WHO OBEYS? Matthew 29 +30

[Douglas Hendrickson]

Of Chapter 5. (Of course).

And if would never even consider obeying versus 29 and 30, why bother about verse 28? (Whatever it means - should men be wearing welding masks?)

Seems to be rather dismissive of adultery in verse 27?

RECOMMENDED HEART (of daily diet). Nothing to do wit adultery, of course!

 

[Emmy]

Dear Douglas Hendrickson. WHO OBEYS? All who love Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In Matthew 22: 35-40:
Jesus tells us: " The first and great Commandment is: Love God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. The second is: love thy neighbour as thyself." On these two Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."
God is Love, and God wants loving sons and daughters. What do we do? In Matthew 7: 7-10: we are told: " Ask and you shall receive." We ask God for Love and Joy, then thank God and share all love and joy with our neighbour.
We keep asking and thanking God, then sharing all love and joy with our neighbour. God will see our loving efforts, and God will approve and bless us. The Holy Spirit will help and guide us, and Jesus our Saviour will lead us all the way: JESUS IS THE WAY. We might stumble and forget at times, but then we ask God to forgive us and carry on
loving and caring, be kind and always friendly.
The Bible tells us to " Repent and be Born Again," we stop being selfish and unloving, and start being loving and caring, always kind and be understanding. A Christian`s weapon is loving words and a helpful attitude, love will help us to overcome all anger and wrong behaviour. People will listen to us and treat us as we treat people, and love will come again to this imperfect world. To Love and Obey is what God wants from us, let us start and be God`s representatives.
I say this with love, Douglas. Greetings from Emmy, your sister in Christ.

 

[Douglas Hendrickson]

Dear Douglas Hendrickson. WHO OBEYS? All who love Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In Matthew 22: 35-40:
Jesus tells us: " The first and great Commandment is: Love God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. The second is: love thy neighbour as thyself." On these two Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."
God is Love, and God wants loving sons and daughters. What do we do? In Matthew 7: 7-10: we are told: " Ask and you shall receive." We ask God for Love and Joy, then thank God and share all love and joy with our neighbour.
We keep asking and thanking God, then sharing all love and joy with our neighbour. God will see our loving efforts, and God will approve and bless us. The Holy Spirit will help and guide us, and Jesus our Saviour will lead us all the way: JESUS IS THE WAY. We might stumble and forget at times, but then we ask God to forgive us and carry on
loving and caring, be kind and always friendly.
The Bible tells us to " Repent and be Born Again," we stop being selfish and unloving, and start being loving and caring, always kind and be understanding. A Christian`s weapon is loving words and a helpful attitude, love will help us to overcome all anger and wrong behaviour. People will listen to us and treat us as we treat people, and love will come again to this imperfect world. To Love and Obey is what God wants from us, let us start and be God`s representatives.
I say this with love, Douglas. Greetings from Emmy, your sister in Christ.

Dear Emmy,
All that is right and good, but you do not address my question. Which is, can we even begin to think of actually obeying a command to pluck out our own eye, or cut off a hand, because it might be the agent of our sinfulness.

Are Matthew 5, 29 and 30, merely symbolic or metaphoric, not to be "taken literally"?

 

[Soyeong]

Of Chapter 5. (Of course).

And if would never even consider obeying versus 29 and 30, why bother about verse 28? (Whatever it means - should men be wearing welding masks?)

Seems to be rather dismissive of adultery in verse 27?

RECOMMENDED HEART (of daily diet). Nothing to do wit adultery, of course!

Whenever Jesus quoted from Scripture, he said, "it is written..." but when he was quoting from what the teachers of the law of his day were saying about the law, he said, "you have heard that it was said...". In matthew 5:17, Jesus said he came not to abolish the Law or the Prophets, but to fulfill them because he was about to teach against what the teachers of the law were saying, which to them would have sounded like he was abolishing or undermining the law, and he wanted to assure them that he came to fulfill the law or to teach how to correctly or fully understand and obey it. So Jesus was not being dismissive of the law against adultery, but he was being dismissive of their interpretation of that law. Not thinking about a married woman lustfully is the correct application of the 7th and 10th Commandments, so he was not sinning by giving new commands. Punishments were often listed as more severe than what was actually enforced in order to show the seriousness of the offense and to show mercy. So we should be serious about removing the sources of sin from our lives, but that doesn't mean we should start maiming ourselves.

 

[Douglas Hendrickson]

Whenever Jesus quoted from Scripture, he said, "it is written..." but when he was quoting from what the teachers of the law of his day were saying about the law, he said, "you have heard that it was said...". In matthew 5:17, Jesus said he came not to abolish the Law or the Prophets, but to fulfill them because he was about to teach against what the teachers of the law were saying, which to them would have sounded like he was abolishing or undermining the law, and he wanted to assure them that he came to fulfill the law or to teach how to correctly or fully understand and obey it. So Jesus was not being dismissive of the law against adultery, but he was being dismissive of their interpretation of that law. Not thinking about a married woman lustfully is the correct application of the 7th and 10th Commandments, so he was not sinning by giving new commands. Punishments were often listed as more severe than what was actually enforced in order to show the seriousness of the offense and to show mercy. So we should be serious about removing the sources of sin from our lives, but that doesn't mean we should start maiming ourselves.

What do verses 29 and 30 mean then?
[Pardon me - this is a later edit - you DO say what they mean, "we should be serious about removing the sources of sins from our lives." Thanks for that!]

v.26 is interesting wit Thee "utter most far thing" idea.

"Not thinking about a married woman lustfully is the correct application of the 7th and 10th Commandments," is perhaps not fully correct. If we look at the word for "lust after," it is the same as the word for "covet," so to that extent you are correct.
However, since we do NOT in contemporary usage understand "lust," that way, is it correct that our translation should read "covet."? Which would mean much more that we take lust to be (USUAL SEXUAL DESIRE?), would mean much more than some mere thought - would mean working toward possessing the other (as one's spouse). Would mean, probably, that one has "already committed adultery," like Scripture (Jesus) says.

And "in one's heart," i.e. PASSIONATELY !
Oh by the way, verse 27 not only says "ye have heard that it was said," but "of old time." Not so contemporary (to then) as you say, seems to me. In other words, he in not pointing to merely what people "of the Law" were saying in his day.

 

[Emmy]

Dear Douglas Hendrickson. You ask: Who obeys? and who would cut of one`s arm? or pluck out one`s eye?
That is only a saying, and Jesus knows this. To obey is straightforward, and we know it. The truth is that God is Love, and God loves us. Jesus gave us two easy to understand Commandments, 1) Love God with all our hearts, with all our souls, and with all our minds. 2) Love our neighbour as we love ourselves. In verse 40 we are told: " On these two Commandments hang all our Law and all our Prophets." Straightforward and easy to understand. The Bible tells us what to do: " Repent and Be Born Again," we simply have to give up all our selfish wishes and desires and start loving and caring, be kind and forgive. To love covers a multitude of sins, and Love is very catching. If we would give it all a
true and continuous try, we would find that Jesus gave us a perfect way to less and less sinning.
In Luke 10: 25-28: a young man asks Jesus: " Master what must I do to have eternal life? " Jesus tells him: " you know Matthew 22: 35-40? Love God and love your fellow-man? DO THIS AND YOU WILL LIVE. Why not try it, Douglas? Love God and love your neighbour? ( neighbour is all we know and all we meet, friend and not friend)
I say this with love, Douglas. Greetings from Emmy, your sister in Christ.

 

[Douglas Hendrickson]

Dear Douglas Hendrickson. You ask: Who obeys? and who would cut of one`s arm? or pluck out one`s eye?
That is only a saying, and Jesus knows this. To obey is straightforward, and we know it. The truth is that God is Love, and God loves us. Jesus gave us two easy to understand Commandments, 1) Love God with all our hearts, with all our souls, and with all our minds. 2) Love our neighbour as we love ourselves. In verse 40 we are told: " On these two Commandments hang all our Law and all our Prophets." Straightforward and easy to understand. The Bible tells us what to do: " Repent and Be Born Again," we simply have to give up all our selfish wishes and desires and start loving and caring, be kind and forgive. To love covers a multitude of sins, and Love is very catching. If we would give it all a true and continuous try, we would find that Jesus gave us a perfect way to less and less sinning.
In Luke 10: 25-28: a young man asks Jesus: " Master what must I do to have eternal life? " Jesus tells him: " you know Matthew 22: 35-40? Love God and love your fellow-man? DO THIS AND YOU WILL LIVE. Why not try it, Douglas? Love God and love your neighbour? ( neighbour is all we know and all we meet, friend and not friend)
I say this with love, Douglas. Greetings from Emmy, your sister in Christ.

Okay Emmy, (btw, your condescension is a bit much).
So, Mt. 29 and Mt. 30 are "only a saying." And Jesus knows this? How would I know it?
That it "only makes sense" not to take them to mean what they say, is that it?
If 29 and 30 are "only sayings," what about 28? Is it "only a saying" too?
THAT is my question!

Is Seyong correct in saying of 29 and 30, they mean, "we should be serious about removing the sources of sins from our lives"? And does that equally apply to verse 28 - we should seriously avoid adultery?

I still want to know if there can be adultery without sexual intercourse.

 

[Shempster]

Are Matthew 5, 29 and 30, merely symbolic or metaphoric, not to be "taken literally"?

It is a serious matter. It is metaphoric for most of us. We can see that "cutting off our hand" could look like not playing the slot machines anymore. It could mean that since we cannot say anything nice on social media that perhaps we should stop typing comments. If one's desire is to attain righteousness and their sin is so bad there is no stopping it then for that person perhaps amputating a hand might be called for.

The point in the message is THAT SIN IS SERIOUS. Do not scuff it off. What ever it takes, we must leave the ego and self behind and attain Christ In Us.

 

[ken777]

I still want to know if there can be adultery without sexual intercourse.

With inappropriate contentography so easily accessible for anyone these days, Jesus' words seem even more relevant: "anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart."

I think the bigger picture is that all sin is a matter of the heart ... I would say attitude.

 

[Emmy]

Dear Douglas Hendrickson. God is Love and Jesus died for us, that is much more than any " cutting off arms" could achieve. In Luke 10: 25-28: Jesus is asked by a young man: " Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
Jesus answered "Matthew 22: 35-40: DO THIS AND YOU SHALL LIVE. Love God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. Also, love your neighbour as yourself." On these 2 Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets. I say this with love, Douglas. Greetings from Emmy, your sister in Christ.