Again we come to these verses and continue with the general principle behind all Jesus is saying in these verses before us, and up to the end of chapter 5.

We have seen that Jesus was pointing out that the teaching given by the Pharisees and the Scribes followed the interpretation of the Law and the Prophets handed down by the teachers of the past, and that this understanding falls short of the true meaning of the Law of God as it was given by God to Moses, and as God meant it to be understood. This phrase in verse 21 “You have heard that it was said by people long ago” is repeated in a similar form in each of the six points of the Law that Jesus expounds. In contrast to this understanding of the Law Jesus says (v.22) “But I tell you.” (NIV) - “But I say unto you. (AV) both of which say the same thing.

Here is a wonderful and important thing revealed here. Jesus has already said he has come, not to abolish the law but to carry it out in all its fulness. From this we know that what Jesus was saying, and his explanation of the meaning of the Law, in no way abolished what God had originally said, nor did his words change the meaning in any way. Rather what Jesus means is that he is going to explain how the Law and the Prophets should be understood, illustrated in various aspects of the Law.

We are very privileged to have the Bible which gives this word from Jesus by which we can know the true mind of God expressed in his Law.

When Jesus says “But I tell you” there is an emphasis here which is important to see. The Pharisees and the Scribes were the ordained teachers of the Law. They had been to ‘college’. They had been taught by the approved schools, and they had been ordained in the proper fashion. They held the authority of the establishment. People therefore looked up to them, and respected them as the true teachers of the Law. Jesus comes without any of these credentials. Jesus did not come from the teaching class in society. Jesus had no theological training. He had not been taught in the approved schools. Yet he comes with authority, and sets himself up as one who is able to denounce the teaching of the approved teachers, and correct their teaching. This caused offence, and opposition.

However Jesus was telling the people something when he took up this stance. He was telling them he had an authority higher and greater than that of the Pharisees, and by this he had a right to correct the teaching of the Pharisees where their teaching went wrong. In fact Jesus was declaring his Messiahship and his deity. In this phrase “But I tell you” we have the giver of the Law to Moses speaking, and telling the people that they had been led astray. This claimed authority of being God was a great stumbling block to the Jewish leaders. They felt it was blaspheme, which it would have been if Jesus had not expressed the real truth about himself.

What we learn from this is the authority of Jesus as God in this Sermon he preached, and so this should make us receive his teaching with attention and reverence.

There was this one great principle underlying all that Jesus was saying about the meaning of the Law of God. The Pharisees saw the Law simply as statements which expressed an outward action. So when the Law said “Do no murder”, they simply saw the actual act of killing someone and taking away their life. If they had not actually killed someone, then they felt that they were sinless as far as this command was concerned, and so God would be pleased with them, and say they were righteous. They did not see or teach the true depth of the meaning which is bound up in the command not to kill.

In fact the command is teaching us that we must love people, because if we love people then we will never kill them or harm them. The letter of the Law is only part of the meaning. The spirit behind the command, and embodied in the command, involves expelling all feelings and thoughts of murder from within, and rather having good thoughts and loving thoughts towards other people.

So we see that the spirit of the Law of God involves not just our actions, but also our thinking and feeling within us. These must be pure, for if they are not then we are leaving the seeds of sin within us. In fact God looks upon the condition of our hearts. We can be as moral outwardly as we like. We can be perfect in this respect, but Jesus sees inside of us, into our minds, and into our feelings and motives, and if this is not right, we shall be vile in the sight of God. Jesus described the Pharisees who were only clean outside as whited tombs. Graves in Palestine at the time of Jesus were whitewashed and so were bright on the outside. However this only masked the corruption and putrefaction which was inside. The inside must be as clean as the outside.

Looking at this another way, we have to say that Jesus points out that the Law of God does not simply have a negative aspect, but a positive one also. We must not just cease from doing something. We must also do the opposite. So we must not kill, but rather we must love people.

The fact is that to follow the letter of the Law only in the way the Pharisees taught, and which there has been and still is many examples in the church today, means that we become ground down by an oppressive regime, which has no life or joy in it. Some, like the Pharisees, gained some joy in being able to stand up and thank God they were not like other people, and pride themselves on how good they were, but to the sincere heart there is no joy just in the letter of the Law.