Be Like God (Matthew 5:43-48)
February 16, 2020
Matthew 5:43--48 (ESV) --- 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.
Jesus has made it clear throughout his teaching that he does not ascribe or Pharisee. He goes from talking about accepting the poor in spirit and the meek to requiring his people to exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. Then he outlines what it looks like to exceed their righteousness.
In this text, he gets to the heart of what we looked at last week, "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." That is his description of the way they treated others. There was no compassion and no love for those who are evil. Now he takes it a step further. He calls out their teaching to love their neighbor and hate their enemy. Then he tells his people to love their enemies and pray for those who persecute you. This is a bold and hard to believe statement. What would that look like, and what is the difference between the two mentalities?
Hate Your Enemy
The Jews, most likely, did not use a specific verse in the law to justify hating their enemy. It was more so a matter of interpreting a lot of Old Testament texts as they wanted to and ignoring others.
Israel's History
Throughout the first five books of the Old Testament, we see God making judgments against the nations to wipe them out completely.
Deuteronomy 7:1--5 (ESV) --- 1 "When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you, 2 and when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. 3 You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, 4 for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly. 5 But thus shall you deal with them: you shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their Asherim and burn their carved images with fire.
Deuteronomy 7:16 (ESV) --- 16 And you shall consume all the peoples that the Lord your God will give over to you. Your eye shall not pity them, neither shall you serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you.
God wanted those evil people to be wiped off of the map just like during the flood, but this time he would use his people to judge the nations. This is pretty harsh of the God who is known for love in the New Testament. He sure does seem to hate his enemies.
Imprecatory Psalms
Then, some Psalms speak out against the enemy of the Psalmist.
Psalm 69:22--28 (ESV) --- 22 Let their own table before them become a snare; and when they are at peace, let it become a trap. 23 Let their eyes be darkened, so that they cannot see, and make their loins tremble continually. 24 Pour out your indignation upon them, and let your burning anger overtake them. 25 May their camp be a desolation; let no one dwell in their tents. 26 For they persecute him whom you have struck down, and they recount the pain of those you have wounded. 27 Add to them punishment upon punishment; may they have no acquittal from you. 28 Let them be blotted out of the book of the living; let them not be enrolled among the righteous.
These Psalms call down Devine curses and express hatred for the enemies. If David, as a man after God's own heart, can hate his enemies, why can't we hate ours? This is probably a significant reason why the Jews taught that it was fitting and righteous to hate your enemy.
How many of us feel this resentment inside of us when someone offends us? If they criticize our work, it affects us right down to the core. Why? Because they have touched on something that I hold onto for my identity. I am good at what I do, and that is where I find fulfillment. An attack on that is an attack on me. What if they criticize our family or our church family? Do we despise them for that? They have made assumptions about us. They are speaking lies and attempting to defame those I love. These attacks cause our anger to bubble over, and we may hold a grudge that we will never let go of. We might say we forgive, but we don't mean it deep down inside. We have labeled them as an enemy, and they can never be our brother or sister again.
Love Your Enemy
Jesus, once again, completely goes against their teaching. He tells them to love their enemies and pray for those who persecute them. This is not an easy idea to swallow. How many of us would be able to love someone who has beaten us to the point of being disabled? What if they hit our children or abused our wife/husband? Do we exclude those types of enemies? That's what the Pharisees were doing, but their exclusions included more and more people. First, they hated the Romans, then all Gentiles, then the Samaritans, then the tax collectors and sinners, and then they hated all who weren't them. The Romans charged the Jews with hating humankind. But Jesus says to love your enemies, and he describes enemies as those who persecute. Persecution can come in many forms. It could be murdering those we love or torturing them. He tells us to love them and pray for them. How difficult! When we look closer at the Old Testament, we see that this is what God wanted us to do from the beginning. He did not want us to hate our enemy.
Leviticus 19:17--18 (ESV) --- 17 "You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. 18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
He did not want us to hate our brother or our neighbor. He wanted us to love them as ourselves. How do we love ourselves? The world tells us that our problem is that we don't love ourselves enough, but we love ourselves plenty. We are always looking for ways to make ourselves comfortable, satisfy our desires, glorify ourselves, meet all of our needs, meet most of our wants, be well thought of by others, enjoy pleasure, and we are very forgiving of ourselves. We assume the best of ourselves and give ourselves the benefit of the doubt even when we know that we made a mistake.
Imagine loving an enemy in that way. That is radical. There are other texts in the OT that point to loving your enemy and doing good to them. God has never wanted there to be malice or spite between people.
Exodus 23:4--5 (ESV) --- 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.
Our goal is to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. The Jews were trying to get out of this command. In Luke 10, we read the parable of the Good Samaritan. Do you remember what question sparked that parable? The lawyer asked, "Who is my neighbor?" This is the question that shows how the Jews were getting out of loving their neighbor. They would just label someone as their enemy so that they did not have to love them. Jesus turns that thinking on its head by asking, "Who was a neighbor to the man beaten up on the side of the road?" It was not the priest or the Levite, but the Samaritan who was righteous.
Be Like God
Don't we do the same thing? We label people as evil or hateful so that we can justify not talking to them or not helping them. Think a little more deeply about why Jesus wants us to love our enemies.
Matthew 5:45--48 (ESV) --- 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.
Our goal is to be the sons and daughters of God. This phrase should be familiar to us since Jesus just called all peacemakers sons of God. God's primary concern is for reconciliation and peace. He does not take pleasure in the death of the wicked or in the death of anyone (Ezekiel 18:23, 32). He created us to live with him and he pursues our hearts through the giving of his son even though we have become his enemies. We set ourselves against God by rebelling against his purpose for us, but he still loves us and wants to help us. He lets us continue to live on this earth. This is one thing that has always stood out to me. Atheists and those who don't believe in God say, "If he is really all-powerful, why does evil exist?" They don't understand that if he were to remove all the evil, they would be in torment right now. We don't want God to remove all the evil without providing an opportunity for repentance.
How much sense does it make for us to be forgiven and then hate those who are just like we use to be? Maybe they are hateful toward us instead of hateful toward God, but if God can forgive us, why can't we sympathize with them and love them enough to show them God's love? We like to love those who love us. It's easy to love our family, our church family, and our friends most of the time. Even the people around us love people who love them. But Jesus is calling us to love those who hate us. He is calling for us to go above and beyond what the world around us is willing to do.
If someone hates us, they may talk bad about us or cause all kinds of trouble for us at work or school. They could lash out against us and seek to abuse us. Will we look for opportunities to love them? Why would anyone ever do that? Because that will make us more like God than we have ever been before. That will show them how God loves them. Remember what Jesus said on the cross?
Luke 23:34 (ESV) --- 34 And Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
What About Israel/David?
Although we understand that God wants us to love our enemies, there may still be thoughts roaming around in the back of our heads about those who are evil. Is it really good for us to always show love to them? Aren't there other New Testament passages that contradict that idea (1 Cor 16, 1 John 5)? Let's look again at Israel's history and the imprecatory Psalms to learn where to draw the line appropriately.
Israel's History
When we look closer at the commands in Deuteronomy to show no mercy or pity not he nations, we see that what he was doing is actually an act of love. In verse four of Deuteronomy 7, he says that those nations will turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. God wanted them to remove the snares so that their sons would not be tempted to fall away. It wasn't a matter of hatred. Actually, God has been patiently waiting for the time to be right to judge these wicked nations. Four hundred years earlier, God foretold of their iniquity growing to the point of no judgment.
Genesis 15:16 (ESV) --- 16 "And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete."
The wars of Israel were the only "holy wars" in history. They were the only wars ever prescribed by the command of God to set God's people up for holy living. They did not march in because their leader wanted to conquer land for their pleasure and glory. The conquering was intended to help Israel live in peace with God and shine as a light for the nations around them.
Imprecatory Psalms
What about the imprecatory Psalms? In some of the Psalms, love for the enemy has been pursued for a long time.
Psalm 35:12--13 (ESV) --- 12 They repay me evil for good; my soul is bereft. 13 But I, when they were sick--- I wore sackcloth; I afflicted myself with fasting; I prayed with head bowed on my chest.
When we look at the life of David, this is almost always how he views his enemies. He spares Saul's life twice as he comes out to kill him (1 Sam 24, 26). Later we see him being overly compassionate with his enemy Shemei who is throwing rocks and cursing him as he is forced to leave Jerusalem. In all of these events, his mighty men are beside him encouraging him to kill Saul or to kill Shemei, but he refuses and he shows love toward his enemies. His own son, Absalom, betrays him and takes over Jerusalem, sleeping with David's concubines on his own rooftop. Instead of wanting him dead, we see him trying to save him and crying out in anguish when he finds out that he is dead. He prayed in Psalm 3 that God would deliver him out of this situation and strike his enemy, but he is still saddened and loves his son. This is likely the case for all of the Psalms. But also, these are the thoughts of God's anointed king. Are we really going to take those decrees and start applying them to our personal relationships? That goes directly against Leviticus 19. There may be a point where wickedness is so extreme or so unwavering that we speak like Paul or John.
1 Corinthians 16:22 (ESV) --- 22 If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come!
1 John 5:16 (ESV) --- 16 If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life---to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that.
Jesus himself stops trying to reason with his enemies at one point and begins rebuking them (Matthew 23:34-35). There may be a point at which someone is so hard-hearted and rebellious that it would be fitting to call for God's judgment against them. However, it is not necessarily that we hate the person. I have heard people say of political people that the best thing that could happen would be for him or her to be assassinated. Actually, the best thing that could happen would be for that person to submit to our Lord and serve him with all of their heart. That was the best thing for us. Jesus wants us to have a heart that loves our neighbor as ourselves.
How Can We Love Enemies?
Maybe we are hearing all of this and thinking, "I don't hate anyone." But do we love them? If you are like me, you have a short list of people that you genuinely enjoy being around. Hopefully a lot of them are gathered here right now. All of those other people are just people we have to be around. We don't call them enemies because we aren't allowed to have enemies. But are we treating them like we would treat ourselves? Do we pay them the attention that they need to feel the love of God in their lives? For us to show love to someone, we have to step out of our comfort zones and actually like them. We have to look past the evil they do and hold out a hand of fellowship and friendship. They need to know the love that Christ has for them.
Jesus came down from heaven for us. He surrounded himself by people who he knew would betray him and would refuse to listen to him. He endured brutal suffering from them. Then, he accepted them when he received all of the power and glory. He also accepts us. Why won't we accept others?
Conclusion
Throughout this sermon, we are meant to understand that we aren't perfect. No one is supposed to read through the Sermon on the Mount and think, "This makes me feel good about where I am spiritually." Jesus is calling us to perfection and helping us see that, no matter how religious we have been, we fail to meet the standard of perfection. We all fall woefully short. We need a savior, and we need forgiveness. This is what it feels like to be poor in spirit.
The only way that we can grow in righteousness to be closer to perfection is through a radically new relationship with God. That will result in a radically new relationship with ourselves and with those around us. If we have God's love, we don't need to be approved of by those who are evil around us. We don't need their love and adoration to be satisfied. We are so satisfied with our understanding of God's love that we can endure tremendous hardships with a desire to show love to our tormenters. Do you have that relationship? Can we help you grow toward that?