The Light of the World

Further, the Lord says that all His followers who fulfill His instructions will be "the salt of the earth" (Matt. 5:13). Salt will protect food from spoilage, make it healthy, pleasant to the taste; In the same way, Christians must protect the world from moral corruption and contribute to its healing. Salt imparts its properties to all substances with which it comes into close contact; so Christians must communicate the Spirit of Christ to all other people who have not yet become Christians. Salt does not change the essence and appearance of the substance in which it dissolves, but only gives its taste; In the same way, Christianity does not produce any external breakdown in man and human society, but ennobles the soul of man and, through this, transforms his whole life, giving it a special, Christian character. "But if salt loses its savor, how wilt thou make it salty?" (Matt. 5:13). In the East, indeed, there is a type of salt that loses its taste under the influence of moisture, wind and sun. Nothing can restore such salt; so are those people who, having once tasted the noble communion with the Holy Spirit, have fallen into the unpardonable sin, and they are no longer able to be renewed spiritually without God's special help.The light of the world is, in fact, the Lord Jesus Christ, but since those who believe in Him receive this light and reflect it into the world, they are also the "light of the world." Such are the Apostles and their successors, whose purpose is precisely to shine with the light of Christ: the pastors of the Holy Church. They must live in such a way that, seeing their good deeds, people would glorify God.Wishing to show His attitude to the old law, the Lord first calms the zeal of the Jews for the law, emphasizing that He did not come to break the law, but to fulfill it. Christ, indeed, came to earth in order for the entire Old Testament Word of God to be fulfilled in Him, in order to reveal, implement and establish all the power of the law and the prophets, to show the true spirit and meaning of the Old Testament. "How did he fulfill the law? – asks Blessed Theophylact. — First, because He did all that the prophets foretold about Him. He also fulfilled all the commandments of the law, since He did not commit iniquity, and there was no flattery in His mouth. He fulfilled the law and fulfilled it by writing perfectly what is only a shadow in the law." He gave a complete and deep understanding of all the Old Testament commandments, preaching about the insufficiency of only external, formal obedience to the law. "Not one jot [the smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet] or one tittle shall pass away from the law, until all things are fulfilled" (Matt. 5:18), says the Lord, emphasizing that even the smallest thing in the law of God will not remain unfulfilled. The Pharisees, on the other hand, divided the commandments into major and minor commandments and did not consider it a sin to violate the "small" commandments, including the commandments of love, almsgiving, and justice. "Whosoever shall break the least of these commandments, and teach men so shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven." According to the nature of the Greek expression, he will be called the smallest, which means that he will be rejected and will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

It is against such outward, ostentatious righteousness that the Lord warns His followers.

The Two Measures of Righteousness

Further, throughout chapter 5, beginning with verse 21, St. Matthew tells us how the Lord testifies in what way He came to complete the Old Testament law: He teaches a deeper and more spiritual understanding and fulfillment of the Old Testament commandments. It is not enough not to kill a person only physically, it is also impossible to kill him morally, being angry with him in vain: "Everyone who is angry with his brother in vain is subject to judgment; Whosoever shall say to his brother, The Raka [empty man] shall be liable to the Sanhedrin; but whosoever shall say a fool shall be liable to hell fire" (Matt. 5:22). Here, in relation to Jewish ideas, different degrees of the sin of anger against one's neighbor are indicated. The ordinary city court dealt with crimes of lesser gravity than the Great Sanhedrin, the supreme court located in Jerusalem and consisting of 72 members presided over by the high priest. To call a man of cancer meant to show him one's contempt, and to say to someone mad meant to express to one's neighbor an extreme degree of contempt or contempt: this was the name given not only to a foolish, but also to an impious, unscrupulous person. The punishment for this extreme degree of wrath was "Gehenna of fire" (this was the name of the valley of Ennom, located southwest of Jerusalem, where under impious kings the abominable service of Molech was performed (2 Kings 16:3; Chron. 28:3), where young men were led through fire and infants were sacrificed. those left without burial; sometimes the death penalty was also carried out there; The air in this valley was so polluted that a living fire was constantly maintained there to purify it. That is why this place, terrible and disgusting, called the valley of fire, began to serve as an image of the eternal torment of sinners.The meekness and love of a Christian for his neighbor should extend not only not to be angry with anyone, but also not to provoke anger against himself from his neighbor with an unkind, of course, feeling. This prevents one from offering prayers to God with a clear conscience, and therefore one must hasten to reconcile with one's brother before prayer. In the case of Roman legal proceedings, according to which a lender could forcibly lead his debtor to a judge, the brother we have offended is called our rival, with whom we must reconcile while we are still "on the path" of this earthly life, so that he does not give us over to the Judge-God, and we do not suffer the retribution we deserve. Thus, the Holy Apostle Paul hurried the offender to reconcile with the offended, saying: "Let not the sun go down on your anger" (Ephesians 4:26)In the same way, it is not enough to fulfill the 7th commandment of the law of God purely externally: "Thou shalt not commit adultery!" protecting oneself from sin only physically. The Lord teaches that not only an action, but also a thought, an inner lust or a longed-for look at a woman is already a crime. "He commits fornication with a woman in his heart," says St. Athanasius the Great, "who agrees to a deed, but is hindered by either the place, or the time, or the fear of the law." Not every look at a woman is a sin, but a look with a desire to commit the sin of adultery. In such cases, one must show all determination to suppress temptation, so as not to spare the most precious thing that the members of a person's body are: the eye or the hand. In this case, both the eye and the hand are indicated by the Lord as a symbol of everything precious to us, which we must sacrifice in order to eradicate passion and avoid sin. The Old Testament law of Moses (Deut. 24:1-2) allows a husband to divorce his wife by giving her a bill of divorce, a kind of written evidence that she was his wife, and that he is letting her go for such and such a reason. In the Evangelist Mark (10:2-12) the Lord says that the permission to divorce his wife was given by Moses to the Jews "because of the hardness of their hearts", but initially it was like this: "What God has joined together, let not man put asunder" (Mark 10:9). A marriage can be dissolved by itself only in case of adultery of one of the spouses. But if "Whoever divorces his wife, except for the guilt of fornication, gives her cause to commit adultery"; and he who "marries a divorced woman" commits adultery (Matt. 5:32)The Old Testament law forbids the use of an oath in the name of God in vain deeds, especially in lies. The third commandment of the law of God forbids the mention of the name of God in vain, forbids any frivolous attitude to the oath in the name of God. The Jews of the Lord Jesus Christ's time, wishing to fulfill this commandment literally, instead swore by heaven and earth, by Jerusalem, by their heads, and thus, without mentioning the name of God, they still swore by Him both in vain and in falsehood. It is these oaths that the Lord Jesus Christ forbids, since absolutely everything was created by God, and to swear by His creation is the same as to swear by the Creator, and to swear in a lie is the same as to insult the sanctity of the oath. A Christian must be so honest and truthful that he is believed by his own word alone, without any godliness. But this, by no means, prohibits a lawful oath or oath in important matters. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself confirmed the oath for judgment, when to the words of the high priest "I adjure Thee by the living God" He answered: "Thou hast spoken," since such was the form of the Jewish judicial oath (Matt. 26:63-64). And Ap. Paul swears, calling God as a witness to his words (Rom. 1:9, 9:1; 2 Cor. 1:23, 2:17; Gal. 1:20, etc.). In ancient times, revenge was so common that it was necessary to somehow moderate its manifestations, which, in general, was done by the Old Testament law. But Christ, by His new law, completely forbids revenge in any of its forms, preaching love for enemies. However, the saying "resist not evil" (Matt. 5:39) cannot be understood in the sense of non-resistance to evil, as Leo Tolstoy and similar false teachers do. The Lord forbids rebelling against a person who has caused evil with reciprocal malice, but a Christian must be absolutely irreconcilable to any evil as such and must fight evil by all means available to him, not allowing evil into his own heart under any pretext. Nor should we take literally the words "whosoever smites thee on thy right cheek, turn the other cheek also unto him" (Matt. 5:39), since we know that Christ Himself acted quite differently during the interrogation of the high priest Hannah, when one of the servants struck Him on the cheek (John 18:22-23). The evil feeling of vindictiveness is forbidden, but not the struggle with evil. And not only those who do evil, but also those who offend us, we must try to correct, about which in the Gospel of Matthew (18:15-18) there is a direct commandment of the Lord. Litigation is forbidden and, on the contrary, the satisfaction of the needs of one's neighbor is prescribed: "Give to him who asks you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you." Of course, this commandment excludes those cases when it is not only useless, but also harmful to help the beggar; True Christian love for one's neighbor is, for example, not to allow a murderer to take a knife or to prevent a person who wants to take his own life from poison.In the Old Testament there is no commandment "Hate thy enemy!" apparently, the Jews themselves derived it from the commandment to love one's neighbor, since they considered as neighbors only those people who were close in faith, by descent or in mutual services. The rest, that is, people of other faiths, tribes, or people who showed malice in any way, were considered enemies, love for whom was considered inappropriate. Christ commanded: just as our Heavenly Father, who is a stranger to anger and hatred towards anyone, loves all people, even the evil and unrighteous, as His children, so we, who wish to be worthy sons of the Heavenly Father, would love everyone, even our enemies. The Lord wants His followers to be morally superior to the Gentiles and Jews. Their love for others is essentially based on self-love. Love for God's sake, for the sake of God's commandment, is worthy of reward, but love from natural inclination or for the sake of profit does not and cannot deserve a reward. Ascending thus higher and higher on the ladder of Christian perfection, the Christian will finally reach the highest and most difficult love for enemies, impossible for an unregenerated person, the commandment of which the Lord concludes the first part of His Sermon on the Mount. And wishing to show how the fulfillment of this commandment brings a weak and imperfect person closer to God, He confirms that the ideal of a Christian is God: "Be ye perfect, even as our Father in heaven is perfect" (Matt. 5:48). This is in full accord with the Divine plan expressed at the creation of man: "And God said, Let us make man in our image, and after our likeness" (Gen. 1:26). Divine holiness is unattainable for us, and therefore there is inequality between us and God, but we have in mind a kind of inner assimilation, a gradual approach of the human soul to its Prototype with the help of grace.

The main thing is to please God

2. The second part of the Sermon on the Mount, described in the 6th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, sets forth the Lord's teaching about almsgiving, prayer and fasting, as well as the exhortation to man to strive for the main goal of his life – the Kingdom of God. After warning His disciples what they should and should not do in order to attain blessedness, the Lord then proceeded to the question of how exactly to do what He commanded. Neither works of mercy nor worship of God, such as fasting and prayer in particular, should be performed for show, for the sake of glory among men, for in this case only human praise will be our only reward. Vanity, like a moth, devours all good deeds, and therefore it is better to do them secretly, so as not to lose the reward of our Heavenly Father. Naturally, you should give alms, but you should do it without the purpose of attracting attention to yourself, seeking praise from people. It is not forbidden to pray in churches, but it is forbidden to pray intentionally, for show. According to St. Chrysostom, it is possible to pray in a closed room out of vanity, and then "closed doors will not bring any benefit." We pray not because God does not know our needs, but solely in order to purify our hearts and become worthy of God's mercies by entering into inner communion with God in our spirit. This communion with God is the goal of prayer, the achievement of which does not depend on the number of words spoken. Condemning verbosity, the Lord at the same time commands unceasing prayer, teaching that one must always pray and not lose heart (Luke 18:1), while Himself spending the nights in prayer. Prayer must be reasonable: we must turn to God with such requests that are worthy of Him and the fulfillment of which is salvific for us. Teaching us such a prayer, the Lord gives us as a model the Lord's Prayer, which for this has received the name of the Lord's Prayer.

The Lord's Prayer

This prayer, by no means, excludes other prayers – the Lord Himself prayed using other prayers (John 17). Calling God our Father, we recognize ourselves as His children, and in relation to each other as brothers, and we pray not only on our own behalf and for ourselves, but also on behalf of all persons, of all mankind. By pronouncing the words "Who art in Heaven," we renounce all earthly things and ascend with our minds and hearts to the heavenly world. "Hallowed be Thy Name" means: Let Thy Name be holy to all people, let all people glorify the Name of God both in word and in deed. "Thy Kingdom come" — that is, the Kingdom of Christ the Messiah, of which the Jews dreamed, incorrectly, it is true, imagining this Kingdom; but here we pray that the Lord would reign in the souls of all people and after this temporal earthly life would vouchsafe us eternal and blessed life, in communion with Him. "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven" – that is, let everything be done according to the all-good and all-wise will of God, and let us, people, fulfill the will of God on earth as willingly as the angels do it in heaven. "Give us this day our daily bread" means give us for today all that is necessary for the body; What will happen to us tomorrow, we do not know, we need only the "essentials". that is, daily, necessary to maintain our existence. "And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors" – these words are explained by St. Luke in his Gospel (11:4) as follows: "And forgive us our sins." Sins are our debts, because when we sin, we do not fulfill what is due, and therefore we become indebted to God and people. Debts should also be understood as all the good things that we could have done, but did not do, out of laziness or self-love. Thus, the concept of debts is broader than the concept of sins as direct violations of the moral law. Asking for the forgiveness of debts strongly inspires us with the need to forgive our neighbors all the offenses inflicted on us, since without forgiving others, we do not dare to ask God for forgiveness of our debts to Him and do not dare to pray the words of the Lord's Prayer." And lead us not into temptation" – here we ask God to protect us from falling, if the test of our moral strength is inevitable and necessary. "But deliver us from the evil one" — from all evil and from the author of it — the devil. The prayer ends with confidence in the fulfillment of what is asked, since everything in this world belongs to God: the eternal kingdom, infinite power and glory. Translated from Hebrew, the word "Amen" means "So, indeed, truly, let it be." It was said by the worshippers in the synagogues in confirmation of the prayer pronounced by the elders.The Lord's teaching about fasting, which should also be done for God, and not for the praise of men, clearly testifies to how wrong those are who say that the Lord did not enjoin His followers to fast. When fasting, one should not change one's appearance in such a way as to attract attention to oneself, but appear before people the same as always; in the East, after washing the body, it was customary to anoint oneself with oil, especially on the head; The Pharisees, on the days of fasting, did not wash, did not comb their hair and did not anoint it with oil, attracting everyone's attention to themselves with their unusual appearance, which is what the Lord condemns.

Eternal Treasure

From the 19th verse of the 6th chapter, St. Matthew describes in his Gospel how the Lord teaches us to seek, first of all, the Kingdom of God and not to be distracted from this search by other concerns, not to worry about the acquisition of earthly, short-lived treasures, which are easily subject to damage and destruction. He who has such a treasure is constantly with him with his thoughts, desires, and feelings; Therefore, a Christian, who should be with all his heart in heaven, should not be carried away by earthly acquisitions, but should strive to acquire heavenly treasures, which are virtues. To do this, it is necessary to guard your heart as the apple of your eye. We must protect our heart from earthly passions, so that it remains pure and does not cease to be a conductor of spiritual, heavenly light for us, just as the eyes are a conductor of physical light. The one who intends to serve both God and Mammon at the same time (Mammon is a Syrian deity, the patron of earthly riches, the personification of earthly treasures) is like one who wants to please two masters at once, who have different characters and make different, to the same opposite, demands; and in this case, he "will hate the one, and love the other; or he will be zealous for the one, and not care for the other" (Matt. 6:24)The Lord leads us to the heavenly and eternal, and wealth to the earthly and perishable, therefore, in order to avoid such duality, which hinders the work of eternal salvation, it is necessary to abandon excessive and superfluous, restless and tedious worries about food, drink and clothing – those worries that absorb all our time and attention and distract us from worries about the salvation of the soul. For if God cares so much for the foolish creature, giving food to the birds and luxuriously dressing the flowers of the field, how much more will He not leave man, created in the image of God and called to be the heir of His kingdom, without all the necessities of life. Our whole life is in God's hands and does not depend on our cares: can we, for example, add at least one cubit to our height? However, all this, by no means, means that it is worth abandoning all cares in general and indulging in idleness, as some heretics interpreted this passage of the Sermon on the Mount. Work was commanded to man by God in Paradise, before the Fall (Gen. 2:15), which was confirmed again at the expulsion of Adam from Paradise (3:19). It is not work that is condemned, but excessive and oppressive concern for the future, for tomorrow, which is not in our power and which we still have to live to. Only the degree of values is indicated: "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness," and as a reward for this, the Lord Himself will take care of us, so that we may have everything necessary for earthly life, and the thought of this should not torment and oppress us, as unbelieving pagans. This part of the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 6:25-34) presents us with a remarkable picture of God's Providence caring for His creatures. "Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will take care of its own" — that is, tomorrow is not in our power for us to take care of it, because we do not even know what it will bring with it: perhaps such worries as we do not think about and have not thought about.

Don't judge

3. The third part of the Sermon on the Mount, contained in the 7th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, teaches us not to condemn our neighbors, to guard the holy from desecration, about constancy in prayer, about the broad and narrow paths, about false prophets, about true and false wisdom." Judge not, that ye be not judged" – these words are rendered by the Evangelist Luke as follows: "Condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned" (6:37). It is forbidden not to judge one's neighbor, but to condemn him, in the sense of gossip, which arises, for the most part, from some selfish and impure motives, from vanity and pride; Backbiting, malicious tongues, malicious reproach of other people's shortcomings, stemming from a feeling of dislike and ill-will towards one's neighbor, is prohibited. If any judgment about one's neighbor and about his actions were forbidden here, then the Lord would not say further: "Do not give holy things to dogs, neither cast your pearls before swine" (Matt. 7:6); and Christians would not be able to fulfill their duty to rebuke and admonish sinners, which is prescribed by the Lord Himself in verses 15-17 of the 18th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. Evil feelings and schadenfreude are forbidden, but not the evaluation of one's neighbor's actions in itself, because, not noticing evil, we could easily begin to be indifferent to good, we would lose the sense of difference between good and evil. Correct him, not as an enemy, subjecting him to punishment, but as a physician offering a remedy. It is necessary not to reproach, not to reproach, but to admonish; not to accuse, but to complain; not to attack with pride, but to correct with love" (Discourse 23). Christ forbids blaming people for their faults without noticing our own and perhaps even greater faults. But there is no question of a civil court, as some false teachers want to show it, and there is also no question of evaluating a person's actions in general. The Lord had in mind the proud, self-conceited Pharisees, who treated other people with merciless condemnation, considering only themselves to be righteous. Immediately after this, the Lord warns His disciples against preaching His teaching, these true pearls, to those people who, like dogs or pigs, are incapable of appreciating them by their extreme ossification in evil, and who, deeply immersed in depravity, vices and wickedness, treat every good with bitterness and malice.

Constancy in Prayer