The Sermon on the Mount: the main readings from Augustine to the present

Program / Course 22: Christian Ethics / Lesson 2.3

What you will learn

• Outline the structure and main themes of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5 to 7).
• Describe the main historical ways of reading its demands, from Augustine to modern scholars.
• State how Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Reformed and Anabaptist traditions apply it.
• Explain why each reading is attractive and what difficulties it faces.

The big idea

The Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 5 to 7, is the longest block of Jesus’ moral teaching. It opens with the Beatitudes, deepens the commandments against murder and adultery, and calls for love of enemies, honest speech and simple trust in God. Christians agree that it is central, but disagree about how it applies. Some take it as a rule for all believers, some as counsels for the specially called, some as a mirror that shows the need for grace, and some as an ideal for the age to come.

Key terms

Beatitudes

The opening blessings of the Sermon, each beginning “Blessed are” (Matthew 5:3-12).

Antitheses

The six passages in Matthew 5:21-48 where Jesus says, “Ye have heard that it was said... but I say unto you.”

Counsels of perfection

In medieval Catholic teaching, advice such as poverty, chastity and obedience that is not required of all but offered to those who seek a fuller following of Christ.

Interim ethic

Albert Schweitzer’s term for the view that Jesus’ radical demands were meant for a short period before the expected end of the world.

Two kingdoms

Luther’s teaching that God rules the world through two means, the gospel and the church in one, law and the sword in the other.

Discipleship

Following Christ as a pupil follows a teacher, including obedience to his teaching.

Hyperbole

Deliberate exaggeration used for effect, such as plucking out an eye (Matthew 5:29).

Background

Matthew presents the Sermon as Jesus teaching his disciples on a mountain, with the crowds listening (Matthew 5:1; 7:28). Luke has a shorter parallel on a plain (Luke 6:17-49). Scholars discuss whether the Sermon is a single discourse or a collection of sayings arranged by the evangelist. Whichever is true, the text as it stands is a coherent portrait of life in the kingdom of heaven.

The Sermon begins with blessing for the poor in spirit, the mourning, the meek and those who hunger for righteousness. It states that Jesus has come to fulfil the law (5:17-20). It then gives the six antitheses on anger, lust, divorce, oaths, retaliation and love of enemies. In chapter 6 Jesus speaks of giving, prayer and fasting done in secret, gives the Lord’s Prayer and warns against anxiety about possessions. In chapter 7 he warns against judging, urges asking and seeking, and ends with the two builders, one on rock and one on sand. The question for Christian ethics is how to understand the force of these demands. Different periods have answered differently.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: Augustine and the early church

Augustine wrote a commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, around 393 to 396, in which he called it a perfect measure of the Christian life. He read the Beatitudes as steps of ascent, linked them to the gifts of the Spirit, and treated the antitheses as a deepening of the law from the act to the heart. The Sermon, for him, binds all believers, though he explains hard sayings, such as the command to turn the other cheek, as concerning the inner disposition. Augustine held that a person may sometimes use force for the good of the one corrected, while acting in love.

Many Fathers, including Chrysostom, preached on the Sermon at length and treated it as practical teaching for all Christians, not only monks. Some early writers, such as Tertullian and Origen, read parts of it as incompatible with military service. Later lessons on war return to this.

Step 2: The medieval distinction

In the Middle Ages, Catholic teachers, notably Aquinas, distinguished between precepts that bind all and counsels that invite some to higher perfection. Aquinas held that the Sermon includes both, and that most of its demands are precepts concerning the disposition of the heart, to be kept by everyone, such as being ready to forgive. Counsels, such as voluntary poverty, belong to those called to a religious life. This approach allowed the church to take the Sermon seriously while recognizing different callings.

Orthodox tradition did not adopt the precepts and counsels distinction in the same form but has in practice a similar pattern: the ascetic life of monks makes visible what is asked of all in some measure. The Beatitudes are sung at the Divine Liturgy, which shows their central place in Orthodox worship.

Step 3: The Reformation readings

Luther rejected the idea that the Sermon’s demands were counsels for monks. He taught that they bind all Christians, but in their personal relationships and not in the office of a ruler or judge. A Christian as a person turns the other cheek. A Christian as a magistrate or soldier carries out the sword on behalf of others. This is part of his two kingdoms teaching. He also taught that the Sermon shows that no one fulfils the law and so drives people to Christ for mercy.

Calvin likewise held that the Sermon is the true interpretation of the law, which the Pharisees had distorted, not a new law. He held that it applies to all believers and that Jesus’ prohibition of vengeance concerns private revenge, and does not abolish the lawful use of courts and force by the magistrate. Reformed and Lutheran readings are close, though they differ on emphases.

The Anabaptists, including Menno Simons and later the Mennonite and Hutterite traditions, read the Sermon as a literal rule for the visible church. They refused oaths and the use of the sword, even by the magistrate, and held that Christ’s followers form a community that lives by the Sermon even where society does not. The Schleitheim Confession of 1527 states this position. Critics reply that this makes the church withdraw from responsibility for the common good, and Anabaptists answer that faithful witness is its own form of responsibility.

Step 4: Modern readings

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries scholars proposed new readings. Albert Schweitzer held that Jesus expected the world’s end soon and taught an interim ethic, so the Sermon was not meant for ordinary history. The dispensationalists taught that the Sermon belongs to the kingdom age yet to come, and applies to the church only as principle. Liberal Protestants, such as Adolf von Harnack, emphasized the ethic of inward love and the fatherhood of God. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in The Cost of Discipleship, read the Sermon as a call to costly obedience for all believers and warned against cheap grace. Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi drew on the Sermon for nonviolent resistance.

Recent scholars, such as Dale Allison and Ulrich Luz, have studied the Sermon in the setting of Jewish thought and the history of its interpretation. Many note its use of hyperbole, which calls for real change of life without meaning that every phrase is a rule to be applied mechanically. A sound reading, most agree, must take both its radical demand and its literary form seriously.

1. Does this reading say the Sermon binds all believers, some believers, or no one in this age?
2. How does the reading handle sayings that seem to be exaggerations, such as plucking out an eye?
3. Does the reading distinguish a person’s private duties from the duties of an office?
4. What is the role of grace in this reading, and what is the role of effort?
5. What does this reading ask of someone in a concrete situation, such as an insult or a lawsuit?
6. What is the strongest objection to this reading?

Examples

Different perspectives

Catholic

The Catholic tradition holds that the Sermon is central to the New Law and the heart of the Gospel, and the Catechism treats it at length as the pattern of Christian life. Its demands are kept by grace, and the tradition has distinguished precepts that bind all from counsels that invite those called to a higher perfection. Catholic teaching also holds that the Sermon does not remove the legitimate authority of the state.

Orthodox

Orthodox tradition treats the Beatitudes as the sung heart of the liturgy and as the shape of life in Christ. The Sermon is read as a call to inner transformation, humility and forgiveness, lived out in the church. Orthodox writers generally allow that the state may use force, while holding that the Christian’s own personal stance is mercy.

Lutheran and Reformed

Lutheran and Reformed traditions hold that the Sermon binds all Christians and shows the true meaning of the law. They distinguish a person’s private conduct from the duties of public office, and teach that the Sermon shows the need for grace. They reject the idea that its demands are only for monks or only for a future age.

Anabaptist and peace church

Anabaptist, Mennonite and Quaker traditions hold that the Sermon is meant to be lived literally by the community of disciples, including nonviolence and refusal of oaths. They hold that the church is a visible alternative society. Many in these traditions say that this is not withdrawal but a form of service to the world.

Scholarly

Scholars generally agree that the Sermon is Matthew’s collected teaching, set in the framework of Jewish piety, and that its language uses vivid overstatement. They disagree on whether it is an ethic for the present age, an interim ethic or an eschatological ideal. Most hold that it expects obedience in the present.

Why it matters

The Sermon is probably the most quoted part of the Bible outside the church. People of many faiths and none cite it. The way it is read decides what Christians think about anger, money, oaths, enemies and the state. Learning the main readings allows a student to see that a person who cites it is taking a position, and to ask which one.

Common misunderstandings

Knowledge check

Think it through

1. Which of the readings in this lesson seems truest to the text of Matthew 5 to 7, and which seems most workable? Are they the same?
2. Is it possible to take the Sermon seriously and also serve as a judge or soldier?
3. Which saying in the Sermon troubles you most? Why?
4. How does the order of the Sermon, beginning with blessing, shape how its commands are heard?

Independent assignment

Reading one antithesis three ways

In your notebook, write 400 to 600 words. Choose one antithesis from Matthew 5:21-48. State what Jesus says, then describe how it would be read by Augustine or Aquinas, by Luther or Calvin, and by an Anabaptist writer. Say which reading you find most convincing and name the best objection to it. Do not send this to anyone or post it anywhere.

Further study

• Augustine of Hippo, The City of God Read Book 19 on peace and the just use of force, to see how Augustine applies Christian love to public life.
• Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae Read the questions on the New Law, including the discussion of precepts and counsels.
• John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion Read the chapters on the law and on civil government.
• John Chrysostom, On the Priesthood Read selectively for the pastoral application of Christ’s teaching.
• Matthew 5:3 The first Beatitude.
• Matthew 5:44 Love your enemies.
• Matthew 6:9 The Lord’s Prayer.
• Matthew 7:24 The wise builder.