The Key to (or the Spirit in) the Sermon on the Mount

Generally speaking, people think it has been decided that it is impossible for “believers” to practice what is written in what is known as the Sermon on the Mount. However, they are badly mistaken.

Once you have laid hold of the key, you can enter into its spirit, its intent, and its substance and live such an exalted and glorious life joyfully and boldly to God’s glory and for the benefit of mankind.

Juniperus, one of Francis of Assisi’s followers, has expressed the spirit and the intent of the Sermon on the Mount perfectly, and this was his basic rule (life’s motto): All earthly things are worth nothing unless they serve the law of love.

This means (for example) that the great thing about money and all earthly things is to give it away. The wonderful thing about having a good bed is that others can rest and sleep on it. Then it serves the law of love. Glory to God!

The fact that all earthly things are worth nothing can even be said to be a very weak expression because, by and large, it is worth less than nothing as the wise and beloved and extremely self-sacrificing apostle Paul states in his epistle to the Philippians: “But indeed, I also count all things as loss . . . and count them as rubbish.” Phil. 3:8.

The reason a person sins is that he is in such darkness that he sees something great in the earthly thing he wants to obtain. It is great and valuable in his eyes; he “sees it like that,” to the extent that he does not hesitate to sin for its sake. That is why people lie, commit unrighteousness, are merciless, get angry, become irritated and bitter, requite evil with evil, cannot manage to give away, or lend, or forgive others their debt. They are cross, feeling insulted and offended and wounded for the same reason because they “see” something great in being honored and respected and treated well. People are foolish enough to do that; they are sufficiently unbelieving to do that! They get divorced and they re-marry for the same reason. Oh, how inexpressibly much sin is the result of being blinded because one “sees” something so very great in the opposite sex. The world is full of all sorts of sins for this reason alone, even to the point of people becoming insane or committing murder and suicide. All of this is a witches’ dance in darkness! It happens very often that someone feels they cannot manage to live if they cannot marry a certain person, and it happens even more often that they think they cannot bear to live because they got the person without whom they could not live.

Sin vanishes almost like the dew before the sun when you believe God’s Word and it becomes living in your heart. Then you will see only God, Jesus Christ, the heavenly, eternal, and imperishable things, the mind of Christ and His virtues, divine nature, and God’s will, etc., as great, and everything else as worth nothing or even as something that is worth less than nothing.

Then you can joyfully keep the Sermon on the Mount from your heart. Then you can say from the heart, together with the apostle John: “His commandments are not burdensome.” 1 John 5:3.

Now we can take a quick glance at the precious, not burdensome commandments of life in the Sermon on the Mount—the laws of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Why should I unlawfully divorce my spouse? The greatness and glory are absolutely not in getting away from humiliating difficulties, in avoiding the bad and “unbearable” characteristics of one’s spouse, but precisely in this: staying at my post, and most of all in requiting evil with good. And since this is glorious, this is precisely why one should stay there. This is easy to understand for everyone who loves the things that are in Christ.

Giving away and lending without expecting or receiving anything in return from the person who receives it, and doing it a lot and without end can certainly not be anything unaffordable, difficult, or impossible when I rightly reckon all of it as nothing. How much have I then (spiritually speaking) given away, lent, or lost???

If doing this produces eternal reward and glory, making me very blessed even on this earth, besides causing God to take especially good care of me, repaying me sevenfold, as Sirach says, what happens then to that impossible difficulty??? That which other people call difficult will become only an advantage and gain for you for time and eternity, because you have that heavenly vision of things. God and His glorious gospel be praised!!!

What happens then to that difficulty of jumping for joy when someone casts my name out as evil, saying all kinds of lies about me, if the honor of man weighs nothing in the scales? Only the honor that comes from God does, and again when God rewards me richly in heaven for being faithful to Him even if everyone else rejected me.

And what happens to the difficulty of turning the other cheek when someone has slapped you on the one cheek, when avoiding reproach and sufferings is not the great thing, but overcoming the evil with good is, together with avoiding sufferings and reproach throughout all eternity!?

And why should I hire an attorney to protect my money and valuables when their true value is zero or even less than that. People don’t hire attorneys to obtain a loss, do they???

And why do people have difficulty with loving their enemies? There is no one who could use love more than they! They must be in a very bad way?! Poor wretches!

This is the gist of the entire Sermon on the Mount! Now we have the spirit in it! Hold on to it!

In other words, just as Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world,” so we must also think, speak, and act.

Glory to God in the highest!

Your happily blessed brother and fellow servant.

Elias Aslaksen

First published in “Hidden Treasures in September 1949 (editorial notice).