Hey folks, Nijay here. I am excited to invite my friend Pastor Tammy Melchien to share her heart and her new book on living according to the Sermon on the Mount. I have been devouring her book and it has been spiritually inspiring and rejuvenating. Read, learn, be challenged, and follow Jesus!
Daring to Live the Opposite Way, the Jesus Way
by Pastor Tammy Melchien
When I was five, I sat beside my mom on a metal folding chair in our church basement during a Wednesday-night business meeting. One agenda item was choosing leaders for the coming year. A woman in our church—let’s call her Jill—had been nominated. Years earlier, Jill had divorced her husband after discovering his betrayal and had started a new life among us. Just before the votes were cast, a man stood with an open Bible and quoted verses to argue that her divorce disqualified her. Jill sat only a few seats away from me, silent, tears streaming down her cheeks. No one spoke up to defend her, and when the roll call ended, Jill was voted down. I don’t recall the passages the man quoted, but even as a child, I felt the ache of something wrong. I sensed what I now know to be true: it’s entirely possible to quote Scripture and completely miss the heart of the God Scripture reveals.
Over the past turbulent decade, many people have claimed to be speaking for God. But have the words, attitudes, and actions of the Christian community reflected the heart of the God we claim to follow?
Recently, another wave of cultural chaos has swept over us. It’s submerged us in a fresh round of relational discord and division. It has left many feeling fearful, anxious, angry—even a bit hopeless.
In moments like these, it’s easy to slip into “us versus them” thinking. I know I’m prone to that. I do my best to avoid the fruitless clapping back on social media, but that doesn’t mean I’m less guilty of condemning others in my heart and mind.
It’s easy to label other people as the problem. But is it possible that we are also playing a role in the disruption and dysfunction? What if we’re just as responsible for the problems as the people we blame?
What if every instinct, every decision we’ve made up to this point, has led us further from where we really want to be?
What might happen if we chose the opposite?
Two thousand years ago, Jesus showed up on the shores of the Sea of Galilee and began teaching people a new way to live. “Repent,” he told them, “for the Kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matthew 4:17). He invited them to experience life in a Kingdom unlike anything they’d ever experienced or known.
It’s a Kingdom where the poor and meek are blessed (Matthew 5:3–12).
A Kingdom where ordinary people live with extraordinary purpose (Matthew 5:13–16).
It’s a Kingdom where God’s Word takes root in hearts transformed from the inside out (Matthew 5:17–20).
A Kingdom where humility is embodied, relationships are restored, radical grace is extended, and even enemies are loved (Matthew 5:21–48).
To live in this Kingdom often requires that we do the opposite of our naturally formed instincts.
As followers of Jesus, we face a choice. We can stay the course and remain stuck in the cultural script we’re living. Or we can follow Jesus into the upside-down, counterintuitive Kingdom of God.
I believe that Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount teaches us how to live this opposite life.
New Testament scholar Amy-Jill Levine writes:
These three chapters tell us that the kingdom of heaven is not some abstract place with pearly gates and golden slippers, harp music, and a bunch of angels flapping their wings. The kingdom of heaven occurs when people take the words of Jesus in these chapters to heart and live into them.
In the midst of this cultural mess, there is a hopeful way forward—if we’re willing to listen to Jesus. If we’re willing to follow him.
His way will help us mend relationships without compromising what we believe.
His way will bring peace to our troubled souls.
His way will restore our credibility to the watching world.
May we have the courage to take a step back, rethink our assumptions, and let Jesus recalibrate our instincts so that we can rediscover his way. Then we’ll be people who don’t just speak the Word of God—we’ll be people who live it.
Did you find this essay by Pastor Melchien helpful, encouraging, or challenging? Please share!
Thank you For sharing this.
Tammy I appreciate your work and look forward in reading your book