my pet matthew

I think that most people have their little pet topics that they go back to. I have found that any time I put together a lesson to teach in my church I have to fight the tendency to work my way to my pet topics. Of all of my pet Scripture references, the Sermon on the Mount is probably the one that I go to the most. I usually remove my references to it by the time I present the lesson, but I always have a way to tie what I am saying to the Sermon on the Mount.

It is my opinion that nowhere is the essence of Christianity portrayed more completely and concisely than in Matthew chapters five through seven, with the possible exception of Jesus' comments on the greatest commandment. Jesus basically says that you have to do good works (be salt and light), but that the people who were the best at good works (the Pharisees and teachers of the law) still weren't good enough, so you should be perfect as God is perfect. He then spends the rest of His time illustrating perfection and imperfection. The implication is that something beyond works has to save you, but if you are truly perfect that motivation behind your works will show it even more than the works themselves. No matter what the lesson, if it has implications on Christian life, I can nearly always find something in those three chapters of Matthew, and especially in chapter five, that either validates or calls into question the point being made.

Recently, I have made a point of only sparingly referencing verses from these chapters, but I still have always expected that someone would call out the fact that I even now go to the passage so frequently. It isn't that there is anything wrong with that, but I sometimes feel like a singer who only knows one song but no one has caught on yet. Maybe I'm the singer to whom everyone is too nice to tell needs to learn a new song.