Originally Posted by Big Al
I hope it's not sinful to say it that way, but one of my early in life remembrances of verse is an important "watchword" on how I try to lead my life:
There is no argument that Matthew 6:1-4 is a worthy commandment why stop there? For ALL of God's precepts, judgments, statues, testimonies, commandments and laws, cf. Psalm 119, are worthy of observation. God doesn't grade on a curve for the Lord's brother, James wrote:

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James 2:8-11 (ASV) "Howbeit if ye fulfil the royal law, according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well: but if ye have respect of persons, ye commit sin, being convicted by the law as transgressors. For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one [point], he is become guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou dost not commit adultery, but killest, thou art become a transgressor of the law."
And so it is. If we go back to the previous chapter in Matthew, chapter 5, we can read where the Lord Christ made this truth very clear. Here is what He said with the authority of God, He being God Himself and the great Law Giver:

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Matthew 5:17-19 (ASV) "Think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets: I came not to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law, till all things be accomplished. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven."
How glorious, how marvelous, how gracious God is that He sent His only begotten Son into the world to fulfill all the law in behalf of those who He came to redeem. Believers, although they are obligated to live a life of pure holiness by the perfect keeping of the whole law, yet incapable of doing so, have Christ's perfect righteousness imputed to their account so that they are no longer under God's wrath and judgment for failing to be perfectly holy as He is holy.

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simul iustus et peccator

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