Both of these biblical texts, so different at first glance, reflect a single understanding of life. The foundation of the understanding of life in Ecclesiastes is, perhaps, that within the framework of earthly life everything that seems valuable and significant to man is, in fact, vanity and a chasing after the wind...
Both of these biblical texts, so different at first glance, reflect a single understanding of life.
The foundation of the understanding of life in Ecclesiastes is, perhaps, that within the framework of earthly life everything that seems valuable and significant to man is, in fact, vanity and a chasing after the wind. Ecclesiastes seeks and finds nothing on earth to which the heart should be attached, which could become a source of happiness, a source of life for man. Even wisdom and moderation, so valued by the ancients, give us nothing but privation, even voluntary privation. Only in God does Ecclesiastes hope to find meaning; but God remains incomprehensible and distant to him. To draw near to Him is hardly possible for man.
The understanding of life in Ecclesiastes is colored by inescapable sorrow, because in this life he sees suffering and emptiness behind everything. The book ends with an unspoken hope for "that day" when the sun and stars will grow dim, and this earthly world will come to its end. The "Day of the Lord," the "Day of Judgment," as the great prophets of the Old Testament called it, may perhaps give man some understanding of the meaning of existence. But the light of this hope is hidden from Ecclesiastes; written in the period between the return from the Babylonian captivity and the coming of Christ, this book sums up the hopeless, joyless, and meaningless existence of man before Christ. The sorrow of Ecclesiastes is such that nothing earthly can quench it, and in this lies the greatest realism of this book.
The fundamental meaning of the understanding of life behind the words of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Sermon on the Mount is that only God Himself can be the answer to all our questions. The only thing that can be the purpose and meaning of human life is God Himself. Not something proceeding from Him, not earthly life in itself, nor even eternity can quench the thirst resounding in the words of Ecclesiastes. Only God… And the most important thing that the Lord Jesus proclaimed to people is that God has come to us to give us meaning, joy, and life. Even suffering becomes for us not just a symptom of mortality, but a meeting place with the Incomprehensible. Deeds of mercy and the fulfillment of the law, meekness and the rejection of violence, love for people itself — everything gains meaning only because here we find God. "The kingdom of heaven is at hand," the Lord repeats more than once in the Gospel. That Kingdom where life finds meaning, that for which it would be worth living, is inaccessible to us — but this Kingdom itself has drawn near to us out of God's great love.
In Christ, man finds what Ecclesiastes sought and did not find. But nowhere else but in Him can this be found — in this both the book of Ecclesiastes and the Sermon on the Mount converge. Of course, this answer is necessarily brief and most likely incomplete. If we briefly answer your second question in the same way, it will be something like this: The purpose of our life is God Himself, a Person whom one can love, seek, comprehend, and trust. At the same time, the purpose of our life is to fulfill God's design for us: to bring His love into the created world, to serve as a creative principle in the world. This is possible for us only together with God; by ourselves we can create nothing but chaos. These two aspects of the purpose of our life unite in the possibility of being the presence of God in this world, a Temple of the Holy Spirit, as the apostle Paul expresses it.
The meaning of life is thus hidden in the Almighty Himself. As Saint Augustine, the great Christian thinker of the late 4th — early 5th centuries, said addressing God: "You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in You." The Lord Jesus Christ Himself expressed this mystery in the words of a prayer addressed to the Father: "That they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us." The love that unites us with God to the very depths of our and His nature — this, perhaps, is the meaning of our life. The value of human life I would measure by God's love for each of us. We are weak, empty, and barren; our life often seems worthless to us. But God loves us not because we are good, but because He is God. And we are valuable not because we are good, but because we are loved by Him.
It is unlikely that this answer can claim completeness and objectivity. But, I hope it is direct enough. Practice shows that it hides a wonderful power of life; moreover, it is important to bear in mind that when we meet God, questions disappear. Not that we receive answers, — but there comes a moment when you forget about questions and begin to live, because God Himself is the answer to everything.
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5:33 Our Lord here refers to the promise made to the pure in heart of seeing God in all things, and points out a false doctrine of the scribes, which arose from their not thus seeing God.What he forbids is, the swearing at all,
- by any creature,
- in our ordinary conversation:
both of which the scribes and Pharisees taught to be perfectlyinnocent. Exo 20:7.5:36 For thou canst not make one hair white or black - Whereby it appears, that this also is not thine but God's.
5:37 Let your conversation be yea, yea; nay, nay - That is, in your common discourse, barely affirm or deny.
5:38 Ye have heard - Our Lord proceeds to enforce such meekness and love on those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake (which he pursues to the end of the chapter) as were utterly unknown to the scribes and Pharisees. It hath been said - In the law, as a direction to judges, in ease of violent and barbarous assaults.An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth - And this has been interpreted, as encouraging bitter and rigorous revenge. Deu 19:21.
5:39 But I say unto you, that ye resist not the evil man - Thus; the Greek word translated resist signifies standing in battle array, striving for victory. If a man smite thee on the right cheek - Return not evil for evil: yea, turn to him the other - Rather thanrevenge thyself.
5:40 Where the damage is not great, choose rather to suffer it, though possibly it may on that account be repeated, than to demand an eye for an eye, to enter into a rigorous prosecution of the offender. The meaning of the whole passage seems to be, rather than return evil for evil, when the wrong is purely personal, submit to one bodily wrong after another, give up one part of your goods after another, submit to one instance of compulsion after another. That the words are not literally to be understood, appears from the behaviour of our Lord himself, Joh 18:22-23.
5:41 See note at Mat 5:40.
5:42 Thus much for your behaviour toward the violent. As for those who use milder methods, Give to him that asketh thee - Give and lend to any so far, (but no further, for God nevercontradicts himself) as is consistent with thy engagements to thy creditors, thy family, and the household of faith. Luk 6:30.
5:43 Thou shalt love thy neighbour; And hate thy enemy - God spoke the former part; the scribes added the latter. Lev 19:18.
5:44 Bless them that curse you - Speak all the good you can to and of them, who speak all evil to and of you. Repay love in thought, word, and deed, to those who hate you, and show it both in word and deed. Luk 6:27, Luk 6:35.
5:45 That ye may be the children - That is, that ye may continue and appear such before men and angels. For he maketh his sun to rise - He gives them such blessings as they will receive at his hands. Spiritual blessings they will not receive.
5:46 The publicans - were officers of the revenue, farmers, or receivers of the public money: men employed by the Romans to gather the taxes and customs, which they exacted of the nations they had conquered. These were generally odious for their extortion and oppression, and were reckoned by the Jews as the very scum of the earth.
5:47 And if ye salute your friends only - Our Lord probably glances at those prejudices, which different sects had against each other, and intimates, that he would not have his followers imbibe that narrow spirit. Would to God this had been more attended to among the unhappy divisions and subdivisions, into which his Church has been crumbled! And that we might at least advance so far, as cordially to embrace our brethren in Christ, of whatever party or denomination they are!
5:48 Therefore ye shall be perfect; as your Father who is in heaven is perfect - So the original runs, referring to all that holiness which is described in the foregoing verses, which our Lord in the beginning of the chapter recommends as happiness, and in the close of it as perfection. And how wise and gracious is this, to sum up, and, as it were,seal all his commandments with a promise! Even the proper promise of the Gospel! That he will put those laws in our minds, and write them in our hearts! He well knew how ready our unbelief would be to cry out, this is impossible! And therefore stakes upon it all the power, truth, and faithfulness of him to whom all things are possible.