16 February 2014 - right "us-ness", or: being the people are called to be

16 February 2014 - right "us-ness", or: being the people are called to be

I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses
that of the scribes and Pharisees,
you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

The Pharisees are doing something worse than breaking one of the least of the commandments and teaching others to do so.  They must be because the level of their righteousness is insufficient for the kingdom of God and those who break one of the least commandments may still hope to find entrance into the kingdom although they will be called the least.

Yet the Pharisees and scribes are so concerned with righteousness.  How can we compete with people who are basically trying to do this professionally and still failing?

If you choose you can keep the commandments, they will save you;
if you trust in God, you too shall live;
he has set before you fire and water
to whichever you choose, stretch forth your hand.

All we need, then, is to choose the good.  Surprisingly, the scribes and Pharisees must not be making this simple choice.  They must instead be choosing the appearance of the good, which is something else entirely.

Neither we nor the scribes and Pharisees have the ability within ourselves produce life and goodness.  But if we choose them the LORD he will bless us to bear this fruit in our lives.

Before man are life and death, good and evil,
whichever he chooses shall be given him.

This is the righteousness that surpasses the Pharisees: to genuinely want to please God for God's sake.  It isn't enough not to kill and still have a heart full of killing.  It isn't enough not to commit adultery and still entertain lust in our hearts.  We need the LORD to change us from within.

Give me discernment, that I may observe your law
and keep it with all my heart.

Discernment will keep let his "precepts be diligently kept."  This steadfastness in choosing the good from the inside out will make us firm in the ways of keeping his statues.  Then we are among the blessed "who follow the law of the Lord!"

We need firmness of purpose.  We need to let this purpose change us from the inside out.  It's true that our inner lives and persons aren't safe from being changed when we do this.  But if we really look we will realize that is for the best.  We don't need to cling to these old senses of who we believe ourselves to be.  Who the LORD believes us to be as a much better destiny.  We can't fully grasp just how good this wisdom is yet.  But we will see it.

What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard,
and what has not entered the human heart,
what God has prepared for those who love him,
this God has revealed to us through the Spirit.

 We even begin to taste it now through the Spirit in us.  The Spirit gives us the same discernment by which he "scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God."

 So let our "'Yes' mean 'Yes,'".  Let us be people who don't need to hold anything back by using oaths that are meant to give us wiggle room.  We do this not on our own power, but in him who is the yes to all of God's promises (cf. 2 Cor 1:20).