Authentic Disciples Only

In Matthew 5, Jesus gives us the Beatitudes and the examples of Salt and Light, and then He says, "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill it." 

He's just spoken in a revolutionary way, contrary to the worldly view of poverty, peace, and persecution in the Beatitudes, and then he says, 'I'm not abolishing the law." How can this be? He then drops another bombshell when he says, almost casually, "'You've heard it said, but I say...'" Robert Barron explains that Jesus refers to the Torah here. He seems to be saying that what is written in the Torah, the most holy scripture to the Jewish people, is not as important as what I'm about to tell you. Now that's confidence, audacity, boldness, and even dangerous. What Jesus is doing here is enforcing the law and making it so clear, no one can misunderstand the demands of God. The pharisees had gotten good at following the law but doing evil to others. We can't just look good to the people we see at church each weekend. We have to be holy inside and out; authentic and genuine. 

Jesus says that being angry with your brother is murder and loving your neighbor isn't good enough. You must love your enemies too. He says adultery is not just doing something with the body, it's doing something with the eyes and the mind too. He teaches us not to calculate or be overly conscious of our tithing; in other words, be overly generous and expect nothing in return. We should deny and discipline ourselves often, stop worrying about the details, stop trying to control our own lives, pray as if everything depended on it (it does), and refrain from retaliating when attacked or insulted. We need to love; freely, completely, faithfully, always, and we need to forgive because we have been forgiven. Not even a pharisee could miss the teaching from Matthew 5.