Sermon on the Mount

140:3.1Then Je­sus spoke, say­ing: “Now that you are am­bas­sadors of my Fa­ther’s king­dom, you have thereby be­come a class of men sep­a­rate and dis­tinct from all other men on earth. You are not now as men among men but as the en­light­ened cit­i­zens of an­other and heav­enly coun­try among the ig­no­rant crea­tures of this dark world. It is not enough that you live as you were be­fore this hour, but hence­forth must you live as those who have tasted the glo­ries of a bet­ter life and have been sent back to earth as am­bas­sadors of the Sov­er­eign of that new and bet­ter world. Of the teacher more is ex­pected than of the pupil; of the mas­ter more is ex­acted than of the ser­vant. Of the cit­i­zens of the heav­enly king­dom more is re­quired than of the cit­i­zens of the earthly rule. Some of the things which I am about to say to you may seem hard, but you have elected to rep­re­sent me in the world even as I now rep­re­sent the Fa­ther; and as my agents on earth you will be ob­li­gated to abide by those teach­ings and prac­tices which are re­flec­tive of my ide­als of mor­tal liv­ing on the worlds of space, and which I ex­em­plify in my earth life of re­veal­ing the Fa­ther who is in heaven.

140:3.2“I send you forth to pro­claim lib­erty to the spir­i­tual cap­tives, joy to those in the bond­age of fear, and to heal the sick in ac­cor­dance with the will of my Fa­ther in heaven. When you find my chil­dren in dis­tress, speak en­cour­ag­ingly to them, say­ing:

140:3.3“Happy are the poor in spirit, the hum­ble, for theirs are the trea­sures of the king­dom of heaven.

140:3.4“Happy are they who hunger and thirst for righ­teous­ness, for they shall be filled.

140:3.5“Happy are the meek, for they shall in­herit the earth.

140:3.6“Happy are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

140:3.7“And even so speak to my chil­dren these fur­ther words of spir­i­tual com­fort and prom­ise:

140:3.8“Happy are they who mourn, for they shall be com­forted. Happy are they who weep, for they shall re­ceive the spirit of re­joic­ing.

140:3.9“Happy are the mer­ci­ful, for they shall ob­tain mercy.

140:3.10“Happy are the peace­mak­ers, for they shall be called the sons of God.

140:3.11“Happy are they who are per­se­cuted for righ­teous­ness’ sake, for theirs is the king­dom of heaven. Happy are you when men shall re­vile you and per­se­cute you and shall say all man­ner of evil against you falsely. Re­joice and be ex­ceed­ingly glad, for great is your re­ward in heaven.

140:3.12“My breth­ren, as I send you forth, you are the salt of the earth, salt with a sav­ing sa­vor. But if this salt has lost its sa­vor, where­with shall it be salted? It is hence­forth good for noth­ing but to be cast out and trod­den un­der foot of men.

140:3.13“You are the light of the world. A city set upon a hill can­not be hid. Nei­ther do men light a can­dle and put it un­der a bushel, but on a can­dle­stick; and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine be­fore men that they may see your good works and be led to glo­rify your Fa­ther who is in heaven.

140:3.14“I am send­ing you out into the world to rep­re­sent me and to act as am­bas­sadors of my Fa­ther’s king­dom, and as you go forth to pro­claim the glad tid­ings, put your trust in the Fa­ther whose mes­sen­gers you are. Do not forcibly re­sist in­jus­tice; put not your trust in the arm of the flesh. If your neigh­bor smites you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. Be will­ing to suf­fer in­jus­tice rather than to go to law among your­selves. In kind­ness and with mercy min­is­ter to all who are in dis­tress and in need.

140:3.15“I say to you: Love your en­e­mies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who de­spite­fully use you. And what­so­ever you be­lieve that I would do to men, do you also to them.

140:3.16“Your Fa­ther in heaven makes the sun to shine on the evil as well as upon the good; like­wise he sends rain on the just and the un­just. You are the sons of God; even more, you are now the am­bas­sadors of my Fa­ther’s king­dom. Be mer­ci­ful, even as God is mer­ci­ful, and in the eter­nal fu­ture of the king­dom you shall be per­fect, even as your heav­enly Fa­ther is per­fect.

140:3.17“You are com­mis­sioned to save men, not to judge them. At the end of your earth life you will all ex­pect mercy; there­fore do I re­quire of you dur­ing your mor­tal life that you show mercy to all of your breth­ren in the flesh. Make not the mis­take of try­ing to pluck a mote out of your brother’s eye when there is a beam in your own eye. Hav­ing first cast the beam out of your own eye, you can the bet­ter see to cast the mote out of your brother’s eye.

140:3.18“Dis­cern the truth clearly; live the righ­teous life fear­lessly; and so shall you be my apos­tles and my Fa­ther’s am­bas­sadors. You have heard it said: ‘If the blind lead the blind, they both shall fall into the pit.’ If you would guide oth­ers into the king­dom, you must your­selves walk in the clear light of liv­ing truth. In all the busi­ness of the king­dom I ex­hort you to show just judg­ment and keen wis­dom. Pre­sent not that which is holy to dogs, nei­ther cast your pearls be­fore swine, lest they tram­ple your gems un­der foot and turn to rend you.

140:3.19“I warn you against false proph­ets who will come to you in sheep’s cloth­ing, while on the in­side they are as raven­ing wolves. By their fruits you shall know them. Do men gather grapes from thorns or figs from this­tles? Even so, ev­ery good tree brings forth good fruit, but the cor­rupt tree bears evil fruit. A good tree can­not yield evil fruit, nei­ther can a cor­rupt tree pro­duce good fruit. Ev­ery tree that does not bring forth good fruit is pres­ently hewn down and cast into the fire. In gain­ing an en­trance into the king­dom of heaven, it is the mo­tive that counts. My Fa­ther looks into the hearts of men and judges by their in­ner long­ings and their sin­cere in­ten­tions.

140:3.20“In the great day of the king­dom judg­ment, many will say to me, ‘Did we not proph­esy in your name and by your name do many won­der­ful works?’ But I will be com­pelled to say to them, ‘I never knew you; de­part from me you who are false teach­ers.’ But ev­ery one who hears this charge and sin­cerely ex­e­cutes his com­mis­sion to rep­re­sent me be­fore men even as I have rep­re­sented my Fa­ther to you, shall find an abun­dant en­trance into my ser­vice and into the king­dom of the heav­enly Fa­ther.”

140:3.21Never be­fore had the apos­tles heard Je­sus speak in this way, for he had talked to them as one hav­ing su­preme au­thor­ity. They came down from the moun­tain about sun­down, but no man asked Je­sus a ques­tion.

• not gospel of Jesus

140:4.1The so-called “Ser­mon on the Mount” is not the gospel of Je­sus. It does con­tain much help­ful in­struc­tion, but it was Je­sus’ or­di­na­tion charge to the twelve apos­tles. It was the Mas­ter’s per­sonal com­mis­sion to those who were to go on preach­ing the gospel and as­pir­ing to rep­re­sent him in the world of men even as he was so elo­quently and per­fectly rep­re­sen­ta­tive of his Fa­ther.

• based on faith and love, not ethics and duty

140:5.23And so it is re­vealed that the beat­i­tudes of the Ser­mon on the Mount are based on faith and love and not on law—ethics and duty.