Matthew 6 - Teachings of Jesus Christ part 2
Jesus Christ’s teaching continue to address the heart, He teaches the disciples to refrain from doing righteousness, giving alms, prayers or fasting just for show. Note that it doesn’t mean that we can’t pray in public, the apostles frequently gathers together to pray, the point is doing it out of heart not for show.
The famous Lord’s Prayer provides a pattern of how we ought to pray, to honor our Father in heaven, asking like a child, having faith that He listens. Then it is to ask for His kingdom to be upon earth and His will to be done. A kingdom means there’s a leader or a king, so the leader will set the example on how the kingdom would be like. Here Jesus Christ is teaching to ask for God’s kingdom to be upon earth, this Kingdom will follow how God is like, righteous, kind, just, patient, merciful, faithful and etc. It’s asking God to come & reign on earth, following His will for us to be like Him with His help. Asking our Father in heaven like a child for bread shows total dependence on Him, to come to Him boldly to ask from Him.
Our Father in Heaven has forgiven us because of Jesus Christ, so we can now have a relationship with Him, some may find that there’s no consequences for their sins but mostly that’s not true. If a married couple had a child then one of them committed adultery before they accepted Jesus Christ and divorced, but the spouse has already married another & their children’s childhood has already been broken. Then the consequences roll on to another generation. Forgiveness doesn’t mean there’s no consequences. When the perpetrators comes before us to ask for forgiveness out of repentance, we are encouraged to forgive them.
There are many who abuse this but forgiveness & trust is two different things. For example, when a spouse had already committed adultery, or an employee committed stealing, or someone abusing others in any ways, then they asked for forgiveness, we can forgive them but they must earn that trust back. There should be a boundary, if the perpetrators are unwilling to work & earn the trust back then it usually means they have forgotten it was them that broke that trust in the first place & just want an easy pass. If they are truly repentant, they would be willing to work even with their whole lives to earn that trust back if they truly value that relationship. It won’t be perfect to get it right every time but one can feel the true effort that comes from the heart & not from the position of wanting to get it done as soon as possible just to feel better. There’s never an easy way out from earning a broken trust but with God’s help it is not impossible. When it gets tough, it always help to think that the trust was given first but broken. So it would take much more to fix it than to maintain it.
Jesus Christ teaching the disciples to rely on God for protection and deliverance from the evil one shows again a total dependence on God. After that, Jesus Christ redirect the disciples back on how to do fasting, storing treasure, the parable of the eye & light and the parable of serving two masters in general, there’s still that one principle is that the heart is important, to be faithful in serving God & not for self nor for show. In the end, He encourages to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness & do not worry. Let us be encouraged by His words to apply this in our lives & follow His will.