Matthew 5:13-20
“Notice what you notice.” For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven (v. 20). I’ve always read this verse with a bit of trepidation for my own soul, with questions of “What does righteousness mean?” or “What is the target level that I want to exceed (by a lot!)?”. It gets especially challenging when I think of how Jesus had His focus on the Spirit of the Law vs. the Letter of the Law – and how much I might be adjusting my own thinking if the “letter of the law” doesn’t quite suit me. So yeah, this verse has always “tormented” me.
HOWEVER, something new came to me today – my concern for the scribes and Pharisees! Suppose we measure righteousness on a 10-scale and we put the scribes and Pharisees at an overall 3. Some might be 4s and 5s, others 1s and 2s – some even like Nicodemus could even be 7 or 8. But in verse 20 Jesus has set a bar somewhere, whether it be a 3.1 or 5.7 or 8.2 – wherever! And He has lumped the scribes and Pharisees into a group short of that bar. That is, they will never enter the kingdom of heaven. And that’s tragic!
All of this calls to mind another section of Scripture: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and cast out demons in Your name, and do many mighty works in Your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” (Matthew 7:21-23). Scary! Lord, Lord, do You know me…?
Blessings!