What Jesus taught
The Sermon on the Mount and the greatest commandment, in plain words for real life: work, relationships, and the internet. About 4 minutes each.
The most famous talk ever given
On a hillside in Galilee, Jesus sat down and taught a crowd of ordinary people. Matthew’s Gospel records it in chapters 5 to 7. It takes about fifteen minutes to read.
It has shaped people of every faith and none, in very different ways. Tolstoy built his life around it. Gandhi said it went straight to his heart. Martin Luther King Jr. built a movement on its call to love your enemies.
Each page here takes one teaching. What did he say? What does it mean? What does it look like at work and with people? And what is the hard part?
Words to know, and reading help
| The word | It means |
|---|---|
| Sermon | A talk that explains part of the Bible. |
| Gospel | One of the four books about Jesus’ life: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. It also means “good news.” |
| Disciples | Jesus’ closest followers and friends. |
| Grace | God’s love that you don’t have to earn. |
| Lutheran | Christians who follow the teaching of Martin Luther, a German church reformer from the 1500s. |
Want bigger letters, more space between lines or easier-to-read letters? Tap Aa at the top of any page. Reading in another language? Your phone’s browser can translate any page. More words: the word list.
The heart of it
Everything else hangs on these.
A different kind of life
What Jesus said a good life actually looks like.
How we treat people
Anger, honesty, conflict and the people we can’t stand.
- Deal with anger earlyOn anger and reconciliation · Contempt is where violence starts. Make it right quickly.
- Say what you meanOn oaths: let your yes be yes · Be someone whose plain word is enough.
- Break the cycleTurn the other cheek; go the extra mile · Don’t hit back, and don’t be a doormat. Find a third way.
- Love the people you can’t standLove your enemies · The hardest sentence Jesus ever said, and maybe the most important.
- Check yourself firstJudge not · The standard you use on others is the one used on you.
What we live for
Money, worry, motives and asking for help.
- Do good without an audienceGiving, praying and fasting in secret · If the applause is the point, the applause is all you get.
- What you value runs youTreasure in heaven; you cannot serve two masters · Money is a good tool and a terrible boss.
- Don’t worry about tomorrowConsider the lilies · Plan for tomorrow, but live today.
- Keep askingAsk, seek, knock · Asking boldly, again and again, isn’t weakness. Jesus invites it.
How to read it
Nobody keeps the Sermon on the Mount perfectly. Jesus didn’t give it as a ladder to climb up to God.
Lutherans read it two ways at once. It is a mirror: it shows us honestly where we fall short. And it is a map: it shows what life looks like when God’s love is at work in us.
And they read it as a portrait of Jesus himself. “I didn’t come to destroy, but to fulfill,” he says in the same sermon. He is the one who lived it all the way, for us. The good news comes first: we are forgiven and loved, and that is what makes this way of life possible. That is why every page here ends with it.
Keep going
- The Jesus Way: thirteen practices, one thing to try each week
- Questions: honest answers about God, the Bible and more