Love & Hate

Introduction:

Connection:

Love is love. Our culture is obsessed with love. They say that to love someone you have to accept them as they are, and help them to actualize their true self. The problem with that definition is that their true self could very well be evil! It is not loving, therefore, to actualize someone’s evil self. Love seeks the good of the beloved, not their evil. Our culture has got love all wrong.

But they’ve also got hate wrong. They say that any rejection of someone’s personal identity is a hate-crime—that it should be a criminal offence to fail to actualize someone’s identity desires. In fact, as a minister, I could be arrested according to the law if I counselled someone away from their sinful desires. Why? Because according to the world that is hating them. But again—love doesn’t rejoice in wrongdoing, it rejoices with the truth, and seeks the good of the beloved.

Therefore what the world calls hate, can actually be loving—and what the world calls loving, can actually be hate! We are ethically bipolar as a society. And so were the Pharisees. They also got love and hate wrong, and that’s what were going to focus on this morning—and how Jesus corrects them, defining true love for our neighbours, as the summary of God’s law, and the reflection of God’s character.

Theme:

Love & Hate

Need:

We need to love what God loves, and hate what God hates—as we imitate our perfect Father who is in heaven.

Purpose:

To rebuke the Pharisee’s call to hatred; to explain what Christlike love entails; to exhort us to perfectly imitate our Father who is in heaven; to crush us in our lack of perfection; and to comfort us in the perfection of our Saviour.

Recap:

Last Sabbath we saw how Jesus preached on true justice & mercy. How justice belongs to the magistrate—but mercy belongs to the citizen. He then called us to live in abounding grace to those around us! We are to give generously and sacrifice for those around us, as we show what it looks like to be a redeemed and changed disciple of Christ. This week we finish the last of the contrasts between the phony righteousness of the Pharisees, and the true righteousness of the Kingdom—as we look at Love & Hate in the Sermon on the Mount:

Turn to the Text & Follow along as I read the Text:

Matt. 5:43-48 ESV

PRAY - PRAY - PRAY - PRAY - PRAY - PRAY - PRAY - PRAY

(1) The Pharisees Loved to Hate their Enemies - v. 43.

Matthew 5:43 ESV

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’

(1) The Pharisees Loved to Hate their Enemies - v. 43

Brothers and sisters, if you’ve been awake over the last few months in the Sermon on the Mount, then you’ll know that I’ve been arguing that the key to understanding this portion of Scripture, preached by our Lord Himself, is that Jesus is not contrasting the old and new testaments—but is contrasting the Pharisee’s abuse of the OT with a proper use of the OT; a false interpretation of the OT with a true interpretation of the OT—and how all of this applies to us today as members of the NT Kingdom. I think our text this morning is sufficient to prove my case. Notice that Jesus refers not to any passage in the OT, but to the Scribal and Pharisaical teaching that went terribly wrong:

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’

Jesus refers to the teaching of the Scribes and Pharisees, as they relaxed the commandments of God. The first portion of their quotation is true! It’s from Lev. 19:18. It’s the summary of the 2nd table of the 10 Commandments, you shall love your neighbour as yourself. But the second portion of their quotation is not found in that text. It’s an addition. It’s an abuse. They added the clause: and hate your enemy. The Pharisees turned a command to love into a command to hate. Therefore, Jesus is exposing their folly, and restoring the law to its divine purity! Jesus is not giving new commands—Jesus is explaining the true meaning of the old commands, of the Moral Law of God, which is holy, righteous, and just (Rom. 7).

Poole: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, was the old law of God, Lev. 19:18; the other part, and hate thine enemy, was the Pharisees’ addition.

Bahnsen: Whereas the law specified that God’s people were to love each other, it did not command them to hate their enemies. The scribes had affixed this man-made commandment to hate your enemies to God’s law of loving your neighbor.

The OT Law of God never expressly commands anyone to hate their enemies—at least not in a personal & vindictive anger. The OT only expressly commands anyone to love their neighbour, which Jesus will show includes the command to love even our enemies.

Now, if you’re a good student of the OT, you might be asking yourself: Pastor, doesn’t the Scripture give examples of God’s people hating their enemies? And isn’t this commended? To which I would respond: Yes and no. God never commands us to hate our enemies, in the sense of personal vengeance (as we saw last week). But we are to hate God’s enemies, in the sense of longing for divine justice to prevail against the wicked. Is this not what we mean when we pray: Maranatha, Come Lord Jesus—when he shall come from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel (2 Thess. 1:7-8)? Hear a few passages from the OT:

Ecclesiastes 3:8 ESV

a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.

Psalm 119:128 ESV

Therefore I consider all your precepts to be right; I hate every false way.

Psalm 119:163 ESV

I hate and abhor falsehood, but I love your law.

Psalm 139:21–22 ESV

Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with complete hatred; I count them my enemies.

Some of you might have just got a bit squeamish in your seat, hearing those passages. But remember, the problem is never with God and His Word, it’s always with us. Our job is to trust and obey, to live by every Word, and by the whole counsel of God in Scripture—which always proves true, and never contradicts itself.

Therefore, in our passage in Matthew 5: Jesus is refuting a sinful hatred of enemies, which I take to be a personal & vindictive anger, or a personal attack devoid of love (which the Pharisees were commending; but Jesus rebukes and refutes). But the Scripture does commend a righteous anger, wrath, and hatred against all that God hates—sin, suffering, evil, & evildoers.

Doriani: The Bible never commands us to hate individual enemies, but there is a place for righteous wrath toward God’s settled enemies. [And Jesus commends this in his letter to the church in Ephesus, written in Revelation 2]:

Revelation 2:6 ESV

Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

The technical title for this understanding of theology is: imprecation. And it’s everywhere in the Psalms! Imprecatory Psalms are where God’s people, inspired by the Holy Spirit, are not seeking bloody revenge, but are longing for divine justice against the wicked and open enemies of God. Go read Psalm 7; 35; 58; 59; 69; 79; 83; 94; 109; 137; 139; 140. And remember that these are God’s words, inspired by the Spirit, which are said to be the Word of Christ that dwells in us richly, as we sing the Psalms of Scripture (Col. 3). Thus, I would contend that personal hatred and vengeance is forbidden; but civil hatred and yearning for justice against God’s enemies is commended.

Ross: “In the OT, hatred of God’s enemies and their actions (Ps. 119:128; 163) coexisted with the command to love others, just as they do in the New Testament (Lk. 14:26; Rev. 2:6).

And here, Jesus is going to show us that these are not contradictory. He is going to show us that the Pharisees were always meant to love their enemies! They were never meant to have a vindictive-hatred against them—even if we also have a yearning for God’s justice to fall on tyrants who persecute the Bride of Christ. And this is the office of Christ our King:

1 Corinthians 15:25–26 ESV

For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

We are permitted to hate God’s enemies—but we are never permitted to love-hating our enemies. This is where the Pharisees went terribly wrong:

(1) The Pharisees Loved to Hate their Enemies - v. 43.

So let’s see how Jesus explains our duty of love, even for our enemies—as we seek first God’s Kingdom & Righteousness:

(2) Jesus calls us to Love Loving our Enemies - v. 44-47

Matthew 5:44–47 ESV

But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 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. 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 even the Gentiles do the same?

(2) Jesus calls us to Love Loving our Enemies - v. 44-47

Where the Pharisees loved hating their enemies—Jesus with his divine authority as the Godman, as the only Lawgiver and Judge, proclaims boldly:

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.

The Pharisees wanted to take personal vengeance against their enemies & they wouldn’t pray or care for those who persecuted them—but Jesus refutes this—and he calls us to love and to pray.

We are to love our enemies. When people rise against us in evil, we overcome their evil with good. If our enemy is hungry, we feed them. We bless when they curse. Love doesn’t actualize the evil self of our enemies—it does good to them, it shows them kindness, it speaks the truth with boldness, and it serves them in mercy. After all, Christ Jesus loved us while we were his enemies (Rom. 5).

We are to pray for our enemies. When people slander or afflict us, we aren’t to take matters into our own hands. We are to pray for them. To pray for their salvation, to pray for their eternal souls. Love doesn’t follow personal indignation—it intercedes in Jesus’ name. After all, Christ Jesus prayed for us while we were still his enemies (John 17).

The Pharisees loved hating their enemies. Jesus calls us to love loving our enemies.

Alfred Plummer says, “To return evil for good is devilish; to return good for good is human; to return good for evil is divine. To love as God loves is moral perfection.

This is what we’re shooting at as followers of Jesus Christ. We are aiming to love as God loves—to pray as Christ prays—that we might walk as sons of God, crying Abba, Father, by the Spirit of Adoption (Rom. 8)—and praying like Jesus: Father forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34).

And as we do so, we are showing that this indeed is who we are—as we walk in the obedience of faith—we are showing that we are children of the living God! That we are sons of our Father who is in heaven! Like Father, like Son. Those who are born again into God’s heavenly family—will bear the birthmark of their sonship—loving obedience and holiness:

Romans 8:14–17 ESV

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

You can know this day, that you belong to God—that you are his child—that you are his son—that you are his. If you are repenting of your sins, believing in the Gospel, and walking in the obedience of faith! If this is you, Jesus says you are sons of your Father who is in heaven! So take heart, weary saints, if you love in Christ, then you belong to the Father:

1 John 3:1 ESV

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

1 John 3:23–24 ESV

And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.

What a blessed truth to know—that in Jesus Christ the Son of God, I am an adopted child of the Father, sealed by the Spirit of love—and no one can snatch me from his hand! So now, we must love as he has loved us! We must pray as he has prayed for us! We must show grace, as he shows common grace to all his creatures under the sun… as Jesus said:

For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

Here Jesus calls us to have a common compassion, a general love, a sincere care for all human beings made in God’s image. God is so kind—that he even showers good gifts on his chiefest enemies. God is so merciful—that he even graces the wicked and unjust with light, heat, and rain. Truly He is good and good to all—truly His mercy is over all that he has made. This is common grace, common love, common care. And if we are children of God—we ought to imitate our Father who is in heaven! If we are born into His family—we ought to live worthy of his name. Has he not put his name upon us in baptism? We have been baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19-20)—so let us bear his name in honour, with love, and great joy (Eph. 5). So go, shine the light of your love upon the evil—so go, send refreshing rain upon the unjust. Go and love like God. Jesus adds:

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?

What is Jesus saying here? If you love like the world, you’re showing that you’re of the world. You’re not a child of God. You’re not a disciple of Christ. You’re not born of the Spirit. If you only greet your family, you are showing that you don’t love anyone else. You’re just like the world. You’re not set apart. You’re not different. You’re just like the tax collectors, the sinners, and the Gentiles—the unbelievers who are enslaved in their selfish love, following the power of the prince of the air: lovers of self rather than lovers of God (Tit.).

HDK: The Lord is telling his hearers therefore that by imitating the tax-collectors and the Gentiles in their exclusive love… [That] they are doing nothing that is exceptional.

But oh, if the Son sets you free then you will be free indeed! If anyone is in Christ then he is a new creation! The old has passed and the new has come! If you are a child of God, a disciple of Christ, an heir of the Spirit—then you are holy! You are different! You don’t love as the world loves!

The world only loves that which is lovely. But God loved you while you were unlovely. So you love even the unlovely. The world only greets close relatives. But God has welcomed you from afar, and brought you near by the blood of Christ. So you greet even the foreigner and the stranger—even the outcast, the strange one, the one who doesn’t fit in.

Ryle: Unfailing courtesy, kindness, tenderness and consideration for others are some of the greatest ornaments to the character of a child of God. The world can’t understand these things. [But] the perfection of practical Christianity consists in attending to the little duties of holiness as well as to the great.

And so Jesus is teaching us, in the small and big things, for the good and the evil, for the just and the unjust, to shower love, grace, mercy, kindness, service, goodness, and pity. And in all of this we are different than the world, we are showing that we are children of the living God! So let us walk as he walked—let us love as he loved:

Ephesians 5:1–2 ESV

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Philippians 2:15 ESV

that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,

Let us love-loving our enemies—as God in Christ has loved us while we were his enemies—and let us keep in step with the Spirit who has shed abroad God’s love in our hearts, that we might overflow and show it to those around us (Rom. 5:5) … bathed in prayer—and pouring forth grace to others.

And the mystery of Scripture is that this kind of love is not inconsistent with a righteous hatred (but it is inconsistent with the Pharisees personal & vindictive hatred). True godly hatred longs to see all of Christ’s enemies put under his feet, that justice and righteousness would prevail in the earth! True godly hatred (and love) should be inflamed in us as we behold the wicked who perform countless abortions, who send people to the slaughter of MAID, who openly slander the name of Jesus Christ, and we should long for that day when the earth is filled with the knowledge of the glory of God as the waters cover the sea (Ps. 72). Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will be Done, on Earth as it is in Heaven! Arise O God and scatter forth your enemies—the world, the flesh, and the devil. Either scatter them by converting them—or scatter them by judging them. Oh God help us to love as you love, and to hate as you hate! Concerned not for our own self-reputation—but for your divine glory!

Romans 12:9 ESV

Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.

And in all of this we learn that:

(2) Jesus calls us to Love Loving our Enemies - v. 44-47

And Jesus concludes this entire 5th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew with a summary statement of the requirement of God’s perfect law:

(3) We must be Perfect as our Father is Perfect - v. 48

Matthew 5:48 ESV

You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

(3) We must be Perfect as our Father is Perfect - v. 48

What does God require of you? What does God morally call you to? What standard does God hold you to? Well the honest answer is: perfection. Genuine, actual, righteous perfection. Spotless, blameless, and glorious perfection. *But we aren’t able to do that!* So what? God’s not going to lessen his moral majesty because of your sinful inability. God requires perfection!

Murray: The reason of the biblical ethic is God’s perfection; the basic criterion of ethical behaviour is God’s perfection; the ultimate goal of the ethical life is conformity to God’s perfection. Surely nothing less is implicit in Jesus’ word.

If you remember way back to the introductory message on the Sermon on the Mount, you’ll remember that I argued that the Sermon on the Mount does three things: (1) It crushes you, (2) then it frees you, and (3) then it guides you.

Firstly, it crushes you and I both because we aren’t perfect! We aren’t the salt and light we should be, we don’t keep God’s commands like we ought, we have anger in our hearts, we have lust in our veins, we have immorality in our being, we have infidelity in our souls, we have retaliation in our mind—we are the opposite of perfection. And yet the declaration trumpets forth: you therefore must be perfect! Jesus is meaning to crush us, to humble us, to convince us that we have failed, we have all fallen short of the glory of God, that our free-will is spiritually unable to do that which God requires. We are sinners, therefore all we can do is sin in our own strength. But this isn’t the only reason the Sermon on the Mount was preached.

Secondly, it was given to free us and direct our eyes away from our own efforts. Jesus had been preaching on repentance and faith and the Kingdom of Grace—he had been preaching the Gospel of salvation by grace alone! And so he frees us by blessing the poor in spirit—who have nothing to offer but their sin. He calls you to himself, he draws you in his love, he promises you mercy if you will but come to Him and put your only hope in His promise of salvation! Next month Elder Dave will be preaching on the Lord’s Prayer, which declares forgiveness for God’s people! Forgive us our debts! God our Father is a God who offers forgiveness, salvation, redemption, deliverance, and freedom from our sin. Jesus came to seek and save the lost. Jesus came to save his people from their sin! Oh trust in Him! Jesus only means for you to trust in Him. Don’t rely on your own efforts—that was the problem of the Pharisees that Jesus is rebuking—trust in Him alone for life-eternal!

And then thirdly, the Sermon on the Mount was given to direct us! It shows us the path of obedience. It summons us to discipleship. It guides us as we follow Jesus Christ. It teaches us what true righteousness means, it preaches to us how to obey the law and commandments of God, it exhorts us to live as members of the Kingdom of Heaven, and to seek first it’s growth and increase in the earth—it shows us how to serve our Royal King as His Covenant People, who have been Blessed in the Gospel of God’s Grace! And now—we strive for perfection:

48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

And the Gospel declares—you are perfect, child of God—you who believe are covered in the obedience of Jesus Christ, who came to fulfill all righteousness, who kept every dot and iota of Scripture, keeping the covenant of works, that we might be blessed by the covenant of grace—through faith—unto salvation. If you are in Christ—you are justified—you are legally perfect in the courtroom of the Lord of Glory!

Romans 4:5–8 ESV

And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”

And more than this, you are being made perfect, day by day, slowly but surely, painfully but truly—as you are learning to put sin to death and to walk in newness of life! As the Holy Spirit is writing God’s law on your heart, and as you are seeking to love God and love your neighbour as yourself. At the same time that you are counted perfect once for all, you are also being made perfect day by day. This is impossible in our own free-will strength. But we can do all things through Christ & His Spirit who strengthens & fills us as we seek Him:

Galatians 5:16–18 ESV

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

And so in this daily battle—living on mission—we don’t lose heart. Christ is Lord, our sins have been forgiven, we are righteous by faith, we have been adopted into God’s family, we have been given the promised Holy Spirit, and we are being changed day by day—with the hope of everlasting glory! So we strive, we fight, we yearn, we battle, and we run the race toward perfection, as we are being conformed to the image of Christ:

Philippians 3:12–14 ESV

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

And so let us press on, Calvary! Let us press on to know the Lord deeper! Let us press on to love Him sweetly! Let us press on to serve His Kingdom valiantly! Let us press on to build his Church joyfully! Let us press on toward perfection, even as our heavenly Father is perfect. And in so doing—we show that we are true disciples of Jesus Christ, our Royal King and Redeemer!

(3) We must be Perfect as our Father is Perfect - v. 48

And so hear now our conclusion for this morning:

(C) Perfect Love from God is our Delight—and Perfect Love to Man is our Duty.

His love joyfully sets us free—to love even our enemies:

1 John 4:13–19 ESV

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us.

Love so amazing, so divine—demands my soul, my life, my all!

(C) Perfect Love from God is our Delight—and Perfect Love to Man is our Duty.

Amen? Let’s pray.

Discussion Questions:

(1) How did the Pharisees misunderstood what God’s Law said regarding love & hate?

(2) How does Jesus call us to love, and what are some examples of what this would look like?

(3) How can we know that we are sons of our Father who is in heaven?

(4) How does God show common grace to all creatures? And how can we imitate Him in this?

(5) Jesus holds us to the standard of Divine Perfection. How does this apply to us in our (a) justification and (b) sanctification?

[Bonus] How do we resolve this text with passages like Psalm 119:128; 119:163; 139:21-22 that indicate a ‘righteous hatred for God’s enemies’? How can we both righteously love and righteously hate God’s enemies at the same time?