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Feb 02, 2014

Tainted Love (part 8)

Passage: Matthew 5:43-48

Preacher: Tim Badal

Series:Upside Down Actions

Detail:

Let’s just turn in the Bible to Matthew 5.  We’ve been looking at more important things than a groundhog or a pig skin.  In the Sermon on the Mount, we’ve been studying principles that can challenge us to live out the calling that Christ has for us as believers and to prepare us for the ways of eternal life.  Over these last few months, we’ve been in part two of a four-part series.  The reason why we have a four-part series is I believe Jesus breaks His sermon down into main four parts.  We’re coming to the end of part two.  Over these past few weeks, we’ve seen what Jesus has laid out as the Christian manifesto, the portrait of what true Christianity is to look like. 

We’ve been doing this by learning what it means to be salt and light; learning what it means with regards to our anger, lust, divorce, oaths, revenge and retaliation.  We come today to what is in essence the pinnacle of all that Christ has been teaching us about loving our enemies.  It has not been easy to hear a lot of this teaching because it’s difficult for us to embrace.  But this is the truth of God’s Word. It hasn’t been easy for me to preach these texts because these are hard things to know and understand.  Because of our own rebellion and sin, some of us have found ourselves in stark contrast to what God’s Word says.  Many of us may be divided, on one hand wanting to hear the truth of God’s Word but on the other hand, the Sermon on the Mount is not your favorite passage of Scripture. 

In 1958 the Christian Century magazine published an article by Dr. Norman Pittenger entitled “The Critique of C.S. Lewis on the Sermon on the Mount.”  Pittenger criticizes C.S. Lewis for a statement Lewis made about not caring much for the Sermon on the Mount.  Lewis had the opportunity a month later to respond in a rebuttal article in which he said, “As to ‘caring for’ the Sermon on the Mount, if ‘caring for’ here means ‘liking’ or ‘enjoying,’ I suppose no one then ‘cares for’ it.  Who can like being knocked flat on his face by a sledge hammer?  I can hardly imagine a more deadly spiritual condition than that of a man or a woman who can read this passage with tranquil pleasure.”

Jesus has articulated some hard truths in the Sermon on the Mount.  He said that “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”  Then starting in verse 21, He illustrates that teaching with six very pointed illustrations that give us a glimpse of what the Christian life should look like.  Each of these illustrations shows us how impossible it is to pursue the righteousness of Christ in our own strength. 

Kent Hughes, pastor emeritus of College Church in Wheaton, once said, “Each line of the sermon that is taken to the heart will literally flatten us because it is totally impossible for us to do.”  Now I know that over these past few weeks there has been some great consternation as we’ve waded through some difficult passages of Scripture.  Some have said, “What Jesus is saying is hard.  It really hurts.  It’s painful at times to think that what Jesus is saying is what He requires of me.” 

Several years ago, I was cutting some pork chops on a large band saw at my catering shop.  Of course you want to keep everything else away from the blade, but I didn’t so I opened up my index finger pretty fierce.  It was so bad and in such a bad place that the medical team was worried about infection and gangrene, thinking that it would never heal properly.  As a result of that, my index finger was scheduled to be amputated.  Of course as a young man—I think I was only about 20 at the time—I didn’t want anything amputated.  I remember really being fearful of that and not wanting to lose my finger.  The next few days were touch and go as to whether or not the medication would help. 

I remember about the third day, my finger began to burn with this incredibly irritating and painful sensation.  It was so bad that I made an appointment with the doctor and I thought for sure this was evidence that the finger would be removed.  I remember going in and telling the doctor the pain was more than I could bear and of my fear that my finger was going to be removed.  The doctor just smiled and said he was glad to hear I was experiencing so much pain.  I was like, “What are you, a sadist?  What kind of doctor are you?”  He said, “That means it’s healing.  That’s good.  Pain is good.” 

I want to compare that illustration to what we’ve been dealing with in the Sermon on the Mount—pain is good.  For the child of God, there will be hurts and it will be heavy at times.  Your heart will be broken.  You will endure painful teaching.  I want to encourage you that when you feel that pain, healing and growth are taking place.  I don’t say that as a sadist; I’m not here to make sermons painful for you because I must endure under those same sermons.  

No matter how painful God’s discipline of our casualness and preconceived ideas of holiness are, we need to set ourselves under this teaching; we need to be willing to let God’s Word confront us. Though He cuts deep, God always cuts right.  The pain we experience will always lead us to a harvest of righteousness.  As we study the Sermon on the Mount together, my prayer has been and will continue to be that we will bear under this difficult teaching and experience the painful yet needed work of maturing that the discipline of God’s Word will bring.

Last week I told you that the text before us was one of the most difficult in all of the Biblical texts.  Now we’re beyond that one.  Here’s the problem: the one we have before us today is just about as difficult.  There is no reprieve for the difficult teachings of God, not quite yet.  This is another very difficult passage for us.  Let’s look at Matthew 5:43-48:

43 “You have heard that it was said,‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  44 But I say to you,love your enemies andpray for those who persecute you,45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.  For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.  46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?  Do not even the tax collectors do the same?  47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others?  Do not eventhe Gentiles do the same?  48 You therefore must be perfect,as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

 

Now we’re going to turn to Luke 6:27-36 and get Luke’s take on this passage because he shares a little bit more:

27 “But I say to you who hear,love your enemies,do good to those who hate you,28 bless those who curse you,pray for those who abuse you.  29 To one whostrikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tuniceither.  30 Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back.  31 Andas you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.

32”If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you?  For even sinners love those who love them.  33 And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you?  For even sinners do the same.  34 Andif youlend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you?  Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount.  35 Butlove your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, andyou will be sons ofthe Most High, forhe is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.  36 Be merciful, even asyour Father is merciful.”

Let’s pray. 

Lord Jesus, we have sung of Your praises and are reminded of the truth of Your amazing love for us.  Now Lord, we submit ourselves to Your Word, the difficulty of it, the countercultural nature of it.  We are told that when we do so we will be like You.  And Lord, as Your followers, that is our aim, that is our goal, that is our desire.  So Lord, teach us from Your Word that we may love our enemies as we love ourselves, as we love You.  In Christ’s name we pray.  Amen.   

As Jesus closes out the second part of His Sermon on the Mount in chapter five, we see that He ties everything together in a treatise, if you will, on love.  We’re going to look at this passage under the heading “Tainted Love” and see how our love is tainted if we do not love our enemies as ourselves.  I want you to see how the end of chapter five is going to funnel all that we’ve learned over these many weeks into the fact that love truly is the thing that remains and that to be perfect as God is perfect, we must love as God has loved.  Far too many of us will say these teachings are too hard but let me remind you that God never calls us to things we cannot do with His strength.  God commands that we love our enemies and because He commands it, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can do it.  But to do that we must see three things in this passage. 

1. The Deception of the Day

Notice first of all the deception of the day.  It’s like a broken record with Jesus regarding the Pharisees.  Five times before in this chapter, Jesus has said, “You have heard that it was said…”  Now he uses this phrase for the final time as He confronts the flawed teaching of the rabbis of His day.  He’s done so on issues like anger, lust, divorce, oaths, revenge and now loving your enemies.  Now He addresses the second part of the great commandment: to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:34-40).

Now you would think the Pharisees would have had the great commandment down.  This was in fact the golden rule which the Pharisees saw as a supremely important truth.  Remember Hillel, the great Pharisee and rabbi of the day who had spoken so much on the issue of divorce?  Hillel said of the great commandment—to love God and our neighbors—was the whole law and that the rest of the law is just an explanation of that one law.  Another rabbi of the day said that the call to love one’s neighbor was the great principle of Judaism.  I wonder if the rabbis and Pharisees of the day were foaming at the mouth at what Jesus was saying here.  Perhaps they were thinking, “Maybe Jesus scored a point on the proceeding passages and laws but we’ve got Him on this one.  We know what we’re saying is right.  This is something we’ve been teaching our kids; something we’ve been teaching over and over again.”  No doubt Jesus had even heard this teaching over and over again as He grew up in the temple and as He heard the rabbis speak.

But notice Jesus is going to say, as He has over and over again, “You have heard it said…but I say to you…”  That meant Jesus was going to go against the teachers of the day.  That meant that He was going to reorder this law once again.  Now how could He do that?  To do so, He would uncover a great deception that the Pharisees and the chief priests had followed.  I will tell you that deceptions, especially when it comes to Biblical truth, are dangerous because they always mix just enough truth with error.

Cults do a great job of having some crazy beliefs that start out sounding really good because there’s a certain amount of truth there.  But truth is only truth when it’s truth one hundred percent of the time.  So the cults of our day sound real good because they mix just enough truth with error and unknowing individuals will follow their beliefs.  Many people in Jesus’ day had done so because of this great deception.

Now I want you to see the great deception of the great commandment that was laid out within our text.  There are three things that show us this deception. 

A Qualification

Number one, we see that we are to love our neighbors and hate our enemies.  Notice that this deception involves a qualification.  The qualification is what does the word neighbor really mean?  The people of Jesus’ day said that their neighbor was a person of the same skin color, a person of the same religion, a person of the same creed.  It had to be a Jewish neighbor.  So in essence the text would say, “You are to love the neighbor who is just like you, who believes like you do, who votes the same way you do, who prays to the same God as you do.  Your neighbor is to be like you in all ways.  That is who you are to love.” 

Jesus tells us in Luke 10:25-37 that our neighbor is not one who is just like us.  The story of the Good Samaritan, He tells us that a person of a different land, a different religion, different beliefs and different understanding of things is to be our neighbor as well. 
But we set up qualifications all the time: Who is our neighbor?  We say to qualify, “It’s geographically the one who lives in my neighborhood.”  We may even limit that to the ones who live on either side of our homes or directly across the street.  Or we say our neighbors are those who think like we do; who have the same morals as we do; who may not be perfect but try like we do. 

We create these qualifications, thinking they help us when we see a drugged-out individual on the side of the street so that we don’t need to help them because they’re not our neighbor.  Or we don’t have to help a person of a different ethnicity because they live in a different country, have a different language or a different culture.  They may look at things very differently than we do.  But we, just like the Pharisees in the first century, qualify who our neighbor is today.

An Omission

Now notice there’s an omission.  We understand Jesus says everyone is our neighbor.  But then He says, “You shall love your neighbor” and we stop there.  There’s the omission.  Jesus actually said, “And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew22:39). 

Now we have one of two ideas here.  Number one, we can say that Jesus is being unfair in His assessment and He’s giving a straw-man argument, ad hominem attack which means He’s taking just part, of the opponent’s viewpoint and holding that against him.  Or we can believe that Jesus is completely trustworthy and is speaking truthfully as to what people were believing in that day.  What He’s saying is, “What you are teaching is that I am to love my neighbor but I don’t have to love him as much as I love myself.  So that means my love can be limited and still be called love.”

Notice that the love we show ourselves is often the greatest example of our love.  We love in ways that we know we want to be loved.  And that’s not bad.  We take care of people’s needs because we know we want our needs to be taken care of. We serve others because we know we enjoy being served ourselves.  That may sound selfish but it is a recognition of the human need and a recognition of what we know we need.  It’s extending that love, care and concern for others.  The Pharisees had gotten rid of that aspect of love. 

We define how we love and our definition may be vastly different than someone else’s and incredibly, therefore, different than what God would have.  Notice that the Bible makes it very clear how we are to love.  Turn in your Bible for a moment to Exodus 23:4-5.  Every week in this series we’ve gone back to the Old Testament and have read what the law says.  Now the law is going to have an addendum. 

We’ve looked at a qualification and an omission.  Now there is an addition. 

An Addition

Notice that the text tells us that we are to hate our enemies.  So now they’ve added to the law and the answer was, “You need to hate those who are against you.” 

Now notice, this is where Exodus 23:4-5 comes into play.  4 “If you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey going astray, you shall bring it back to him.  5 If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying down under its burden, you shall refrain from leaving him with it; you shall rescue it with him.”  Let’s stop there for a moment.  What are you to do with an enemy’s donkey?  If you find your enemy’s donkey where it doesn’t need to be or where it could be harming itself, you’re to take care of it as if it’s your own.  Keep that in mind.   To liken it to today, what do you do with an enemy’s Chevrolet or Honda? 

Now turn in your Bible to Deuteronomy 22:1-4.  Notice what the law says regarding what you’re to do with your brother’s animals: 

“Youshall not see your brother's ox or his sheep going astray and ignore them.  You shall take them back to your brother.  2 And if he does not live near you and you do not know who he is, you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall stay with you until your brother seeks it.  Then you shall restore it to him.  3 And you shall do the same with his donkey or with his garment, or with any lost thing of your brother's, which he loses and you find; you may not ignore it.  4 You shall not see your brother's donkey or his ox fallen down by the way and ignore them.  You shall help him to lift them up again.”

 

In these two passages, the Word says we are to care for our enemy just as we would want care for ourselves.  The first passage says, “This is how you’re to treat your enemy’s donkey.”  The other passage says, “This is how you’re to treat your brother’s donkey.”  Notice in the text that what you’re to do to your enemy’s donkey isn’t one way and then it’s another way for your brother’s donkey.  The same terminology is used—rescue it, restore it.  Do what you would want done with your property.  So the same way we are to love our brother is the same way we are to love our enemy, and the way we are to do that is to love as we would want others to love us. 

Let’s go back to Matthew 5:43 where the Pharisees said, “You are to love your neighbor but now it’s okay to hate your enemy.”  But here Jesus has addressed their law-breaking once again by saying, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you...”  In one statement Jesus is calling us to see the most difficult people in our lives in a very different way.  To obey this command is to go against every natural fiber in our being.  But He says, “The same love that we show those whom we care about is the same love we are to show our greatest adversaries.”  To understand that we’ve got to understand what Jesus is talking about. 

2. The Definition of an Enemy

Notice there’s a definition of what it means to be an enemy.  Jesus says, “You’ve got to love this person.” 

“Okay, but who is this person?”  Jesus defines him as an enemy. 

“What does that mean?”  Well, enemy here is the Greek word echthros which means one who is hateful, hostile and contentious.  He is an enemy who is antagonistic toward you, who seeks to injure and overthrow you as his opponent.  Echthros means that in word and actions he has a desire to manifest hatred toward you.

Maybe your enemy is an in-law who refuses to speak with you.  Maybe he’s a work associate who’s trying to get you fired.  Maybe he’s someone in the neighborhood who longs for you to have nothing but hurt and pain.  The list goes on and on.  Notice at the end of verse 44that an enemy is one who does something.  Your enemy is someone who persecutes you.  That word persecute—the Greek word dioko—literally means to follow or press hard after, as if a wild animal is pursuing its prey.  To chase, harass, vex and pressure.  It’s spoken of in the judicial system as officers chasing down a criminal and doing so until they catch him.  It speaks of an intensity of effort, to pursue with earnestness and diligence in order to lay hold of the one to be oppressed.  The word persecute here is in the present tense which means it’s happening on a continual basis. 

How does this persecution take place?  Who are the enemies?  To understand that we have to go back to Luke 6:27-28 for a moment where he defines an enemy by three activities that they do:

  •        You are to do good to those who hate you. 
  •        You are to bless those who curse you. 
  •        You are to pray for those who abuse you. 

So an enemy is one who hates you, hurls insults at you and hurts you.  We’re going to address each of these individually. 

An Enemy is One Who Hates You

Let’s look at the one who hates you first.  The word hate here literally means they detest you.  You make them sick.  You have no positive qualities about you and that’s why they feel the way they do.  Now this word isn’t a casual one.  We often hear, “I hate you” or “I hate school.”  It drives me nuts when my kids say it.  They don’t even know what they’re saying because the word hate in its original language is not a casual word but a word of great disgust.  It is a deep-seated and settled opinion about another.  It means that I’ve looked at each one of you and I’m the jury that declares, “You’re a piece of garbage. Because you’re a piece of garbage, because there’s nothing good in you, then the only response I have is to oppose you in every way.” 

That’s what it means to hate from a Biblical standpoint.  So what do they do?  Understand this: when someone has that kind of deep-seated feeling about someone else, it will never stay within his heart

An Enemy is One Who Hurls Insults at You

So that emotion moves to hurling insults.  So they curse you, as Luke says.  It means to assail with abusive words, to slander, revile, falsely accuse.  It means to speak despairingly of a person in a manner that’s not justified; to find waste, to find fault, to demean, to mock, to heap insults upon, to shame.  The idea here is to find a way to show the rest of the world how bad you are in their opinion.  They’ll tell deliberate lies about you.  They’ll attempt to speak falsely and deceitfully about you.  It means that an enemy will have no limit to the kind of slander and vicious verbal attacks used to present what they think of you.

Now notice this hurling of insults is never done in private because its intention is to soil your name.  The very etymology of the word―the definition, the origin—implies that the enemy insults with the intention of showing others what they should do as well.  So your enemy isn’t satisfied in just saying bad things between the two of you.  He is one who draws others around him and says things like “I don’t like you.  You’re a piece of trash and my intention is that I won’t be the only one who thinks this.  I’m going to get others around and I’m going to say things about you that make you sound terrible so that others will agree with me.”  This is what an enemy does.  He gathers a group of people around and lies and slanders you so that others will say, “Yeah, I agree with him.”  Then they will be your enemies as well. 

An Enemy is One Who Hurts You

Notice this leads to one final thing and that is to hurt you.  To abuse you as Luke says.  Now we know it’s very rare that hatred is expressed through words only but that it can lead to physical abuse.  Some of you have enemies who are harming you physically, who are threatening you with beatings, who are bullying you physically.  These aren’t the practices of friends but the practice of enemies.

Now right away you might say, “Okay, I’m not sure I have enemies.”  I know some of you can say, “Yes, I have enemies.  There’s a person in my life who hates my guts, who thinks I’m trash, who hurls insults at me and does so to soil my name in front of others.  I have one who, if he or she had the opportunity, would assail me physically.”  I’m going to assure you that probably the vast majority of us would not say that we have enemies based on this definition.  But for those who do, God’s Word is true: love them.  We’re going to talk about what that looks like but before I get there let me stop and talk to the vast majority of us. 

I got a response from someone who said, “Tim, your opening question in this week’s study guide for small groups was a downer.  Nobody had enemies in our midst so we really didn’t have to address this text.” 

No.  You’re missing the point of Scripture.  God is saying that if you have someone like this in your life, you are to love them in return.  But He is also saying that if you don’t have any enemies, how are you loving those who are not your enemies?  What about that person in the checkout line who is frustrating you?  What about your spouse or your kids? How are you loving them? 

Let me tell you, it’s easier to disregard God’s Word when we have someone chasing us down.  What excuse do you and I have when we don’t have someone hating and insulting us?  How are we living out the love that is to be extended, not only to those we love but those who bother and frustrate us? 

You see for far too many of us, God hasn’t given us the privilege of having an enemy because we haven’t learned how to love those who are not our enemies.  We are called to love everyone.  Jesus leaves no room for speculation in this passage.  He makes it abundantly clear: “Love those who hate, despise and persecute you.  That means love everybody whom you love and everybody you hate and everybody in between.”  Such love, though, is only possible through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

So now we respond, “Okay God, You’re talking to me and You’re saying I need to love everybody.  Even the vilest of individuals, I am to love.” 

Now I don’t want you to miss this.  Some will walk away and have a situation like this and say, “Tim, you don’t understand.  That person is the devil.”  And they may be.  The devil may in fact be using that person to be your enemy and you need to recognize that.  So I understand that your enemy may be the worst thing in the world but you’re called to love him.

Now the Word of God calls for us to use discernment and wisdom.  So if your enemy is doing something wrong—if you’re in an abusive relationship―get out of that place.  Do not be abused for abuse’s sake.  If you find yourself where there is recourse by the law, or by some higher authority, God is not saying that loving your enemies means not holding them accountable for what they’ve done.  What it means is you’re not going to personally hold that sin against them so that a root of bitterness does not grows within you.  Don’t sin in your heart, mind or flesh just because you don’t like someone who has wronged you.  So if your enemy is doing something where there is legal recourse, use wisdom.  Is that a situation in which you need to express love? 

Let me tell you something, sometimes the greatest love you can show is keeping them from hurting others. So recognize there needs to be discernment and wisdom as you evaluate your heart’s intention toward that person.  It should be to love your enemy at all times.  But what does that look like? 

3. The Job Description We are Given

I’m thankful that God gives us a job description.  Christ lays it out for us and then applies it through illustrations.  We have been given this truth that we are to love our enemies which is so unnatural to us.  But why should we love them?  Because Christ did.  You see, we get this idea that Christ came to die for you and me when we were basically agreeing with what God was teaching.  But Romans 5:8 says, “…but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  Romans 1 says that all sinners are God-haters and hostile to the gospel.  So consider what God has done: Christ saved you while you were His enemy; He showed His love to you while you were His enemy, a God-hater, insolent, in rebellion, going your own way, shaking your fist at God saying, “Stay out of my business!  You can’t tell me what to do.” 

 

What We Must Do

Put Ourselves in Their World

So what are we called to do?  To love as Christ loved.  To love our enemies as Christ loved His enemies.  How did Christ do that?  There are three things we must do. 

First, we must put ourselves in their world.  How was God’s love shown?  God’s love throughout the Old Testament was always shown with His presence.  Let me explain what I mean by that.  In the Garden of Eden everything was perfect and God was fellowshipping with His people.  They’re having nice, cool walks in the evening, just enjoying one another’s company.  

Then Adam and Eve sin.  What do they do then?  They run and hide, right?  Who are they trying to get away from?  God.  They want nothing to do with His presence.  They have now changed their allegiance from God to His enemy, the devil.  “Satan, you’re right; God’s wrong.  We’re going to follow you, not God.”  When they do that, what does God do?  God comes looking for Adam.  “Where are you?”  Now He’s not asking that because Adam is really good at playing hide and seek.  He’s doing that because He wants to bring Adam back into fellowship.  “Come on Adam, I’m here.  I want to fellowship with you.  You’ve got some issues and we need to deal with them.  I want to be with you.”  And what does He do?  He makes a way for Adam and Eve to have renewed fellowship with Him.  He slays an animal to cover their shame and sin so that they can have fellowship with Him again. 

Over and over again in the Old Testament we see God’s presence with His people while they were sinners.  God is the One pursuing mankind, pursuing them through relationships.  Even in Genesis 6:5 when every inclination of man’s heart was to do evil, God had a relationship with Noah.  You say, “Well wait a minute, Noah was righteous.”  Yes, he was but what did God do?  It took 120 years to build an ark and every day was a reminder, “Hey Noah! I want a relationship with you.  If you put your faith and trust in what I’m going to do (destroy this land), build the ark for your protection, then we’re good.” 

We see God’s love over and over again.  We see it in His patience.  We see God’s love in His desire that none should perish but that each person would come to a saving knowledge of His Son, Jesus (John 3:16-17).  That’s why He doesn’t destroy us the moment we sin but exercises patience toward us. 

So we need to put ourselves in the world.  Now this is no more clearly seen than in Jesus’ incarnation.  How does God show His full extent of love?  God could not have shown the full extent of His love from His throne room in Heaven and that’s why He sent the second Person of the Trinity to put on flesh and make His dwelling among us.  God sent His Son down into the garbage pit of earth to walk among us, to see our frailties in a whole new way, to experience our struggles and temptations and all the garbage we’ve got going in our lives.  Jesus leaves paradise to come to a garbage dump and show us His love (Philippines 2:5-11). 

What does He show over and over and over again?  They revile Him, they hate Him and He says, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”  What a reminder for us!  You see, it’s easy for us to hate someone from afar but not once you get to know them, once you understand who they are.  Now please hear me, love does not mean turning a blind eye to sin; it means seeing the person for who they are.  When we draw near, love reminds us of who we were before we were in Christ.  It reminds us of the garbage that we lived in apart from the saving knowledge of God.  Notice that Matthew 5:44 says we’re to love.  We’re to show them agape love.

Place Them in God’s Hands

Notice it says in Matthew 5, “Pray for those who persecute you.”  That means instead of trying to figure out how to defend yourself against this evil person, you are to go on the offensive and deliver that person up to the throne of God.  Here’s your three part prayer request: 

  •        Number one: when it comes to our enemies, the first way we can show love is to pray that God would open their blinded eyes.  You say, “Well, you don’t know my enemy.  There’s no way they will come to know Jesus.”  Let me tell you, Jesus had an enemy in the New Testament.  Jesus had one who persecuted Him.  “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”  Saul, the great persecutor, became a follower of Jesus Christ and was then known as the Apostle Paul.  Do you think your enemies, with all their anger and disdain for you and for Christ, are too far from the saving hands of God?  Then you have diminished God and have put your enemy in His place.  Every person is savable.  No one can run away from the Spirit of Almighty God.  And we need to pray to that end.  Pray that God would forgive our enemies of their sins, just as God was gracious to forgive us of ours. 
  •        Number two: we need to pray that God would open our eyes to their needs, not just in salvation, but their needs in life.  They have hearts that need forgiveness; hearts that need compassion.  We need to be praying, “God, I want You to save this person.  Though they brought me great harm, I want You to show them Your mercy and grace because that’s what You’ve shown me.  Please open their eyes.  And also open my eyes to their needs.  Through their violence and their anger, Lord, what might I be missing about them?  Let me never forget that they’ve been created in Your image, that they deserve honor, respect and compassion because You created them for a relationship with You.” 
  •        Number three: we are to pray that we might see the hostility that someone else is showing us as a vehicle of God’s good in our own lives.  This is the hardest prayer request of all.  The Apostle Paul said three time he prayed that the Lord would remove this tormenter of the devil (2 Corinthians 12:7-10).  We don’t know what it was.  Some say it was his physical blindness; others believe it may have been a demonic presence sent to harass Paul.  We don’t know what that was.  But three times Paul said, “I want this enemy out of my life, Lord.  I want it gone.”  We can totally understand as we have enemies that we want out of our lives.  Three times God answered, “No, I’m not going to take it away but here’s what I want you to know: My power is made perfect in your weakness.”

Some of us right now have enemies and we’re thinking, “Well Lord, why aren’t You removing this enemy?  Why aren’t You just saving this enemy?  Why aren’t You doing something to relieve me of the stress and pain this enemy brings into my life?”  We very seldom ask, “Is this enemy here so that I might be changed?  So that I may be made more like Christ?  So that God may use the hard things in this world to make me more mature in my faith.” 

Practice Selflessness

Next we need to practice selflessness.  Selflessness.  Here’s where our love is so tainted.  If I were to ask you, “Are you a person of love?” you would say, “Yes!  I’m a lover.  It comes easy for me.”  But notice what Jesus says in Matthew 5:46-17.  “For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?  Do not even the tax collectors do the same?  And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others?  Do not eventhe Gentiles do the same?” 

Jesus is saying, “Don’t define your love on the basis of what you do for those who love you in return.”  Do you hear that?  Stop defining yourself as a lover—as following God’s commands—because you love your wife and kids; because you love your friends.  God says, “Even the unbelievers do that.  Show Me something more.”  You see, it’s easy for us to be lovers of those who love us in return because it’s very natural.  “You help me, I’ll help you.”  When our love is that way, it’s very transactional.  “You do this for me; I will do that for you.  And if you don’t, I’m going to struggle with loving you.”  God says our love doesn’t have anything to do with what others do for us.  When we consider our salvation, we brought nothing to the table.  God did everything; we did nothing.  So what we need to understand is that God wasn’t thinking, “Okay, if I save Tim Badal, well this is what I’ll get in return.”  No, He gives the treasures of Heaven and I bring my garbage dump of sin. 

So our love cannot be defined as what happens in return.  “Well, I do this and my kids do that.”  Or, “I do this and my wife does that.”  Or here at the church, “I do this and the people of Village Bible Church do that.”  No.  We are to serve out of selflessness.  We are to love with no expectation that we are going to get anything in return because that’s what’s going to happen when we love our enemies.  They’re not going to return the favor so we need to stop patting ourselves on the back because we’re just loving the lovables—those who will return love to us.  That’s not spiritual, that’s human.  We are to love those who want nothing more than to hurt us.  We are to love as Jesus loved, coming to a world of unlovable people to die for His enemies so that we can become the children of God.

 

Why We Must Do It

So why must we do this?  Notice three things that the text brings out. 

It Reflects God’s Character

We love this way because it reflects God’s character.  Matthew 5:45 says, “So that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.”  Well, what does He do?  “For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”  

Listen, God is reminding us of a truth here.  You cannot drive into your neighborhood and know who the believers and the unbelievers are, right?  Because their lawn is just as green—or white this winter.  They’re blessed with many of the same physical and earthly blessings as you are.  They have a wife and kids.  They have a job.  They’re enjoying life; in some ways maybe enjoying life more than you are.  And here God says, “I’m even good to My enemies.  I care for them.  I see to their daily needs.  I address what concerns them.  I don’t send them to hell as soon as they sin.”

Corrie Ten Boom, who understands what it means to love one’s enemies, said this, “You will never so touch the ocean of God’s love as when you forgive and love your enemies.”  Why?  Because that’s what God does each and every day He lets the sun shine on evil and good people alike.  You ask, “Well, how could it be that the Pharisees added this idea of hating their enemies?  How could they have gotten there?”  They got there because they presumed upon God.  In essence they got into God’s mind and heart, presuming that what they understood of God was what they were to do.  Think about it.  The whole book of Joshua is about God vanquishing His enemies so that the people of God could have the Promised Land.  Their presumptuous reaction was, “If God didn’t like the people in Jericho, if God didn’t like the Amalekites and the Philistines, and all of those different tribes and nations, then we surely should not do that.” 

We need to be careful not to presume, “Well, if God hates them then I can hate them.  I’m only pursuing God’s character in that.”  Well here’s the thing: just because God does something doesn’t mean you get to do it as well.  Why?  God looks and addresses things from a judicial standpoint, we don’t.  God knows the “all” in a circumstance.  God sees all things, knows all things and is around all things.  God is aware of all that’s going on, we’re not.  So His judgment is not done in a punitive way of getting a pound of flesh and seeking revenge.  He doesn’t say, “Oh, that’s good!  I want to keep pounding them.  I hate their guts.”  We know that God so loved the world (John 3:16).  But don’t ever diminish that God’s dealing with sin is done in a judicial way.  We need to be careful that just because God does something with a human being, that doesn’t mean we get to do the same thing.  So understand what God does.  While He is judicial with His creation, He loves them, not giving them what they deserve until the time of His choosing.  And that is between God and Himself, no one else.

To Receive His Commendation

Now notice why we do these things: not only to reflect His character but to receive God’s commendation.  Notice He says, “What reward is it if you just love the loveable?  If you treat the tax collectors the same way they treat others?  What makes you look different?  What makes you salt and light in this world if you respond in the same loving ways as sinners do?  How can you be satisfied with that?” 

Jesus raises the bar.  And understand this: as believers, if we desire to hear God say, “Well done, good and faithful servant” we can’t just love those who love us.  We must be like Christ and love those who have wronged us, who seek to harm us.  We are to love those who have every desire to oppose us in all ways.  That is what we are called to do.  Now it’s difficult but God says great will our reward be in Heaven (Luke 6:22-23). 

God Requires It & Christ Commands It

Finally we see that the reason why we must do this is God requires it and Christ commands it.  In verse 48 He says, “You therefore must be perfect,as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  Now I don’t want you to close your Bibles and think that we’re done.  This is a very important point because it’s going to tie all things together.  That word perfect is the word teleios which was used to speak of something that had fully attained what it was designed for; it had reached maturity.  It was spoken of a child who had become an adult.  It denotes the idea of full development in contrast to those who are underdeveloped.  It spoke of consummate soundness, the idea of being whole. 

So what does that mean for us?  Jesus is saying in verse 48 that you will never be a fully developed follower of Christ until you love like Christ loves.  You will never reach the fullness of your maturity in Christ until you love your enemies as yourself.  He puts this verse right after this treatise on love because He wants to remind you that you cannot love your enemies if you’re not living out the beatitudes.  You can know if you’re mature if you’re loving your enemies and living out the beatitudes because the only way you’re going to love your enemies is through a beatitude-kind of life.  To love your enemies is to exceed the holiness of the scribes and Pharisees. 

If you’re going to love your enemies, you’re not going to respond in sinful anger.  You’re not going to treat people as your enemies by lusting for their bodies, even people close to you.  You’re not going to treat your enemy, who may be your spouse, in that way by divorcing him or her.  You’re not going to swear falsely by them or use oaths to deceive them. 

Understand that the whole of what God has shared with us in Matthew 5 is summed up in this phrase: “Love your enemies as yourself.”  Because when you do that you’re living out the Sermon on the Mount.  When you live that way you are pursuing the fullness of Christ. 

So I ask you, whether you have enemies or lovers or anybody in-between, are you loving as Christ did?  Are you showing them patience, kindness and goodness.  Will you share the gospel of Jesus Christ so they may share in that which brings hope and peace to a sinner lost in his sin?  Are you loving so much that they truly see you as salt and light? 

To love in this world is a very common thing—but to love your enemies is not common.  How can you love those who hate you?  How can you love those who have harmed you?  By loving them for the glory of God.  That is the challenge as you face a world that isn’t very kind.  But God’s truth is clear:  Love even the worst of your enemies. 

Let’s pray. 

Father God, we’ve just studied another difficult passage in Your Word.  There’s much to think through and discern.  Lord, Your instruction is clear that our only response to those we consider our enemies is to love them.  Lord, we don’t have to look very far for the perfect example because it is how You have loved us.  It means sacrifice.  At times it means going places that we would rather just not go because it costs us too much from an earthly perspective.  But Lord, I pray that we would be willing to do those things, balancing Your truth and grace, knowing these are hard things to balance at times.  Give us grace to do all that we can in line with Your Scripture and to show love to all so we may be called the children of the Most High God.  So that we may be seen as salt and light in this world.  So people may observe us and say, “There’s something different about those Christians.  They love their enemies.  They love those who hurt them.” 

Lord, I pray that through our love we might win our enemies.  What greater pleasure would there be in this world than to see Your redeeming power at work in the lives of our greatest enemies?  We know that’s not from an earthly perspective but a heavenly one.  So give us loving hearts, Lord.  Empower us by Your Spirit.  Fill us so we may see our enemies as You see them and love them as You have loved them.  Give us wisdom.  Give us opportunities to love the unlovable so we can be like You Who loved us when we were totally unlovable. 

We love you Jesus and we thank You for this opportunity.  Now send us forth from this place changed by Your Word.  In Christ’s name we pray.  Amen. 

 

Village Bible Church  |  847 North State Route 47, Sugar Grove, IL 60554  |  (630) 466-7198  |  http://www.villagebible.org/sugar-grove/resources/sermons

All Scriptures quoted directly from the English Standard Version unless otherwise noted. 

Note: This transcription has been provided by Sermon Transcribers (www.sermontranscribers.net).