MATTHEW 5.43-48

Mt 5:43 ¶ Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. 44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; 45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? 47 And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? 48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

• Let’s begin our time this morning by quoting John Stott: "It is not enough for Christians to resemble non-Christians; our calling is to outstrip them in virtue" [Christian Counter-Culture, 121]. And that takes place only through the regenerating work of God's Spirit, and the constant supply of grace through Jesus Christ.

You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy”: The first half of the command was a direct quotation from Leviticus 19:18 but with parts left out. The original states, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."  But the rabbis added a second half: "you shall...hate your enemy." Search the Old Testament and you will not find this command. It is just not there.

Now, it must be noted that there were OT commands given by God to the Israelites to wipe out the Canaanites etc. There were also the imprecatory Psalms in which curses were called down upon certain people. But the difference here is that all of those commands were given to the nation for the purposes of being removing unrepentant people who were devoted to worshipping false gods and were totally given over to idolatry and immorality. This command was never to the individual to take those kinds of matters into his or her own hands.

So once again we see that the problem that is before us is because the religious leaders at the time of Jesus reinterpreted the Scripture so that their flesh and desires would be guarded from what they perceived as a divine intrusion into their lives. The bottom line is that they really did not want God to tell them who they could or couldn’t love?

By this point in time, to the Jewish person, only another Jew was considered to be their neighbor. In their minds, to hate a Gentile was just as pleasing to God as loving their own family.  This is why Jesus was asked the question by a rabbi that wished to justify himself, "And who is my neighbor?" His question came after he had affirmed the two great commandments to Christ, but not wanting to feel guilty for his abhorrence of others, he asks for clarification on Christ's definition of a neighbor. This is where Jesus tells one of the most penetrating stories - the Good Samaritan - to answer the question of who is my neighbor? It was not the Jewish priest or the religious Levite that treated their fellow Jew in a neighborly fashion. Instead it was a despised Samaritan that showed mercy to the man that had been beaten by robbers and left for dead. The act of mercy by the despised Samaritan to person that could do nothing for him was the fulfillment of loving one's neighbor as himself (Luke 10:25-37).

• Dr. Philip Newton writes this: The danger of reinterpreting Scripture does not belong only to the ancient rabbis. It can be multiplied in many areas of our lives by cleverly and shrewdly ignoring portions of God's Word, neglecting hearing the teaching of Scripture, denying the clear meaning of biblical texts, or emphasizing certain portions to the neglect of the whole counsel of God. At the root is an inevitable problem of sin masked by skillful reinterpretation so as to justify one's neglect of simple obedience to the revelation of God in His Word.

But I say unto you, love your enemies.

How can "love" and "enemies" be put together in the same sentence? The nature of enemies is that we are to hate them, or at minimum find them to be so repulsive that we do not desire any good for them.

As I mentioned a moment ago, for Christ's application of love your enemies, see parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke10:30-37). (Explain the animosity that the Jewish people had for the Samaritans at the time.)

• There was good reason why Jesus used Samaritans like Zaccheus as examples of doing good in the sight of God, because an orthodox Jew would think that God hated the Samaritans, because they were a mixed race of half Jew and half Samaritan.
• That this was the racial climate that existed at the time was mentioned by the woman at the well when she said to Jesus Christ, John 4:9 How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.
• This self righteous, holier than thou attitude of the Jewish people was further explained in Jesus teaching on the 2 men that went into the temple to pray. The self righteous Pharisee and the humble publican.

But I say unto you, love your enemies. The Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write this in the book of Romans:

Rom 12:20 Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. 21 Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

• Beloved, our precious Lord and Master Jesus Christ tells us to love our enemies. And you can do this only by seeking to have the same mind or attitude that Jesus Christ had toward those that wronged him. Speaking of you and me, Scripture says that while we were yet enemies, Christ died for us.
• For me to love the way Jesus says I am to love, I need to see who I really am before God apart from Jesus Christ. I need to realize that Jesus Christ loved me and died for me while I was unworthy, ungodly, and a rebel of His authority and Lordship. I need to have a real experience of God’s love and grace on the inside of my heart before I am able to look at others any differently than I naturally do.
• Thus, to love like Christ loved, we need to look to the way that Jesus Christ loved us for the grace that we need to love others even as He loved us. That is the key beloved.
• Our treatment of others must never be based on what they are or what they do to us. The principle for this is given in the next verse, which relates to what is known theologically as God’s common grace. He makes the sun to shine and the rain to fall on the just and the unjust period.
• In fact, sometimes when I am in a foot of snow, those who despise Him are sitting on a beach! Why? God’s providence is one answer. Another is that the goodness of God leads us to repentance (Rom 2.4).
• God’s providential blessings do not depend upon anything that is in us beloved, they are in spite of us. And He does not ask for our permission to bless others, does He? That was Asaphs problem in Psalm 73.
• The very nature and essence of the grace of God beloved is that it is free, unconditional and unmerited. What moved God to redeem the world was His love for us, not our worthiness or goodness or greatness.
• D, Martin Lloyd Jones writes that for us to love like this, it is necessary for us to be totally detached from others in the sense that our behavior must not depend on what other people do, but on what Jesus said.
• But Jones takes it one step further, and this is really important. To love the way Jesus is telling us to love requires that we be detached from ourselves as well. Remember this beloved…the opposite of the kind of love that Jesus is talking about is selfishness. The very root of all relational problems is selfishness. The very root of all rebellion against the 10 commandments is selfishness.  
• One of the facts of life is that the vast majority of what happens in our lives are things that are beyond our control. Our character and attitude is in part developed by how we respond to the things that we cannot control. We cannot control the weather. We cannot control the stock market. We cannot control the actions or attitudes of another person. We did not choose our parents or where we would be born.
• So much of our attitude in life is shaped by how we respond to uncontrollable circumstances or the things that unlovable people say and do to us. On a personal level, what causes you to have unkind or hurtful thoughts about others? What causes you to get angry and resentful towards others? In most cases, it is because of ungodly things that they have done to us, those close to us, or to others.
• But after all is said and done, what they said or did was beyond our control. Question, what did Jesus do for those who despised Him, rebelled against Him, insulted Him and ultimately crucified Him? He died for them and as we will see in a moment, prayed for them.
• Because I am preaching about loving like this does not mean that I have arrived on this saints for I have not, just ask my wife. But here is what I want us all to get…not just this morning but in any area of Scripture that we may be having a hard time submitting to. Just because we struggle with what Jesus said doesn’t change what He Jesus tells us to do, does it? Isn’t all of this a matter of Lordship beloved?
  One of the truths of Scripture that helps me deal with unreasonable or unlikable people is Eph 6.12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. 

Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.

·      Observe the entire love which is here required: disposition (love them), word (bless them), act (do good to them) intercession (pray for them).

Bless- Gr. Eulogy; to speak well of, that is, (religiously) to bless (thank or invoke a benediction upon, prosper): - bless, praise. Who does Jesus tell us to bless? Those who curse us. Curse- wish evil upon you.

·      The apostle Paul wrote to the saints at Rome, bless and curse not. Rom 12.

Pray for them- Who did Jesus tell us to pray for? Those who despitefully use you and persecute you. Despitefully use- Gr. to insult, slander: - use despitefully, falsely accuse.

·      1 Cor 4.12 being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it: 13 Being defamed, we intreat (pray for).

Just as Jesus loved those that nailed Him to the cross, praying, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing," (Luk_23:34): even so He calls upon his followers to do the same. Is not this what Stephen did in Act7:60?  And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

• Do you recall who was at his feet when he was martyred? Saul of Tarsus.
• Please note that Jesus says to pray for them, not pray about them! What does that mean? It means that we pray that their eyes might be opened. Pray that they might see the folly of their sin. Pray that they might realize that the Lord is Creator and Judge. Pray that they might understand that they are under divine judgment. Pray that they might find mercy before the Lord. Pray that they might hear and understand the gospel, and be saved.
• What happens when you pray those kinds of prayers like Jesus or Stephen or Paul, who could wish himself accursed for his unsaved fellow Jews? When a person by the power of the Holy Spirit prays for the very people that he or she does not like, God supernaturally does something transformational in our hearts. Your whole attitude changes. Instead of wanting their harm or even their death, you long with the mercy of Christ to see them transformed by the power of the gospel of Christ.
• It has been said that we cannot go on hating another man in the presence of God, for it is impossible to truly be praying and hating at the same time. Thus one of then reason why God gives to us the gift of prayer is because surest way of killing the poison of unforgiveness, bitterness and resentment is to pray.

Here is the evangelical reason why Jesus commands us to live and love like this. And lets not make the same fatal mistake that the nation of Israel did by thinking the 10 commandments were 10 suggestions. These words of Jesus in verses 43-47 are commands, not suggestions. That you may be sons of your Father in heaven: In other words, by doing what Jesus says, we are acting like our heavenly Father, Who maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. It must be understood here that Jesus is not advocating a works based salvation. What He is saying is that loving your enemies is not the cause of your salvation, it is the evidence of it and the fruit of sonship.

·      Beloved, when we are worshipping The Lord together and enjoying a beautiful day with one another, at the very same time there are millions that reject Christ that are enjoying the very same weather, and they are not worshipping Jesus at all!

·      When Paul and Barnabas went to Lystra to share the gospel with those who were worshipping false gods, we read in Acts 14.15 preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein:16 Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. 17 Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.

o   Note that Paul and Barnabas tell these people who were worshipping false Gods that the True and Living God sent rain from heaven and other good things as a testimony of His goodness towards them.

·      Now be careful saints. If we say or think that the unjust do not deserve the blessings of God’s providence, than we are walking on a tightrope of being self righteous, because the implication is that we deserve God’s blessings, but they don’t. Beloved, every single person on this planet, saved and unsaved alike are right now all breathing God’s air. This is called God’s common grace.

o   Psa 145:9 The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.

For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?

• Publicans- The publicans were the people who collected taxes from the Jews for the Roman government from various districts in Israel. These publicans or tax collectors became wealthy by demanding more than was legitimately owed to further their greed. The rabbis ranked publicans with cutthroats and robbers. They had to stick together as a band of corrupt brothers since the entire public hated them with a passion. But they loved their own. The same could be said of street gangs or a band of terrorists. They love their own but no others.
• Salute your brethren only. Because the Jews usually disdained to speak to a Gentile, a publican, or a "sinner”, they would limit their greetings to fellows Jews. The mere love of one’s friend indicates no higher stage of moral life than that of the unsaved publicans and heathens.

If what Matthew says is not convicting enough, listen to what Jesus says in the gospel of Luke Lu 6:32-35 For if ye love (only love) them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them. And if ye do good (only do good) to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same. And if ye lend to (only lend to) them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil (morallydegenerate, diseased, lewd, wicked).

• Beloved, if this is the way that Jesus tells us to love the unsaved, how much more should we be applying these truths to one another within the body of Christ!

Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. This is actually another way of saying, be ye holy for I, The Lord you God am holy.

• Perfect. Gr. complete (in various applications of labor, growth, mental and moral character, etc.); neuter (as noun, with G3588) completeness: - of full age, mature.
• The Greek idea of perfection here is one of functional maturity. In other words, someone is considered to be walking in perfection in Scripture (not sinless perfection which is impossible) when he or she realizes the purpose for which they were created.
• For what purpose was man created? To love The Lord and bring Him glory. And how do we love The Lord? When we follow Him with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength and when we love our neighbors as ourselves. When you and I purpose to walk in the love of God as Jesus describes it here this morning, we will not only be fulfilling our purpose as ambassadors for Jesus Christ in a lost world, but we will also grow in intimacy and maturity with Him and one another.
• The heart of our Lord's teaching is a responsive love that flows out of our relationship to Jesus Christ. Remember beloved, love is the most excellent way in the eyes of God.

• "To return evil for good is devilish; to return good for good is human; to return good for evil is divine" [Plummer quoted by Don Carson, Expositor's Bible Commentary, 159].
• To be perfect is another way of saying to be like Jesus, Luke 6:40 The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master.
• In the parallel account found in Luke, instead of saying be perfect as our father is perfect, we read Lu 6:36 Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.

Beloved, pursuing Christian maturity is an ongoing process where we constantly look to Jesus Christ as our standard. We see that the Lord has "raised the bar" of the Christian's behavior to be nothing short of reflecting the life of Jesus Christ.

• Phil 3.12-15 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.

The distinguishing mark of Christian love has left its mark upon the world in myriad places. It was evident in Rachael Saint and Elizabeth Elliot as just a short time after their brother and husband Jim Elliot had been brutally killed by the Auca Indians. They moved among these people to pick up where their husband and brother left off by showing them the love of Christ and teaching them the gospel of Jesus Christ.

• How do you love someone that has robbed you of your spouse, and left your infant daughter fatherless? You do not do this by natural means. Grace alone can so overcome the natural tendencies of hatred and revenge that the believer can love those he or she thought impossible to love.
• Beloved, it is only when we grasp the reality of the words of Jesus, In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also (John 14.2,3), that we can live and lovelike Elizabeth Eliot and Rachel Saint did, without hesitation and without regrets.
• Only the grace of Jesus Christ can enable a man to have this unconquerable benevolence and this invincible goodwill in his personal relationships with other people. It is only when Christ lives in our hearts that bitterness will die and this love spring to life. It is often said that this world would be perfect if only people would live according to the principles of the Sermon on the Mount; but the plain fact is that no one can even begin to live according to these principles without the help of Jesus Christ. We need Christ to enable us to obey Christ's command. Wm. Barclay

Right about now, all of us may feel a bit guilty or even condemned by what Jesus says. Let me say this….we all fail. None of us are able to live this way sinlessly and perfectly, but we must never lower the standard beloved.

Yes, I believe in the Father Who he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust, but I also believe in the grace of God that gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

May the beauty and wonder of the grace of God give you renewed peace and strength today to follow Jesus Christ. Remember, the power of the Christian life is not I, but Christ liveth in me.

But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you (Rom 8.11).

On your own, without the regenerating work of God's Spirit, without the saving life of Jesus Christ enabling you, without the supply of God's sustaining grace, it is indeed impossible to love our enemies. Thus the gospel of Jesus Christ is not merely the starting point of our Christian life, it is the focal point of our Christian life, because gospel minded people have a compulsion to love others that is not found in our natural constitution.

• How would God have you respond today? Will pray for your enemies and persecutors today? Will you do good to those how hate you…these are verbs, not nouns beloved. Will you trust Jesus Christ as Lord this morning?