The Bible can easily be misunderstood, if we don’t read with careful attention to what is actually said, and with minds really wanting to know what God means by what He says. We all read the Bible with minds preconditioned by what we have heard from parents, from teachers in a church, or on television or radio, from educators, from friends, from books and magazines, and our society’s influences. This preconditioning affects what we hear and understand as we read.
We can choose to read the Bible — relying for understanding only on the teaching and writings of people we believe we have good reason to trust. Churches such as the Roman Catholics, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and others strongly advocate such reliance on their teachers for Bible understanding. However, all teachers, writers and churches, including beloved Christadelphian brothers and sisters, have human limitations in understanding. Their understanding is shaped by their life experiences, their human teachers and traditions, their reading of history, and Bible expositions of other people.
While respecting those we trust, it is wrong to treat their teaching as equal in authority to the word of God or as always being perfect and complete. The authoritative and sometimes dogmatic tones (and the appearance of great knowledge) of human teachers whom we like to hear must not cause us to listen uncritically. We must not abandon or neglect our personal responsibility to our Lord to think through what God is actually saying to us and what His words mean. As the Apostle Paul urged new disciples, “Prove (test) all things; hold fast what is good” (1 Thes. 5:19-21). This is particularly important when we are reading familiar portions of the Bible.
Matthew 5, 6, and 7 is very familiar to us. Those who first heard these words were “astonished at Jesus’ doctrine (or teaching), for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes” (Matt. 7:28,29).
The scribes took pride in expounding legal interpretations of the Law of Moses and of the multitude of extra laws added in their traditions. Those expositions always cited complex rulings of rabbis. In contrast, the Lord Jesus spoke with a personal authority, asserting again and again, “I say unto you…” He taught about life, about attitudes and actions, and the hope and faith that are their basis.
One lesson that we can learn from our Lord is that in his teaching he makes no artificial distinction between “doctrine” and moral instruction. The beliefs that we like to call “doctrine” are interwoven into all his moral instruction here. The beatitudes with which he appropriately begins (for attitudes govern our actions) are all inseparable parts of one lovely life which we see in him. Yet these attitudes are all related to our hopes of inheriting the earth, receiving mercy, seeing God, being comforted, being filled with righteousness, and experiencing joy that the Kingdom of God is ours.
In Jesus’ instruction on prayer (Matt. 6), we learn that the kingdom is coming, that it will be on earth, and that God’s will shall then be done on earth. In Matthew 7 there are sobering truths about the narrowness of the gate and the difficulty of the way that leads to life; and reminders that our life depends on hearing and doing what the Lord Jesus says. This well-rounded “teaching” is an important example to us of how to teach the “good news” in order to “make disciples” who will do as the Lord commanded (Matt. 28:19,20).
In Matthew 5:17,18, Jesus says of his teaching that he had not come to destroy the law or the prophets but “to fulfill”, and “one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all be fulfilled.” Different Greek words are translated here as “fulfill” and “fulfilled”.
The verb translated “fulfill” means to “fill” or to “fill full”. The Lord Jesus is saying that he came to “fill full” the law and the prophets in the sense of teaching and living their full intent. In the five examples that follow in this chapter, Jesus teaches that the intent of God’s law goes beyond an outward conformity to the law as commonly understood by the Jews. He teaches us how we must “fill full” the intent of the law and prophets in our heart and mind and in our actions.
The word translated “fulfilled” in verse 18 is frequently translated in the KJV as “come to pass”, and in the RV as “be finished”. Jesus expresses here his faith that the law would “come to pass”, or “be finished”. “The righteous requirement” of the law was summed up by the Lord: to love God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves (Mark 12:29-31). How would this intent of the law actually come to pass in the lives of faithful disciples?
The Apostle Paul tells us the answer in Romans 8:3,4: “For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God (did) by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, (in order) that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.” By thus acting in love through His Son, God has introduced to our hearts and minds the spirit power of their grace and truth to break in us the power of sin. God did this so “that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us” (cf. Tit. 2:11-14).
All this is implied in Jesus’ words about the law being “filled full” and “fulfilled”. How important it is for us to learn the full intent of God’s law is shown by his next words in Matthew 5:19,20.
Being called “least” or “great” in the kingdom of heaven (v. 19) depends on our doing and teaching God’s commandments. The religion or righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees was only an outward show. In contrast, Christ’s disciples must have a righteousness that surpasses that outward appearance of righteousness (v. 20). This doesn’t mean following even stricter rules than those of the scribes and Pharisees. It means having an inner righteousness of heart and mind that profoundly affects who we are and what we do, as the Lord shows us in the five examples that follow.
The sixth commandment of the ten, delivered by the LORD from Mount Sinai to Israel, was: “You shall not kill.” In Matthew 5:21-26, Jesus teaches us that the real intent of the law was more than just not killing. This true intent of the law could not be administered by the judges of Israel, for they could not judge a person’s heart. However, it is the standard by which the Lord Jesus will judge us.
Jesus says, “But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the judgment” (v. 22). The KJV adds the words “without a cause” after “his brother”. However, most modern translations note that this phrase is in only some later manuscripts. It appears to have been added, and its omission restores Jesus’ words to their real meaning. It is very human to like this addition, for men and women always justify their anger and wars by various excuses. Its omission fits with the progression in Jesus’ words from anger to insult, and from insult to gross insult (or fighting words). Omitting “without a cause” brings these words of Jesus into harmony with his words in Matthew 5:38-48.
Matthew 6:22,23 provides another example of how attention to the words and their meaning and the flow of thought is essential to understanding even familiar passages. What is a “single” or a “good” or a “healthy eye” (translations vary)? And, what does having an “evil eye” or a “bad eye” mean?
Those familiar with the Old Testament will at once recognize that an “evil eye” is a begrudging and unsympathetic attitude towards those in need (Deut. 15:7-10).
A “single eye” is probably, therefore, the opposite of such a “narrow” or “closed” mind. “Single” is the adjective form of a Greek noun meaning bountifulness or liberality, and is used in that sense in 2 Corinthians 8:2. There, Paul speaks of the generosity (singleness) of the Macedonian ecclesias in giving to the offering he was gathering from Gentile ecclesias for the poor saints in Judea. In 2 Corinthians 9:11, Paul says that the Corinthians, too, will be enriched in everything by their bountifulness or liberality (singleness) in so helping the poor, which will produce thanksgiving to God.
These words are almost an echo of Jesus’ words that, if your eye is single, then your whole body will be full of light. The context confirms that in these words the Lord is contrasting a generous spirit towards those in need with a grudging, reluctant-to-help spirit. In verses 19-21 Jesus says not to lay up treasures on earth, but to lay up treasures in heaven (by doing God’s will). In verses 22,23 he contrasts the generous eye and the evil eye. Then, in verse 24, he says, “You cannot serve God and mammon (money).” The verses that follow urge disciples not to be anxious about their needs, for God will provide. Thus, understanding the “single eye” as a generous attitude to those in need — and the “evil eye” as a selfish, grudging attitude — fits with the context, i.e., our attitude to money and our daily personal needs.
“Eye” is a metaphor for our attitudes toward others and their needs, and “the whole body” is a metaphor for our mind and heart, our inner being. If our attitude toward others is generous — not only in terms of money, but in our positive feelings and actions toward them — then our whole being will be full of light. If our attitude toward others is grudging, expressing our lack of love for them or our distrust of them, then our whole being will be full of darkness.
Even in the most familiar chapters in the Bible, there is so much more that we can discover, if we read with an inquiring mind. In the foregoing illustrations, the meanings of particular words are important. And, the flow of thought in the immediate context will always help us to determine the meaning of the words and their lessons for us.
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Lord willing, we shall look next at how the Lord Jesus and his apostles reveal the meaning of Old Testament scriptures.
“The ‘New’ is in the ‘Old’ concealed. The ‘Old’ is in the ‘New’ revealed” (Yorkshire proverb used by Bro. John Carter).
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