◄ Matthew 5 Devotional Commentary ►

Matthew 5:2

Christ's Sermon on the Mount is interpreted by various groups differently. Some suggest that Jesus is setting out a message of salvation; live this way and you will be saved and go to heaven. Others identify it as the perfect way to live, if humanity is to bring in everlasting peace and prosperity onto the earth.

Some suggest that this only applies to Christ's Jewish disciples during His pre-Cross ministry, while others suggest that this is to be the read more...

Matthew 5:3

God had promised Israel a Messiah Who would destroy their enemies and set up an earthly kingdom of peace and prosperity in the land that He gave to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This knowledge permeated Old Testament Scriptures, and when the prophetic voice of John the Baptist announced the arrival of their long-awaited King, and called the errant nation to repentance, a wave of excitement swept the land.

News about Jesus spread read more...

Matthew 5:4

Israel had been called to repent nationally by John the Baptist before he introduced them to their promised Messiah, the Light of the world. Jesus was that true Light. He was God's anointed Son Who was to proclaim His Sovereign authority over heaven and earth and His rightful place on the everlasting throne of David.

It appears that read more...

Matthew 5:6

In the book of Proverbs, we are challenged that whoever pursues righteousness and kindness will find it - they will find life, righteousness, and honour. And in this verse in Matthew, the Lord specifically says that people who hungered and thirsted for righteousness would be blessed, a truth that, although specifically written to the Jewish nation, has a wonderful application for all Church age believers. Yet a few verses later, Jesus warned us that unless read more...

Matthew 5:7

The beautiful beatitudes of Christ's Sermon on the Mount outline the ideal attributes that should be found in all citizens of heaven. They list and describe the constitution and character that our Heavenly Father desires from each of His blood-bought children. This in-depth description of the one who is blessed beyond compare, is only addressed to those that are saved and seeking to follow Christ as a true disciple; the one who is prepared to take up his cross read more...

Matthew 5:8

Too often when we look at a verse in Scripture, we interpret it from a present-day, human viewpoint, rather than in its biblical context and from God's perspective - and this is one such verse. Many look at this verse and say, "Ah! If I am pure in heart, then I will see God. I want to see God... so I will do this good thing and perform that righteous act, to make sure that I am pure in heart - and then I will see God."

"If my read more...

Matthew 5:9

Peacemakers are not the people who simply want peace or long for peace. They are not the governments that pass laws on peace, or legislators who write policies on peacekeeping. Peacemakers are those whom the Lord God uses to bring reconciliation to a fallen world. As Christians, we have peace with God through faith, and have been made ministers of reconciliation, so that fallen sinners may be reconciled back to God and gain true peace in their heart.

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Matthew 5:13

The Church is the Body of Christ and in His absence from the world, we are called to be the salt of the earth and yet we are also warned that if salt loses it saltiness, it is good for nothing, other than to be thrown out and trampled under foot.

Then as now, salt has a number of important purposes. This was especially so in the time of Christ, when synthetic alternatives and refrigeration were unavailable. One use for salt is to read more...

Matthew 5:14

As members of Christ's Body, we are called to be salt and light in a darkened world that is sick, putrefying, and in need of Christ's healing, wholeness, light, and life. But in a world that is at enmity with God and has rejected the good news of the glorious gospel of Christ, this is no easy matter, and we are likely to come up against much resistance to our message of hope and personal rejection from our fellow-man, and even hatred, abuse, or death.

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Matthew 5:16

When God redeemed us through the precious blood of Jesus Christ, our eternal future was assured forever. And as we live as strangers in an alien world where Satan has become the god of this world for a season, we are blessed indeed, for it is God who works in us, both to will and to do to His good pleasure.

In other words, the good works that we do in spirit and truth are not our own good works, for of ourselves we can do nothing that is worthy of God's read more...

Matthew 5:17

The Law was a large body of rules and regulations given to Israel through Moses, which was summed up in the moral principles of the 10 Commandments. It could not provide salvation but was God's tool to reveal our sinfulness, to bring us to repentance, and to point us to Christ, our sinless Saviour and Kinsman-Redeemer.

Adam's sin in the garden placed all men under the curse of death, and God gave the Law to a tiny segment of read more...

Matthew 5:18

The Lord Jesus had just announced that He did not come to destroy the Law but to fulfil both the Law and the prophetic writings. He continued to explain that not until heaven and earth pass away will the smallest jot or tiniest tittle of the Law pass away, for all things have to be accomplished. Many use this to insist that the Mosaic Law is part of Church age doctrine without looking into the incredible significance of this one statement of our Lord.

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Matthew 5:20

Someone has suggested that the key to Christ's Sermon on the Mount lies in verse 20, which tells us that unless we are more righteous than the Scribes and Pharisees of Christ's day, we will not even enter the kingdom of heaven.

But even though the external virtue and exterior purity of these religious men seemed to be exemplary, it still was not sufficient to grant them a place in Christ's coming kingdom. So who can ever enter the read more...

Matthew 5:39

In His amazing Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gives a list of the characteristics He expects from His followers - from those who would be subjects of the kingdom He came to establish. Kingdom citizens should be poor in spirit and pure of heart. They need to be men and women who hunger and thirst after righteousness, mourn over sin, show mercy to others, and are gentle and kind. And yet, He explains that the standard He expects from His people would result in them being read more...

Matthew 5:48

What an astonishing command: "Be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect." On the surface it seems like an impossible, unreasonable, even thoughtless request, because God knows that we are a sinful race with a fallen nature, and that there is no way that we could ever obey this command.

God's eternal plan for man is so designed that we are unable to obey His commands in our own strength, but He will allow us to read more...