Okay guys, lets admit it, this is a hard one. Especially in our era when woman are objectified, and objectify themselves so much. Men have had an issue with this since almost our first parents. Now I must make a distinction. You see a woman who is very beautiful, she is in an elegant dress and is all done up. You feel the desire to linger a moment looking at her....Is this what Jesus was talking about. That depends. What are you thinking about when you look at her? If you are thinking ,"That is a very beautiful woman." Then I feel that that is not lust. If you are thinking ,"Wow, I wonder what she would look like with less on." That is lust.
There is no problem with recognizing beauty, whether in art, nature, or in those other human beings on this planet. The difference is where do the thoughts go. Do you feel as if you are looking at a piece of art, or are you looking at them in a sexual nature.
Now, you need to remember something. We are wired to look for the most fit mate. As such when you see a member of the opposite sex, who you body says would be a suitable mate, you are going to feel something. It is unavoidable. The question is, do you let those thoughts and feelings stir within you. Do you notice that Christ did not say that whosoever looketh on a woman and feels lust. He said "to lust" indicating intentional looking for the purpose of arousing those feelings.
This scripture is about pornography. And as Elder Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said,"young women, please understand that if you dress immodestly, you are magnifying this problem by becoming pornography to some of the men who see you." Thus a woman does not have to be naked for it to be pornography. Any thing you look at for the purpose of lusting, is pornography.
Pornography is void of love or respect. Thus this can even refer to your interactions with your spouse. If those interactions are void of love or respect of them, then they have also become pornography, and its not their fault at all. It is the responsibility of each person to dress appropriate for the occasion, and to think appropriately for the occasion.
Now in closing I wish to remind the woman that you are just as prone to this. Elder Oaks indicated "Pornographic or erotic stories" are just as bad. This included many of the romance novels you all love so much. Many of which are just as bad as any pornographic magazine. It might not be visual, but it in acts the same chemical reactions.
While anger is not sinful, not allowing ourselves to forgive is sinful. How long do you hold on to anger? How long do you let it eat away at you. The spirit brings feelings of peace and love, how can we expect to be lead by the spirit when we are cankered by anger and hate. My father once told me that the heart is affected by every thought we have. Imagine that a drop of everything we think makes its way into our heart. Then whatever we fill our thoughts with will eventually fill our heart. The lord has admonished us to fill our hearts with charity. How is this possible if we allow drops of anger to seep through.
Many believe that a righteous individual will never get angry. This is not true. Righteous individuals do get angry. God himself gets angry. The difference is why we get angry, and how we react. The first few words of verse 22 give us the incite. It is only a sin if we are not justified in getting angry. When it says angry without reason, I imagine it is implying that you must have a good reason. A good measure is whether you think God would be angry in the situation.
Now you notice that it says that you are in danger of the judgment. What does that mean? The judgment would indicate God judgment due to sin, however notice that it does not say that we are convicted. Just that we are in danger. Danger indicates a state where you can still come back before you get into any trouble. Thus when we are angry without cause we can still get ourselves under control and avoid sin.
However the next line indicates that if we act rashly on that anger, then we are in danger of hellfire. Once we have acted rashly we have committed the act. Thus the sin has been made, and judgment on that act has been passed. However again the lord indicates danger, or the possibility, of hellfire. There is still a way back through repentance.
Anger is not sinful. Unjust anger, or acting rashly when angry is sinful, and requires repentance. Think about a time when you where angry, can you honestly say that you where justified before god in being angry? Do you think you reacted in a just manner before God?
These verses from the sermon on the mount are quoted in almost every talk about missionary work I have ever heard. Yet they strongly contrast some of the lords other sayings. Here we are told to let our light shine that people may see our good works. Later we are told to pray hidden in our closets, and to not let the right hand know what the left hand is doing. That the fathers seeing what is done in secret will reward us openly.
In many ways these two scriptures are said to contradict each other. One says to let everyone see what you do that is good, the other says to not let anyone know. So what are we supposed to do?
The truth of the matter is that the two scriptures talk about the motive for doing the good works. In one the lord tells us to raise them on a candle stick to "glorify your father who is in heaven." The other tells us to do them in secret and to not seek for the praise of men. When we do good works people always see. You can't hide, there is always someone watching. The issue is when you do the good deed for the purpose of being seen. Instead of for the glory of God.
This scripture might not make as much sense to us today as it did in the time of the Bible. To us, salt is what makes us retain water, and we are constantly being told to limit our consumption of salt in our diets. Salty food are generally considered to not be very healthy, and can raise your blood pressure.However, it is essential to continual life on this planet.
Did you know that Salt is required to sustain animal life. Elephants go into caves to scrape salt from the walls and eat it. We give our cows salt licks in order to make sure that they have enough salt. Without it they would die. Without salt all animal life on our planet would die. The fish of the sea would die and we would all die too.We have been using salt to preserve food for longer than we have had a written language. It was an essential element in the time of Christ to keep food from spoiling.
Thus the salt of the earth, is what preserves us as a people. It is the group of good people who go about their every day lives doing good things. They are not shining diamonds, but are dull, gray and rough. But all the diamonds in the world couldn't take the place of the salt. They preserve the order of this world with their honesty, integrity, and hard work. Without them, we would all spoil and be worthless as a people.
These are some of the most well known one liners in the scriptures, and because of such they have become overlooked in their importance.
Joseph smith likened the process of obtaining exaltation to be like climbing a ladder. You must start on the bottom rung, and work your way up one rung at a time. What if we think of the beatitudes as the rungs of the ladder that lead us to exaltation.
First we must realize that we are lacking, that we need God in our lives. Then we mourn, and feel godly sorrow for our sins and short comings. Then we become meek and teachable. Accepting what God tells us and not reviling against it. Once we have become teachable, he will teach us, and we will hunger and thirst after righteousness. As we learn and gain the spirit we will be filled with charity, and become merciful to those around us. As we are filled with faith and charity the lord will purify our hearts and we will have no more desire to do evil. Then, like Lehi after partaking of the fruit, we will desire to share these blessings with others and bring the peace of the gospel into their lives. As we work to further Gods work, the enemies of the work will work against us, and we will be persecuted for righteousness sake.
Thus as you can see the beatitudes are not just a grouping of qualities, but he step by step process to becoming Christ like.
It appears from Matt 5:1 that this first part of the sermon on the mount was taught only to the disciples. It says that Jesus went up into the mountains and then his disciples came up to him. Generally in the gospels, when the word his/the disciples it is referring to the 12. Thus the beatitudes were not taught to the entire congregation.