Jesus warns against meaningless professions of faith in Him as Lord (Matthew 7:21-23). He is Lord and we must obey Him as such if we truly know Him and are known by Him.

Jesus encourages believers to pray persistently.

Jesus prohibits his disciples from hypocritical criticism of others.

Jesus continues to command his disciples not to worry about the basic needs of food and clothing but rather seek God’s kingdom and righteousness.

In this section, Jesus instructs those who are poor and may be anxious about meeting basic needs. Worrying stems from the same problem as those who hoard: loving money and not trusting God.

Jesus further instructs His disciples to exhibit a righteousness that surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees regarding the topic of wealth.

In our May meeting of Women of the Word, we reviewed all of the passages from Matthew that we had covered thus far.

Jesus continues on the topic of the right motives for religious practices by applying this principle to prayer and fasting, providing a model prayer for his disciples to follow (“Lord’s Prayer”).

In these passages, Jesus continues with the last two antitheses that point out the false righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees compared to his surpassing standard of righteousness. The topics in these antitheses are: (5) just revenge vs. non-revenge, and (6) loving your neighbor only vs. loving even your enemies. Then, Jesus explains the right motives for religious practices.

Jesus compares the false righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees with his surpassing standard of righteousness in six antitheses. This passage covers the first four regarding these topics: (1) murder vs. anger, (2) adultery vs. lust, (3) divorce, (4) oath-taking vs. honesty.

This passage of Scripture includes the beatitudes, the persecution of disciples and their role as salt & light, and true disciples living by Christ’s righteousness.