JESUS' SERMON ON THE MOUNT

AN INTERPRETATION IN MODERN EXPANDED FORM

MATTHEW CHAPTER 5

Many times when Jesus had crowds of people or His disciples around him, He would sit down and seriously talk to them; these are the messages He taught.

(1-12) Happiness is a result of felicitous things that happen to a righteous person in and from this world while satisfaction emanates from the intimacy of a person's spiritual self and the Spiritual Soul.  A person can have the immense satisfaction of communing with God merely by perceiving that his/her spirit has Spiritual needs.  God showers a person with His oneness of Love when that person searches diligently for Spiritual truths.  A humble person is better able to attain this joyous satisfaction because he/she is more adept at getting along with other persons in this world and thus having time for spiritual meditation.

Heavenly happiness is showered on those who practice in body, feelings, and thoughts being the persons that they should be as a part of this world.  One way is by being merciful to others in this world thereby obtaining Godly mercy and finding satisfaction in the spirit.  If you want to understand more about God, thereby being spiritually satisfied, you should work at making your actions, feelings, and thoughts righteous. Another is to work on spiritual satisfaction by being a peacemaker in this world, and people will see you as a Godly person. 

A satisfied spirit comes to those who are persecuted because they work at being righteous in the midst of this persecuting world.  In fact, you should rejoice and feel happy when people insult and lie about you because persons close to God have down through the ages found great enjoyment in their spiritual life because they were persecuted.

(13)  You, through following the transformed Spirit of the Soul, are God's method of input to persons in this world.  But if your spirit loses contact with the Spirit of God, what good are you?  You are no better than those of this world and must live as one of them.

(14-16) If you follow your transformed spirit, you look different to people of this world, and you will always be able to show persons of the world how to do the same.  Therefore, righteous persons who follow their spirit should do their best to show his/her life before people of this world so that they may see the Father in their life.

(17-20) Don’t think that by my teachings I am trying to put down the moral laws that have been so much a part of our heritage or to discredit those of old who mean so much to us; I came not to destroy anything but to fulfill persons.  Let me impress on you further; all of these truths that have been taught over the years will be true until the end of the earth.  Persons who understand their spiritual self should do their best to allow the spirit to rule their earthly life because people of this world will look toward them as spiritual leaders.  Those who have trouble living through their spiritual life and may even cause brothers to falter will have trouble communing with the Spirit.  In order to find spiritual satisfaction, you should do your best to be more righteous than those who are merely acting righteous rather than living through a transformed spirit.

There are several actions that have a direct bearing in our relationship with our spiritual life.

(21-22) As an example, all of you know that one of the Ten Commandments states that you should not murder.  But I want you to know that you should not even be angry with a person because it may be a problem for others looking at your life.  If you become so angry that you call a person a hateful name, you may cause the brother to sin by judging you.  If you become so angry that you curse another person, you may not be able to pray thereby losing contact with your spiritual self. and have to live in this awful world without your spirit being in contact with the Soul.

(23-24)  Therefore, when you are praying and offering your self to Him and you remember that you have done something for which you need to ask a person for forgiveness, stop praying and go and ask this person for forgiveness; you can then go back to the Lord and continue to offer your spiritual self to Him.

(25-26) You need to settle problems with persons of this world as quickly as possible so that you don't get overly involved in such things. You have to solve your worldly problems before you can get back to offering your self to the Father.

(27-30) Another example that you know says that you should not commit adultery.  However, I tell you that if you even daydream of having sexual relations with the thought of actually trying to carry out the actions, you are committing adultery in your thoughts and not being righteous.  If any part of your earthly body, feelings, or thoughts cause you problems with being able to grow spiritually, recognize it and work hard on solving that problem because it may cause you to have to live in and of this devilish world.

(31-32) Such action can cause marriage problems.  The breaking of marriage vows causes a person to have trouble growing spiritually.  Even though it may be easy to get a divorce through this earthly life, you commit adultery if you divorce your spouse and remarry unless he/she has been unfaithful to you in some way.

(33-37) Another interference with a person's spiritual growth is indiscriminate use of words.  Some persons think that it is alright to say things that can't be tied to our spirits in some way or things that are not helping others through the Father, but let me emphasize that you can't change anything in this earthly life by such words.  Merely let your yes mean yes and your no mean no; any words beyond that is not righteousness.

(38-42) The Jewish people have said that a person had the right to do back to a person what that person did to him/her.  I want to tell you that you should not react negatively to persons of this world.  If one of these persons wrongs you, do everything in your power to be good to them so that you can get back to spiritual thinking as quickly as possible.

(43-48) Many persons in the past have thought that it was right to love only those who were close to them and hate those they could not understand.  I want you to know that you must work to shower God's Love on persons you don't like and offer this earthly relationship to the Father for Him to work through you as one of His children toward this other person who only thinks of this world.  After all, both the righteous and the unrighteous must physically live together as a part of this world.  If you can only have good feelings back to those who have good feelings toward you, you are only doing what any worldly person can do.  If you interact kindly only with those who live through their spirits, are you doing any different than those of this world?  Even the most wicked persons do that.  Work to live righteously as a part of this world out of your spiritual self which is permeated by your Father.

         CHAPTER 6

(1-4)  When you do these actions that are a part of being righteous in this world, be careful if you are doing them in front of people because if you do the action to be seen by people, whatever reward you get from the people will be all the reward that you will get.  You can fall into this trap by actions such as giving to someone who needs something and then feeling good in their thanking you or honoring you in some way.  It would be better to be so influenced by your righteous spirit that your body, feelings, and thoughts just do the right thing seemingly without knowing it.  Your giving is then done through and in the spirit and the reward is also through and in the spirit by and from the Father.

(5-8) Likewise, when you are praying, doing the actions of contacting the Spiritual Self, don't do these actions as a hypocrite before people, because whatever earthly reward people give to you for the prayer is all you are going to get.  In order to receive spiritual reward from the Father, you must do the action in secret because the Father knows when and why you are doing it.  Also, when praying, don't keep asking for the same thing over and over as if you don't think God is listening, because the Father already knows you need it even before you ask for it.

(9-15)  When you use the physical action of prayer, follow this as a guide: 

1. Start out by calling on the Father in your heavenly spirit and praising Him for what He is.
2. Ask Him to continue to work through you to get as much of His work on earth done as possible.
3. Ask Him to continue to help you meet your needs.
4. You should then do a most important thing--ask Him to forgive you for the times that you have not been righteous and committed sins in the same manner that you have already forgiven all others for any wrongs they have committed against you.  If you don't follow this action, you will not have that wonderful result of being forgiven for your sins by the Father. 
5. Then talk to him about your wants, problems of living in this devilish world.

(16-18) Fasting should also be done only for and in the presence of the Father because if you tell or show others that you are fasting, their action toward you will be your reward for fasting.

(19-21) Forget about trying to gain rewards and things of this world, but live through and in your spirit where nothing in this world can change.  Remember that if you love things in this world, you will have to live only in it, but if you love the Father, you will live through the spirit.

(22-23) You have control of your earthly mental understandings, and if you work at focusing your understanding on your spirit, your body can be run through the spirit, but if you live only for this world, you cannot live through your spirit and having to live only through this world is tragic.

(24) It is impossible to live and love through the spirit and through your earthly life at the same time.  You will hate one and love the other.  Either God through your spirit or the devil through this world will take control of your actions.

(25-34) Therefore, let me impress on you not to overly concern yourself with things of this world like what you are to eat or drink or wear.  Your spiritual life is much more important than worldly things.  Just as the animals and plants do not worry and are taken care of by the Father, He will take care of you because you through your spiritual self are in Him.  You cannot improve yourself in any way by being concerned with things of this world.  You should seek to live through your spirit first and then all the needs of your earthly life will naturally be met in the same manner that God cares for the plants and the animals.  Have faith because it will gain you nothing to worry about tomorrow; tomorrow is going to come whether you worry or not.  Each day our earthly venture presents enough trouble without us causing more by worrying.

CHAPTER 7

(1-6) As a further caution, don't concern yourself with the actions of others.  When you judge others as having done wrong, it is natural for them to judge you and hold you to what you have judged them.  There will be times when you have trouble living through the spirit, and if you find fault with a brother, it will be tempting to him/her to find fault in you.  Work hard to live your life through the spirit and then the spirit can help you in helping your brother rather than judging them.  But don't waste your time on those who are not even trying to understand their spirits because they will not be able to understand your trying to help them through the spirit.

(7-12) Keep on seeking and searching and praying for spiritual insights because that is the only way to grow in the spirit.  Even as we as earthly beings want to give our children what they ask for, the Father also wants to give us our spiritual desires if we just continue to seek.  If we do this, it will help us to treat others in ways that we want them to treat us which is the lesson that has been preached down through the ages.

(13-14) As you can see, the spiritual way is not easy to find.  There are only a few persons who find their way through the spiritual gate to the Soul while many continue in their earthly journey to destruction.

(15-20) Some persons who on the surface appear harmless say that they are serving the Father and will declare they know the way.  You can recognize whether you should pay attention to what they have to say by seeing if you grow spiritually.  You should only pay attention to those from whom you can grow spiritually.  If you cannot grow spiritually, pay no attention to what they have to say.

(21-23) It is necessary to be serious about this because many of these persons, who say they are serving the Father and may even be able to do acts that appear to be of the Father, are not serving the Father.  Allow the Father to do the judging of such people.

(24-27) Be a wise person who works at building a strong spirit so that when things of this world become troublesome, you will have something on which to put your faith.  Those foolish persons who don't build strong spirits are in danger of falling into unrighteousness when confronted with the problems of life.

When Jesus finished His sermons, the people listening were amazed at what He was teaching because He spoke with such wisdom and not like other religious teachers of that day.