Two measures of righteousness.

During the length of Saint Matthew’s 5^th chapter, commencing with the 21^st verse, he narrates about how the Lord gives witness as to what Old Testament law He specifically came to fulfil: He teaches a more deeper and spiritual understanding of fulfilment of the OT commandments. It is not enough not to kill a person physically, one shouldn’t kill him morally by being needlessly angry with him: “Whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca” (empty person), shall be in danger of the council (Jewish supreme body). But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire” (Mat. 5:22). This narration adapted for Jewish understanding, indicates the various degrees of anger at your neighbour. The ordinary city court dealt with lesser felonies than the Great Sanhedrin — the highest court, situated in Jerusalem and made up of 72 members, presided by a high priest. To call someone “raca” is to express your scorn to him, while to label someone “fool,” is to express to your neighbour, extreme contempt or rejection: not only the foolish were called by this name, but also the unclean, shameless individuals. The punishment for such excessive anger was — “the fire” (this was the name given to the valley of Hinnom, situated south-west of Jerusalem, where unrighteous kings conducted repugnant rituals to the god Molech, by leading children through fires and bringing infants as sacrifices (2 Kings 16:3; 2 Chron. 28:3). After these idolatrous practices ceased, the valley became a subject of horror and revulsion. All types of impurities and cadavers (left without a burial) began to find their way there; sometimes, executions were conducted there; the air in the area was so infected that continuous fires were maintained in order to clear it. Consequently, the area was named “valley of fire” — frightening and repulsive — and began to serve as an example of the eternal suffering of sinners.

A Christian’s meekness and love should extend not only in not being angry with anyone, but so as not to evoke any anger from his neighbour through unkind feelings. This interferes in the offering of prayers with a clean conscience. Consequently, it is necessary to make peace with your brother swiftly. In adapting the Roman court proceedings, where the lender had the right to forcibly bring his debtor to court, our offended brother is called our antagonist, with whom we must make peace while we are “on the road” of this earthly life, so that he does not submit us to the Judge-God and we do not bear the deserved retribution. Thus, Apostle Paul hastened the offender to make peace with his offended, saying: “do not let the sun go down on your wrath” (Ephes. 4:26).

Likewise, it is insufficient to fulfil God’s 7^th Commandment purely in an outward sense: “Thou shalt not commit adultery!” by guarding yourself just physically. The Lord teaches that not only actions but also thoughts, inner desire or a wanting look at a woman — is already a transgression. As Saint Athanasius states: “A man commits adultery in his heart when he is willing, but is impeded by place, time or fear of the law.” Not every glance at a woman is a sin — but a glance with desire to commit the sin of adultery. In these type of instances, it is necessary to show total resolve to sever the temptation, not sparing even the most precious possession that is regarded by a human being: eye and hand. In this instance, the eye and hand is cited by the Lord as a symbol of all that is precious to us, which we must sacrifice in order to deracinate the lust and avoid sinning.

With this, the Lord forbids a husband to divorce his wife, “except sexual immorality,” ie. she had been convicted of adultery. The OT law of Moses (Deut. 24:1-2) permits a husband to divorce his wife, giving her a certificate of divorce as a written witness that she was his wife and that he is releasing her from him for a stated reason. In those days, the position of a wife was very burdensome.

In Mark’s Gospel, the Lord states that the right to divorce a wife was given to the Jews by Moses “because of hardness of your heart,” although at the beginning, it was “what God has joined together, let no man separate” (Mark 10:9). A marriage can break up by itself only in case of adultery by one of the partners. However, if “whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery” (Mat. 5:32).

The laws of the OT forbid the use of God’s name in swearing superficial oaths, especially in lies. The third commandment of God’s law, forbids the use of His name casually and a flippant approach to making oaths in God’s name. Contemporary Jews that believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, wishing to fulfil this commandment literally, instead swore by heaven and earth, by Jerusalem, their heads, and consequently, although not mentioning His name, still swore by Him in truth and in lies. These are the types of oaths that the Lord Jesus Christ forbids, inasmuch as absolutely everything was created by God; and to swear by His creation is to swear by the Creator, and to swear a lie, is the same as to violate the sanctity of the oath. A Christian should be that honest and righteous that he is believed on his personal word, without any oaths. However, this does not forbid the giving of lawful oaths of allegiance and other important matters. When the high priest exclaimed: “I put You under oath by the living God,” the Lord Jesus Christ Himself confirmed the oath in judgment when He replied: “It is as you said” (Mat. 26:63-64). And Apostle Paul swears an oath by invoking God as witness to his words (Rom. 1:9; 2 Cor. 1:23, 2:17; Gal. 1:20 and others). Empty and frivolous oaths are forbidden.

In the OT, the practice of vengeance was so widespread, that it had to be somehow curbed — which the old laws did. However with His new law, Christ Himself totally forbids vengeance in any form, preaching love for your enemies. At the same time, the statement “not to resist an evil person” (Mat. 5:39) must not be construed that you should not oppose evil — as Leo Tolstoy and his followers did in his false teachings. The Lord forbids to arise with respondent evil against that person who had inflicted evil. But to every type of evil — as with this one — the Christian must be totally uncompromising. He must battle evil with every means at his disposal, not permitting it to enter his own heart under any guise. It’s also inaccurate to literally understand the words: “But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other also to him” (Mat. 5:39), inasmuch as we know that during the high priest Annas’s interrogation, Christ Himself reacted completely differently when He was slapped on the cheek by one of servants (John 18:22-23). What is prohibited is vengeance, but not the struggle with evil. And not only those creating evil, but we must also try to change those who offend us, about which there is a direct commandment from the Lord in Matthew 18:15-18. Quibbling is prohibited and instead, satisfying the needs of your neighbour is prescribed: “Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away.” By itself, this commandment excludes those situations where help will not be beneficial but detrimental; genuine Christian love toward the neighbour, for example, will not allow a killer to pick up a knife, or, will not allow a person access to poison to commit suicide.

The OT doesn’t have a commandment “Hate thy neighbour!” yet evidently, the Jews extracted this from the commandment on love toward your neighbour, inasmuch as they regarded neighbour as being those, who was close to them by faith, by their origin or by mutual service. Whereas the rest, ie. of different faiths, strangers or those that have exhibited some type of animosity, were regarded as enemies, toward whom love would be inappropriate. Christ decreed: just like your Heavenly Father, a stranger to feelings of anger and hatred toward anyone, loves everyone as His Own sons - even the bad and unrighteous — so should we, desirous to be worthy sons of the Heavenly Father, love everyone, even our enemies. The Lord wishes that in a moral sense, His followers be higher than heathens and Jews, because essentially, their love toward others, is based on self-centredness. Love for the sake of God, for the sake of God’s commandments, is worthy of reward. But love through natural inclination or for the sake of obtaining recompense, is unworthy and nor can it be. Thus, in going higher and higher on the ladder of Christian completeness, the Christian will eventually reach the highest and most difficult level - impossible to reach for a person not reborn — love toward your enemies, which the Lord included in the first part of His Sermon on the Mount. And wishing to show how the fulfilment of this commandment brings a weak and imperfect person closer to God, He emphasises that the ideal for a human is — God: “be perfect, just as your Father in Heaven” (Mat. 5:48). This is completely in accord with God’s plan, expressed with the creation of man: “And God said, Let us make man in Our image, after Our likeness” (Gen. 1:26). Divine holiness is unattainable for us, that’s why on earth, there is an inequality between God and us. However, what has to be born in mind is the inner likeness — with the assistance through grace, the gradual advancement of the human soul toward the Primal Image.