Before examining what Jesus said in His Sermon On The Mount, we must understand to whom He was speaking. To discern this important fact we turn to Matthew 4:23-25. Jesus has just concluded a ministry tour of Syria, Galilee, Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and Jordan. A map of the Middle East reveals that He covered quite a bit of territory while “preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.” Having heard about Him and His miraculous powers, the people had brought to Him their relatives and friends who were suffering from various diseases, demonic attacks as well as mental problems such as lunacy, etc., “AND HE HEALED THEM ALL.” Because of his miraculous powers, “GREAT MULTITUDES” (plural) followed Him.

In 5:1 we find that, because of the size of His following, Jesus went up on a mountain (hill) and settled in a comfortable spot. Then His disciples came to where He was and gathered around Him. “He then opened His mouth and taught THEM”–HIS DISCIPLES, not the multitudes who were following Him. However, the multitudes heard what He said. It is clear that He was addressing only His disciples. He taught them about being pure in spirit, about fasting, being humble, about seeking righteousness, about being merciful and pure of heart (mind), about being peacemakers and warned them about surety of persecution for being righteousness and about not responding in kind.

He called the disciples the “salt of the earth” and the “light of the world.” He taught them about obeying the Law and about the Kingdom of Heaven. He taught about doing whatever was necessary to remove sin from their lives and keeping it out. The great multitudes of people wandering around that part of the world in search of healing and deliverance would not have manifested the personal character and morality Jesus was commanding. They most certainly would not have qualified to be called “blessed” as did those disciples whom He called “the salt of the earth” and the “light of the world”–a label He also applied to Himself (Jn. 9:5). Jesus would later say in Matthew 7:13,14 that, though many would seek salvation, FEW would receive it for having obeyed Him. In Matthew 5:48 He tells them, and us, that they (we) must be as “PERFECT AS YOUR FATHER IN HEAVEN IS PERFECT.” This Truth would not have applied to the masses gathered before Him that day. Proof of this is found in the answer to this question: Of all of the multitudes of people Jesus healed, fed, preached to, etc. throughout His ministry, how many of them were in the upper room in Jerusalem on the day the New Testament Church was born? 120. What happened to the “great multitudes?” They had been the ones telling the Roman authorities to “Crucify Him, crucify Him.”

Jesus continued to speak to the disciples about the blessings He has for mankind, including salvation. Statements concerning His promised blessings is what I call His “Headlines.” In Matthew 6:19 He changes His focus from His “Headlines” (WHAT they can receive) to the conditions (HOW to receive) that must be met in order to receive those promised blessings. I call these conditions (caveats) His “Fine Print.” This is the part of the salvation process that is normally ignored, which is why church prayers are rarely answered. Blessing reception, including salvation, is a process consisting a number of caveats. Read about The Process of Salvation using Process as the key word.

As we will see, Jesus makes His “how to” commands (caveats) the central theme of what He had been talking about. He couches the subject in terms of “treasures” that one accumulates in this life. One’s “treasures” can be either good or evil. Beginning in verse 19 He tells us WHAT (righteousness) to store up and WHERE (in our hearts/minds) to store them. In verse 21 He notes that what we think about is in fact what we treasure and is, in the eyes of God, what we BECOME. This is noted in Proverbs 23:7 where we are told that “As a man thinks in his heart, THAT HE IS” in God’s view. In order to spend eternity with the Lord, WE MUST VIEW EVERYTHING THROUGH GOD’S SPRITUAL EYES, MAKING SURE THAT OUR WORDS, THOUGHTS AND DEEDS LINE CONFORM TO HIS HOLY WORD. There is only one way to know if one’s treasures are Biblically sound–STUDY, STUDY, STUDY.

Beginning with verse 22 Jesus zeroes in on a part of the body that is of utmost importance relative to what goes into our heart–OUR EYES. Everything we see enters the mind and remains there forever. What we see enters our mind and remains there as memory. Though we normally “forget” most of what we see in this life, what we see is stored in the deep recesses of the mind/heart. The same is true of what we hear. Occasionally we will see or hear something and remember that we have seen or heard the same thing before. In the psychological world this phenomenon is called “deja vu.” At times things come to mind that we have totally forgotten. This happens when something we see “triggers” that memory and causes it rise to the point of remembrance. It is for this reason that we must do everything we can to make sure that sin does not enter our eyes and ears and therefore into the mind where it remains forever. Which brings us to the subject of this series–SERVING TWO MASTERS.

In the following posting we will see how our everyday habits and preferences play a powerful role in determining what enters our mind, remains there and becomes our “treasure.” As much as possible, we must remove from our sight everything that is not of God in order to qualify to join Jesus Christ upon His return to this world. In most cases we are in control of what we see and hear. In order to spend eternity with God and Christ we must, as much as possible, avoid that which our hearts/minds should not absorb through our eyes and ears. Why? Because, in God’s view, THAT IS WHAT WE ARE. L.J.