Sermon on the Mount

The Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5–7) is Jesus' most extensive recorded discourse, delivered on a mountainside in Galilee at the opening of his public ministry. It begins with the Beatitudes — a series of blessings on the poor in spirit, the mourning, the meek, the hungry, the merciful, the pure, the peacemakers, and the persecuted (Matt. 5:3–12). Jesus then defines his relationship to the Mosaic law ("I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them," Matt. 5:17) and deepens the law's ethical demands: lust is adultery of the heart (5:28), anger is murder of the heart (5:22), and the command to love extends even to enemies (5:44). The discourse covers prayer (including the Lord's Prayer, 6:9–13), almsgiving, fasting, wealth, anxiety, and judging others, and concludes with the parable of the two foundations (7:24–27). A shorter parallel version appears in Luke 6:20–49 as the Sermon on the Plain. The Sermon stands as the foundational ethical charter of the kingdom of God.