Dr Paul Allen

Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount amazed its original hearers; it subverted their expectations on multiple levels. It’s the meek who win the world. Believers are supposed to be happy when persecuted. And then this: Jesus, this new teacher with authority, came not to abolish but to fulfill the Old Testament . His six famous “antitheses” (“You have heard . . . but I say to you . . . “) help explain what he means by “fulfilling” the law . But I think you, like me, may have missed something else unexpected in his comments—specifically those about anger. But I say to you Jesus opens this portion of his famous sermon with a quotation from the Old Testament: You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘ You shall not murder ; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ (Matt 5:21) Many commentators assume that the Pharisees had “externalized” this sixth commandment, focusing on outward conformity to a relatively accessible moral standard (the great majority of people are not murder...

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus compares His people to a city on a mountain ( Matt. 5:14 ). It is a striking image, the point of which is that such a city, on such a prominent elevation, cannot be hidden. It is conspicuous. It stands out. It can be seen by all. The application is arresting, immediate, and direct. Christians are manifest, observable, and pronounced. Like salt on a plate of food, or like light shining in a dark place, they are distinct in the way they live and regulate their lives from day to day. The illustration serves at one and the same time to make a contrast and a comparison. The contrast is that the city is elevated, while those who observe it live elsewhere. The image works because the one reality—the salt, the light, and the city—is the very opposite of the other—the food, the darkness, and the valley. But there is a point of comparison as well. The city belongs to the same territory as the valley. It is not over the horizon. It is engaged every day in th...

MSNBC (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) In the great battle that is the culture war Christians are in rapid and chaotic retreat. On issues of sexuality we are deemed backward, hateful, and hypocritical. To speak in defense of marriage is, in the minds of the world, on par at best with denying the holocaust, at worst to perpetrating it. We have not just lost our place at the table, but in the building. We are on the outside looking in. First, accept it. I'm not suggesting surrender mind you. I am, however, suggesting that denying the obvious helps no one. Sure Fox wallops MSNBC . Of course abortion mills are shutting down. But the cultural ethos is still hostile to us, and it's only going to get worse. I fear that too often our fear is losing privilege, that we fight our rearguard action to protect wood, hay, and stubble. The reputations we too often seek to defend are our own, rather than our Lord's. Second, embrace it. The church historically has made its greatest gains when...

English: Old Beggar, 1916, by Louis Dewis, painted just outside his clothing store in Bordeaux (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “I’m blessed!” “That was such a blessing !” “Wow, you are blessed!” Whether some financial profit, a good meal, an ideal day, or finding our lost keys, we’ve all said it. And those things are blessings. But, too often we risk throwing around benedictory phrases with a shallow, man-centered carelessness. What does God consider “blessing”? God’s definitions of blessing might not always fit the pop-definitions. One in particular, perhaps, counter-intuitive blessing is described from what is considered the greatest sermon ever preached: the Sermon on the Mount . Christ opened it with the declarative blessing, “ Blessed are the poor in spirit , for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 5:3). What is the essence of this blessing? “Blessed.” It does not refer to emotions of happiness which could change in five minutes, but a permanent state of God’s favor, regardl...

Dore Bible Sermon on the Mount (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) How appropriate, then, that the first petition in our Lord’s pattern for prayer focuses on God : “Hallowed be Thy name” (Matt. 6:9). Commentator Arthur W. Pink says, “How clearly then is the fundamental duty of prayer set forth. Self and all its needs must be given a secondary place, and the Lord freely accorded the preeminence in our thoughts and supplications. This petition must take the precedence, for the glory of God’s great name is the ultimate end of all things” (An Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1950], 161–62).  Even though He is our loving Father, who desires to meet our needs through His heavenly resources, our first petition is not to be for our benefit, but His. Thus “hallowed be Thy name” is a warning against self-seeking prayer because it completely encompasses God’s nature and man’s response to it. Jesus wasn’t reciting some nice words about God. Instead, He opened a whole...

“I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life”  ( 1 John 5:13). One of the most beloved and well-known portions of the New Testament is the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 5 –7. The kingdom ethic that Jesus gives to His people in these verses defines the character of the Christian and helps to explain how Jesus fulfills all that came before Him. At the same time, this portion of Scripture contains some of the most haunting verses found anywhere in the Bible. In 7:21–23, Jesus warns us that not everyone who calls Him “Lord” will actually enter the kingdom of heaven. Among those who profess the name of Christ , there are people who do not have true, saving faith. Undoubtedly, all Christians at one time or another have asked themselves questions, such as: “Do I have true faith?” and “Am I really saved?” All professing believers want to be sure that they do indeed belong to Christ and will l...

“Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God .” ( Matthew 5:9 ) In this seventh (out of nine) of the Beatitudes with which Christ began His Sermon on the Mount occurs the first mention in the New Testament of the important word “peace.” But how can one be a peacemaker? Note that Christ did not say: “Blessed are the pacifists.” There are many today who talk about peace, but how does one make peace? The answer lies in the example of Christ Himself. He is the Prince of Peace ( Isaiah 9:6 ), and He “made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself” ( Colossians 1:20 ). The real problem is that there can be no lasting peace between man and man as long as there is enmity between man and God. “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ ” ( Romans 5:1 ). “And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ” ( 2 Corinthians 5:18 ). With that problem...

Jesus said to love our enemies. Does that include ISIS? What does jesus mean?  That is what he said, as Matthew recounts his words from the Sermon on the Mount : “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.’” (Matthew5:43–44, emphasis added) And when Jesus said “love,” we should be clear that he didn’t mean hollow good will, or some bland benevolence, or a flakey niceness that hopes our enemies stop being so cruel. Jesus never talks about love that way. A category for love like that — the anything-goes, pat-on-the-head, can’t-we-all-just-get-along kind of love — is a phenomenon peculiar to our own day. When Jesus says to love our enemies, he means that we love them with a lay-your-life-down type of love — the type that comes from the heart and desires the other’s good, and sacrifices for it, when no one else but God is watching. And it’s the type of ...

The old liberal view that Jesus taught the fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, and the ethic of love, shattered over and over on the rocks of Jesus’s persistent self-exaltation. This is what drove C. S. Lewis to say, I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. ( Mere Christianity ) I was struck again recently how true this is in the Sermon on the Mount . This is the most famous collection of Jesus’s ethical teachings. Here is where the old liberals found the fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, and the ethic of love. “Blessed are the peacemakers” ( Matthew 5:9...