SERMON ON THE MOUNT TEACHING SERIES PART 6

SERMON ON THE MOUNT

6

How to Really Love Your Enemies

Matthew 5:38–48

The real test of love does not come in how we relate to the kind and lovable but in how we relate to the cruel and despicable.

Personal Reflection. A friend keeps borrowing things from you but either fails to return them or returns them damaged. Confrontation has done no good. Do you (a) make the friend pay for anything lost or damaged, (b) refuse to loan anything else to your friend or (c) continue to loan anything he or she asks for? Explain.

Personal Reflection. When have you found it difficult to forgive another person?

This passage brings us to the highest point of the Sermon on the Mount. Christ’s words here are both most admired and most resented. He calls us to show our attitude of total love to an “evil person” (v. 39) and our “enemies” (v. 44). Nowhere is the challenge of the Sermon greater. Nowhere is the distinctness of the Christian counterculture more obvious. Nowhere is our need of the power of the Holy Spirit (whose first fruit is love) more compelling.

Psalm 139:19–24 (CSB)

19God, if only you would kill the wicked— you bloodthirsty men, stay away from me—

20who invoke you deceitfully. Your enemies swear by you falsely.

21Lord, don’t I hate those who hate you, and detest those who rebel against you?

22I hate them with extreme hatred; I consider them my enemies.

23Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns.

24See if there is any offensive way in me; lead me in the everlasting way.

Leviticus 19:18 (CSB)

18Do not take revenge or bear a grudge against members of your community, but love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.

Read Matthew 5:38–48.

1. What do you find most difficult about Jesus’ instructions in these verses?

As Luther wrote, in God’s right hand, the Christian lives as a person’; in the second ‘the kingdom of God’s left hand’, he occupies and office’ of some kind, whether as a father, a master, prince, or judge. You must not confuse the two, your person or your office.

This has been face with some fairly justifiable criticism in the sense that it can appear to make an autonomous life in view. However, that was not was Luther was trying to say.

The Christian is to be wholly free from revenge, not only in action, but in his heart as well; as an office-bearer in either state or church, however, he may find himself entrusted with authority from God to resist evil and to punish it.

This whole concept can be summed up in the familiar, yet troubling words: DEATH TO SELF.

1. The most difficult part of these verses is to act against our flesh and our sin nature. Part of our fallen depravity is the need or desire for vengeance or to get even. Look at Genesis 4, Cain’s offering was rejected by God, his brother’s was acceptable, and even though Cain wasn’t truly wronged, in his evil heart, he sought vengeance, vengeance against his brother, and vengeance against God.

2. Loving our enemy is another. When we think of this in the context of that we were once at enmity with God, I think it helps us to understand just how IMPOSSIBLE it is to love our enemies. Who seeks to love their enemies, but God himself? God loves and seeks out a people for himself who hate him, who are his enemies. If we by nature hate God, then we by nature hate our enemies. When evil is done against us, it is more natural to hate what the sin and the sinner, than it is to hate the sin, but love the sinner.

3. This difference of God-given function between two ‘servants of God’—the state to punish the evildoer, the individual Christian not to repay evil for evil, but to overcome evil with good—is bound to create a painful tension in all of us, specially because all of us in different degrees are both individuals and citizens of the state, and therefore share in both functions. For example, if my house is burgled one night and I catch the thief, it may well be my duty to sit him down and give him something to eat and drink, while at the same time telephoning the police.

-John Stott

.2. Jesus’ quotation of “Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth” comes from Exodus 21:24. How would this instruction to Israel’s judges clarify the meaning of justice?

Exodus 21:23–25 (CSB)

23If there is an injury, then you must give life for life,

24eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

25burn for burn, bruise for bruise, wound for wound.

This instruction clearly emphasized equal punishment for the crime. It limited justice for the punishment to match the offense, kept it from being perverted into vengeance.

How would it also limit the extent of revenge?

It put matters to be handled by civil justice, not personally. It didn’t leave justice to be interoperated or commenced by the offended but rather by a system of justice.

Revenge would’ve been subject to justice, just as we see that today.

It would essentially abolish retaliation by bringing the civil justice to the judges and priest.

3. The Pharisees evidently extended this principle from the law courts (where it belonged) to the realm of personal relationships (where it did not belong). What consequences might have resulted?

Chaotic vengeance. We must keep in mind, the Pharisees were the spiritual and “righteous” leaders. Jesus said “your righteousness must exceed theirs.” So that means they were teaching in terms of “righteousness.” The hearers would have been inclined to believe that retaliation in vengeance in personal matters was not only lawful but also a means of righteous behavior. “You don’t love them if you don’t serve justice.”

One can only imagine how many toothless, armless, eyeless people were sitting amongst the listeners of even this sermon if the instruction of the Pharisees was being exacted in personal relationships.

4. Looking at verses 39–42, how would you contrast our natural responses in such situations with the responses Jesus expects of us?

Our natural responses are always to defend self.

Matthew 5:39–42 (CSB)

1. 39But I tell you, don’t resist an evildoer.

What is this telling us?-To resist, oppose, withstand or set oneself against someone or something.

The greek word here for evil doer or evil one is not the same as say how we are told elsewhere in the God’s word to resist the EVIL ONE

Let’s look at scripture elsewhere so we can rightly understand what Jesus is referring to in our text, “evildoer” or “evil one.”

Ephesians 6:13 (CSB)

13For this reason take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand.

1 Peter 5:8–9 (CSB)

8Be sober-minded, be alert. Your adversary the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour.

9Resist him, firm in the faith, knowing that the same kind of sufferings are being experienced by your fellow believers throughout the world.

James 4:7 (CSB)

7Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

So, we know by these passages, there is an evil that we are to actively oppose and resist, this is not the same kind of evil that we are to not resist or oppose in the sermon on the mount. Here Jesus use of evil doer, while it no way implies the person has a genuine heart, they may very well be children of the devil, the term evil doer can best be understood as someone who has wronged you, done you harm, even in an evil way.

How do we typically react when someone has done us wrong??

The mini illustrations in what is personally being wronged in these passages are the following:

Personal Dignity

Personal Security

Personal Liberty

Personal Property

PERSONAL DIGNITY

2. On the contrary, if anyone slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.

There is more than meets the eye here, we must understand the nature of the offence. To the Jew, a slap to the face was the most insulting and demeaning act one could do to another.

Notice, the cheek represented here is the right cheek, how would a right handed person slap a person on their right cheek? To the Jews, the most demeaning act was to slap someone in the face, but doubling that would’ve been a backhand to the face. In fact, a slave would have rather taken a beating and slashing with a ship than to have been slapped with the back of his masters hand.

How do we generally react when we are verbally assaulted?

What about physically?

Now what about being insulted both physically but at the same time in a manner that is degrading??

PERSONAL SECURITY

40As for the one who wants to sue you and take away your shirt, let him have your coat as well.

PERSONAL LIBERTY

41And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two.

PERSONAL PROPERTY

42Give to the one who asks you, and don’t turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

In Spurgeon’s arresting phrase, we ‘are to be as the anvil when bad men are the hammers’.3

Yes, but an anvil is one thing, a doormat is another. Jesus’ illustrations and personal example depict not the weakling who offers no resistance. He himself challenged the high priest when questioned by him in court. They depict rather the strong man whose control of himself and love for others are so powerful that he rejects absolutely every conceivable form of retaliation. Further, however conscientious we may be in our determination not to sidestep the implications of Jesus’ teaching, we still cannot take the four little cameos with wooden, unimaginative literalism. This is partly because they are given not as detailed regulations but as illustrations of a principle, and partly because they must be seen to uphold the principle they are intended to illustrate. That principle is love, the selfless love of a person who, when injured, refuses to satisfy himself by taking revenge, but studies instead the highest welfare of the other person and of society, and determines his reactions accordingly. He will certainly never hit back, returning evil for evil, for he has been entirely freed from personal animosity. Instead, he seeks to return good for evil. So he is willing to give to the uttermost—his body, his clothing, his service, his money—in so far as these gifts are required by love.

John R. W. Stott and John R. W. Stott, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7): Christian Counter-Culture, The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985), 107.

Similarly, Christ’s illustrations are not to be taken as the charter for any unscrupulous tyrant, ruffian, beggar or thug. His purpose was to forbid revenge, not to encourage injustice, dishonesty or vice. How can those who seek as their first priority the extension of God’s righteous rule at the same time contribute to the spread of unrighteousness? True love, caring for both the individual and society, takes action to deter evil and to promote good. And Christ’s command was ‘a precept of love, not folly’. He teaches not the irresponsibility which encourages evil but the forbearance which renounces revenge. Authentic Christian non-resistance is non-retaliation.

John R. W. Stott and John R. W. Stott, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7): Christian Counter-Culture, The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985), 108.

5. What is accomplished by turning the other cheek or going a second mile?

6. In what situations might Christ’s commands apply today?

7. According to Jesus, how are we to treat our enemies and why (vv. 44–45)?

8. In what ways is Jesus’ command extraordinary (vv. 46–48)?

9. Does all this mean that Christians are to be doormats for the world to walk on?

Explain.

10. How was Jesus himself an example of the principles “Do not resist an evil person” and “Love your enemies”?

11. How might you reflect your Father’s character when you are mistreated?

Romans 12:18–21 (CSB)

18If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

19Friends, do not avenge yourselves; instead, leave room for God’s wrath, because it is written, Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord.

20But If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. For in so doing you will be heaping fiery coals on his head.

21Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good.

Pray for God’s blessing on people who have mistreated you or been your enemy.

Later Reflection:

Read Romans 13:1–5. How can we reconcile Christ’s call to nonretaliation with the state’s duty to punish evildoers?