Matthew 5:21-7:12, in outline

Having introduced the need to keep God’s commandments, Jesus then illustrates what it means to do so. He expounds the latter five of the Ten Commandments, contrasting a godly attitude toward them with common human attitudes. He illustrates how an understanding of God’s nature and our relationship with him can help us to interpret them properly. He also portrays our motives as all important to God.

For Jesus, the first three commandments were about our attitudes to God, and could be summed up in “Hear, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one:  you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength” (Mark 12:29-30 WEB), the Sabbath commandment did not apply to those who served him as they were priests (Matt 12:5), and the remaining six could be condensed into the phrase “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31 WEB). The final five of this latter six seem to have formed a logical unit which were to be taken together. For example, when a rich young man asked Jesus how he could obtain eternal life, Jesus cited the sixth to ninth commandments as a group, whilst deliberately omitting the tenth, then citing the fifth out of its normal order (Matt 19:16-19). When the young man, rather than questioning the omission, sought to justify himself concerning the four that had been mentioned, Jesus challenged him on the very commandment that he had just been so willing to ignore.

. . . commentary continues with Matt 5:21-26 Outline