Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

Matthew 7:24-27

Jesus concludes the Sermon on the Mount with a parable of two men who built houses. One was wise and built his house on a solid foundation of rock, while the other was foolish and built upon the sand; we all know what happened when the storms came…

Of course Jesus wasn’t teaching an engineering class; He has a greater purpose, to be sure. His message here is really the summation and conclusion of His remarks: You’ve heard the teaching, now put it into practice. Putting His message into practice is the meaning of building the house on a solid foundation; not doing so is the meaning of building in the sand.

In the previous part, I made much of the idea that having a relationship with our Lord will result in a response on our parts and Jesus is in a sense saying the same thing here: Put my words into practice that is the response that grace demands. Make no mistake, Jesus’ purpose in making this address was not to get His name in the history books as a “great moral teacher”, it was to see lives change.

So, to conclude our look at His teachings in chapters 5-7, we are at the very same place His original hearers were: how will we respond?