NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER FIVE

To all my wonderful, precious and faithful readers.  May God richly bless you for your love of His Word, and reward you for taking the time to contemplate what He had to say through His Son, Jesus the Christ.

We just finished our study of Matthew, Chapter Five, where we learned how Jesus took teachings that His audience knew about because of the verbal traditions that were being taught to them by the Rabbis, but instead of following the legalistic interpretation under the Law, He emphasized the spiritual aspects of these teachings under Grace.  In other words, He told His listeners to do this things correctly, not because they had to out of obligation, in order to please others, but because they wanted to out of love, in order to please God.

He talked about taking responsibility as salt and light; about attitude, especially when calling someone a fool; about morality, in particular adultery and divorce; about integrity when making a promise and having understanding instead of wanting revenge; and finally what it means to love those who hate you for who you are and what you are.

Our next study will be Chapter Six, where Jesus continues to teach the spiritual aspects of helping those in need, about praying, fasting, laying up treasure in heaven, and why we shouldn’t worry so much about things we don’t have, and be thankful for what we do have.

I look forward to walking with you down this unfamiliar road to gain a greater understanding  of what Jesus really said, instead of being satisfied by with what you’ve always thought He said.