Devotion:
For an audio version of this devotion, click here.
Read Matthew 5:21-24.
This passage comes early in the “Sermon on the Mount,” a collection of some of Jesus’ greatest teachings. Jesus’ audience of that time would have been very familiar with the Ten Commandments. Here he takes one of those and does something radical. Jesus says that just not killing someone is not enough…we are not even to think badly of others or call them names. And if we are beginning to worship God and we recall that someone has something against us, we are to leave our worship and go and be reconciled with that person. This is the first of several similar teachings in which Jesus says that following the Hebrew Scriptures (the law) is not enough. We are to go beyond those requirements as we live our lives with one another.
Are you as guilty as I am of trying to draw a box around God? God is too awesome and vast for us to ever fully define God and perhaps too vast for us to even partially define. The commandments are helpful in giving us the bare minimum of what God expects and desires for us, but we are not to stop there. We are to truly love one another, seeking to live into this vast image of God in which we were created.
Personal Worship Option:
Gracious God, you are infinite and eternal, while we are mortal creatures. Help us to love and worship and serve you even in the human limitations of our knowledge of you. Thank you for revealing your nature in Jesus Christ and in those who live out your teachings. Amen.
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