WE come now to the fifth example which Jesus uses to point out the false interpretation of the Law of God given by the Teachers of the Law and the Pharisees. This illustration is one which has received peculiarly close attention, and produced a great deal of heat in argument, and resulted in some very foolish and impracticable instruction. In all these instructions of Jesus I have found myself struggling, not only in my understanding but also in my ability to write about them, and this is true of this instruction in an even greater extent. At this point in our studies I would like to direct attention to the sermons of Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones on the Sermon on the Mount, for I feel that his exposition of these instructions are greatly to be commended. The copy of these sermons that I have has the title �Studies in the Sermon on the Mount� and comes in two volumes, and was published by the Inter-Varsity Fellowship. I expect these sermons are still in print but the publisher may have changed, and may possibly by now be the Banner of Truth Trust.

I have found it helpful in studying these instructions of Jesus to first of all see the source of the Pharisees instruction found in the Old Testament, and to see what the Old Testament says, and why it was said. The Teachers of the Law did not get their teaching from their own thinking in the first place. They sought to be interpreters of the Law of Moses. Where they went wrong was in the fact that they tended to interpret the Law so that it fitted in with the way they wanted to live. We human beings are very good at this. We may feel we are being honest, but such is the power of sin within, that we easily seek ways by which we can justify actions which really are wrong. The way the Pharisees did this in the main was to look at the outward letter of the Law, and if this was fulfilled, then they felt they had kept the Law perfectly and so merited God�s favour and approbation. However even in looking at the letter of the Law, the Pharisees were able to water down or twist even the letter of the Law to justify how they wanted things to be.

The teaching concerning �an eye for an eye� is to be found in Exodus 21:23,24; Leviticus 24:19-20; and Deuteronomy 19:16-21. If we read these passages we see that these laws were laid down to protect pregnant women in the Exodus 21:23,24 passage. And the Leviticus passage is to regulate how injury inflicted on parts of the body should be responded to. And in Deuteronomy how false witness was to be responded to. It is clear that in all these passages the purpose is to regulate the way people responded to injury, and to curb the tendency we all have, which is to hit back when we are injured in an excessive way. We can deduce from these laws that society had proved it could not be regulated by itself and people be protected from anger and wrongful response to injury, unless some regulation was in place.

We can see also that these regulations are given as laws to govern society, so that they must be in the hands of those who have been given the authority to judge, such as judges and magistrates. The trouble with the way the Teachers of the Law presented understanding of these laws was that it gave an individual the right to demand such response to injury. Such an attitude encourages people in standing up for their rights, and does nothing to build love and mercy in society. Because we are all fallen and sinful beings, as Moses found out, we have this sinful tendency to stand up for �self�, and to demand our rights. So if we are hurt in any way we tend to react in a demanding, angry and violent way, and this results in hate and violence escalating in a community and between people, and the result of this we can see all around us. We can see it on the international scene. We can see it in a national context, and also in local communities, and between even members of the same family. Jesus is not saying that Laws should not be made, and enforced. The Bible is plain in many places that government and laws are given by God to curb evil, because if evil is not curbed the sinfulness of human beings will result in society becoming impossible.

Nor has this teaching of Jesus anything directly to say about whether a person should take up arms to fight for their country, or whether there should be police, and so on. What Jesus is teaching here is instruction for individual behaviour and attitudes. It is teaching concerning how we think of our own self, because the tendency to retaliate and fight back which Jesus is addressing here, is all about self and the assertion of self. From this we can see that this instruction of Jesus is not meant as general instruction for all people, and the reason is that only those who have the new life given by Christ can possibly begin to respond to this teaching in any right or effective way. Jesus was instructing his disciples. These instructions are given to those who know in their experience the sinfulness of the fallen nature, and have experienced what it means to be poor in spirit, and to mourn over sin, and be humble in their opinion of themselves, and so hunger after righteousness.

The truth is that only those who have been taught about their sinfulness and have been brought to hate that sinfulness and repent of it by the operation of the Holy Ghost, can possibly begin to live what Jesus is teaching here. It is only those who have so seen themselves as sinners and helpless under the power of sin, and have fled to Jesus for mercy, forgiveness and new life, who can possibly begin to live these instructions.

This is not to say that these instructions are not good for the world to know and receive. The trouble is that they have no power or even desire to be like the character Jesus commends here. In fact to the world such living is folly and weakness. However if we who are disciples of Jesus live like this and carry out this teaching in our relationships with others, the world will see something that will have a powerful influence on them, and possibly be the first steps to them seeing their need of salvation through Jesus Christ. The world is challenged by such goodness, and asks questions which are an opportunity to preach Christ to them.