery
7. Do not divorce your spouse on anything other than sexual infidelity
8. Do not swear oaths by the world's standards
9. Do not retaliate with evil against those who do evil to you
10. Love people
I struggle with some very humiliatingly simple commands from the Lord, on a daily basis. Reading through the list I compiled from Matthew 5, the two particular commands that stood out to me the most were very easy to spot. The first was Jesus' command to put to death any member of my body that causes me to sin. I don't like that command. Killing the sin in me requires me to kill parts of me, and I'm not typically willing to inflict such pain on myself. Yet, how am I to grow into the appearance of Christ if I'm not willing to be crushed and made anew? The second commandment that has broken me time and time again is Jesus' call for us to love people, including our enemies. As a Church, we struggle a great deal with this concept. We can articulate it, but we avoid putting it into action. Love costs me everything that I am and everything I hold dear. To love another is to choose to not seek after my own welfare. Yet, this is the greatest calling Jesus declares among his people: Love, so as to fulfill the Law. If I truly desire to be discipled into the likeness of Jesus Christ, I must deny myself and love radically, faithfully, selflessly.
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