As I am digging into Matthew 5 – 7 you probably sense I am pushing a point. First, I talked about rules-based versus values-based religion, and then I poked at whether your religion made you happy!
The point-of-view I am trying to maintain (and I am writing first to myself) is that God’s love for you is unconditional. You do not need to perform to earn his love.
I use the word perform very intentionally.
I grew up with a very simple formula: work-hard/perform and you will earn.
Work hard at school, you will earn good grades. Work hard at scouts, you will earn badges. Work hard at your first job, you will earn money. Work hard at church, you will earn the pastor’s respect. Work hard at sports, you will improve and possibly earn a starting position.
I am not advocating for Participation Awards. I am noting that my natural tendency is to view EVERYTHING through this lens of “perform properly and then you will earn your reward”. They actually diagnose this in people labeling it Performance-Orientation.
When I came to faith in Jesus, it wasn’t that I had to learn I was a sinner. I knew I was a sinner. I knew that I fell short. No matter how hard I worked, I feel short of the standard. I just didn’t understand that I did not have to earn God’s love.
I thought my failure meant God’s Perfect Nature and His Law precluded him from loving me.
GRACE was a concept completely foreign to me.
Receiving the Good News, receiving Jesus, is freeing.
But here is the challenge. I have decades, decades of this performance-orientation, deep inside me. These decades of thinking one-way, coupled with a love of God and a desire to follow Him, often backfires in my performance oriented self—especially in this bit of Scripture.
Which brings us to Jesus’ teaching about the Law.
I am not going to go through each of these teachings. Michael Green in The Message of Matthew does it brilliantly providing biblical and historical context in seven short pages (pp.92-98).
Instead I want to examine Jesus’ intention. He states he is not opposed to the Law: quite the opposite.
Jesus is opposed to a form of legalism that spells out exactly what is required AND then creates followers that say, “I have fulfilled the law and will not go one inch further.”
The Law, writes Green, “is not the limit of obedience, but the springboard of a life of devotion to Jesus and His Father.”
Wow, really? Is that how I, a person trying to recover from performance-orientation see it? I want to, but how?
Perhaps an image. Picture yourself on a road walking, running, driving wildly to your destination. Picture the road having a curb on both sides. Do you pay attention to the curb? You may be cognizant that it is there, but I doubt it is what you fixate on.
The Law is meant to be the curb. We are meant to run wholeheartedly following Jesus to the Father.
Jesus’ comments simultaneously reveal it is impossible to keep the Law, and the issue is our hearts.
Which means, to escape performance-orientation and legalism, we need our love of Jesus to grow and grow.
What one thing today might you do to grow your love of Jesus.