Jesus said it loud and clear in the Sermon on the Mount and on several other occasions: all God’s rules for human living are summed up in the direction to love God and love our neighbor. Everything else springs from this work. To be a Christian in the way of Jesus we will, in fact, have to swim upstream in today’s American culture: Share what you have with anybody who needs it. Love your enemies. Live generous lives. Tell the truth. Act toward each other the way God acts toward you. Sacrifice something big for something good.

 

We share quotes from both religious and secular leaders about the significance of the Sermon on the Mount. And then we examine the statement made in Matthew 7:28-29, “The people were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.”

 

Additional scriptures referenced include Matthew 5-7; Matthew 28:17; Psalm 33:9; and John 1:3-5.