October 6, 2026
Tuesday, October 6
When you think of Christian morality, what pops into your mind? Perhaps a red-faced preacher yelling, “Stop skipping church! Stop sleeping around! Stop using foul language! Stop stealing!” True, God does want us to worship Him corporately. He does want us to be sexually pure, full of integrity and righteous speech. But when we actually read the words of Christ, we find that our relationships with others are the chief way He evaluates our character. All the religiosity and external morality in the world are worthless in His sight if we aren’t glorifying Him in our relationships.
He expects us to pursue reconciliation with those we’ve hurt. Our text for this week, Matthew 5:21-26, tells us how important our relationships are to Him. In His first illustration of this, He pictures us in the middle of our worship. Remember, as a Jew, Jesus and His people worshipped through offering sacrifices. So He depicts us bringing a lamb, a bull, or some other food into the temple to offer it before the Lord. But while there, we are reminded of someone who is angry with us. Perhaps we see them walking through the temple courts. Jesus commands us to leave our gift at the altar, chase down that person we offended, and make it right with them. That is a costly gesture, to be sure…both financially and socially. But God is not interested in worship that is insincere. And we cannot offer Him true worship if we’re unwilling to glorify Him in our relationships.
Of course, we don’t sacrifice animals anymore, but the point is the same. If we refuse to pursue reconciliation with someone we’ve injured or offended, He won’t hear our songs of praise, reward our tithes, bless our ministries, or speak to us through His preached Word. If we refuse, He sees our religious acts like a woman would see a bouquet of flowers from a philandering husband. To God, our relationships matter more than how we spend our Sundays.
The second illustration is of a lawsuit. Jesus says that if someone sues us, our primary goal should not be winning. It should be reconciliation. We should try to reason with our opponent, to concede some things, even to go further than we think is fair, in hopes that we can reconcile the relationship. Otherwise, says Jesus, you might stake everything on winning the case and find that you not only lose the relationship—gaining an enemy for life—but you lose the case as well.
Notice that in both cases, Jesus says it’s our responsibility to make things right. We must take the initiative. So when we find ourselves saying, “They should be over this by now,” or “They’ve made a mountain out of a molehill,” we’re not being obedient to God. He will judge us. We can’t say we’re right with God unless we’ve done all we can to be right with every person in our lives.
“Father, that is a high bar. I must confess, I’d rather avoid responsibility for the way other people feel about me. But you want your children to love each other. I repent of my pride and stubbornness. Show me how to make things right. In Jesus’ name, amen.”
Senior Pastor
First Baptist Conroe
More from Pastor Jeff at his website: jeffbergerwriting.com
