Quotes from Scot McKnight

As Dale Allison correctly points out, "We have here [in the Beatitudes] not commonsense wisdom born of experience but eschatological promise which foresees the unprecedented: the evils of the present will be undone and the righteous will be confirmed with reward."12 This blessing, while its focus is future, begins now (Matt 11:6; 13:16).

Until we learn to read the Bible as Story, we will not know how to get anything out of the Bible for daily living.

God's kingdom happens when human beings are empowered by God's Spirit to do God's kingdom work in the shape of a new community.

Jesus is probing into the heart of his followers to ask them if they value life more than kingdom and righteousness.

In his incarnate life, when he becomes one with us, Jesus recapitulates, or relives, Israel's (our) history. He becomes one of us. In fact, he becomes all of us in one divine-human being. Jesus is all Adam and Eve were designed to be, and more; he loves the Father absolutely and he loves himself absolutely and he loves others absolutely and he loves the world absolutely. He is the Oneness Story in one person.

It is impossible for us to indwell this Story and not assume that narrative's perspective. Again, that perspective is God's perspective. It is not our perspective; it is God's perspective. It is God's perspective on us, not our perspective on others. Bible readers, especially pastors (and commenters on blogs), inevitably begin to think like God about ourselves and others.

Of the many ways to describe or articulate the Torah, two are pertinent in our text: one can either multiply laws so as to cover all possible situations, or one can reduce the law to its essence.

This otherness problem is what the gospel "fixes," and the story of the Bible is the story of God's people struggling with otherness and searching for oneness.

Jesus himself was law observant, but what distinguished his praxis was that he did so through the law of double love. To do the Torah through love is to do all the Torah says and more.

Here's how to determine God's will for your life: Go wherever your gifts will be exploited the most.

Yet we cannot fail to observe that the Golden Rule of 7:12 officially closes the teachings of Jesus in the Sermon and summarizes the essence of the Sermon.

The only thing that "exploits your gifts" or that taxes you to the limits or that fills your soul or that challenges you to live the dream the most is following Jesus. Some days you may do pretty well; other days you may flub up.