(Jesus continues His sermon after the Beatitudes with the qualities of Salt and Light, which I covered in my February 22, 2016 blog entry.)
Matthew 5:17-20
Think not that I am come to destroy the Law, or the Prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For I tell you the Truth: Till Heaven and Earth pass away, not one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the Law, till all be fulfilled.
A "jot" is a tiny dot, and a "tittle" is a small accent mark, the smallest strokes possible to be made by a pen. This means that not one detail of everything God promised, no matter how tiny or seemingly insignificant, will be overlooked or forgotten by God, but will come to pass, or has already happened.
Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach others to do so, he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.
No matter if we think it's not important to follow even one of God's moral rules, and our example leads someone else to also disregard it, then we will suffer loss of reward and prestige in God's realm. But when we learn how to live by all of the principles, loving others as God has loved us, then our example and our words will encourage others to also honor God and themselves by honoring others, too, and this will bring great rewards and responsibilities in God's Kingdom.
For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
The Scribes and the Pharisees Jesus was referring to here were "the Jews" that were the religious leaders and members of the ruling Council over the Jewish people, and they were very careful to publicly adhere to all the details of the laws. But they had no interest in the principles behind the laws, so they had no love for their fellow men, but only cared about their own power and authority and standing in the community.
The problem is, we have no righteousness in ourselves that God can accept, because even our highest intentioned actions are still polluted by our sin-nature that we inherited from our fathers, from Adam (see Isaiah 64:6). That's why Jesus told Nicodemus that he needed to be "born again" in a spiritual way, similar to his physical birth (see John 3:1-6). When this happens is when God places His Holy Spirit into our spirit, causing our dead spirit to be alive. Then in that power, that spiritual life, we can do the good things God planned ahead of time for us to do (see Ephesians 2:8-10), and He will reward us for them.
God is so good to love us so much, to have solved the problem of sin for us. Now He can meet all our needs in giving us His Spirit to live in us permanently and give us the desire and ability to love Him back, and to serve Him and one another. And then to reward us, too!
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
