| Garden of the Heart |
Chapter 5 |
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Then Christians should be better and do more than others, because Christ gives ability and strength as well as leadership. His message is not merely, “Follow me“‘ it is also, “Because I live ye shall live also.” He puts His own divine life into those who follow Him. He is reincarnated in them. In themselves they have no more strength than other men, no more wisdom, and no more ability. But with the grace of Christ in them, they can accomplish what without Christ’s help would be impossibilities. “I can do all things in Him who strengtheneth me,” said St. Paul. With divine life in them they should do more than others. The Sermon on the Mount is a summary of duty in the kingdom of heaven. It is Christ’s own interpretation of the commandments. That is the way our Master would have His followers live. We do not read far into this sermon without finding that He expects from us a very lofty life. At the very beginning we have the Beatitudes. One says to a young friend: “I want to help you to be as beautiful as God meant you to be when He first thought of you.” That is what Jesus says to His followers in the Beatitudes. He makes it very plain that He is not content with ordinary religious standards in His disciples. “I say unto you, that except you righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven.” The common religious life of the day was not the ideal for them.
In His interpretation of the sixth commandment Jesus taught that every bitter thought or feeling is a violation of the law. Anger is murder, hatred is murder. The religious teachers of that day said that men should love their neighbours, but they defined neighbours to mean only a few congenial people. They said expressly that no enemy was their neighbour, and they read the law thus: “Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. The new interpretation, however, reads: “I say unto you, love your enemies, and pray for them that persecute you.” The meaning of the words was illustrated further: “For if ye love them that love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than other? Do not even the Gentiles the same?” There is a higher standard for Christians than for other people.
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