Hank Smith: 00:01 Welcome to part two with Dr. Lincoln Blumell, Matthew 5 and Luke 6. What does it mean when salt has lost its savor? Why is it trodden under the foot of men? Could you answer that one?

Dr. Lincoln Blumell: 00:13 I would think it’s just like, if it’s not good for saving or eating, what then is it good for? And so things are discardable. You discard it and you can walk over it. And the couple things it’s good for, it doesn’t actually do. It’s lost its utility.

Hank Smith: 00:25 This is from Gerald Lund. He says, “So valuable was the commodity of salt that Roman soldiers were often paid with bags of salt. From this practice came the word salary, from the Latin solarium or salt money.”

John Bytheway: 00:40 Have you heard somebody say, “He’s not worth his salt”? I’ve heard that phrase, too. Maybe that comes from that.

Dr. Lincoln Blumell: 00:46 True. Very valuable. People fighting over salt or rights to salt. There’s always natural resources, people fighting over them. Well, at times, there were battles over who would control the salt resources.

Hank Smith: 00:57 Very useful, very valuable. That’s what the Savior’s calling his disciples to be. Useful, valuable. You’re the cash of the Earth, so don’t involve yourself with impurities, because then I can’t use you as my instrument, my tool.

John Bytheway: 01:12 And I like the idea of savor. Just everything is better with a little spice, with a little savor. With the Gospel, everything’s a little bit better, and you be that way. Go out and make everything a little bit better.

Hank Smith: 01:23 I like that.

Dr. Lincoln Blumell: 01:24 I think being voices that are different in an otherwise kind of mundane, and I don’t want to say maybe tasteless world, where it seems everybody tends to have the same opinion at times, and it’s like, “No, there’s a different opinion.” We bring something different. There’s a uniqueness. I think at times we’re called upon to do this.

  01:39 And this is why I like this kind of fitting in with in 14. You are a light. People should see you and see something different. And in 14, again going back to what you have, a salt, it’s not saying, “You are the light,” but what does it say? “I give unto you to be the light.”

Hank Smith: 01:55 Be the light.

Dr. Lincoln Blumell: 01:56 Of the world. And so there’s that challenge that He issues. Again, this is the same reading, of course in the Book of Mormon in Third Nephi 12:14. It says, “If you’re a light, city on a hill, can’t be hid. People will be seeing lights.” But then 15, “You don’t get light and then immediately put it under something.” There’s a purpose for the light.

  02:13 And just a note here, verse 15, “Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick.” I would probably say a better translation here, probably more accurate, would be, “People don’t light a lamp and put it under a bushel, and Greek word’s modeum, it’s kind of a measure here. It’s a dry measure, but like a basket. But they put it on a lamp stand. It’s a little bit different in terms of not so much a candle, here, but just a lamp.

  02:37 He’s saying, “You let it shine.” The injunction is right to the disciples. “Let what you’re doing shine. Then,” verse 16, “they’ll see what you’re doing,” your light shine, “they’ll see your good works, the good, and they’ll glorify your Father in Heaven.” I like the following verse. “I give unto you to be like a light. You don’t go and hide your light. Let your light shine so that others will see your good works and glorify your Father in Heaven.”

  03:03 There’s a good work by Dieter Bonhoeffer. He was a German theologian. He was actually put to death under the Nazis, and he wrote a book called The Cost of Discipleship. He posed this rhetorical question: how do you resolve the paradox here of letting your light shine in Matthew 5, and then in Matthew 6 saying, “Whatever you do, don’t let anybody see it. Don’t let your right hand on what your left hand is doing. Or when you give alms, don’t let anybody see this. Or when you’re fasting, don’t let anybody know you’re fasting.”

  03:28 The point he was making there, it’s, why are people seeing this? And in six, it’s about, well, they’re seeing about it really to glorify you. What a swell person. Gee, they’re fasting, they’re giving so much. But here it’s, “Who are they glorifying? They’re glorifying God.” That’s the point. And so he has this nice little digression in his book there that always really kind of touched me. What are your motives? And if you’re going to be a light, it’s not about you, it’s about God and enlightening others with the love of God.

  03:54 I really like how Christ does this here, and the focus there on the Father. As you think about this striving to be like salt and light, this challenge, these first century disciples, even today, how can we be like salt and light?

Hank Smith: 04:08 Yeah, I like these two. One, salt is a preservative, like you said, keeping things from decay. And then a light can be that enlightening influence on other people, so not only are you fighting against sin, but you’re also a positive influence for the rest of the Earth.

John Bytheway: 04:27 I find this fascinating, because of all of the nicknames that Jesus has, it seems like He shares this with us, because John 8, Feast of Tabernacles, He says, “I am the light of the world.” And here in Matthew 5:14, He says, “Ye are the light of the world.” But what you just said, Lincoln, is important, because we’re also told not to set ourselves up for a light.

  04:53 And Third Nephi just perfectly puts the two together, how He is the light of the world, and ye are the light of the world. We share that nickname. Third Nephi 18:24 says, “Therefore, hold up your light, that it may shine unto the world. Behold, I am the light which ye shall hold up, that which ye have seen me do. Behold you see that I have prayed unto the Father and ye have all witnessed. If you do what I am doing, then ye are the light of the world.”

  05:21 I love how clarifying that is. But isn’t that cool, that He shares that nickname with us, and tells us we are the light? I don’t know how many others I can think of where He does that except for this one.

Hank Smith: 05:32 That’s awesome. Moving on, Lincoln, the Lord is now going to talk about Mosaic Law, what has been said of old time, what they’ve heard before, and he’s going to either strengthen those Mosaic prohibitions or he’s going to suspend, maybe, Mosaic permissions.

Dr. Lincoln Blumell: 05:48 Yeah. You have this discussion, and this is really where I see kind of a turn, now, in chapter five. We have this unit in verses 17 to 20 about the law and its fulfillment, and then you’ll get examples throughout. You’ll have what I call six antithesis, where here’s what the law says, and now, here is now something more in terms of fulfilling the law.

  06:09 And when it talks about fulfilling the law, I don’t take this here is like, “Well, I’m going to destroy this,” because it is very clear, He said, “I’m not here to destroy this.” When I think of fulfilling here, I think he’s getting at, “Here’s now its true meaning. I’m going to bring out the full expression of what this should be.” I think it’s preparation for the Gospel. It’s requiring more.

  06:29 We talk about the Law of Moses going away. It will, right? The law is going to be fulfilled in Christ, but you have a lot of those symbolic, ceremonial, sacrificial aspects are done away with. But in the Gospel, a lot of the ethical components of the law are reaffirmed and, in fact, even strengthened.

  06:47 What you get here in the law, here’s this one example, and we will of course come to the appropriate one, but you see this in Sermon on the Mount, it’s the law about what I call orthopraxy. It’s doing the right thing. You do the correct thing, whatever that is. “Do this, do this, don’t do this, thou shalt, thou shalt not.” The law, if you read it carefully does not get into, “Well, what is a person thinking?”

  07:10 Doesn’t worry about their thoughts. Yes, it might talk about the heart periodically, but what you’re going to find here is an expansion or this fulfillment reading to the Gospel. It’s not only what you are acting; it is what you are thinking internally. That’s part of this. We get to, “Don’t just not do adultery, don’t even let that enter in your heart lest I reckon it against you like you’ve committed it.” And so this is what I see it’s doing. It brings us to its true meaning.

  07:36 You think about Paul, when Paul talks a lot about the law, he talks about, “The end of the law is Christ, to bring us to this.” And so I see Christ on fulfilling saying, “Here’s what the true expression is,” preparing them for really what you have in the Gospel. He’s very clear to say, as you read on verse 18, “For verily I say unto you, till Heaven and Earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no ways pass from the law till all be fulfilled.”

  08:00 And when He talks here about a jot or a tittle, the Greek literally has here for jot is iota. And for tittle it has this Greek word that means little horn. And what He’s saying is even the smallest parts, even the smallest letter in Greek iota, but here they do jot, or in Hebrew, a yode, or you hear you have a tittle, but a serif. Not one of these things is going to pass away until it’s all fulfilled, brought out to its true meaning. We’re not going to remove this.

  08:27 And you think about law codes in the ancient world, not only among the Jews who are very fastidious about the law and not take away from this, but others also even have a story saying, “Don’t remove a word or a syllable from a law. It’s a very serious offense.” And so just picking up on this saying, “The law’s there, nothing’s to be destroyed, but we’re going to fulfill this, bring out its full expression.”

  08:47 And I think the full expression of the law, relying on Paul, I think the law is a means to an end, I.E., the end is Christ. It’s not an end in and of itself. This is what I see is now following in what we have in these six antitheses that are going to start here in verse 21, where He’ll now invoke the law and He’ll say, “Okay, the law says this.” It’s not saying, “Okay, well don’t do that anymore,” but it’s saying, “Well really to bring this to its full expression, to expand it, this should really be naturally part of the law.”

  09:18 And by the way, I should just note this here. When you read the Third Nephi account in 17:20, it is somewhat different from the Matthean account. Of course, it drops a reference to scribes and Pharisees, not surprisingly. It’s very clear there that the law has been fulfilled. This is a post resurrection sermon. This is before the act of atonement and frames a little bit differently there.

  09:41 But as you get into these six antitheses, you get the first one in verse 21. “You have heard it has been said by them of old time.” I would say to the reader, pay attention to that, because often they’ll say, “Well you’ve heard of old time,” and sometimes He won’t say that, and when He doesn’t say it, it might not be significant, but actually, might be significant. Certainly, in one case we’re going to get to a little bit later in Matthew.

  10:04 You’ve heard of old time, so clearly he’s referring to the law. Torah. Thou shalt not kill, and whoever shall kill shall be in danger of judgment. Now just a note here, just a clarification. KJV puts kill. Technically it’s murder. I think there’s a distinction there. We’re saying you shouldn’t murder. I think we all say, “Yep, that’s a good law. Let’s not murder.” Let’s not do this.

Hank Smith: 10:22 That’s a good law.

Dr. Lincoln Blumell: 10:23 It’s not abrogating it. He’s saying, “Yep, that’s a good law, right? Don’t murder.” But then look, in 22. He says, well, I’m now going to break to his full expression. “Not only should you not murder, but I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother,” says, “without a cause shall be in danger of judgment.” Picks up on judgment also in 21, “And whosoever shall say his brother, raca, shall be in danger of the council. Whosoever shall say, thou fool, shall be in danger of hellfire.”

  10:44 As he’s expanding, he’s saying, “Look, don’t murder,” but He says, “Don’t even get angry with somebody to the point that you start berating them and doing these things, calling them raca. Raca, it’s an Aramaic word, but it’s from the Hebrew that you find in the beginning of Genesis, where it talks about emptiness or there was a void. It’s saying, “You’re empty-headed,” and so you’re really berating somebody. And so not only don’t murder, but you don’t do this. This is a full expression of what is in the law.

  11:09 Now, what’s interesting here is you have this little phrase in the KJV, “Without a cause,” which actually, when you read that carefully, it does say, “Well, maybe somebody really is empty-headed, that’s okay to do this.” But both in the JST and in the Book of Mormon, it actually gets rid of that. It’s saying, “There is no reason to go and do this.” And what I find really interesting here, again as one who works in manuscripts, when you go back and you look at the earliest manuscripts of our New Testament, they similarly have dropped this particle. It’s not there. And later manuscripts then add this. And because the King James’s textual base of the New Testament is reliant on later manuscripts you have this reading in here.

  11:50 In fact, most modern Bibles drop this, but it’s clearly a scribal interpolation. Somebody reads it, says, “That’s a hard saying. Well, maybe there’s a cause, here. Somebody could really be this,” so they add this in here. I think the JST yet removes that. I’ll speak for the Sermon on the Mount, the JSTs often, and of course in the Book of Mormon. And they’re not borne out in ancient manuscripts. And I don’t think that’s a big deal, based on [inaudible 00:12:18] evidence.

  12:18 But here’s one that actually we do find that actually does appear in our earliest manuscripts. This reading’s not there in the JST, actually agrees with it, just as an interesting aside, but it does change the frame. No, there’s not an excuse to do this.

Hank Smith: 12:31 It sounds like he’s upping the bar a little bit, where don’t murder, that’s an easier law to keep, versus don’t get angry.

Dr. Lincoln Blumell: 12:40 Angry to the point you start berating somebody. Because I think people say, “Well, can you be indignant?” Is there such thing as the wrath of God, righteous indignation? But it’s this point where you start berating and doing those things, he says, “Yes, this is not acceptable.” And you might look at this also here as you’re unlikely going to go and commit some heinous act like murder if you don’t even become angry at somebody and start berating them. It would seem to me this escalation, that’s kind of the pinnacle, and it’s saying, “Nope, don’t ever get to even close to that. Don’t even do these other things that could potentially lead to that.”

  13:12 I think this is something you’ll find with adultery. And just a point on the law. I just want to make here. You have this one, first of all, with murder and then you get into 27 and 30, and here you have, again, going back to one of the 10 Commandments, “You have heard it has been said by them of old time, ‘Thou shall not commit adultery.'” Good commandment both in Exodus 20 and in Deuteronomy 5.

  13:34 But then He goes and He’s now going to say, “Okay, don’t do the act,” talk about orthopraxy, but He says now, 28, “But I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart,” so it’s now expanding that to, “Don’t even let that enter into your heart.”

  13:50 I think here of maybe the story of David, and probably a great modern application that we could relate this to. I think in today’s society, there are going to be scenarios where you’re doing nothing wrong, and out of the blue, there’s just going to be something that’s going to come in right in front of you, in vision. And I think the response is, “What do you then do with that?”

  14:08 I think with David’s case and Bathsheba, “Okay, there’s something wrong. Do I sit there and dwell and let it enter in? Or do I come across it, okay, I’m now going to move and I’m going to get away.” Maybe like Joseph, “I’m going to run the other direction.” And so here it’s like, you let it enter in, and you say, “I’m going to reckon this against you.” And probably I’d imagine that people that go and commit adultery, probably in many cases, isn’t just an impromptu thing. It’s probably a lot of thought put into that beforehand.

Hank Smith: 14:31 Yeah.

Dr. Lincoln Blumell: 14:31 And say, “Avoid the action and now don’t even let the thought penetrate into you, because I’m going to count that against if it really enters into your heart.”

Hank Smith: 14:38 Got it. It seems that both of these are focusing on an inward spirituality versus outward behavior. The law takes care of the outward behavior, and the Savior’s saying, “I want your internal spirituality to be in line, as well.”

Dr. Lincoln Blumell: 14:54 I think certainly this one is with internal and it’s interesting. He says, “Don’t do this,” and then look what He says. You get some really interesting advice. “And if your right eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee.” Now, you do have a JST, here. He says, “I’m speaking to you as a parable,” which I think should be obvious to the readers. Don’t literally go and don’t pluck out your right eye or cut off one of your members. But He’s saying if these members are causing you to stumble, He says, “Get rid of them.” He said, “It’s better to go into the kingdom maimed than to not go in at all.”

  15:22 And I think a great application here, if I were to give what I would call a very loose dynamic rendering, it could be appropriate, I would say this, sometimes I do this in my class, I say, “If your computer screen offends thee, pluck it out. If your phone is offending you, if the television, toss it away. It’s better that you get into the Kingdom and to be maimed, so to speak, than to not get there at all.”

  15:43 And it’s very applicable with this, where there are things that can engender feelings of adultery and other things that you might come across on a computer screen, elsewhere, and that’s really the message there. Jesus is saying, “If there’s things that are causing you to stumble, here in this case, to allow this to enter your heart, get rid of them, remove them from you. It’s far more important.” I think we can really apply this. Today, think about the immorality, which actually we’re going to talk about immorality here in a moment when we get to the next couple verses, I think is really applicable.

Hank Smith: 16:10 Yeah, absolutely. This is something that is prevalent today and could be used by more people today, is this idea of get away from those things. It’s better to live a life without those things so you can go to the kingdom of God. Lincoln, those are our first two. What comes next?

Dr. Lincoln Blumell: 16:30 In our next one, number three, verses 31 and 34, we’ll talk about divorce. He said, “It has been said, whoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement.” And here, He’s referring back to Deuteronomy 24, where in the law, people were permitted, you could bring a marriage together and you could then dissolve the marriage. And in the law, when you read Deuteronomy 24:1 and forward, they’re at least driven by the man. The man can initiate a divorce.

  16:54 And so He said, “Okay, Moses allowed you to do this, so there was divorce, it’s in the law.” And then you follow in verse 32. He says, “But I say unto you that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery, and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.” This, I think, deserves some unpacking now about what does Jesus say here about divorce?

  17:17 I would start into the nitty, because there’s nitty gritty we got to talk about. There’s also, what’s interesting here, a ton of textual variance. It’s clear that it’s Jesus teaching on divorce, and textual variance are such that scribes did not like what He was saying, because He takes a much stronger stand on this. We’ll talk about that. He says, “Okay, the law granted divorce, but whoever goes and puts away his wife,” meaning gets a divorce, “if it’s done,” and the only exception He gives says, “the cause of fornication.”

  17:46 Now, the Greek word here for fornication, and you’re going to know right away what the English word is, it’s porneia, which is fornication or sexual immorality. You could even extend this word. Porneia can denote even apostasy, although primarily it has to do with sexual immorality. He says, “Okay, if you go and you put away your spouse and they’re committing porneia, sexual immorality, if that person is remarried, she commits adultery and whoever marries her commits adultery.”

  18:14 Now, this is interesting, the second part of this, because this last line here in verse 32 is missing in various manuscripts, and so you’re trying to think, “Okay, what is He saying?” Because when you go over to, for example, in Mark 10, because Jesus talks about divorce four times. He talks about it here, He talks about it in Matthew 19 where, in fact, He will reiterate this, and then you have it in Mark 10 and also in Luke 16.

  18:40 And it’s interesting, the Markean version is basically says, “Well, whoever divorces and marries commits adultery.” He strengthens this. The question is, “Okay, what’s He getting at here with this?” He gives one exception. And by the way, there’s a lot here to this. When you read 1 Corinthians 7:10-11, Paul actually picks up and he says, “I’m not speaking to the married.”

  19:00 He says, “I’m not speaking, but the Lord’s speaking. If you get divorced, you should not be remarried.” But he says, “Now I’m going to go back.” He says, “That was the Lord’s words.” It does seem that Jesus does take a stronger chord on this. And what I would do here with this passage is Jesus trying to say, “Look, marriage is sacred. Not only should it not be entered into lightly, it should not be dissolved lightly.” Does grant there is a ground here where it could be dissolved.

  19:26 When you think about Jesus’ day, there are two notable rabbis in his day that we read about. One is this rabbi called Shammai, and another is Hillel. And Shammai is known as this more right kind of conservative and Hillel’s more conservative liberal. I don’t know if that’s the greatest way to describe them. But you have cases that is talked about in the Mishnah basically, where Shammai says, “You know what? The only grounds for divorce should be unchastity,” which actually agrees what Jesus is saying here. If somebody’s committing porneia.

  19:58 Hillel says, “Well, because it says back in Deuteronomy, ‘if she finds no favor in your eyes,'” and he says, “Well, if you find somebody prettier,” and he gives somebody these examples that are cringe worthy. If she spoils a dish, I.E., burns dinner. Now again, these are real extremes, and I don’t want to say this was the norm in Judaism at the time. In fact, Rabbi Akiva, he said clearly says, “If you find somebody prettier, that is okay.”

  20:22 And I bring this up because it’s very clear that in his world, some of this is going on. Just a few weeks ago doing Malachi, it was clear where you have people divorcing their wives, seeking other women, and there were not appropriate grounds. Lord actually in Malachi says, “I hate this.” And you have the Jewish historian, Josephus. He was divorced multiple times and on one case he says, “I divorced the lady after she bore me three children because I didn’t like her manners.” And he talks about, “This is what you do.”

  20:50 And I think what Jesus is saying, “Look, this is going on,” but He says, “this is a sacred act. It should be sacred and you should not dissolve it lightly.” But He does grant a ground for that. Now, in Matthew 19, He will go into some more detail on this and in fact, He says, “God joined you together and you become one flesh.” This is not brought up here. The way I would teach is saying, “It’s really sacred.”

  21:12 Now of course, in the church today, divorce is granted beyond just if one partner is sexually unfaithful. There’s a talk. The one that come to mind for me is by Dallin H. Oaks on this, where there are reasons they allow for this. The principle behind this really is, it’s sacred and should not be dissolved lightly, because it’s clear in Judaism that some of this is going on and the Savior was not pleased with this and wanted to make this point, drive it home very clearly to his listeners at the time.

Hank Smith: 21:41 Wow, that is a strong stance. I have nothing to say on that. Wow. Lincoln, before we jump into number four, can we say something to the divorced so they don’t feel alienated? Someone who’s listening maybe got divorced not for fornication, for other reasons, and they’re thinking they maybe did something wrong.

Dr. Lincoln Blumell: 22:01 We might not always follow the exact practice, but what is the principle? And Christ, He says, “Here are the conditions I’m putting in place for its dissolution in the first century.” We have prophets and apostles today, and in Elder Oaks talk, understanding that people, at times through no fault of their own, it takes two people to marry but only one person to end a marriage. And we read Elder Oaks talking to the other comments that people who are keeping their covenants, to use the word savor, will not lose their reward, if they’re covenant keeping people and a spouse chooses no longer to keep their covenants.

  22:36 In fact, that’s why I even brought up with this word porneia, the principle meaning is sexual immorality, but you could even have an element of apostasy. Of course there’s other things, too. Elder Oaks talks about abandonment, abuse, all these things. There are certainly allowances, and I think that when this does happen, it’s a very challenging, difficult, hard thing, obviously. But I would say to people, look to the Lord. Be true to who you are. And if you’ve kept your covenants and you’ve done your best, you know that you can stand before the Lord and say that. I absolutely know that you can stand before the Lord and say, “I did my best.”

  23:11 Elder Oaks’ talk, he says, “Marriage doesn’t require two perfect people. It requires people just to try.” And if you are trying your best, you can stand before the Lord, whatever your situation might be, you can’t control the other person. You can stand before the Lord and say, “I did my best.” And you cannot be faulted for that, because this is a hard thing. And yes, there are challenges and people will make decisions. There are allowances for this.

Hank Smith: 23:33 Okay, Lincoln, what’s number four? What’s the fourth old time law that He talks about?

Dr. Lincoln Blumell: 23:40 The fourth one is verse 33-37, and here it’s talking about forswearing. “Again, you have heard it has been said by them of old time, thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths.” Here, when you think of forswear, it’s basically swearing falsely or making false oaths. If you go back to Numbers and Deuteronomy, it’s like, “If you make a vow to someone and you swear upon this, don’t break that.” It’s really deemed a grave act to do so.

  24:08 And what I love about this is the Lord says, “Don’t make false oaths. Be a person of integrity.” But I love how the Lord then goes on and says, “Look, you shouldn’t even have to swear at all, whether in Jerusalem or anywhere else, to be a person of your word or a person of integrity.” He says, “Really, all your communication should be,” and this is in verse 37, is “Yea, yea, or nay, nay.”

  24:32 We think of our society today, think of a juridical setting in a courtroom. “Well, will you place your hand on the Bible and tell us the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God?” Because it’s like, “Well, if they do that, now they’ll tell the truth.” My dad’s a lawyer and said people still lie all the time anyway, even when they do that.

  24:47 But the point is that for disciples, you shouldn’t have to do that to be a person of integrity. You should say yes or no. Your word is your bond. And so this is what He’s getting at, that all this swearing is really not needful. Said, “Well, I know they’re telling the truth because they just swore on Jerusalem or they swore on something else.” No, you’re just a person of integrity.

  25:07 In the law to really make sure somebody’s doing this, you make a vow or an oath and He says, “This really shouldn’t be necessary.” I think really just to be a person of your word. And really, that is one of the more simple ones. And look at ourself, is our word our bond as disciples? Since this is the challenge here that He issues, to go and to do this.

  25:26 As we move into the fifth antithesis, we have now in 38-42, an eye for an eye, as you get down to this passage. “You’ve heard it hath been said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” Exodus 21 or Leviticus 24, Deuteronomy 19, all mention this, an eye for an eye.

  25:44 I may want to take a digression here just for a moment on the law, because I talked about this before in an earlier section about fulfilling the law. When people think about the law, they think, “Well, this law is this bad, horrible thing. It’s an eye for an eye.” Just to reframe that a little bit, when I think about what the law is, and there’s a Latin legal phrase that I think kind of encapsulates the law, and it’s the phrase Lex Tallonis, or a law of retribution, or almost like tit-for-tat.

  26:10 And what the law’s trying to do, people say, “Well, it’s about revenge. I think, “Well, the law’s not about revenge.” In fact, what does Christ say about the law in Matthew, later on in the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 7:12? He says, “Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even to them, for this is the law and the prophets.”

  26:29 And so what the law is about, really, it’s the law of absolute justice. If you wrong me, I can now go back, do something to you in like measure. And I think in that respect, the law’s a good thing. I think in ancient society or in any society, you probably have what’s the law of the jungle, where you have, “Okay, you wrong me, or you call me a name. Well, I’m going to call you a worse name, and then you call me a worse name, and then you hit me, and it keeps on getting escalated. It goes up and up.”

  26:54 And the law is saying, if somebody wrongs you, there is a cap on what you can do back to them. It’s reciprocal. If somebody called you a name, you can’t go and kill them. You can only do something back in like measure. An eye for an eye. Well, in the law, by the way, somebody knocks out your eye, you can’t go and actually knock out their eye. It’s a monetary fine. What is equivalent to that?

  27:16 I think you have to think about the law in this sense. And Christ does say, “This is the law.” We’re going to now expand that. And what you’re going to expand this now is saying, “Okay, yes, in the law you can act justly against somebody. You’ve wronged me, I’m now going to wrong you back in a certain measure or redress this wrong.” And He is saying, “You know what? Maybe you just ought to forgive them and not go and carry out justice against them.”

  27:36 Here, for example, it will talk about turning the other cheek. I think there’s something really in this, this whole idea of forgiving. It’s easier to do that sometimes than to go and seek justice. I think this idea of forgiveness, I mentioned the parable, unforgiving steward, forgiving. There’s a quote by Alexander Pope where he talks about, “To err is human, but to forgive, divine.” In this, especially, trying to be like the Savior. Being forgiving when we’re wronged. I’m going to say, “You know what? I’m just forgiving. I’m turning the other cheek on this, if you’ve wronged me here in this.”

  28:11 Again, I think requiring more. Where the law can say, “No, you can act back in a just way,” no, we’re going to forgive. You’ve got an expansion of this here in this antithesis where He brings this up.

Hank Smith: 28:23 That is absolutely beautiful, and it’s something the Savior teaches often. This isn’t the only place where the Savior teaches it’s easier to forgive.

Dr. Lincoln Blumell: 28:31 We’re trying to be disciples. And just a note here, I know that some people in the passage you have where it talks about, “Ye resist not evil.” People say, “Well, what does this mean?” Well, I think a better reading is, “Resist not the evildoer.” It’s not saying just go and let evil be rampant, but if somebody wrongs you sometimes, okay, it may happen. If they strike you, well then, turn the other cheek.

  28:53 Paul gives some counsel in Romans 13 on this. When people are wronging you, you still treat them as a disciple ought. And this is really nice, because this really sets up the final antithesis, which, for me, I think is one of the most challenging things. A lot of people listening probably don’t have too much of a problem with murder and some of these things. But I think here, you think of now forgiving, and now what’s the hard thing this leads into?

  29:16 Well, now, loving those who do not love you back. We have 43-47 about loving enemies. Look how it says here. “You have heard it hath been said thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thy enemy.” I did point out earlier on, I said that often He’ll say, “You have heard that’s been said by them of old.” He doesn’t say that, but here, “This is being said, you should love your neighbor.” Well, if you go to Leviticus 19:18, we know where it says, “Love your neighbor as thyself.” Okay, we have that.

  29:42 What’s interesting, though, it says, “And hate thine enemy.” If you go back and read in the law, there is nowhere where it says you should hate your enemy. People are wondering, “Well, where are they getting this from?” And this is a good question. As I read here, “It’s been said,” or “It’s being said,” there is maybe a trade in there in Jewish society that is saying, “Look, we don’t like our enemies, whether they’re Gentiles or someone else.”

  30:05 In fact, in the Dead Sea Scrolls, they have this document called the Community Rule. It’s kind of like a charter for things they will adhere to. And one of the things it says there repeatedly, it says, “Okay, make sure you love all the sons of light and totally hate all the sons of darkness with an everlasting hatred. The people not in our group, they’re wicked.” And I’m not saying that Jesus is necessarily responding to this group, but I could see in a society where people are saying, “Okay, let’s love those who love us back and let’s hate those who don’t love us, because it’s not in the law.”

  30:36 And this is where He then leads into saying, “Well, you know what? What you really ought to do is love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you.” And why do you do this? “That you may be the children of your Father.” Now going back, think about this. Who are the children in the Beatitudes? The peacemakers. You don’t fight fire with fire. You fight with water. You try to put it out. And in fact, you even go beyond that. You actually show them love. This can be a really challenging thing, but I think it’s again, the cost of discipleship.

  31:12 There’s a great story that I think really epitomizes this, and the story relates back to events surrounding the aftermath of the building of the Berlin Wall in the early 1960s. I think everybody knows the Berlin Wall. It was put up in the early 1960s, it separated East and West Berlin, but also East and West Germany, and it was a real symbol of an ideological divide with Communism and then the west. And this wall got put up, and literally, if you go to Berlin today, the wall’s still up, or they’ll have a place where it’s marked on the ground. It literally went right through the middle of neighborhoods.

  31:47 And there’s a story that’s told, is that as this wall is put up, is that one morning people living on the western side of the wall woke up and the people on the east had thrown all their garbage over that night onto their side of the wall. If you wake up one morning and your neighbor’s thrown all their garbage deliberately on your lawn, what are you likely going to do? Let’s be honest. Well, we’re probably going to throw back on their lawn and say, “There, we got you back.” You throw it on the lawn, no, throw it back on your lawn.

  32:11 They said, “Okay, those darn East Berliners or Commies, let’s just throw the garbage back on the other side of the wall, so they do that. Well, they go to bed, they wake up. What do you think happens the next day? Well, there’s more garbage. They have this garbage war, kind of throwing garbage back and forth over the wall. And a local minister, and I believe it’s a Lutheran minister, heard about this, and came to those who were in his congregation, some of them were, and said, “I heard this is going on, you shouldn’t be throwing garbage over this wall.” But he says, “Let me ask you a question. If Jesus was given garbage, what would He do?”

  32:41 And they hemmed and hawed and said, “Well, He probably wouldn’t return garbage with garbage.” And he says, “Okay, what should we do?” And they said, “Okay, when garbage is thrown over, let’s just scoop it up and we’ll haul it off,” so they scoop up the garbage, they haul it off. A short time later, he comes back and says, “Okay, let me ask you again. What would Jesus do?” And the decision was, “Well, Jesus wouldn’t return garbage with garbage. In fact, He’d probably return it with love.”

  33:05 He says, “Okay, how can we show love to these people?” In fact, the stories we’re hearing is that they’re very oppressed. It’s a very challenging regime. There are shortages. And so they determined saying, “Okay, when garbage is thrown over, we’re going to throw over blankets, food, letters, things like that.” Guess what happened in one night to the garbage? It stopped. It totally stopped. And letters and things started coming over saying, “Thank you so much. We’re in a very hard situation. Have you seen family members?” And all this thing, and there was a relationship built up because somebody showed love to their enemy. Eventually, the Communist regime found out and put a station there, so they put a stop to that.

  33:39 But I think it illustrates a very profound lesson. Your natural reaction is to return garbage for garbage, especially to an enemy. But if you take the time and show them love, sometimes, profound things can happen. And I would even say, even if it didn’t make a change, we’re still commanded to do it. But I think more oft than not, you’ll see how it can change somebody when they’re truly loved, when they’ve wronged you. That story for me really illustrates, the power of this is to love your enemies, and to do things to them even if it’s really challenging.

John Bytheway: 34:07 How that changed, that’s a beauty for ashes thing. I’ll return beauty for ashes, and that’s a great one.

Hank Smith: 34:13 That is. Wow, I’m going to use that. That’s beautiful.

Dr. Lincoln Blumell: 34:16 And as I look at these, you have this antithesis, and for me anyway, I think a challenge is this is probably for me one of the hardest things, loving your enemies. Maybe this is why this is last. And then what you have? Well, now we have the final verse. “Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father in Heaven is perfect.” What does the JST do? It’s, “You’re commanded to be perfect.” What’s interesting here, here’s an A case where the JST now actually differs from the Book of Mormon, because the JST, in many cases correspond. What does the Book of Mormon have? “Therefore, I would that ye be perfect, even as I or your Father who is in Heaven is perfect.” Jesus now includes Him in this.

  34:52 When we think of this term perfect, I think for many people, they don’t like hearing this term. “I’m never going to be perfect. I’m nowhere close.” Going back to this idea of Greek, this Greek word, teleos. What does this mean? It means complete, or a finished product. In fact, I’m going to bring in some Aristotle. Aristotle is the one that begins defining this and using this word, teleology. What is perfect? Well, it’s the end or purpose in something. It’s the purpose you are to become.

  35:23 As I look at this, it’s not something that just happens all of a sudden. It’s a process. You become a finished product. And I even bring up here, and this is important, that even Jesus, it’s only after the resurrection, says, “Even as I or your Father is perfect.” And of course, the question that begs is, “Well, was Jesus not perfect?” Well, if we look at this, yes, Jesus lived a perfect life in the sense that he followed the will of the Father. However, it’s very clear when we think about perfection, becoming like the Father in every way, Jesus, there was progression.

  35:56 The passage that is a great passage, I’ll also mention it really quickly that is worth looking at, we have D&C 93 about progression, but in the New Testament it’s Hebrews 9 and 10, which it actually even says using the verbal form of this about Jesus, it calls Him “The Captain of their salvation,” and it says the end of 10, “was made perfect through sufferings.” We look at this process, and Hank, you quoted that thing about that rough stone rolling. These things happen, right? This is a process until you become this smooth shaft in the quiver of the Almighty.

  36:25 The Greek word, really, it’s a process, and I really like the Aristotelian teleology. It’s kind of the end. This is what you’re seeking for, you’re striving for. You’re looking to be a finished product like the Father. I wouldn’t look at that as like, “Oh, I’ll never, I can ever be perfect.” Well, I don’t think it’s asking you to do this. It’s saying, “You’re moving in this direction like you’re trying to become a finished product.” It’s this process, and by doing the things that you see leading up to this, this will now help you now expedite that work of becoming teleos, that finished product like the father and like the son.

Hank Smith: 36:58 That’s great.

John Bytheway: 36:59 President Nelson, when he was Elder Russell M. Nelson in, this would’ve been October, 1995, General Conference, and forgive me if I don’t pronounce the Greek as well as you did. He said, “The term perfect was translated from the Greek teleos, which means complete. The infinitive form of the verb is teleono, which means to reach a distant end, to be fully developed, to consummate or to finish. Please note that the word does not imply freedom from error. It implies achieving a distant objective,” which is just what you were saying. This is a process. And more recently, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland gave that talk called Be Ye Therefore Perfect Eventually.

Hank Smith: 37:41 Eventually.

John Bytheway: 37:42 Yeah.

Dr. Lincoln Blumell: 37:42 Yes, eventually. And it really is. As I think about this, we define ourself by our potential. This is our potential, and it’s a lot to go there, but this process, this development. And I love this, because the sermon at this point, it’s kind of putting the building box in place, saying, “You want to do this? Here’s what you ought to start doing and working at in this process.”

Hank Smith: 38:04 Lincoln, this has been a fantastic day, going through this one chapter. Just so much in 48 verses, so much to talk about, so much to see. What do you hope our listeners walk away with from Matthew 5?

Dr. Lincoln Blumell: 38:20 What I would hope is, first of all, if I were to tell somebody, or if they say, “I want to be a disciple,” I’d say, “Well, then, start in the Sermon on the Mount where it starts.” What is Jesus teaching His disciples? What’s He advocating? I would also say here, how does restoration scripture, both the JST and the Book of Mormon, how does that give us a better understanding? Because often you’ll find, “I command you, I give unto you to be this.” And so you sometimes read it and you’re saying, “Oh my goodness, how can I be righteous? How can I be this?” But it’s a charge to be like this.

  38:50 It moves along, “Okay, you want to be in a blessed state? Do these things.” It expands the law. And really, the capstone is this idea of being complete, being whole, but it’s a process. Jesus knew that it’s a process. When you read the Gospels, we really get one disciple focused on most in the Gospel. That’s Peter. It’s very clear that Peter’s process to become teleos, or to be refined, is a long process. And if that’s for Peter, it’s for all of us as disciples.

  39:19 I would say, and for myself, not to be overwhelmed or discouraged. I struggle with enemy. How do you deal with this? I think, love them back. Show them genuine love. Pray for them. In those times where I’ve tried to do this, there at times can be a profound change. I guess little by little, I’m trying to become this developed disciple and do things Christ would have me do. I would just say to people, yeah, it’s a process. That’s why I like the reference of the talk: become perfect eventually, but you’re moving in the right direction. Just keep moving.

  39:50 There’s that statement I’ve heard, that the path of discipleship is not always a straight path. Sometimes there are detours or there are things, but I say, just keep going in the right direction every single day. Do those little things. I quoted Pliny the Elder here, where he talks about salt and then about sun. He has this other great line. He was such a prolific writer, but one of his lines, I won’t quote the Latin here, but more or less, he says, “Every day, I write a line,” he says, “I do something.” He says, “Every day, I do something,” and I would bring it into a Gospel perspective of small and simple things.

  40:22 You’ll say, “Hey, I can’t do all this.” Well, let’s start with one thing. Just every day, by small and simple things are great things brought to pass. And if you do this over time, cumulatively, you will see a big, big difference. This is my takeaway from the Sermon on the Mount, and really, it’s the essence of the Gospel. I can say you do get peace from it. Absolutely. I, like all of us, have some profound struggles in our own life, personal struggles, but the peace and the comfort have come through the Gospel, and if it works for me, it works for you. Those are my big takeaways from this chapter.

Hank Smith: 40:57 What a great day we’ve had in Matthew 5.

John Bytheway: 41:00 And there’s more of the Sermon on the Mount coming, too. That’s what’s fun is it’s in a couple of more chapters.

Dr. Lincoln Blumell: 41:05 Two more chapters. Yep.

Hank Smith: 41:07 Greatest sermon ever given. Lincoln, you definitely did it justice today. Thank you for being here.

Dr. Lincoln Blumell: 41:11 I hope it was helpful.

Hank Smith: 41:11 Yeah.

Dr. Lincoln Blumell: 41:13 I love just getting your insights and everything, so I really enjoyed this, so thank you for having me on.

John Bytheway: 41:16 Thank you.

Hank Smith: 41:17 Yeah, that was so many good things. I can’t tell you how many notes I’ve taken in my scriptures here. To really draw out the power of this chapter has been a lot of fun. We want to thank Dr. Lincoln Blumell for being with us today. What a treat. We want to thank our executive producer, Shannon Sorensen, our sponsors, David and Verla Sorensen, and we always remember our founder, the late Steve Sorensen. We hope you will join us next week. We have more of Sermon on the Mount coming up on followHIM.

  41:47 Today’s transcripts, show notes, and additional references are available on our website, followhim.co. Followhim.co. And you can watch the podcast on YouTube with additional videos on Facebook and Instagram. All of this is absolutely free, so be sure to share with your family and friends. To reach those who are searching for help with their Come, Follow Me study, please subscribe, rate, review, or comment on the podcast, which makes the podcast easier to fight. Thank you.

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