Devotion:
For an audio version of this devotion, click here.
Read Matthew 5:17-20.
The devotions this week have touched upon the Scriptures that open the Sermon on the Mount. In today’s passage, Jesus is reacting to those persons who were accusing him of teaching a new religion, one that declared that the old law has been invalidated by Jesus. But Jesus assures the listeners that he hasn’t come to “abolish the law, but to fulfill it,” or to take it to the next level. Jesus “kicks it up a notch” as Chef Emeril Lagasse would say, and he gives examples in the following verses of the higher standard to which he calls us.
The higher standard to which Jesus calls us is all about love: love of God and love of neighbor as the highest ideal. When we are all about living into that “deep, deep love of Jesus” we are “moving on toward perfection,” moving closer to the God who seeks relationship with us and moving closer to the coming of God’s will to be done “on earth as it is in heaven.”
Personal Worship Option:
Take a moment to sit quietly then pray, “O God, help me to love you and love others as you love me. Help me to live my life as an example of your love in such a way that others will want to know how to gain the kind of peace and joy that comes from living into your love. Amen.”
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