The Sermon on the Mount is the Sermon of Jesus Christ, which expresses the essence of the New Testament moral law (moral teaching) and its difference from the Old Testament. There are two points on which the New Testament ethics is based, and the Sermon on the Mount raises two important ideas.
First, we must be perfect and holy because God is perfect and holy, and people must be like him. And second, we must treat God the way He treats us.
All ethical systems have a foundation on which they are built The ethical teaching of Christ is based on the statement that God, who created everything and acted in the history of Israel in the Old Testament, can be known in a real, personal way. The ethical teaching of Christ is completely inseparable from His teaching about the power of God in people’s lives (Mattison III 2). It is the primary meaning of the Sermon on the Mount. The behavior and lifestyle of His followers is the way of knowing God.
The teachings of Christ are his imagery. Sometimes the teaching is given in the form of parables; in other cases, it is just live illustrations from everyday life. Many parables teach moral lessons, but the Sermon on the Mount uses more images from real life. We often talk about ethics in the abstract, but Christ always operates with concrete things.
One of the most characteristic features of God’s action in Israel’s experience is His willingness to take care of people who don’t even think about Him. Abraham was called from Mesopotamia, a new country was given to him, but not because of any moral or spiritual superiority that he would have possessed, but simply because God’s attention and love were poured out on him. Subsequently, Israel was preserved in all the difficulties of the exodus from Egypt, not for its own moral perfection, but because of the care of a loving God. This example from the Sermon supports the idea that people need to act as God does.
In conclusion, the Sermon on the Mount raises essential statements that make the life of the person better. This is what Christ Himself proclaimed as the supreme and twofold commandment of love for God and neighbor. Through love for our neighbor, our love for God is manifested. When we love our neighbor, we try to treat God the way He treats us.
Reference
Mattison III, W. C. (2017). The Sermon on the mount and moral theology: A virtue perspective. Cambridge University Press.