In his Sermon on the Mount Jesus takes what is external and makes it internal. To an audience of faithful church goers and curious followers seeking God, Jesus disrupts comfortable Christianity.
Jesus is more interested in your character than your comfort. So he teaches:
It is more impactful to be blessed than fashionably dressed. An attitude can be just as sinful as an action. God loves to hear honest words of prayer more than right words. Following Jesus means you cannot follow the crowd. A good tree bears good fruit. When building a home, spend money on a quality foundation.
Religion, according to Jesus, may indeed involve rules. But the primary practice of true religion is faith that trusts in God. Specifically, trusting in God’s promise that by the life, death and resurrection of his Son, Jesus, people are right with him. Righteous. Forgiven.
Start there.
When this is the place you give to God, prioritizing him and his Word in your heart, then everything else in life is in its right place.
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33).
PRAYER: Dear Jesus, you are my teacher and Savior. You make me right with God, our Father. I want to prioritize God, putting him first so that everything else is in its right place in my life. Disrupt my comfortable Christianity, and shape my character. Amen.
FURTHER MEDITATION: Read Matthew 7. How does Jesus focus his followers more on the internal than the external?