As the Sermon on the Mount wraps up, Jesus concludes with several related warnings that tie together word and deed. There seems to be an emphasis on the outwardly ordinary words or attention to words which masks an inward contradiction. A wolf in sheep’s clothing, a dazzling display of power without submission to God’s will, and a seemingly sound structure built on either rock or sand. There is a diversity of ways in which people might appear to be kingdom disciples yet there also seems to be...

In Matthew 6:1-18, Jesus addresses three outworkings of righteousness, almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. For each one, the emphasis lays on uniting act and intention in the direction of glorifying God rather than oneself. Consistent with the first two, the third outworking of righteousness, is a positively good work, a good exercise of righteousness. Indeed, Jesus assumes that his disciples will fast, and so this teaching is not directed at abrogating the practice of fasting but putting to...

As Jesus confronts a hypocritical way of praying in Matthew 6, he makes a profound statement about the relationship of kingdom disciples to the King when he begins his model prayer with the words, “Our Father.” To be sure, the concept of God’s fatherhood and the corresponding ideas of adoption and sonship do not originate in Jesus’ teaching. For example, Israel is called God’s firstborn son (Exod 4:22; Hos 11:1), and the Davidic king was designated God’s son (Ps 2:7). Nevertheless, something...