In his book Accidental Pharisees, Larry Osborne said Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount was showing us that we cannot earn our way to heaven. Jesus “took six commands they thought they could keep and replaced each one with a standard they could never achieve.” I agree with Osborne when he says we cannot earn our way into God’s favor by meticulously following a moral standard. The rub is that he says the sermon can never be achieved.

If Jesus never intended his disciples to carry out his instruction, I would expect Jesus to close out his sermon with “I do not really expect you to do these things.” Instead, Jesus said that the person who built his life on these words was wise, whereas anyone who heard his words and did not put them into practice would be like a man who built his house on sand and when the storms came it fell (Matthew 7: 24-27).

How can we do what seems impossible? Ephesians 2: 8-10 says it is by grace that we are saved through faith. It is a gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, in which God prepared us to walk. The concept of walk refers to a lifestyle. We cannot live that lifestyle on our own, but Jesus is reconstructing us so with his presence we can.

One reason we may think we cannot put the Sermon into practice is because of a misunderstanding of the admonition to be perfect (Matthew 5: 48). When someone makes something for someone else that is particularly appropriate to meet the need, the response may be: “It’s perfect”. If it is a quilt, it may have a few misplaced stitches here and there, but if it is the right measurements and matches the curtains, it can be perfect. This concept of perfection is closer to the Biblical concept than is the Greek concept of an absolutely pristine ideal. If we treat people well, we are carrying out God’s purpose for us and we are then perfectly conforming to the lifestyle he wants us to carry out.

Building our lives on the Sermon on the Mount requires wisdom. There may be times when the perfect thing to do is not turn the other cheek, such as, when we need to protect someone else.

Certainly, we should be cautious not to embrace the attitude of Pharisees who thought they alone were pleasing God, but we should also be cautious to not to set aside any of Jesus’ teaching. God expects us to pay attention to all the Sermon on the Mount and with his help put it into practice.