New Snakes with Old Tricks (Matthew 5:33–37)

As we continue our journey through the Sermon on the Mount, we find Jesus describing surpassing righteousness in terms of truth-telling. Tradition had distorted God’s truth in this regard, and Jesus points to two things to correct this distortion:

1. Truth-telling according to the standards of tradition (v. 33)
2. Truth-telling according to the standards of Jesus (vv. 34–37)