I am reposting this in an easier to read format. Pete if you would like you can replace the original post with this one. This has all the original content of the first post. I just expounded in more detail.
Many believe that Jesus set new and higher moral standards than the 10 Commandments. But Jesus said:
Mat 5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
Anyone with a firm grasp on Jesus and His divinity knows that as a consistent God he would never destroy the law He created.
Mal 3:6 For I [am] the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
Jesus came to expound on the spirit of the law. Namely this.
Gal 5:14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, [even] in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Jesus spoke these very words:
Mat 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. Mat 22:38 This is the first and great commandment. Mat 22:39 And the second [is] like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Mat 22:40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
By keeping these two commandments you will naturally shy away from breaking any others. By keeping the second one Jesus named you are fulfilling the first. For our love of one another is an expression of God's love. But is Jesus saying anything that the Old Testament had not already said. NO. He was simply boiling it down to simplicity. One of his discourses has him saying "Ye have heard...but I say to you" He was telling the masses that the way the Pharisees had been teaching them was in direct contradiction to the Spirit of the Law. For example.
Mat 5:38 ¶ Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: Mat 5:39 But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
This idea of an eye for an eye had become misconstrued by the Pharisees. Jesus pointed out that the eye for an eye context in Exodus 21:24-25 was meant as a LIMIT in civil matters not a standard for retaliation. Mercy is always at the forfront of the commands of God. Which we find before and after these laws in the OT.
Jesus later told how even a murderous or lustful heart was the same as the act itself in the eyes of God. Where is that in the OT?
Psa 37:8 Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. Psa 37:9 For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the LORD, they shall inherit the earth.
Likewise Proverbs 4:23 points out that the heart is the most important place to obtain moral purity.
Pro 4:23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it [are] the issues of life.
Since God sees the heart (1 Samuel 16:7; Psalm 139:2; Proverbs 15:11;Jeremiah 17:10) sins of the heart are the same as sins of action to God. So the idea that a lustful heart is the same as adultry was not a NEW idea. It had just been buried under religious practice by the Pharisees.
1Sa 16:7 But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for [the LORD seeth] not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.
Psa 139:2 Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.
Pro 15:11 Hell and destruction [are] before the LORD: how much more then the hearts of the children of men?
Jer 17:10 I the LORD search the heart, try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, [and] according to the fruit of his doings.
The Pharisees ought to have known that and taught that. In the OT you can find God wanting us to love our neighbours. Where?
Exd 23:4 ¶ If thou meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again.
Exd 23:5 If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden, and wouldest forbear to help him, thou shalt surely help with him.
Pro 25:21 If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink:
Here is one in the OT that has a direct parallel with Jesus' own words. Makes sense as this was an OT saint writing of the Messiah.
Psa 109:4 For my love they are my adversaries: but I [give myself unto] prayer.
Now contrast this with Jesus' words.
Mat 5:44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
And besides to seek vengence is to attempt to usurp the authority of God. Something the OT saints knew but had been perverted by the pharisees.
Deu 32:35 To me [belongeth] vengeance, and recompence; their foot shall slide in [due] time: for the day of their calamity [is] at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.
Psa 94:1 ¶ O LORD God, to whom vengeance belongeth; O God, to whom vengeance belongeth, shew thyself.
So God showed Himself through Jesus and commanded us to do what He always had. All of Jesus' sayings can be seen in the OT. Jesus simply put all of His commandments together in one place and boiled them down to simplicity to snap us out of religious error. I hope this helps explain Jesus' view of the Law so that anyone thinking that He contradicted Himself will see the truth. Since all the prophecies on the Messiah came in the OT then it is implied that the old saints had an understanding of God and His plan. However a 400 year silence from God between the OT and NT had made Israel weak in their understanding. Jesus showed up being the realization of all the prophecies and most of Israel spurned him. Not due to a misunderstanding on the part of the OT saints but on the part of the religious elders interpretation of those books.
Jesus himself knew that the misunderstanding lied with the religious officials of the day and not the OT saints.
Jhn 5:46 For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me.
God bless
