Sermon on the Mount: Love Your Enemies
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Sermon on the Mount – Love Your Enemies
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 and pray 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 even the Gentiles do the same?
48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
1. Introduction – So if what we looked at last time wasn’t hard enough…Jesus ups the ante.
a. He takes personal sacrifice over personal revenge to its only logical conclusion.
i. If we are to turn the other cheek, give up what we are legally entitled to…
1. If we are to go the extra mile and giving willingly and cheerfully…
a. Then the command to love our enemies is the next logical step.
b. In our world we admire fierce loyalty to friends and a fierce hated of enemies.
i. It’s considered normal practice…but here, Jesus gives Christians a new set of glasses…
1. He gives Christians a new way to view the world.
a. And this is how Christians are to view the world.
i. Christianity is not expressed by our zeal against God’s enemies…Christianity is expressed by our love for our enemies and God’s enemies.
c. This is the 6th and final law that Jesus touches on here in the SM.
i. Remember we are talking about righteousness. An inner righteousness that surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees.
1. A righteousness that doesn’t misinterpret or reinterpret things to make it say and mean what we want it to.
a. No, we are talking about an inner righteousness…A Holy Spirit driven kind of righteousness.
i. A righteousness that takes us out of the driver’s seat…and places the power of God there.
ii. It is impossible to love your enemies in your own strength.
1. But with God’s power, with God’s Spirit working in you – God’s people are able to obey this command.
a. Hear God’s Word – Matthew 5:43-48.
d. Here’s what we’re going to do today.
i. We’ll look at what was going wrong in Jesus’ day. What was being taught and how was it misleading?
1. We’ll look at various ways this command was being misinterpreted…and how others were being blatantly ignored.
a. We’ll look at what Jesus said on the subject.
i. How God’s people, the righteous, are to relate to people they disagree with.
1. And we’ll close by looking at the closing verse…
a. A fitting conclusion to this section on righteousness.
2. What was Taught – So obviously what was being taught in Jesus’ day was erroneous on 2 fronts.
a. First, they had a very narrow definition of neighbour.
i. In Lev. 19:18 – we have recorded a command from God through Moses that each one is to love their neighbour as themselves.
1. Jesus used this verse to sum up the Law and Prophets as the second greatest commandment.
a. But in Jesus day – people…and specifically the religious leaders, had developed a very narrow view of the word neighbour.
i. My neighbour, they argued, is one of my own people, a fellow Jew, my own kind, someone who belongs to my race and religion.
ii. This kind of thinking was what led Jesus to tell the parable of the Good Samaritan.
1. A hot shot religious leader wanted to test Jesus.
a. So after Jesus summed up the Law and prophets by saying you love God and love your neighbour as yourself…
i. This smart guy asked the question, “And who is my neighbour???”
1. And Jesus responded to that question by telling a parable about a Samaritan helping a badly beaten Jew…even though they were sworn enemies…
b. Who is my neighbour, the question was asked…and Jesus responded…let the neighbour be you.
iii. In Jesus’ day they were teaching love for neighbour…good for them…but a neighbour was only someone who looked like you, talked like you, smelled like you, likes the same food as you and worships the same God you do.
b. But that wasn’t the only error taking place in Jesus’ day. Sure, they taught love for neighbour…but they also taught hatred towards enemies.
i. The Law says nothing about the stranger and enemy…since the command only mentions my love towards neighbour…that should be taken as permission to hate my enemies…
1. That was the line of thinking.
a. But once again, they were turning a blind eye to all the passages that actively DO talk about dealing with strangers and enemies.
i. There are various commands about how to deal with strangers’ animals.
1. There was a Proverb that told people that if their enemy was hungry feed him…
a. Thirsty??? Give him something to drink.
ii. The words ‘hate your enemies’ was a tumorous growth on God’s word that had no business being there.
1. God did not command a double standard of morality for his people…one for neighbours and friends…and one for enemies…
a. God’s command is that we are to deal with everyone in the same manner.
3. Jesus’ Teaching – So Jesus comes along and he surgically removes the gross addition to God’s Word.
a. He lops off ‘hate your enemies’ and replaces it with the exact opposite. He makes absolutely clear something the law was already clear on.
i. To their distortion of the Law, Jesus says, “love your enemies.”
1. Remember the full authority that Jesus is speaking with here.
a. The “I” in that sentence is emphatic…on my authority as God’s Son I say to love your enemies.
i. These are Jesus’ words…hard? Yes! Impossible? No!
b. And what we have to realize here is that when Jesus says love…he isn’t talking about falling in love…not eros…romantic love.
i. The word he uses is that great Greek word agape.
1. And agape love is the kind of love that has the well-being of others in mind…in particular their spiritual well-being.
ii. Jesus says – don’t hate your enemies…far from it…instead, look out for their well-being…look out for their spiritual well-being.
c. Jesus says we are to do 3 things towards our enemies.
i. First, Jesus says we are to love our enemies.
1. And love in this case, is primarily show through our actions.
a. What Jesus is stressing here is not so much sentiment as service…practical, humble, sacrificial service.
i. Our enemies are seeking our harm…we must seek his or her good.
1. Why?
a. Because that is preciously how God dealt with us.
2. Paul says in the book of Romans that while we were still sinners…some translations say, while we were still God’s enemies…Christ died for us.
a. And if Jesus died for sinners, for his enemies…if God sent Jesus to die for his enemies in order to reconcile sinners to himself, them we must give ourselves for others in the same way.
ii. Secondly, Jesus says that we are to love our enemies…
1. No, I’m not repeating myself, because love in this case as 2 components…
a. First through our actions, and secondly through our words.
i. Some translations add the phrase, “bless those who curse you.”
1. If your enemy calls down calamity and catastrophe on you…if they wish for your downfall…
a. You must retaliate by calling down heaven’s blessing on them.
i. We must declare with our words nothing but the best for them.
iii. And lastly, Jesus says pray for those who persecute you.
1. John Chrysostom called this action the highest form of self-control.
a. Bonhoeffer called the supreme command, and went on to say, “Though the medium of prayer we go to our enemy, stand by his side and plead for him to God.”
i. We must not wait to pray until we feel some love for our enemies…
1. We must being to pray, even before the first inkling of love appears.
2. We do this, because this is what Jesus did.
a. As the nails were being driven into him, as he hung dying on the cross…he prayed for his executioners.
i. The verb tense gives us the sense that he kept on praying, “Father forgive them.”
1. If the pain and agony of crucifixion couldn’t silence Jesus’ prayers…what could possibly justify our silence?
d. But why do we do this? Why does Jesus command loving actions, loving words and prayer for our enemies?
i. We do this to imitate the love that God has for his prized creation…humanity.
1. V.45 -so that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.
a. Know this…this isn’t a conditional statement…show love in order to be God’s child.
i. He isn’t giving the means by which one becomes a child of God…but Jesus indicates that love for enemies makes explicit the relationship between God the Father and Jesus’ disciples.
ii. Jesus goes on to give a few examples.
1. First, Jesus takes about God’s common grace.
a. Not saving grace, by which one has their sins forgiven…but common grace that God gives to all.
i. Sunshine, creation, oxygen…a cool breeze on a hot day…these things are all examples of common grace.
2. Then Jesus shows us how different we are to be.
a. If we only love those who love us, who walk, talk, smell like us…then we are no different than the world.
i. Even the lowest of the low…the tax collectors…have friends…even they love people who love them.
1. There’s nothing radical in that.
iii. But as God’s sends sunshine on his children…AND on those who aren’t yet his children…
1. We too must show love to those whom we like…and we must show love to those who are our enemies.
4. Spiritual Formation – And as a conclusion, Jesus says, “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
a. A few things about this verse.
i. One, while this is a conclusion to the section we just looked at about loving enemies…
1. It is also a conclusion to the section of the SM as a whole.
a. We are striving for a different kind of righteousness.
i. One that takes place from the inside out…righteousness that is attained by the Holy Spirit working in us.
ii. And the goal is perfection…not flawlessness…at least not in this lifetime.
1. The goal isn’t flawlessness…but maturity.
b. There is a balance that we need in the Christian life.
i. A balance where we realize that in this lifetime we will never reach a perfected sate…but we will in the next life.
1. But that doesn’t mean we waste the time we have here on earth and wallow in spiritual immaturity.
c. One author I read this week said that this verse is the purest and simplest form of spiritual formation.
i. The point of the Christian life isn’t to go to heaven when we die.
1. That’s the end of the Christian life here on earth and the beginning of new life lived in God’s presence.
a. But the goal of the Christian is to become more and more like Jesus…the goal isn’t sitting around waiting…the goal is maturity…growth.
ii. And the way we mature, the way we grow is through a process one author calls ‘restful dissatisfaction.”
1. Isn’t that a great phrase, restful dissatisfaction?
a. Think about it…at any one point in our Christian journey we ca rest.
i. We can rest content with what Jesus has done I our live…rest content with the growth that has occurred.
1. We can be satisfied with who we are in Jesus.
b. Rest in the fact that you are forgiven, you are an heir, that you have been adopted as God’s child…
i. You can rest in what God has accomplished in you through Jesus’s death on the cross and your saving faith in his sacrifice.
2. Rest in the assurance that transformation is being accomplished…and rest in the promise that ultimately, we will be like Jesus in all his glory.
d. But at the same time, we are to be dissatisfied with where we are at.
i. We must have a desire to move forward.
1. We must be dissatisfied with the degree of maturity we have reached…and so we press on.
a. We are dissatisfied when we see immaturity or impurity in our hearts and minds.
i. We are dissatisfied that so many people still don’t know Jesus as their Saviour.
1. We are dissatisfied with the way we love and treat others.
ii. Be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.
1. The purest and simplest statement on spiritual formation.
a. A restful dissatisfaction…means giving our best to Jesus and we are able to find contentment in the growth we have experienced…
i. But at the same time, we refuse to remain stagnant and we press on towards further growth.
5. Conclusion – These past 7 weeks we have been looking at the inner righteousness that Jesus’ followers are to have…
a. A righteousness that is qualitatively different than anything the world has seen…
i. Next week, we’ll shift gears and we’ll begin to talk about acts of righteousness and the motivation that lies behind them.
1. And as we’ll see, our acts of righteousness are not to be motivated by human praise…but by bringing glory to God.
a. The same motivation that lies behind our inner righteousness makes its way to our acts of righteousness.