Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Daily Reading: Matthew 5-6

Reading Through the Bible in a Year!
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7 comments:

  1. AnonymousSeptember 2, 2009 at 10:15 AM

    I just have a question for the Bible scholars out there (like Dale!), if someone could help me to better understand this. Why is Matthew 5:2-12 called the Beatitudes?

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  2. UnknownSeptember 2, 2009 at 12:23 PM

    I'll answer this great question, but probably do not qualify as a scholar. It is so easy to read this time after time and simply associate the word Beatitudes with these saying not wondering where this came from. Simply, Rome ruled the known world at the time of Christ. However, the common language, greek, for the empire lingered from the conquering of Alexander the Great. The New Testament was written in Greek, the language of the common people. Latin was a language that gained much prominence in Rome and had great influence in the known world for the first 1000 years AD. Anyway, because of the spread of Latin as the more common language, early in the 5th century the Bible was translated into the new language. In Matthew 5 the word translated into Latin was beatus or beati and it means "blessed; state of bliss". In shocking fashion, Jesus was stripping away the percieved path to blessing and helping humanity to understand blessing from God's perspective. So each of the phrases in v.3-11 begin in the Latin with beati. Therefore, these sayings of Christ became known as we know them today, THE BEATITUDES.

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  3. JosephSeptember 2, 2009 at 4:59 PM

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  4. JosephSeptember 2, 2009 at 5:02 PM

    This is so cool!!!

    We're all staring into a diamond and sharing with each other what we see, all of us seeing different things! How great is that? I've enjoyed everything I've read so far, this is good stuff and a great idea. =]

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  5. johnaraulersonSeptember 2, 2009 at 9:02 PM

    How much would our focus change if we began to pray as Jesus taught us: "...your will be done...." and "give us this day our daily bread"? Many, if not most, of our prayers are nothing more than personal desires and selfish wants. Jesus teaches us to pray that the Father would meet our needs according to His pleasure.

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  6. Joel GriffisSeptember 2, 2009 at 11:06 PM

    A lot of times we hear that rewards are not something a Christian should pursue. But I think this is just a subtle form of selfishness designed to look like selflessness. At least four times in Chapter 6 alone Jesus uses rewards as motivation for being righteous. (6:1, 6:4, 6:6, 6:18)

    Often we hear it said that true service is when we don't look for anything in return. While this may be true from an earthly standpoint, God forbid that we would ever spurn His rewards that He has promised. This does not bring Him glory does it honor Him.

    We aren't to pursue earthly rewards, such as the praise of man (see 6:2, 6:5, 6:16) but we should pursue with all of our might the rewards that come from our Father in heaven.

    Don't spurn those rewards. We would be diminishing His worth in doing so.

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  7. debseverydaySeptember 3, 2009 at 6:07 AM

    Reading Matthew 6 brought to mind how often I've "practiced my righteousness before others"(6:1).

    The way my righteousness can roll in quickly like a thick fog, blocking out His righteousness. When all I can see is "me". Those times when my "service" was really all about "self".

    His Word is a sharp sword, and I'm so thankful for it. (Heb 4:12)

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