Part Six Summary

The Hard Words Are Hard Because They Are True. That Is Why They Must Be Received.

Three chapters. Three teachings. Three bodies of Jesus’ instruction that the contemporary church has, in varying degrees and in varying forms, decided are too costly to deliver in full.

Chapter Twenty-Three received the teaching on plain speech — Matthew 5:33–37 and its comprehensive implications for the disciple’s life in marriage, in leadership, in cultural engagement, and in prayer. Let your Yes be Yes and your No be No. Not as a rule to perform but as the natural expression of an interior life in which the Father is the primary audience and the managed impression has no remaining purpose. Anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

Chapter Twenty-Four received Jesus’ teaching on marriage and divorce in full — the appeal to creation, the identification of Moses’ concession as a concession to hardness of heart, the porneia exception, the remarriage statement, and the disciples’ stunned response that revealed they had heard correctly. The table mapped the gap between what Jesus said and what the contemporary church often says. The chapter closed with direct words for the person who is divorced, in a second marriage, or currently considering divorce — the cross covers the past, the present covenant must be honored, and the Kingdom standard for marriage is not the concession but the design.

Chapter Twenty-Five received the rich young ruler — the man who asked the right question, got the right answer, and walked away sad. The command to sell everything was specific to this man’s specific idol and universal in its principle: Jesus identifies the specific thing that sits between each disciple and the completeness he is seeking and asks for it from love. The idol inventory named the four most common idols: security, reputation, control, and comfort. The question that closes the chapter is the question that closes Part Six: If Jesus is looking at you with love and asking for the thing you are holding — what will you do?

The hard words are not optional addenda to a gospel that works fine without them. They are the places where the King is most specifically addressing what is most specifically in the way of the disciple’s completeness. Receive them fully. Build on them.

“Jesus looked at them and replied, ‘This is impossible for mere humans, but for God all things are possible.’”

— Matthew 19:26 (NET)