Verses 1-5: Judge Not
What do these teachings of Christ reveal about the atonement?
The Savior knows that judgment can be antithetical to repentance and can dam our progress. He has felt, and knows, how pain can compound as we attempt to avoid it by shifting the blame to others. As we do so, we add to our suffering needless loads of resentment, anger and self-pity. He has felt all of this. He wants to save us from suffering. He also wants us to know, that even in cases where others have truly sinned against us and caused us to suffer, that His atonement removed the need for us to resent and blame. It was out of love for us, and love and deference to His father, that He performed the atonement, and the same love causes Him to command us not to contend by judging and blaming, but to repent of our other sins. How else can we progress?
Lesson for me?
*When you approach resentment, remember the Savior's atoning sacrifice and His desire and power for it to effectively remove resentment and blame. Let thoughts of it soften your heart.
Verse 6:
This is one I don't understand so well. Having just instructed is not to judge, the Savior then asks us to compare certain people to "dogs" and "swine" and unworthy of "holiness" and "pearls". Keeping in mind the Savior's offering of love, and knowing thereby, that everything He commands us is meant to save us from vain and fruitless suffering, why would He say this? And what does it reveal about the atonement? Dogs and pigs are not evil necessarily, but ignorant and unprepared to benefit from gospel knowledge or fine things of great value. The Savior knows and loves people like this. He knows that some people are better off not hearing what they're unprepared to hear, and that His disciples' efforts are better spent in a more fertile field. We can love these people, but with the Spirit as our guide, it may be clear that they are not ready to bear the gospel light. The Savior felt the pain of everyone who has "cast their pearls before swine," and seen the resultant needless hurt and destruction and wants to prevent it where possible.
Lesson for me?
*Do not dismiss people out of hand, but stay open and try to listen as the Spirit invites or dissuades you to share the gospel.
Verses 7-11:
Ask, Seek and Knock
The Savior wants us to build a relationship of trust with Him and His Father- not to just passively receive gifts, but to enter into a dialogue of asking, seeing the question/need fulfilled, and acknowledging receipt, all the while increasing in confidence and gratitude before the Lord. This process prepares us for grateful reception of the greatest gift, the Atonement. Asking the multitude to draw upon their own parental affection helps the people to begin to fathom the great love of the Father & Christ, and encourages them to trust in their benevolence.
Verse 12:
Golden Rule
Jesus asks the people to live a higher law. He knows that the best way to promote peace and reduce pain is to ask people to really search their hearts and act from love.
"Would I wish to be treated that way?"
Jesus atoned for every unholy and hurtful act that occurs when people neglect that law.
"This is the law and the prophets," meaning... prophets preach repentance- they point to Christ. Living the golden rule is continual repentance- continual turning from harm to healing. I'm just hazarding an explanation as to why Christ seems to be saying that the golden rule encompasses the gospel. It makes teachers and philosophers of us all, as we compare our acts against our experiences of being acted upon- beyond following a rote command. Later, He pronounces that He is the law. He embodies the golden rule. The golden rule is the fruit of His bitter experience- a loving plea that such suffering might not proliferate among His children. "Please. Please don't do to one another that which would hurt you- which has already hurt me. Such should be done away."
But why is it "the law and the prophets"? What else am I missing? Law is truth. Prophets are the servants of truth- the mouthpieces of God- and what higher truth could we possibly be subject to- what greater knowledge than to know and feel the experience of another to be as real as your own? And not only as real, but as valuable, as important? This is the law of the celestial spheres- the multiplicity of joy- THE LAW. It's what Christ feels for us and what we must feel for every soul.
Lesson for me?
*Read the preceding often and remember the feeling that came with it. Allow it to humble you and to change you.
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