Do Not Worry from the Gospel of Matthew This excerpt from the passage of "Do Not Worry," from the Gospel of Matthew deals with issues such as faith, single-mindedness and worrying. Faith is an important part of this passage. To the people of biblical times, this passage spoke out a certain message -- whoever has faith, will be taken care of by God. He will know who has been faithful and believes in him and He will take care of them. God takes care of things as insignificant as lilies and grass (6:28, 6:30), He will not forget about you. Even those "of little faith" (6:30) will be taken clothed and taken care of. Three of the main emphasized points are water, food and clothing. These are also three of the three main human concerns. People needed to have faith that God would take care of them and provide them with everything they need in life. Matthew 6:21 reads that "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Your treasure should be your faith, your belief in God. Only through faith, will one be able to reach the Kingdom of God. This should be your single and most important focus. One's focus should also be on today -- God will take care of the rest. If you worry about tomorrow, you lose focus on what should be taking priority: today and your faith. You must appreciate what you have and not worry about what you don't have or what you should have. God decides who gets what. Even if you worry, you have control over what will happen. If you spend all your time worrying about what the future will bring, you will never have any time to enjoy today. Only God knows if you will even be around tomorrow -- what if you weren't and all that worrying were done for nothing? To the people of Biblical times, this passa... ... middle of paper ... ...gs, but to be concerned with their faith and focus -- to be unbiased and to not judge others. "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," is the main message of the judgment words. Should the people not want to get judged by others, they shouldn't judge others. That would be the wrong focus and it would be single-minded. Creating a bias is basically cutting off all other views of the world, which is not what God is encouraging. This passage is an important part of Matthew, as it provides an explanation as to what people's motivations behind their actions should be. Striving to reach the Kingdom of God is what should be motivating people. People should not worry about what tomorrow will bring and start living life for what they have. Even people of biblical times need relief from the everyday hassles and have the time to commune with God and their faith.
Matthew chapter five is a sermon by Jesus. It tells us what perspective we ought to have in dealings with each other and with our attitude. Those who are weak shall be strong, and those who mourn shall be comforted tell of positive actions or humility being rewarded. Jesus goes through a list of these, exalting the poor and the weak. Mt. 5:17-20 is between the first section of what actions are righteous and before the section of what seem to be his own version of commandments relative to the law. It says that all shall be done and judged through and by him. So he gave a perspective on the humble and then judged the law. He tells people to be righteous and then tells them the manner in which to achieve righteousness. It included removing anything from your life that brought you away from Christ. If your eyes were causing you temptation to sin, poke them out. All you do ought to be done in Christ and to glorify God the Father, so whatever didn't achieve those things were not to be done and one should do whatever necessary to stop them.
But in the meantime – the closer we get to Christ the more we are mindful of o...
...cording to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment,” New American Standard Bible, John 7:24. If we are not judging someone righteously, then we should not be judging. To judge someone righteously simply means that we judge them against the word of God, not against our own opinions or feelings. If we do not Judge righteously, then judging is not justified.
Not our own personal gain or our own popularity, but to be humbled and shine as the salt and light of the Earth. In the new testament book of Matthew, in chapter 5, Jesus is teaching to his disciples on a mountainside. He has already began to decribe what a life of following Chirst entails. In verses 13-16:
Having faith in prayer an individual can come to a conclusion that everything will turn out alright. This is even for the future state of Christianity itself. Christians are continuously threatened and many temples were destroyed in the time of the monks. Antony in his life sees a vision of the “pagans” attacking the Catholic temples (61) . Although, in this very vision, he knows that more tyranny is to come. The fight for fellow Christians is never going to halt. It is not completely over until their savior comes to get
The Gospel of Matthew exhibits the plan of atonement and salvation for all people and the beginning of a new era. The Kingdom has come. Matthew’s Gospel is eschatological. Through the direct use of and allusions to the Hebrew scriptures, as well as fulfillment citations Matthew clearly connects Jesus’ life and ministry with Israel’s traditions and promised history.4...
There are no other profound or complicated ways of explaining this idea. One is called to accept God’s message, but by the gift of free will, he has the right to reject His message. Matthew focuses on this idea of displaying the faith of the centurion. The story of the healing of the Roman Gentile centurion occurs earlier than it does in Luke and doesn’t occur in the temple as it does in Mark (Tarazi 152). This indicates to the reader that this faith is genuine and equal in every way to that of those in Israel, if not greater! In fact, this great example of faith displayed by the Gentile is given to the Jews as an example to learn from. Jesus’ proclamation supports this interpretation, “…not even in Israel have I found such faith” (Matthew 8:10). The story of the centurion in Matthew’s gospel immediately follows the cleansing of the leper, where Christ instructs him to go show himself to the priests. Both are healed by the same person Christ himself, who is not bound or restricted by anything or anyone. He is the one who is able to provide this salvation and message of healing to all. It isn’t an action contrary to the law, but rather a fulfillment of the law through Christ
...Today as a Christ follower, we will never be satisfied if our life is not bearing lasting fruit because we are not fulfilling the purpose for which we were “grafted “into the Vine. Let’s examine the “fruit” of our lives. Is it the kind of fruit that reveals the character of Christ? Let’s not settle for fruitless Christianity. God will do the work of making us fruitful – we must only abide, surrendering our lives to His mission of making disciples of all nations through us. The whole notion of mission is to stretch out to work the work of evangelism not through hierarchy, sovereignty, rather through humbleness, hospitality, affection love for the others. That is what Jesus who portrayed as the one who we do not deserve to untie His sandals straps in the first Chapter of John, later become feet washer, intimate with humanity leaving His equality with God.
Matthew directed this passage toward the Matthean reader for it supplies instruction and a sense of warning to those who wish to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. “Matthew uses tension and surprise, in both form and content, to address this situation, while affirming that Jesus Christ, “God is with us,” is the defining figure around which the community’s self-understanding, imagination, and social relations are to be formed” (Saunders 871). By presenting the text in the form of a parable, the message of God’s will is omitted in a historical and cultural context that enables society to comprehend the meaning behind the words chosen by Matthew.
The Gospel according to Matthew, although being the first book of the New Testament canon, it was not considered the first gospel genre to be written. Matthew’s gospel gives an account of the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. In this essay, I intend to look at how the exegesis and interpretation of this gospel may be affected by our understanding of the authorship, its intended readership and where and when it was written. Although all these categories are important in their own right, I will focus more of the intended audience and readership of this gospel.
Another common theme is that the gospel should be spoken to believers and non-believers alike. Luke’s gospel was written to heighten the faith of believers and to give answers to non-believers. There were Jewish and Gentile followers of Christ, and it was spoken that the faith of God is available to both. Matthew’s audience is primarily the Jew who is familiar with the Old Testament. At many points in Jesus’s ministry, he healed people who were outcasts, as well as the poor and the sick. He provided everyone an invitation to join Him since The Kingdom of God does not belong to one particular ethnic group, nation or
And in order to enjoy the present, you must learn to forget the pain of yesterday, learn to smile, take your focus from yesterday’s accomplishments and reach out to what you can accomplish today. Stop living in past glories, start with what you have today. Living in the past of future can rob you of your ability to be in control of your life. It means that you are giving up living your life and your ability to create and make changes to your life. All changes are better made in the now, you can’t make changes to the past because it is gone, neither can you make changes to the future because it has not arrived, the only place that you can make changes is Now. Leaving in the present means that you are mindful of every detail of whatever experience you are involved in. In life most people are not mindful, so they would live life without paying attention to what is going on with or around them. If you keep worrying about the past or the future, you will miss out on the changes you could have made now that would affect the future The worst part about living in the past or the future is that you’re giving up your ability to take control of your life. If you’re not living now, you’re giving up your life. You are giving up your ability to create. If there are changes you’d like to make in life, the best time to do it is NOW. Jesus said don’t worry about tomorrow. Forget the losses of yesterday and focus on what you have presently, the friends and family you have now, the money you have now, the ideas you have now and thank God for them. Apostle Paul said, “Be content with such things as you have as He has said He will never leave nor forsake you so that we may boldly say The Lord is my helper”. Be aware that the hurt you feel about the past is not in the present and no matter what happened in the past, your present memory of it is what is giving life to
The Messiah left the people hopeful by explaining how easy it is to enter the kingdom of Heaven. According to Matthew 5:3-12, the people with righteous hearts will definitely inherit the kingdom of Heaven. Jesus inspires everyone to be humble, merciful, peaceful, and kind to one another, and he also mentions the importance of forgiveness and love several times, portraying his loving nature. Christ warns the nations to not fear persecution, because their reward in heaven will be great. Jesus mentions that Christians are to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. However, salt without saltiness is worthless; hence, Christians without spiritual knowledge won’t get far in life. Christ motivates Christians to stand out by being loving, kind, compassionate; a reflection of Jesus so that unbelievers are eager to become Christians as well (New International Version, Matt.5:13-17). Additionally, he mentions the consequences of murder, adultery, and divorce. He talks about the sincerity of oaths and the importance of loving your enemies and giving to the poor. Jesus preaches about the importance of prayer because it is the way of communicating with the Lord. The Lord favors intimate and personal prayers over hypocritical prayers in public (New International Version, Matt.5.21-33,43, 6.1-5,25). Christ mentions the
...ess. The hope of a better life and eternal happiness gives us the reason to go on. Nevertheless, despite the fact that hope is inexhaustible, temptation is inevitable, therefore, the Gospel according to Matthew 26:41 states” Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak (King James Version).
The conclusion of the book suggests practical ways Christians should participate in building the kingdom of God. Essentially, he points out the active nature of waiting. This includes bringing justice to the fallen world, recognizing the beauty in creation and working to reserve it, and spreading the gospel message of Christ. Christians can do those things because of hope, more specifically, the “hope for life before death” (p. 231).