SERMON ON THE MOUNT
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As Jesus had been teaching in Mt 57-8 how the Divine ideal for men was to be worked out in the sphere of individual and social ethics, and in Mt 6118 in the sphere of religious worship, so in Mt 6154 He sets forth how this ideal demands an ex- clusive devotion to spiritual things—not that material things are to be ignored, but they are to be used only that they may contribute to the highest well-being of humanity. This teaching is developed in three paragraphs of the section vv. 9-4 vy.72-44 vy,%-34'* presenting three distinct phases of the subject of duty as regards earthly things: the one comprehensive aim of life must be spiritual, there must be no division of interests, and there must be no anxiety about the incidental things. According to the teaching of vy.9-21,; a man is not to devote himself to an accumulation of wealth for its own sake, or for selfish use. His time is not to be occupied with transient labours, social trivialities, vain displays, and empty talk. ‘To lay up treasure in heaven’ is to be and to do those things which are pleasing to God, to live nobly, purely, and helpfully. Jesus condemned in the strongest language the kind of life which seeks, first of all, for the gratification of greed and selfish ambition. When a certain man asked Jesus to assist him in securing some property, he rebuked him, and said to His hearers, ‘Take heed, and keep yourselves from all covetousness ; for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.’ And He gave the significant parable of the Rich Fool, who must leave all his wealth at his death, adding, ‘So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God’ (Lk 12-21), To make material things the chief end of life is to reverse the true relation of body and spirit. Immortal spirit is the permanent, ulti- mate thing for which our lives are to be lived. The possession or the accumulation of wealth is not for- bidden by Jesus (see above, ii. 4a), but He insists that wealth is a means, never an end; and that wealth must be conscientiously used for the highest ood, or it becomes a curse to its owner (cf. Mk 1017-22, Lk 16'°).t The right Christian attitude is not a despising of riches, but a true valuation and employment of them for human well-being. The ascetic life, the frivolous life, the indolent life, are
dom; and the necessaries of physical existence should be trusted to God’s providence. The zparev has then disappeared from the Lukan form, perhaps because of its ambiguity and consequent danger of being misunderstood. Whether the historical saying had ‘the kingdom,’ or ‘ his kingdom,’ or ‘the kingdom of God,’ all of which are attested, can only be matter of conjecture, and is unimportant. Lastly, Luke does not have the tiv dizeiootvyy which is given in this saying by Matthew (whose «rod probably limits also the BeoiAcay asin RY). Per- haps it was dropped from the Lukan sources because it was a technical Jewish term ; it has been noted above that dixeso- civy does not appear in Luke’s Sermon, and in his Gospel only at 175, Or, its presence in Mt 633 may be due to an expansion of the original saying, making a closer verbal connexion of the verse with the Sermon in Matthew (cf. 5610.20 61). This would be a probable explanation of its presence on the theory that Mt 619-34 has been imported into the Sermon in the course of trans- mission. But the ry dizcsoctyny may also be original in this saying. If so, the ‘righteousness’ referred to is that actual perfect character and conduct on the part of men with which this whole discourse is concerned (so Tholuck, Achelis, B. Weiss) ; not a righteousness which God imparts to the believer (Meyer, Ibbeken), nor the righteousness of faith according to the Pauline forensic sense. It is thus the righteousness which God requires, that complete conformity to His will which brings in the con- summated Kingdom of God.
* Feine thinks that vv.22-4 are interpolated into this passage from another connexion ; Achelis thinks the same of vy.%0- 21. 24, and B. Weiss of v.22. These are possible views, but there is not much to substantiate them. Matthew’s setting for these verses is as good as Luke’s, or even better. Lowviat
+ Bk 123%f- has the same thought, but the wording is charac- teristically different—the ‘Sell that ye have and give alms’ is a feature of the Third Gospel’s exaltation of poverty, as in the Beatitudes and Woes (620-26), It is striking that the two accounts are in almost exact agreement on the essential utterance, ‘Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.’ So Paul in Col 32,
t See Wendt, Lehre Jesu, ii. 163-168.
40 SERMON ON THE MOUNT
all alike wrong; no less wrong than the life of worldly pride and ambition. Poverty is not right- eoushess, nor is it even meritorious; men must be provident and self-supporting. The accumulation of material goods, when not carried on by dis- honesty, oppression, or disregard of others’ needs and rights, may minister to the highest welfare of one’s fellow-men.
Still more specifically does Jesus say, in vy.22-24,* that the Kingdom must be an exclusive aim. Using the physical eye, which illuminates the body, asa figure (cf. Ps 11918, Mk 88, Lk 24*!), He says that the spiritual discernment must be kept clear in order that one may not go astray from the path of highest duty. A divided aim, which endeavours to combine spiritual and material interests, is impossible; one cannot strive for spiritual goods part of the time, and for earthly goods the other part. Special moments of lofty aspiration, of un- selfishness, of generosity, come to almost every one; but in Jesus’ thought these things will be- come habitual and supreme in the true Christian. Everything must be made subordinate and con. tributory to the attainment of righteousness and the realization of the Kingdom.