Reflections
DOES THE BIBLE REALLY SAY THAT?
By Pete Hammond
Hide one’s light under a bushel" - is to neglect your contribution or not let others benefit from it.
Jesus spoke of the contradiction of his followers not openly sharing the riches of their salvation and faith for all to see and learn of it. He likened that mistake to "hiding one’s light under a bushel" (Matt 5: 14-16).
"Jot or tittle" - refers to focusing on minutia unnecessarily. When Jesus was trying to help his followers discover the value of the Old Testament law, he illustrated its misuse when they would insist that every "jot or tittle" must be rigorously observed. That was not the spirit in which the law was given. A "tittle" is a small stroke or hook that served to distinguish one Hebrew letter from another and a "jot" is the ninth and smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet. (Matt 5:17-20).
"Turn the other cheek" - refers to resisting the urge to retaliate. In contrast to giving back what you receive in conflict as the Roman law encouraged, Jesus suggested voluntarily submitting oneself to another’s wrath. Mahatma Gandhi of India and Martin Luther King of the USA demonstrated the power of this response to hostility in their use of nonviolent resistance movements. This attitude introduces peaceful rationality into hostile situations (Matt 5:38-39).
"Go the second mile" - calls for doing more than is expected or to bend over backwards to help.
Jesus taught his followers to do more than the Roman soldiers demanded when they would force them to carry a load for them. This teaching is similar to Jesus command to "turn the other cheek" by doing what is almost never expected for someone else. Believers are to surprise people by responding quite differently that would be expected (Matt 5:41-42).
"Judge not lest you also be judged" - invites people to watch out how you evaluate others. Jesus teaches that you will be assessed by the same criteria. He warned that we will face the same evaluation that we apply out on others, so be very careful. Paul affirmed the same application of judgement is to come upon all people believers too (Matt 7:1-5, Ro 2:1-3).
"Casting your Pearls before swine" - suggests that we don’t waste our best on unappreciative people. Jesus spoke about the inappropriate use of one’s precious possessions by offering them to those who had no interest or ability to know the value. Pigs have no way of appreciating a fine pearl just as dogs cannot appreciate holy things (Matt 7:6 ).
"A wolf in sheep’s clothing" - describes the act of using a disguise to gain access to a great opportunity. Some people will hide their evil intentions in order to later disclose them when it is too late to prevent damage. This is similar to the modern practice of "fleecing the flock" where people are tricked into losing their money to con artists. Another form of this is captured in the phrase about "leading a lamb to its own slaughter" All three terms warn describe a misuse of someone else’s innocence. (Matt. 7:15-20).
"Wise as serpents, harmless as doves" - describes savvy people who do not misuse their abilities to harm others. Jesus warned his followers that they would meet resistance or worse as they represented His kingdom. They were to meet it with the wily ways of a serpent but bring no harm in the way they responded (Matt 10:16-19).
"Blind leading the blind" - suggests dangerous incompetence in leadership. Jesus was illustrating the terribly inconsistent role of the Pharisees being moral leaders when they did not "practice what they preached." This led to disastrous outcomes for all involved (Matt 15:10-19).
"Many are called, but few are chosen" - describes making the message available to as many as possible while realizing that only a few will respond. Success in following Jesus includes obedience to the message both in making it known as far and wide as you can, but measuring response is not our responsibility. That is God’s business and not the way we are called to measure success (Matt 20:116).
"Separate the sheep from the goats" - differentiates between good people and the bad ones. Jesus taught that judgement would finally arrive when His Father would bring full justice and all would be known for who they really were. But this is exclusively God’s activity, not our’s. (Matt 25:31-45).
"The flesh is weak but the spirit is willing" - notes someone who would like to help but just can"t muster the energy. In this instance Jesus had asked his followers to pray with him but instead they fell asleep. It was a grave disappointment to him. Today people often invoke this saying when they fear failure in personal discipline, dieting or exercising (Matt 26:36-46).
"Wash our hands of the matter" - is to remove ourselves from any responsibility for things when they tend to go bad. The Roman ruler Pilate sought to escape any responsibility for the execution of Jesus by washing his hands. It did not work. Today people claim to not be "in the know" or "out of the loop" when they want to avoid accountability (Matt. 27:24-26).
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