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Patterns or principles

Some years ago, I came across a slogan which was being used by an overseas aid organization:

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

The slogan clarified something that I was beginning to understand at the time – the difference between giving people patterns and passing on to them principles.

A man who has learned how to fish has learned principles which, by using his initiative and by being responsible, he can adapt to many varying situations so as to keep himself fed.

So it is with those who learn and practise God’s principles.

On the other hand, a man who is simply given a fish on a day-to-day basis never learns responsibility nor needs to use his initiative. Neither has he developed in his ability to fend for himself if the daily supply fails.

So it is with those who, rather than being responsible to learn and apply God’s principles are looking for patterns which, without initiative, responsibility, or a need for an intimate relationship with God on their part, will give them the answers and direction they are looking for.

Many differences have arisen amongst Christians because they have sought to find patterns in the Bible. One example is that of church government where, again and again, people have sought to find the Bible pattern for it. As a result, great, deep differences have arisen between the various groups as each one has claimed to have the Biblical pattern.

In fact, the Bible does not give us patterns but it teaches us principles.

An understanding of the principles which God teaches us requires us to hear from God, to be directed by God and to know the way that the principles are to be applied in various situations.

There are no two individuals who are identical and no two situations that are identical. Because of this, it would be ludicrous to suggest that one rigid pattern can be made to fit every person and every situation. But principles, whilst being in themselves essentially unchangeable, are adaptable to all of the variations that exist.

We will be studying the fifth, sixth and seventh chapters of Matthew and looking at what is commonly called the Sermon on the Mount and studying fifteen such principles which Jesus shared.

After God had directed me to prepare a series of studies on the Sermon on the Mount, these principles came to me from Him as a new revelation. This was particularly so because everything that I had previously heard or read from these chapters had been a verse by verse exposition which tended to extract patterns and did not, in fact, bring out the underlying principles.

As I began to study the Scriptures, I found that God was showing me that the great need of his people was to understand His principles. In the second verse of Matthew 5, we read that Jesus opened his mouth and taught them, and then He went on to speak the words that we will be studying together.

In Matthew 4:4 Jesus said that – “Man shalt not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”

It may seem a superfluous statement to say that Jesus opened His mouth to teach His disciples, but I think it is to remind us that, when Jesus opened His mouth, He was bringing the words that were proceeding out of God’s mouth to those that He was teaching. He was not teaching them patterns of behaviour. He was sharing principles with them. The principles by which the Kingdom of God functions. The principles by which we are to live. He was not wanting to give them fish that might satisfy them day by day. He was wanting to teach them how to fish. He was wanting to teach them how to receive from God, how to use their understanding, their initiative and their faith to work together with God in the setting up of His Kingdom.

The principles which Jesus was to share with them are infinitely adaptable and flexible, and yet they never change.

I do not say, of course, that these are the only principles of the Kingdom of God, and it may well be that someone else studying these chapters will find more or fewer than fifteen of these principles. But I do bring to you, as a revelation from God, these fifteen principles of the Kingdom of God – they are principles by which a man may live.

About the author

Tony Kostas was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1941, where at the age of seventeen, he committed his life to Jesus at a Billy Graham Crusade. In 1967 he founded the Melbourne Outreach Crusade, a non-denominational evangelistic outreach. This later grew into Outreach International, which is now a worldwide body of believers, who share a God-given calling and are committed to live in love with Him and with one another.

Tony’s life is a true expression of all that God has revealed to him throughout the years, in its purity and focus on loving God. His passion is for God to have the desire of His hears: a people who truly represent Him because they are His and His alone.