Insights through Questions
By Jerry Batson, Th.D.
Special to The Alabama Baptist
This week’s question is one Christ put to His disciples in the Sermon on the Mount: “What do you do more than others?” (Matt. 5:47). The question puts practical application to the matter of Christian living in a non-Christian world and leads us to think about what sets Christians apart.
In the background of this question is God’s grace which should cause believers to rise above the ordinary in matters of loving, serving and helping, causing us to stand out as lights in a dark world.
Of course, such distinctiveness is not for drawing attention to ourselves but instead to point to the grace of God.
Rather than blending in or fitting in with the moral climate around us our distinctiveness as mirrored in attitudes, actions and words should be like light shining in a dark place. If light were like darkness it would prove useless.
Matter of loving
In the context where Jesus raised this penetrating question, He called attention to several areas in which Christians should be doing more than the ordinary.
Leading into the question, Christ brought up the matter of loving.
Rather than loving only one’s friends and neighbors, He called on His followers to love one’s enemies (Matt. 5:44). Having received God’s extraordinary love we are expected to be more than ordinary in loving others.
In the same lead-in verse to this week’s question, Christ also called attention to the matter of praising or blessing those who might be speaking evil of us, saying, “Bless those who curse you.”
Praising others in sincerity can be a powerful witness not just to family, friends and fellow Christians but to others as well. It may be easier to praise a close friend, but what about a stranger or disgruntled church member?
Doing good
Christ went on to introduce His question by bringing up the very practical matter of doing good: “Do good to those who hate you.” It is easy to do good to others when they are doing good to us. Doing good to an enemy is a Christlike strategy for turning enemies into friends.
In a fourth command Christ introduced the matter of praying for those “who spitefully use you and persecute you.”
Praying for family and friends may come easy, but how often do we make intercession for those aligned against us?
This week’s very practical question for practical theology seeks to make us ponder how we are doing in the practice of loving, praising, doing good and praying.
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