I. BACKGROUND INFORMATION Matthew was a former tax collector and one of the original twelve disciples. Although no author of this book is identified, the early church ascribed authorship to Matthew the apostle. The content of the book of Matthew indicates it is written …show more content…
Jesus begins to discuss his views toward the Law of Moses and explains that He required total commitment, faithfulness and obedience in following Him. He begins to teach the crowd on the Beatitudes and challenges the proud religious leaders of that day. Jesus tells the crowd that He is interested in obedience and less interested in the legalistic observances of rituals and laws. The Beatitudes represent blessings that are promised to those who live the attributes of God's kingdom. Jesus presents through the Beatitudes a code of ethics for His disciples and a code of conduct for all believers to follow. In chapter 5 of Matthew Jesus teaches not only to His disciples but to the crowd that has gathered how following Him can be a life of blessings not as the world defines it but as they surrender their lives to the Lord in total obedience that the Kingdom of God would be their eternal home. Jesus wants the disciples to know that following Him will not be a life of ease but on mourning, hunger and persecution but they would receive their reward for diligent service. Jesus teaches his disciples their true calling, that they would be salt in a dreary world. He explained to them a new way to interpret the law that would cause them to love and want to follow Him and not be condemned by rules. Jesus teaches about controlling their anger and the hurtful and destructive abuses of divorce. He teaches about vows; revenge and how to love their