In Jesus' ongoing deconstruction of the popular consensus on righteousness, he offers His final example in response to the commonly held belief that one should love his neighbors and hate his enemies.

"Do not resist the one who is evil." These words of Jesus not only cut to the quick of our natural defenses against evil, they reveal a deep-rooted tendency to fight for justice. But in the Kingdom of Heaven retaliation is unnecessary because God is our judge and defender. Jesus is leading us into a way of life where retaliation is completely unnecessary and undesired.

Do you know someone who has to promise that they're going to do what they say? Maybe that someone is you. If our "yes" or "no" isn't enough, then we aren't the kind of person that Jesus is recreating yet.

In every generation and every time in human history divorce has always been taken too lightly. While there are valid reasons for divorce, Jesus makes it clear that it is always destructive of God's intent.

In Matthew 5:29-30, Jesus tells his listener to cut off what is causing sin. He uses the examples of the eye and the hand. Seeking to grab the listener's attention, he uses shocking imagery. But does a person's hand or eye cause the person to sin? If not, what is Jesus getting at? He's getting to the root of the problem - the heart.

Adultery is one of the most destructive acts in a marriage. And because it destroys marriages it also destroys families and the societies built upon them. At the root of adultery is the sinful desire known as lust. And while lust is destructive, it is only one of many sinful desires that we should consider as we consider the words of Jesus in this episode.

Deconstruction. It's a popular trend these days. And the backlash from certain segments of the Church reveals that not everyone sees deconstruction as good. That's because not all deconstruction is healthy. In the sermon on the Mount Jesus gives us an example of a kind of deconstruction that is good. And one of the keys to its goodness is that His deconstruction is always matched with a beautiful reconstruction.

We're in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is deconstructing and reconstructing righteousness. He's moving the focus from behavior to the heart. He starts with murder and shows how anger is what is really wrong with the human condition. Now he gives his listener a practical application of this reality by elevating the importance of reconciliation above sacrificial worship.

Jesus begins his deconstruction of the standard of righteousness in his day with the sin of murder.

Jesus told his new band of followers that in order to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven their righteousness would have to be greater than that of the Scribes and the Pharisees. This would have seemed impossible to His hearers. But that's because they had the wrong idea of righteousness. So do we.