The Sermon on the Mount
Part 6
(Mat. 5:25-28)
By Jonathan Mitchell
25. "Be in the habit of quickly having continued thoughts of wellness toward your opponent in a lawsuit (or: of being quickly well-disposed and kind-minded with your plaintiff; or: Be quickly having your mind progressively at ease in relation to the person setting himself to resist or oppose you in matters of daily living) settling matters while you continue being with him on the road [to court] (or: while being with him within the Way - the Path [of this Life]), lest at some time the plaintiff (person having a complaint against you in some legal matter) may hand you over (or: transfer or commit you) to the judge, and then the judge to the court officer, and next you may be thrown into prison (jail; a guardhouse).
A common aphorism is, "nip it in the bud." But let us listen to His conclusion on this point...
26. "Truly I am now saying to you (or: = Pay attention to Me), you may not come out from the midst of there until you can give back (repay) the last small copper coin (a quadrans; = the final dime or penny of the amount judged against you).
Is He not simply saying that it is better to "settle matters" before they grow into legal confrontations? This admonition would have applied to lawsuits, but the wisdom in this also applies to all relationships:
"Be in the habit of quickly having continued thoughts of wellness toward your opponent."
This would especially be a good avenue to follow in political or religious debates. These relational contexts can end in our being imprisoned within the attitudes and emotions that our "opponents" hold - and we may be there, within them, until the most minute detail is settled (to their way of thinking). How many family splits and losses of friendships have resulted by not maintaining "thoughts of wellness" toward our associates?
27. "YOU folks hear (or: heard) that it was declared, 'YOU will not continue committing adultery!' [Ex. 20:13]
28. "Yet I, Myself, am now saying to YOU people that every man who is continuing in, or, repeatedly looking at and observing (constantly watching or leering at; = fantasizing over) a [married] woman, with a view toward the [situation, or, condition] to crave her (to experience strong passion for her, or, to desire to rush in a heat of emotion upon her), has already committed adultery with her, within his heart!
The author of Heb. 13:4 spoke to this issue:
4. Marriage [is] precious (of great value and honor) in the midst of all folks (or: among all peoples), and the conjugal bed [is] unstained and undefiled; yet God is continuously judging (or: repeatedly separating and making a decision about) fornicators (or: male prostitutes; or: men who have sexual intercourse with a prostitute) and adulterers.
Here, the author is referencing common cultural values ("among all peoples") as the contrast to improper sexual behavior. Notice that "God is continuously judging." Moffatt renders the last phrase, "the vicious and adulterous." Ann Nyland suggests that "fornicators" (pornos) here refers to acts condemned by the Law, e.g. the list in Lev. 18, and may have included acts associated with idolatry among the Canaanites (The Source New Testament, Smith & Stirling Pub. 2007 p 45). Others see this word as defined in the parenthetical expansion, above. It is in the lists of prohibitions in Acts 21:25, 1 Cor. 5:9-11, Eph. 5:5 and 1 Tim. 1:10.
The association of pornos with idol worship in Rev. 2:14 (referencing Balaam - Nu. 25:1; 31:16) and Rev. 2:20 (referencing Jezebel - 1 Ki. 16:31) strengthens the understanding of this warning as primarily having a religious significance.
Another interpretation of Heb. 13:4 may be that the author is speaking both to physical relationships and at the same time to the polarized practices of the various groups of Gnostics. Some promoted asceticism (to which the first part of the verse would apply) and others promoted licentiousness (to which the second half of the verse would apply).
Kingdom life is first of all about our inner life, as noted above, with vs. 22. Verse 28 is not a "higher standard" than the Mosaic Law, but was actually the spirit of the Law, explaining the heart and "standard" of God that was the basis of literal or legal applications of the Law. Jesus was saying this to His audience, His apprentices. He was not adding to the Mosaic Law, He was using that Law as the foundation for the superstructure that He and His followers would erect upon the stone-based instructional promises.
The ground-level teaching, given through Moses, was to take Israel to a higher level than the surrounding cultures. It was a promise of something better: they would not "continue" doing this. But now Jesus is lifting their understanding into the heavens (their minds and hearts). Being joined to Him (as branches to the Vine) would carry them above the earth realm to where they lived as part of the clouds, carried by the breezes of His Breath-effect.
But not only has He carried our thoughts and inner life to a higher behavior, there is the metaphorical meaning that we find in the prophetic tradition: unfaithfulness to God.
"How the faithful city has become a prostitute! Zion [was] full of justice; righteousness lodged in her - yet now, murderers!" (Isa. 1:21)
Yahweh said to Hosea,
"Go, take for yourself a wife of prostitution, and have children of prostitution, for the Land (= the people of the Northern Kingdom of Israel) commits great prostitution by forsaking Yahweh."
In the NT, we find a similar picture in the vision of Mystery (Secret) Babylon (a figure for Jerusalem), riding the beast of Rome (Rev. 17:1-6). You see, throughout its history, Israel had
"looked at and observed other 'women' (idols and false religions) to crave them,"
and eventually she became what she craved.
Paul expands on this topic, in Eph. 5:5, and so we will share our comments on this verse from Peter's Encore and Later Paul, comments on 2 Peter and Ephesians (Harper Brown Pub. 2015):
First of all, take note that the second half of the verse adds an explanation re: an idolater. The parenthetical renderings, "that is," or, "= which means," would indicate that the term "an idolater" is defining, theologically or religiously, the spiritual significance of the terms, practicer of sexual vice, unclean person and greedy one. Prostitution and adultery were traditional Israelite metaphors for idolatry, or turning to false gods.
The dependent clause that presents the results for such behavior, or lifestyle, also has various interpretations. Many assume that "holding enjoyment of an inheritance within the Christ's and God's reign" determines their ultimate end. This assumption should be investigated.
Is being "in God's or Christ's kingdom/reign (etc.)" equivalent to "being saved"? Does entering His reign mean "going to heaven," as some veins of tradition teach? In Mat. 21:43 Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders in Jerusalem,
"Because of this, I am now saying to you men that God's reign (or: the kingdom of God; the influence and activity of God's sovereignty) will be progressively lifted up away from you folks, and it will proceed being given to an ethnic multitude (or: nation; people group) consistently producing its fruit!"
God's reign was, then, something that they presently had, but would soon lose. In Lu. 12:32 Jesus told His disciples,
"Stop fearing (or: Do not continue being wary), little flock, because it delights the Father (or: because the Father thought it good, and thus, approved) to give the rule (reign; kingship; kingdom; sovereign influence and activities) to you folks"
Here we should take note of the term basileias which in these verses I have rendered: reign, rule, kingship, kingdom, sphere of sovereign influence and activities. This semantic range of meanings signifies a position or place of leadership that was to be taken away from the leaders and representatives of Israel and was to be given to Christ's apprentices, who would become His body - those who would dispense the Good News of the new age and the new unified humanity (in God's economy and purposes), and would establish the covenant communities of this new creation of life in Christ through His Holy Spirit. They would grow in number and become
"the Jerusalem which is above" (Gal. 4:26)
that would birth children that would be children of the Promise. In other words, God's reign happens in people - here on earth, for,
"Consider! God's tent (the Tabernacle of God) [is] with mankind (the humans), 'and He will continue living in a tent (dwell in a Tabernacle) with them, and they will continue being (will constantly exist being) His people, and God Himself will continue being with them [some MSS add: their God]" (Rev. 21:3).
This means that God's home is here, among people. This is all about here and now. In Rom. 14:17 Paul instructs us that,
So what should we conclude from Paul's use of the word basileias here in Eph. 5:5? The verb "now holding," or "currently continue having," speaks to the present condition, situation and behavior of those that would be described by the terms in the first clause of this verse. They describe folks that have not yet been existentially born into the body of Christ - they are not presently "having use of an allotted gift." But this does not preclude future existential transformation when their class, group or order - or their season - comes and they are resurrected into the Life of Christ (cf 1 Cor. 15:22-23). So those of whom Paul speaks here in vs. 5 would be in the same position as the Sanhedrin, priests, scribes, elders or any others that were the representatives of God's kingdom before the coming of the Messiah: they would be in need of deliverance. Until this comes about, they are not now holding an allotted (inherited) position in God's present sovereign activities or influences in the earth. They await birth into the kingdom - and birth is always the act of the Parent, not of the one that is born. Deliverance is an act of God, not of the person in need.
The term "enjoyment of an inheritance," or, "an allotted gift," was the traditional means by which children received an allotted gift from their parents (in a patrilineal society, from the father) as a place to live, and as a means to live. In Eph. 5:1, Paul's listeners are called beloved children, so here he picks up the family metaphor once more in this element that reaches back to Abram asking Yahweh for a son to be his heir (Gen. 15:1-6). In Eph. 1:13-14, he spoke of,
"the set-apart Breath-effect of The Promise (or: with the holy attitude of assurance; in the sacred essence from the promise; or: for the Holy Spirit which is the Promise) - Which is continuously a pledge and guarantee of our inheritance (or: Who remains being an earnest deposit, a security and the first installment of our portion which was acquired by lot) - [leading] unto a release into freedom (liberation from slavery or imprisonment) from that which was made to surround [us/you] (or: of the encircling acquisition; or: which is that which has been constructed as a perimeter around [us])..."
Then 1 Pet. 1:3-4 informs us,
"the One bringing us to birth again.... into the midst of an incorruptible (unspoilable; imperishable; unruinable; undecayable), unstained (undefiled), and unfading (or: unwithering) inheritance (or: enjoyment of and participation in an allotted portion as a possession).... within the midst of [the, or our] atmospheres (or: in union with heavens; = in realms of spirit)."
So, in these metaphors, the inheritance comes to one who is a child that has been born into a family. And as with His reign, so with the inheritance: it is within and among us. It is an enjoyment of His Spirit. As with Abraham's heir,
we are God's heirs down from, corresponding to and in the sphere of Promise (Gal. 3:29b), through our mother, the Jerusalem which is above - the free woman - in the sphere of the Spirit (Gal. 4:26, 29-31).
And as Paul said in Rom. 8:17a,
"Now since children (or: Yet if ones born by natural descent), also heirs (possessors and enjoyers of an allotted inheritance; those who hold sway over the allotted portion): on the one hand, God's heirs, on the other, Christ's joint-heirs..."
Until one is a child (literally: a born one), one is not at this time enjoying an allotment in God's reign - and even then, not a full enjoyment until s/he has matured (Gal. 4:1ff).
Jesus' simple instruction, in vs. 28, above, was a Seed that had far-reaching results and developments.
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