Building Your House on the Rock

In Matthew 7:24-27 Jesus says this:  “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who builds his house on the rock.  And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded (NIV: foundation) on the rock.  And everyone who hears these words of mine and odes not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

In the immediate context of the sermon on the mount, when Jesus says “these words of mine” contextually he means everything he has just said from Matt 5:1 -7:23.  Of course in the larger context of scripture we know that all of the Bible is God’s word, but if we look at the surrounding context of what “these words of mine” being a rock foundation to build your house on it would focus on many things, but to name a few:

Hungering and thirsting for righteousness, and therefore not pursuing sin (5:6), showing mercy (5:7), making peace (5:9), being salt and letting our light shine among men so they can see our good deeds and give us glory….er…I mean give God glory (5:13-16); grounding and centering your life and faith on Jesus, God, the Messiah, the one who came to fulfill the Old Testament law (5:17-20);  do not be sinfully angry, it’s the same thing as murder in the heart (5:21-26); do not lust after others, its the same thing as adultery in the heart (5:27-30), remember marriage is a covenant before God forever (5:31-32), keep your word (5:33-37);  do not retaliate and escalate a situation unnecessarily (5:38-42); love your enemies…ouch (5:43-48); give to the needy, quietly and humbly (6:1-4) ; pray like Jesus taught us, that God is glorified and his will is done in all things, that we are thankful for his provision and forgive readily (6:5-15); do not idolize and store up material things here on Earth (6:19-24); do not be anxious and worry and brood about situations…it’s sin (6:25-34); do not improperly judge others – God is the only one who will judge salvation, we are called to spur each other on, but do that in humility and gentleness and only after a good long look in the mirror (7:1-6); ask God in prayer for good things (7:7-11); treat others how you’d like to be treated…hey…that IS in the Bible…I thought Ben Franklin said that…(7:12-14); test all teaching, look at it’s fruit.  Look at our fruit, is it bad?  Do we have any? (7:15-20).

That’s a pretty solid foundation, eh?