Count the Small Stuff

"For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven." - Matt 5:20

I don't know about you, but sometimes I observe how someone else lives, or perhaps what they are doing in life, and there is a part of me that wishes I had what they had. I think we all have a proclivity to think that way from time-to-time, it is just part of our human nature. 

In Jesus's day, the Jewish people would look to the scribes, Pharisees, and teachers of the law for a model of righteousness. The people wanted what they had. These religious leaders had a righteousness that was apparent, external, and achieved by self-effort and preservation. They lived a life based on a self-effort of accomplishing upholding the apparent rules that the "Law and the Prophets" set out for the special people of God. 

Jesus comes along, and in the Sermon on the Mount, He says three important things about the law: 1) He came to fulfill it, all of it! 2) The law will not go away until all of it has been accomplished, even what man may consider the "small" parts 3) The righteousness of Jesus's people must surpass the external, self-effort based religion practiced by the religious leaders of His day. 

I imagine those listening to His sermon, and even us today, would ask the question: How in the world can my righteousness surpass the most religious people in the world!? Jesus goes on to answer that question through the rest of the Sermon on the Mount. The challenge that Jesus gives His followers is not to just walk out an external righteousness, one that follows the basic rules, but to wrestle with the righteousness in your heart. Where the Pharisees would say they do not murder, Jesus challenges the hate in their heart (the internal). Where the Pharisees would say they have not committed adultery, Jesus says if you have even looked at another with lust you have already committed the act in your heart. You see the righteousness that surpasses that of the Pharisees deals with the things that we would consider small or perhaps not really sinning at all. Jesus says, that it is these "small" parts of the law, the areas of righteousness that we struggle with in our hearts and minds, that we are to wrestle with. 

By leaning into God's help, His people, and living a life with a posture of repentance when we sin or miss the mark, dealing with the internal "small" stuff, we are walking out a righteousness that pleases God. 

Today, evaluate the righteousness in your heart. Do you just justify internal emotions or stances of sin like hate, lust, pride, greed, or covetousness just because you don't act on them? Are you willing to deal with your heart today, with God's help? He doesn't call us to a higher righteousness to cause a greater burden, but calls us to deal with the sin in our hearts so we can walk in a greater freedom. 

Praying for you and yours. Have a blessed day, its your choice!