Sermon on the Mount Quotes

“We live in a world of evaluations, assessments, and measurements, but Jesus turns his gaze deeper because he knows that what is measurable can be faked.”
― Scot McKnight, Sermon on the Mount

“Simple acts are more valuable than extraordinary powers or spiritual gifts. For Jesus there is a categorical difference between charismatic giftedness and the ordinary fruit of love, compassion, and mercy. Perhaps we need to learn to ask ourselves, particularly if we are gifted leaders, if we value our gifts more than love, if we value the performance of a gift for the good of others or the gift of love for the good of others. When Jesus used “fruit” over against mighty charismatic gifts, he was getting at what mattered most. Do you show love to your neighbors, to your enemies, and to all those who happen to be on your path? Jesus is saying here that if you don’t do the latter, he doesn’t particularly care about your charismatic giftedness.”
― Scot McKnight, Sermon on the Mount

“Wisdom, then, is how to live in God’s world in God’s way,”
― Tremper Longman III, Sermon on the Mount

“Dietrich Bonhoeffer saw instead a list of renunciations:18 the call of Jesus leads to a life of renunciation (v. 3), and this leads to renunciation of happiness and peace (v. 4), rights (v. 5), our own righteousness (v. 6), our own dignity (v. 7), our own good and evil (v. 8), and violence and strife (v. 9); and they finish with a renunciation summary (v. 10).”
― Scot McKnight, Sermon on the Mount

“Fourth, this list concerns the person’s relational disposition. It is easy to think of the “blessed” as those who are in proper relation to God alone. But what stands out in the Beatitudes is one’s relation to God as well as to self and others. When Matthew adds “in spirit” to “poor,” we find what we also find in the third blessing (“meek”): an inner disposition that relates to God and others because of a proper estimation of oneself. Furthermore, some blessings are for those who relate to others in a loving disposition: “mourn” and “merciful” and “peacemakers.” Others are concerned more directly with one’s relation to God: “hunger and thirst for righteousness” and “pure in heart” and probably those who are persecuted. But the blessed people are noted by godly, loving relations with God, self, and others.”
― Scot McKnight, Sermon on the Mount

“Hauerwas said it, “The sermon, therefore, is not a list of requirements, but rather a description of the life of a people gathered by and around Jesus.”39 Church, then, forms the context for the ethic of Jesus.”
― Scot McKnight, Sermon on the Mount

“We can begin to focus on the eternal if we live to love God and others (the Jesus Creed), if we pursue justice as the way we are called to love others as God’s creations, if we live out a life that drives for peace as how loving people treat one another, and if we strive for wisdom instead of just knowledge or bounty.”
― Scot McKnight, Sermon on the Mount

“Culture shifts, but the Word of God remains.”
― Tremper Longman III, Sermon on the Mount

“At the judgment Jesus will not ask us about our gifts. He will ask if our cheeks have touched the cheeks of those who suffer, if our hands have held the hands of those who endure pain, and if our gifts are directed at those who most need them.”
― Scot McKnight, Sermon on the Mount

“Deceit finds its way into every religion, including Christianity. In fact, deceit was at work from the very beginning. Two sorts of deceit are found in our verses: some leaders deceive the people of God (7:15–20), while some deceive themselves (7:21–23).”
― Scot McKnight, Sermon on the Mount

“the “small” gate7 that leads to a narrow road in 7:14. The gate is narrow because it requires a person to turn from sin to follow Jesus, to do the will of God as taught by Jesus.”
― Scot McKnight, Sermon on the Mount

“There is one reason the gate is “narrow”: it is demanding discipleship.”
― Scot McKnight, Sermon on the Mount

“I’d like to suggest that the Golden Rule is perhaps the most potent political weapon we Christians have today. And I don’t say this because I’m Anabaptist but because empathy is at the bottom of the Golden Rule. If we as Christians with a faithful witness would set the example, not by way of reaction but by way of reasoned empathy, we might set the tone for more shalom in our world.”
― Scot McKnight, Sermon on the Mount

“There is nothing complex about this most simple of moral maxims; its difficulty is in the doing, not in the knowing.”
― Scot McKnight, Sermon on the Mount

“Yet we cannot fail to observe that the Golden Rule of 7:12 officially closes the teachings of Jesus in the Sermon and summarizes the essence of the Sermon.”
― Scot McKnight, Sermon on the Mount

“Jesus himself was law observant, but what distinguished his praxis was that he did so through the law of double love. To do the Torah through love is to do all the Torah says and more.”
― Scot McKnight, Sermon on the Mount

“Of the many ways to describe or articulate the Torah, two are pertinent in our text: one can either multiply laws so as to cover all possible situations, or one can reduce the law to its essence.”
― Scot McKnight, Sermon on the Mount

“Martin Luther offers a powerful reminder in our temptation to go at life on our own: The world is insane. It tries to get rid of its insanity by the use of wisdom and reason; and it looks for many ways and means, for all sorts of help and advice on how to escape this distress.”
― Scot McKnight, Sermon on the Mount

“What Jesus has in mind here is not fear about speaking but profound respect for the gloriousness of the gospel, a desire to honor God, and an approach to gospeling that does the most service to Christ. In other words, we need to ask if speaking up in a given situation will honor or vilify Christ, and then to act accordingly.”
― Scot McKnight, Sermon on the Mount

“Calvin saw in the words “Do not judge” a tendency to become overly curious about the sins of others (including those closest to us) that needed to be checked and handed over to God—who alone is the Judge.”
― Scot McKnight, Sermon on the Mount

“John Wesley said this well: “The judging that Jesus condemns here is thinking about another person in a way that is contrary to love.”3”
― Scot McKnight, Sermon on the Mount

“we must learn to distinguish moral discernment from personal condemnation.2 This distinction—the ability to know what is good from what is bad and to be able to discern the difference versus the posture of condemning another person—enables us to see what Jesus prohibits in this passage.”
― Scot McKnight, Sermon on the Mount

“It is impossible for us to indwell this Story and not assume that narrative’s perspective. Again, that perspective is God’s perspective. It is not our perspective; it is God’s perspective. It is God’s perspective on us, not our perspective on others. Bible readers, especially pastors (and commenters on blogs), inevitably begin to think like God about ourselves and others.”
― Scot McKnight, Sermon on the Mount

“Jesus is probing into the heart of his followers to ask them if they value life more than kingdom and righteousness.”
― Scot McKnight, Sermon on the Mount

“We say we believe in God, trust in God, and are sustained by God; but in our actions we do everything for ourselves, trusting in ourselves and anxious about the providence of God, which unravels our theism.”
― Scot McKnight, Sermon on the Mount

“Then Martin says, as if he is writing a commentary on Matthew 6:19–24: “The acid test is not what we say, but what we do; not what we promise in words, but what we actually give in money.”
― Scot McKnight, Sermon on the Mount

“Am I absorbed with an Ethic from Beyond? Is my life too absorbed with the here and now?”
― Scot McKnight, Sermon on the Mount

“(1) If disciples really trust God, they will live as if treasures in heaven really matter; (2) those whose perspective is distorted by materialism are blinded to God’s truth; and (3) one either loves God or money, and those who think they can love both are idolaters.”
― Scot McKnight, Sermon on the Mount

“In fact, Luther says the “great idol Mammon” has anointed “three trustees—rust, moths, and thieves”—that ought to remind us of the temporality of possessions.12”
― Scot McKnight, Sermon on the Mount

“Overall, then, fasting is how Israel responded when God’s glory was dishonored, when God’s will was thwarted, when God’s people suffered defeat, or when one of God’s people experienced sickness, tragedy, or death. God’s people, in effect then, took up the posture of God toward grievous events when they fasted.”
― Scot McKnight, Sermon on the Mount