Gospel Reflection on Matthew 5:17-37
- Feb 12
- 4 min read
February 15, 2026
“Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
“You have heard that it was said to the men of old, ‘You shall not kill; and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother shall be liable to the council, and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be liable to the hell of fire. So if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Make friends quickly with your accuser, while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison; truly, I say to you, you will never get out till you have paid the last penny.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.
“It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that every one who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, makes her an adulteress; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
“Again you have heard that it was said to the men of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.
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We live in a throwaway culture. We discard slightly used clothing. We get easily bored with our current technology and look to replace it every year with whatever is the latest.
And sadly we view people as easily replaceable. We give up on marriages and on friendships. And the reason we give up so easily is because we're used to constructing them on a transactional foundation. A transactional relationship is one based on getting something for everything I give. As long as I'm getting what I want from this person or this friendship or this job or this community, I will be loyal. But as soon as my expectations are
no longer being met, that's when I begin to look at re-negotiation or separation.
So we settle for short-term commitments.
The alternative is to live according to things that have endurance that are not conditional. That means living without a time limited commitment.
What kind of parent, friend or genuine colleague does things only and so far as they suit him or only as far as they're getting something out of us or the job?
To create truly life-giving relationships, we have to make them unconditional without terms. And in these relationships, we resemble God. We've seen how God's commitment to creation spans 13 billion years of faithfulness. And we see this also in Christ. What stands
out in Christ's relationship to us is his loyalty, his faithfulness, his willingness to surrender everything for us. He's willing to lose it all. He's the one who makes no effort to protect some area of his life as his own, as somehow separate.
And we're called to do the same. Our actions must have within them this quality of endurance expressed by dying to ourselves, which always leads to creating even greater life. This is the life of the Christian: to be willing to lose one's life for another, and then to rediscover it, greater and more beautiful than before.
In our relationships, our communications, if we're willing to lose our lives, to be faithful for long periods of time, to endure, that's what it means to live according to eternity.
See in the readings how Jesus renews the commandments in a wonderful manner. For example, it's not sufficient not to kill someone. More importantly, we have to take care
of others and make peace with them. For all genuine relationships, marriage, family, friendship, all of them are indissoluble.
Can we love others just by sticking to protocols, bureaucratic procedures? No, we have to go beyond. God emptied God's self in the burst of creation, and Christ went beyond over and over. Entering the Kingdom is not something we do at the end of our lives. We enter it now, and it is here and now we start living according to eternity. Here and now our actions can take on at a completely different level of fullness and of wholeness.
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