6th Sunday after Trinity - 17 Jul 1955
17 July 1955, St. John’s Chapel
Matthew 5:20-26: “For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Ye have heard that it was said of them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.”
We find that our Lord often condemned the religion of the Pharisees. What was wrong with their religion? They thought that they were superior to other people in their moral character and conduct. They also often showed a lack of charity and love. They had their emphasis on law, rather than on love, on the letter rather than the spirit. It was this that prompted the words of Jesus: “Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and the Pharisees you shall in no way enter into the kingdom of heaven. For the kingdom of God is first and foremost the sphere in which love reigns and not law.
To the Pharisee righteousness was in obeying the law to the very letter. It did not matter to them in what spirit it was done. To our Lord righteousness was in the inner condition of the soul. The Pharisees stressed the importance of outward conformity and religious observances. It is not that our Lord ignored or treated as of no value the outward expression, for His teaching was ethical through and through; but for Him this depended upon and grew out of the right inner relationship of the individual with God.
It is possible to observe with great care the forms of religion without the inner experience. But the essence of true religion is the inner life of grace and power which will reveal itself in the conduct of life. For true religion works often slowly, but none the less surely – a gradual transformation of the individual’s life in all its varied relationships. So let us keep in mind that true religion is in the inner life rather than in the outward observances of religion, it is in being rather than doing. It is possible to do loving deeds without love in our hearts. True religion is in having love in our hearts – love for God and love for man. Once we have this love it will show itself in our daily conduct.
We have to constantly examine our motives, our inner thoughts and feelings. (Habit of coming to church. Have we the love of God in our hearts? Acts of kindness and charity - Do we have love for men?)