True Righteousness

Our government (state, local, school district, etc. ), has many jobs and responsibilities; however the primary job of our government is to protect us, it’s people. Sometimes, it seems, the government has to even protect us from ourselves. They pass laws and regulations, policies and acts to protect us and guide our society. However, unfortunately, all their efforts don’t always fix anything. It’s like, if society had a disease, these government acts only treat the symptoms without fixing the problem. Before I go any further, let me say, this is not about politics – a rant or political soapbox; I am using government and politics as an example of something bigger. Something deeper. Something at the core of every human being.

 

Recently, you may have heard, the Dallas Independent School District (DISD) passed an anti-bullying policy after a number of students committed suicide from being bullied. Bullying is nothing new. People have faced it, or been a part of it since the beginning of time. It has been done for many reasons, whether a kid crying out for attention, a reflection of one’s home life, the thought that one is better than another, etc. The simple fact is, the strong, in one way or another, always innately prey on the weak. That being said, it has been a part of shaping our lives.

 

Why do I bring this up? What do these two, loosely tied statements have to do with one another? And how does this have any spiritual bearing? In the New Testament book of Matthew, chapter five, Jesus is teaching what has been called, “The Sermon on the Mount.” Jesus has been teaching on the norms of the Kingdom of God, that is to say, how it works and how it looks in the lives of those who are a part of the Kingdom. You have the beatitudes. Then there is Christ’s discussion on how we are salt and light. But it is after those two passages that I want to draw attention.  Beginning in verse seventeen, Jesus says that He has not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets, but to fulfill them. Now for those who do not know the Bible, the Law and Prophets constitute what we call, the Old Testament.  It is how God worked in the lives of people and revealed who He is, what He has done, and what He wants from us before Jesus ever entered the scene bodily.

 

What does it mean when Jesus said, He came to “fulfill” the Law and Prophets? Mostly, people understand it to be that Jesus fulfilled the Law in that the obeyed it perfectly. There were 613 Laws, often divided by modern scholars into three categories: moral law, civil law, and ceremonial law. The moral law contains the Ten Commandments (e.g. don’t commit murder, don’t lie, don’t steal, etc.). These govern what ALL people can agree and define as general rules of morality. The civil law addresses how to deal with one another (e.g. customs, how to handle a disagreement, divorce, etc.). It’s like the law of the land, so to speak. The ceremonial law is more the rituals that we understand (e.g. how one dresses, what foods to eat and not eat, how to sacrifice, how to worship, etc.) We acknowledge that Jesus was the only one who has ever obeyed the entire thing perfectly. However, most of the ceremonial and civil laws he didn’t have to worry about since He never sinned/was outside of the will of God for our lives. Since He was sinless, that is what most people consider to be the fulfilling of the law – He fulfilled its requirements. Yet this misses a bit of the point. So does the interpretation of the Prophets, that Jesus is the summation of all the prophecies given concerning salvation. May I repeat, while these do work for interpretation, they fall short. The answer, then, is found in verse twenty, when Jesus says, “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of heaven,” and the verses that follow it, for they elaborate on that point.

 

Let me say this, the scribes and Pharisees were the teachers of the Law and Prophets. They were religious men. They were the men that, more closely than the rest, obeyed the Law. Yet we, being the current audience, are expected to “exceed” or surpass that righteousness, that right action. How? Jesus goes on and addresses some of the Law.

 

He first brings up the law, “do not commit murder.” Yet He tells them that if they are angry with their brother (fellow man), if they insult and deride him, call him a fool, that they are subject to judgment by man and God, and are in danger of going to hell. For being angry?! Jesus got angry. The word that is translated “angry” here, more adequately could be translated as unrighteous anger or wrath. It is that unrelenting, unjust, unforgiving anger that leads to hate. Jesus equates this kind of anger with murder in one’s heart. The second law Jesus discusses is adultery, “do not commit adultery,” that is to say, don’t have sex with someone to whom you are not married. Yet Jesus says that if one looks at another “lustfully,” with a selfish, ungodly desire, then he/she has already committed adultery with that person in his/her heart.

 

The point Jesus getting at is this: it is not just enough to just obey the letter of the law. The Pharisees and scribes did that. What Jesus expects of us is the change of heart. To follow the Law, not only by the letter, but by the heart of it. Murder begins with unjust anger and unforgiveness in the heart. Adultery beings with lust. That’s why Jesus says then, “if your right hand causes you to stumble/sin, cut it off…and if one of your eyes causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it away.” He is not being literal here. That would be ridiculous. What He is getting at is that there are places a Christian should not go, things a Christian should not do, and things a Christian should not look at. True obedience/conformity to God, true repentance, involves a change of heart.

 

Address what is in your heart. Turn your heart to serve God. Then, the letter of the Law, the symptoms of the sickness are taken care of. You see, it’s not just enough to treat the symptoms because the person is still sick. You have to let Christ, God, the Great Physician as He is sometimes called, come in and clean out the unrighteousness and sinful nature that leads to murder, adultery, etc. Christ fulfilled the Law and Prophets by embodying and living in the heart of Scripture. He lived in conformity to the will of the Father and therefore is the absolute fulfillment of everything God has told us of Himself and His purpose for us.

 

When it comes to the new legislation and anti-bullying  policy, all they are doing is treating the symptom of a greater problem. Let me clear and frank, it is NOT the job of the school/government to be the primary source of teaching morality. That can, should, and MUST being at home. The unfortunate side of things is that not every home has Christian, or even moral parents. Sometimes the home life causes more problems than anything. Yet, the school aught to teach students the concepts or character and integrity, honesty and love for one’s fellow man, and how to put those concepts into practice. If the schools, and parents, and friends, and community spent more time and effort teaching young people the kind of righteousness that God expects of us, believer or not that would fix more of the problems. We wouldn’t have to make a district policy that cracks down on kids who bully other kids. Whether one is a Christian or not, the kind of right action and morality that God expects of us is the kind of things that has been lost in our homes and schools.

 

You cannot just legislate morality and only address symptoms; you have to address the heart. Teach the students how to be kind and compassionate towards one another, treating each other with respect and dignity. Correct the disease at the heart, and the symptoms goes away.