Love on all people
Matthew 5:43-48
8/20/10
[Love Your Enemies]
[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. (Matthew 5:43-48 ESV)
We have all heard this passage before, so what I am saying is probably nothing that you have not heard before. But I always love this passage so I simply hope to refresh your minds as to what it says. Now I believe this verse is so practical in so many ways but in order for it to be applied we must first understand what it says, so I have several points of analysis before points of practicality.
First point: The problematic old saying. Jesus says in verse 43, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’” Now we must ask ourselves how this statement came to be in the first place. The Old Testament commands a love for one’s neighbors but never does it command a hatred for your enemies. This saying then is merely a human traditional saying, which had no biblical value, yet the Jews held to it as if it was true.
Second point: The true scripture. Now in verse 44, Jesus completely switches this up on them. By saying, “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”, Jesus has completely changed the last part of their traditional saying. Instead of “hate your enemy” it is “Love your enemy”. Now as I said before their saying is only half backed up by scripture, and the other half was merely concocted by themselves. So when Jesus corrected their saying, Jesus is not changing any sort of scripture, for he affirms that they should love their neighbor but he gets rid of their unbiblical, traditional belief that one should hate their enemies.
Third point: Why. So Jesus having corrected their saying in verse 44, shows the significance of this. V45 says, “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.” Now this is the purpose. This is the point of the law. Jesus’ command to love both your neighbor and your enemy is this: so that we would be sons of our Father, and derived from v48 be more perfect, as God is perfect. Now how do we know this is the purpose of the command? We know this because of the first two words in the verse “so that”. Whenever we see a “so that” this indicates purpose. Jesus says to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, SO THAT (aka for the purpose of) being sons of our Father in heaven. So that we would be more like God. This obviously does not mean by loving on people we actually become sons and daughters of God. For we are not justified by works but grace by faith. What Jesus means is so that it would be evident that we are sons of God.
Fourth point: How. How are we sons of God? Well there are two ways which loving people shows we are sons of God. The first is that sons of God are like God. The second is that sons of God are different than others in how they love. So the first how. How are we sons of God? By Being like God. Remember point two that we are to love our neighbors and our enemies, and remember point three that by doing so we are more like God. Because quickly the fourth point is brought into light when Jesus makes this profound statement: “For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” Pretty much Jesus says “Love our enemies, because God does” and that is how we are more like Him. Pretty simple connection is it not? No fancy exegesis necessary. Jesus simply says, “love your enemies” and then says, “so that (aka for the purpose that) you may be sons of your father” and then says, “for (aka because) God does that.” God loves on his enemies. Thus if we love on our enemies. We are like God. And sons of God are like God, so we prove ourselves to be sons of God.
Now the second “how”. This “how” centers around the first. If sons of God are like God, then they should be more like God than those who are not of God, and thus are different. We prove to be sons of God in our difference in love to those who are not sons of God. End of verse 45 states the character of God, and in verse 46 Jesus says, “For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?” What he means is: If you follow your interpretation and if you only love those who love you, how will God reward you? And then this sentence “Do not EVEN the tax collectors do the same?” Now the tax collectors were seen as the worst of all the Jews because they are pretty much the traitors of their own kin and are hated for that. I think it is implied that the tax collector is a hypothetical tax collector who is not a son of God. And Jesus makes them come to the realization that if they only love their friends they are only as loving and no more like God than the ungodly tax collector who cheats and steals from his own kin. Thus because God is more loving than a tax collector, as sons of God we should be too.
And once again Jesus uses the same argument again: “If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others?” He is implying that they SHOULD be doing more than others. “Do not EVEN the Gentiles do the same?” Jesus has now taken this to the next level by saying that even the Gentiles, EVEN those pagans with their perverted religions love their friends and hate their enemies. This one must have had an impact on the audience. For it is as if Jesus was saying, “You know the Gentiles who do not even know God and worship other false deities right? Well as children of God you should love like God, but if you don’t love your enemies, you are only as much children of God as the pagans in that respect.” Meaning they are acting like pagans and not sons of God at all by loving only who they like. Sons of God are to be more like God than those who are not sons of God, and thus be different from them.
So now what is the application in all of this? Well obviously we are to love our enemies as Jesus says. One way I think we can do this is to never do anything out of revenge. Whenever someone wrongs you, and you have an opportunity of revenge, I urge you not to take it. For although it may be just, and it would be fair, as Christians, to do anything out of vengeance is unacceptable, for as God did not justly punish us as we deserve, we should be merciful to our enemies as well and instead of giving them “what they deserve” we should instead give them what they do not deserve, grace. But more than simply ignore them, we should go further than abstaining from vengeance but be kind and even go our of our way to help them.
Another way I think is most practical is to control what we say about our enemies. For although we will have enemies, there is no godly reason to slander them or talk about them in any negative light. Gossiping about others only feeds your hatred of them, so instead speak well of them, and give them no legitimate reason to despise you.
The last application does not deal much with personal enemies, but more general opponents. What I am talking about is “friendly” competition, such as sports competitions and what not. And the application is this: Are you loving on your opponents? When you play competitively do you label the other team (even if it is temporary) as the enemy, and thus act unloving towards them? Maybe you do not have this problem, and maybe you have not seen it before, but I have. And it is a terrible thing, especially when Christians become so focused on the competition and beating the other team, and being better than anyone else, that they can’t even be friendly to the other players simply because they are not on the same team. I think as Christians we should be of the first to congradulate our opponents if they win, or console them if they lose. I don’t think our loyalty to our team and our personal conviction to do the best in all that we can do should keep us from loving on the opposing teams. Christians should be those people it is a joy to play competitively with, because if you win they will be there celebrating with you, and if you lose, they wont rub it in your face, but thank you for the game, I think by doing so there would be an immediate impact and we would be more accurate witnesses of Christ.
So I encourage you to love your enemies. I encourage you to love on all people. By doing so, not only are we obeying God and act more like Him, but by living this out we show we are different from others. We show who God is through our actions and thus one of the ways we witness to people is that we can love our enemies and pray for them. A failure to do so gives a poor representation of the amazing God we represent by calling ourselves Christian. I again am not saying I do this perfectly, for I am indeed a great sinner, but we should strive to be like God in this respect. Now we can not do this by mere will power. We must have conviction in our hearts about how we are to treat others. Jesus supplies that conviction. It is God’s love on us. Remember verse 45. “For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” God is good not only to those who are good but to sinners like us. And the greatest display of this is the cross, where He died for our sins. So it is in light of God’s undying, faithful love to us, that we are able in the least to live this out. So in parting I wish that this has reminded you of what you already know. I pray that we would all be more loving on our enemies, even to the point of sacrificing ourselves for them.
As usual any stones, comments, concerns are appreciated and will be taken into consideration. Contact me via comments on the page or facebook or e-mail. My e-mail is aokazeryu@gmail.com
-Derek Harada