by Doy Moyer<\/p>\n
One way to see the sermon on the mount is through the lens of Matthew 5:20, “For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven.<\/em>” Along these lines, I believe an important hermeneutical point can be seen right on the heels of this statement.<\/p>\n Jesus references the sins of murder and adultery (Matthew 5:21-27), showing that there are implications in the basic commands. These appear to be implications that the Pharisees missed, perhaps even thinking that as long as they didn’t commit the actual overt sins of murder and adultery, they were okay. But the commands were further reaching in the principles, for the attitudes and thoughts of the heart leading up to the overt sins are also wrong. Some missed the broader principles entailed by the specific prohibitions. Do we ever do that?<\/p>\n A little later Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy…<\/em>” (Matthew 5:43). These statements juxtaposed like this are interesting. Perhaps they thought there were other principles telling them to hate their enemies, but one does not entail the other. The Scriptures said, “Love your neighbor<\/em>” (Leviticus 19:18), but loving your neighbor does not entail hating our enemy. That would be inferring what’s not there. Do we ever do that? Interestingly, Jesus showed on another occasion that the concept of neighbor is much broader than we might normally think (Luke 10:25-37).<\/p>\n Implications can be missed, but we can also infer what’s not there, and we need to be careful that we aren’t interpreting Scripture based on our own agendas. The only agenda that matters here is the Lord’s, and I need to seek Him and read His word for His will, not mine. Try to see what is there, but also try to avoid pulling out something that isn’t there.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Doy Moyer One way to see the sermon on the mount is through the lens of Matthew 5:20, “For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven.” Along these lines, I believe an important hermeneutical point can be seen right…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[529],"class_list":["post-55406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-hermeneutics"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":60620,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-the-sermon-on-the-mount-nailed-to-the-cross\/","url_meta":{"origin":55406,"position":0},"title":"Was the Sermon on the Mount Nailed to the Cross?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 30, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry W. Benton There has not been a more fundamental question about how to rightly divide the word of truth and how to apply the scriptures than this one. At first, you might think this question is preposterous, but bear with me. There are brethren lurking in churches today\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":58679,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/dont-be-a-victim\/","url_meta":{"origin":55406,"position":1},"title":"Don’t Be a Victim","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 4, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0by Perry Hall The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), in modern lingo, teaches these two counter-culture concepts: Suffering doesn't make you a victim when you find your blessing from God and not circumstances. Victimizing others doesn't make you powerful when your victims refuse to get their dignity through your\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9596,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-looking-at-pornography-fornication\/","url_meta":{"origin":55406,"position":2},"title":"Is looking at pornography fornication?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: When a man is involved in porn on the net, does that qualify as fornication? May a woman put her husband away when this happens? Answer: \"And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":93173,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/jesus-is-both-lord-and-savior\/","url_meta":{"origin":55406,"position":3},"title":"Jesus Is Both Lord and Savior","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 12, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Scott Smelser via InLight Media Many of us have friends or family who care about Jesus, are grateful for his sacrifice, respect his word, and want to serve him, but they've also been influenced by common misconceptions at the core of much evangelical protestantism which ultimately paint God as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Video"","block_context":{"text":"Video","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/video\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32528,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/thou-shalt-not\/","url_meta":{"origin":55406,"position":4},"title":"Thou Shalt Not …","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 23, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Text: Romans 13:8-10 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In continuing our series on understanding the Ten Commandments, I would like for us to focus our attention on the commands which begin \u201cYou shall not ...\u201d - Exodus 20:13-17 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The repeating of a phrase, in this case \u201cyou shall not\u201d, causes one to pay attention\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sermon"","block_context":{"text":"Sermon","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/sermon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":66519,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/jesus-believed-in-necessary-inferences\/","url_meta":{"origin":55406,"position":5},"title":"Jesus Believed in Necessary Inferences","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 12, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton He said, \"Moses wrote about Me\" (John 5:46). Still, since Moses never used the name \"Jesus,\" it would have to be a necessary implication of Moses and a necessary inference on our end to conclude that Moses wrote about Jesus. 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