Kingdom Ethics
Kingdom Ethics
Image by William McDonald from Creation Swap
Fulfilling the Law
“Don’t think I’ve come to invalidate the Law or the Prophets. I’ve come not to invalidate but to fulfill! I speak the truth. Until the earth and the sky pass away, not the tiniest letter, not even a pen stroke, will pass away from the Law until it all happens. So anyone who relaxes one of the least of these commands and teaches this will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But anyone who obeys and teaches this will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
Jesus next discussed the relationship of his teachings to the Law and the Prophets, another name for the Old Testament. In introducing a new covenant, did Jesus intend to invalidate the existing one? Not at all! Quite the opposite, Jesus had come to fulfill that covenant. The coming of the kingdom didn’t replace anything God promised through Moses or the prophets. Not a single letter will fail, making the law valid “until the earth and the sky pass away.”
But by predicting the fulfillment of the law through his ministry, Jesus also predicted the end of the law. The requirements of a covenant no longer bind the parties once the covenant is fulfilled. The fulfillment ends the covenant, while validating it at the same time. But Jesus had not yet died and risen, and God had not poured out the Spirit on all believers. Jesus’s words must be understood in this context.
At the time he preached the Sermon on the Mount, the kingdom hadn’t come, and the covenant promises hadn’t been fulfilled. So he warned those listening that the law still held full force. Those who failed to keep the law without the Spirit to lead them would be least in the kingdom. Yet as followers of Jesus, they would still enter. Those who submitted to the law while waiting for the Spirit would be great in the kingdom.
In contrast, the writings of Paul and others reflect a context after the coming of the kingdom. They speak as those no longer enslaved to the law because the Spirit leads them.1 Jesus also spoke of the folly of putting new wine (the kingdom) into an old wineskin (the covenant at Sinai), which was never intended for a kingdom that would grow to include all nations.2 Now we need not offer sacrifices or keep the covenantal signs of circumcision and the Sabbath.3
A Greater Righteousness
“I tell you unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you’ll never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Image by Ancient Pathway from Pixabay
Had Jesus invalidated the law, he would have created a kingdom of lawlessness and anarchy. Yet Scripture makes it clear that the freedom he bought us is freedom from sin, not freedom to sin.4 By fulfilling the law and all its righteous requirements, Jesus created a kingdom in which sin has no place. So he warned his followers that entering the kingdom required a greater righteousness than that of the scribes and Pharisees.
To the Jews of Jesus’s day, the scribes and Pharisees represented the epitome of righteousness. The scribes worked writing copies of Scripture and other religious texts, so they became experts on its teachings. The Pharisees taught strict adherence to the law and had developed a complex set of traditions to help achieve this goal.5 Because they “sit in Moses’s seat” as the keepers and interpreters of the law, even Jesus said to obey them.6 Those listening would not have imagined it humanly possible to surpass the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.
That was exactly Jesus’s point. The religious elite expected to enter God’s promised kingdom based on their own merit, but that will never suffice. Jesus, like John the Baptist, presented repentance as the key to entry.7 Repentance requires recognizing a lack of merit. Those who enter do so not because they keep the law but because they know they have utterly failed to keep it. So they throw themselves on God’s never-ending mercy. Then they freely receive the required greater righteousness—the righteousness not from the law but from God.8
Anger
“You’ve heard it was said to the people of old, ‘Don’t murder’ and ‘Anyone who murders deserves judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a fellow believer deserves judgment. Anyone who calls a fellow believer an idiot deserves to be taken to court, and anyone who says ‘Fool!’ deserves the fire in the Hinnom Valley.”
Image by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay
Jesus continued by giving a series of examples illustrating how kingdom righteousness surpasses the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. He first recited common teachings of the rabbis, most of which came from the law of Moses. He then presented his own teaching, each time focusing on a heart issue underlying the law. The scribes and Pharisees may have followed the letter of the law, but they fell short because they ignored the heart issues.9
Jesus began by quoting the sixth commandment, forbidding murder.10 The teaching about judging murderers summarizes a number of verses, especially Exodus 21:12. The just punishment for murder is death, and Jesus decreed the same judgment for the underlying heart issue—anger. Anyone who speaks in anger, calling a fellow believer an idiot or a fool, deserves to be dragged before the court (the Sanhedrin) and sentenced to a criminal’s death in the ever-burning fire in the Hinnom Valley.
The Hinnom Valley
“Anyone who says ‘Fool!’ deserves the fire in the Hinnom Valley.”
Image by MYELLOVE from Free Bible Images, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Like John the Baptist, Jesus warned his listeners that the punishment for ignoring his call to repent is destruction in fire.11 He identified the location of this final judgment as geenna. Scholars universally recognize geenna as the Greek form of the Hebrew ge-hinnom, the Hinnom Valley on the southwest side of Jerusalem.12 The wicked kings Ahaz and Manasseh set up shrines to Baal and Molech and sacrificed children there.13 Afterward, the valley became forever associated with death.14
The common claim that the physical valley serves merely as a symbol of a spiritual reality does not fit the word’s usage. Scripture never portrays geenna as a place of eternal torment for disembodied souls. It certainly never says anyone can exist there—or anywhere else—separated from the life-sustaining presence of God.15 On the contrary, Jesus described geenna as a place of utter annihilation, where God will destroy both body and soul.16 This matches the biblical teaching that “the wages of sin is death” and “sin, having reached its goal, brings forth death.”17
The prophet Isaiah also understood the literal Hinnom Valley as the place of final punishment. He described the redeemed citizens of the new earth viewing the bodies of the rebels outside the new Jerusalem. They don’t see undying souls in torment. They see undying worms and unquenchable fire consuming the bodies of those who will never rise again.18
Geenna must also be distinguished from hadēs (called sheʾol in Hebrew), the realm of the dead. Hadēs is not a place of punishment but the resting place of the dead, including the church, until the Day of Judgment.19 After saving his people from hadēs, Jesus will throw it into the lake of fire (geenna), destroying death itself.20
Reconciliation
“So if you bring your gift to the altar but while there you remember that a fellow believer has something against you, leave your gift in front of the altar. Go make peace first, and then return to offer your gift.
“Quickly reconcile with your accuser while you’re together on the road. Otherwise, your accuser will hand you over to the judge, the judge will hand you over to the warden, and you’ll be thrown in jail. I tell you the truth. You certainly won’t get out of there until you’ve paid every last cent.”
Image by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay
After warning his followers about the danger of anger, Jesus gave two examples stressing the importance of quickly making peace before anger can cause irreparable damage. The longer anger festers, the harder it is to make peace. Yet in both examples, the person seeking reconciliation is not the angry one. Jesus calls us not only to avoid harboring anger toward others but also to actively seek peace with those who may harbor anger toward us.
In the first example, the angry person is a fellow believer (literally “brother”) who doesn’t seek revenge. The damage comes from the broken relationship, which in turn harms their relationship with God and their witness to the world.21 The wrongdoer could not offer God an acceptable gift without first making things right. For Jesus’s Galilean followers, this meant leaving the gift at the altar in Jerusalem to return to Galilee, reconcile, and then return to Jerusalem, a round trip of over a week!22 God takes the unity of his children that seriously.
In the second example, the angry person is an accuser, an enemy seeking legal redress. Only foreigners and unbelievers would have used the Roman courts to put a debtor in prison. The Jews practiced temporary debt slavery, which paid off any debt after six years.23 Yet Jesus commands his people to reconcile even with unbelieving enemies. If reconciliation occurs before they arrive at court, the case ends, and the believer goes free, possibly gaining a friend in the process. But if the believer fails to reconcile and the judge decides in the accuser’s favor, the believer has to pay the entire fine, even if reconciliation occurs later.
Lust
“You’ve heard it was said, ‘Don’t commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman with desire has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it away! It’s better for you to destroy one body part than for your whole body to be thrown into the Hinnom Valley. If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it away! It’s better for you to destroy one body part than for your whole body to enter the Hinnom Valley.”
Jesus next quoted the seventh commandment, forbidding adultery. Like murder, adultery called for the death penalty.24 Jesus expanded this to the underlying heart issue behind adultery—lust. A man merits the eternal death of the Hinnom Valley for just a passionate glance at a married woman. The command against desiring another man’s wife was not new. The tenth commandment forbidding envy included it.25 But the severe consequence would have shocked Jesus’s listeners.
Though Jesus mentioned only a man looking at a woman, his words certainly applied equally to a married woman looking at any man other than her husband. Such a union constituted adultery, so the passionate look would constitute lust. Less certain is whether they applied to a married man looking at an unmarried woman. In ancient Israel, polygamy was permitted, so such a union didn’t constitute adultery. But in Jesus’s day, polygamy was rare, and Jesus himself promoted the created order of one man and one woman uniting as one flesh.26
Regardless, Jesus didn’t call his followers to actually put anyone to death. He called them to recognize the gravity of the sin in their hearts, not just their actions, and to repent. If they fail to repent, they will face God’s judgment. This means going beyond feeling regret to removing the sin and anything that might entice them to return to it. Though the idea of cutting off body parts is obviously an exaggeration, it effectively illustrates the importance of fleeing from temptation.27
Unfaithfulness
“It was said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife must give her divorce papers.’ But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery. And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”
The next teaching Jesus quoted doesn’t come from the Old Testament but is based on Deuteronomy 24:1–4.
A man may marry a woman but not favor her because he finds something displeasing about her. So he writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her, and sends her away from his household. After leaving his household, she marries another man. If the second man hates her, writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her, and sends her away from his household or if the second man who married her dies, her first husband, who sent her away, cannot return to marry her again after she has been defiled.
Moses merely described divorce as a reality, without further comment. The law deals with remarriage after divorce. But Jewish tradition took this as legal approval of divorce, though rabbis debated under what circumstances divorce was acceptable. Some argued a man could divorce his wife just for burning dinner.28 But the husband had to give his wife a certificate of divorce so she could remarry without being accused of adultery.
Jesus rejected the very premise of the argument by reducing it to the heart issue underlying divorce—unfaithfulness. No piece of paper could nullify the marriage covenant. God is eternally faithful to his covenant promises, and he expects his people to stay faithful to theirs. So Jesus justified divorce only when one marriage partner had already proven unfaithful through adultery. In doing so, he laid bare the true motives of those abusing God’s law to come up with excuses for abandoning their wives.
Because God views marriage as a lifelong commitment, a woman who remarries while her husband is still alive commits adultery. Yet Jesus placed the blame for this not on the woman but on her ex-husband. At the time, few women could provide for themselves, so a divorced woman was usually forced to remarry or become destitute. The certificate of divorce didn’t nullify the woman’s marriage vows. It forced her to break them! By selfishly abandoning his life partner, the man leads both her and her new husband into sin.
Dishonesty
“You’ve also heard it was said to the people of old, ‘Don’t swear falsely, but fulfill your oaths to the Lord.’ But I tell you not to swear at all, not by the sky because it’s God’s throne, not by the earth because it’s his footstool, not toward Jerusalem because it’s the city of the great King, and not by your own head because you can’t make even one hair black or white. But just say yes for yes and no for no. Anything more than that comes from the evil one.”
Image by Peter Timmerhues from Pixabay
The command to not swear falsely comes from Leviticus 19:12 and Numbers 30:2. Originally, the Israelites swore all oaths in Yahweh’s name29 But by Jesus’s day, the Jews didn’t pronounce the divine name at all. Sometimes they swore by one of God’s many titles. Other times, they swore by objects associated with God, including the earth, the sky, and Jerusalem. Rabbis debated when such oaths ceased to be binding.30 Without a standard, oaths became a way to intentionally deceive others, the exact opposite of their intended use.
Jesus destroyed the debate by referencing two verses. Isaiah 66:1 says, “The sky is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.” Psalm 48:2 says, “Mount Zion [Jerusalem], the summit of Zaphon, is the city of the great King.” Dishonoring God’s throne, his footstool, or his city equates to dishonoring him. We can’t even stop the aging process from changing the natural color of our own hair. So swearing in the name of something God created and controls can’t invalidate the oath.
Jesus’s point was not to contradict the law of Moses by declaring oath swearing sinful. Some situations, such as court testimony, require it. Instead, Jesus once again addressed the underlying heart issue—dishonesty. Swearing an oath is not a sin, but lying is. Jesus calls his followers to a level of honesty that guarantees their words with a simple yes or no, making oaths gratuitous. The need for more than that indicates dishonesty and mistrust, which come from Satan, not God.
Self-Interest
“You’ve heard it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you not to oppose an evil person. If someone slaps you on the right cheek, turn your other cheek too. If someone sues you to take your tunic, give your cloak too. If anyone forces you to carry a load one mile, go two miles.
“Give to anyone who asks you, and don’t turn away from anyone who wants to borrow from you.”
Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
Jesus next quoted the accepted standard of Israelites justice, first commanded in Exodus 21:24. The principle of taking “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” required equal justice regardless of social status. It forbade judges from denying justice through penalties that were either unduly harsh or unfairly lenient. The Israelites were not to show partiality to the rich or the poor, and Jesus agreed with that.31
Yet Jesus spoke not to judges but to individuals dealing with personal wrongs. An individual can show mercy when a judge cannot. Jesus didn’t just forbid vengeance. He called his followers to voluntarily give up their rights and allow “an evil person” to take advantage of them! In the kingdom, mercy surpasses even the great virtue of justice.
The heart issue underlying the desire for justice is self-interest. But the citizens of the kingdom must die to self to live for Jesus.32 “Humbly consider others as greater than yourselves, looking out not just for yourselves but also for each other.”33 Jesus used three examples to show how his followers should prioritize others over their own interests.
First, someone slaps a believer. Instead of slapping back, the believer should expose the other cheek to a second slap. Second, someone sues a believer for a tunic. Instead of fighting in court to keep it, the believer should give it up and even add the more valuable cloak, which the law forbade anyone from taking.34 Losing both would leave the person practically naked, except for a loincloth.
Third, a soldier conscripts a believer to carry his gear for one Roman mile (a little less than a modern mile). Soldiers could legally do this under Roman law.35 Instead of rebelling or begrudgingly fulfilling the minimum requirement, the believer should willingly carry the gear for two miles, double the legal requirement. Fourth, Jesus told his followers to give freely to anyone who asks for a gift or a loan. In serving the interests of others, believers show the mercy Jesus showed us, drawing them into the kingdom as well.
Hate
“You’ve heard it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you to become children of your Father in heaven. He makes his sun rise on both the evil and the good. He sends rain over both the righteous and the unrighteous.
What reward do you expect for loving those who love you? Don’t even the tax collectors do that? Or what notable thing do you do if you greet only your fellow believers? Don’t even the unbelieving nations do that?”
Image by William McDonald from Creation Swap
Finally, Jesus addressed the darkest heart issue of all, one that can excuse any evil—hate. He referenced a teaching that combined a core tenet of faith with a fake command without any scriptural basis. “Love your neighbor” comes from Leviticus 19:18, but the principle undergirds all of Scripture. Jesus called it the second greatest commandment, after loving God.36
But teachers in Jesus’s day distorted God’s command by applying it only to fellow Jews.37 Worse, they added a human tradition allowing Jews to hate their enemies. Otherwise, they would have to love even the Romans, who occupied their land and oppressed their people. They refused to believe God would command that.
Yet that’s exactly what God commanded. He even included it in the core covenantal stipulations. “If you come across your enemy’s cow or donkey wandering around, you must certainly return it. If you see a donkey that belongs to someone who hates you lying down under its load, don’t just leave. You must certainly help get it back up.”38
God treats his own enemies with love, sending them the sunshine and rain they need. Jesus commanded his followers to imitate the Father in this by praying for their enemies. The children should do as the Father does. Otherwise, the citizens of the kingdom are no different from the citizens of the world, who also love their own. We stand out by loving in the face of hate.
- Galatians 5:18.
- Matthew 9:17.
- Acts 15:5–11; Romans 6:14; 7:4–6; Galatians 3:23–26; Ephesians 2:14–15; Colossians 2:16; Hebrews 10:12–18.
- John 8:34–36; Romans 6:14–18.
- Many of those who worked as scribes also belonged to the religious party of the Pharisees. But not all Pharisees were scribes. Other scribes belonged to the party of the Sadducees.
- Matthew 23:2–3.
- See Jesus’s Message.
- Philippians 3:9.
- Matthew 23:23.
- Exodus 20:13.
- See Holy Spirit and Fire.
- Bible Hub, “What Is Gehenna in the Bible?” accessed January 12, 2026, https://biblehub.com/q/what_is_gehenna_in_the_bible.htm; Clifford T. Winters “Gehenna,” in The Lexham Bible Dictionary, ed. John D. Barry et al. (Lexham Press, 2016), Logos Bible Software.
- 2 Chronicles 28:1–3; 33:1–6; Jeremiah 32:35.
- Jeremiah 7:32–33.
- Psalm 139:7–12.
- Matthew 10:28.
- Romans 6:3; James 1:15.
- Isaiah 66:22–24.
- Matthew 16:18; John 6:44; Revelation 1:18; 20:12.
- Revelation 20:14.
- John 13:34–35; 17:20–23.
- France, Gospel of Matthew, 203.
- See Debt Slavery.
- Leviticus 20:10.
- See The Tenth Commandment.
- Matthew 19:3–6.
- See Hyperbole.
- Mishnah Gitin 9:10, translated by Adin Even-Israel, accessed February 1, 2026, https://www.chabad.org/torah-texts/5705223/Mishnah/Gitin/Chapter-9.
- Deuteronomy 6:13.
- Matthew 23:16–22; Mishnah Shevuot 4:13, translated by Adin Even-Israel, accessed February 8, 2026, https://www.chabad.org/torah-texts/5709400/Mishnah/Shevuot/Chapter-4.
- Leviticus 19:15.
- Galatians 2:20; Ephesian 4:22–24.
- Philippians 2:3–4.
- See Loan Interest.
- Keener, Bible Background Commentary, Matthew 5:41.
- Matthew 22:37–40.
- Laws that applied only to Israelites used the Hebrew word for “brother,” not “neighbor.”
- Exodus 23:4–5.