The Law & Love

These verses end the “ye have heard” section of the Sermon on the Mount. Six times Jesus references the Law and reveals how the religious leaders had corrupted it. He followed with a correct interpretation of the Law. The final verses of chapter five expand on the concept brought out in verses 38-42. In verses 38-42 we are taught what we must not do regarding our enemies. In verses 43-48 we are taught what we must do in regards to our enemies.

Christ is concerned that our actions not be hypocritical. It is possible to turn the other cheek yet hate the person who insulted us. Christ has already taught us that if we are angry in our hearts toward a person that we are guilty of murder (22). The character Christ wants us to have will compel us to turn the other cheek and at the same time love the person that has humiliated us. That is what He is teaching us and that is what He modeled when He cried out “Father forgive them for they know not what they do”. In the midst of persecution Christ loved His enemies and He is charging us to do the same thing.

The Law

The Law was clear in the matter of loving enemies.

* Enemies were to be helped (Exodus 23:4-5).

* Strangers (non Jews were considered enemies) were to be loved (Lev. 19:18, 33-34).

* God did not approve of hatred toward enemies (Job 31:28-30).

The religious leaders of Jesus day added to the commandment of “Love your neighbor”. What they added was ridiculous. They added “Hate thine enemy”. This clearly contradicted the teaching of the Law. This was a case of choosing Scripture that you liked and changing Scripture that you didn’t like. This farce had been taught for so long that the people obviously believed it was in the Scripture itself. They believed they were commanded to hate their enemies.

They justified this belief with God’s commandment to rid the Promised Land from the ungodly inhabitants. It is true that Israel was commanded to drive out and destroy these pagans. What we need to understand is why God wanted this done. These people groups were completely wicked and vile. They were plagued with idolatry, human sacrifice, torture of enemies, and oppression. God raised up Israel to be a tool of vengeance in His hand. However, even as God was judging these people groups we know that He loved them (Ezekiel 18:23). The Bible says that “God commendeth His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). God not only loves His enemies while He is judging them for their sin He also loves His enemies while He is judging His only begotten Son for their sin.

This past week I received a telephone call from a man that recently served on a jury. He and the rest of the jury sentenced a young man to life in prison for serious crimes. He explained that he knew the young man was guilty and that he agreed with (and recommended) the sentence. However, he felt that God wanted him to do something to help the young man. He wanted to know what type of help we needed in the Chaplaincy department to enable us to reach this young man for Christ. That is a perfect example of how a person can impose judgment on sin and at the same time love the sinner.

The Law is hard on sin. It demands holiness. However, it also reveals the heart of God. God loves His enemies and we are to love our enemies as well. God never commands us to hate our enemies. Any doctrine that encourages this does no reflect the truth of Scripture or the heart of God.

Reacting to our enemies

Love your enemies. To the average Jew “neighbor’ meant simply another Jewish person. “Enemy” meant a non Jew. So the Jewish mindset was “Let’s just love each other”. Jesus takes them way out of their comfort zone when He commands them to love their enemies. The apostle Paul through inspiration of the Holy Spirit gives us a definition of what love is. He begins 1 Corinthians 13 by telling us that religion without love is a sham. He continues with a description of how love acts. To sum it up, if we love our enemies we will be : patient with them, kind to them, wish the best for them, humble toward them, courteous to them, selfless with them, not easily angered against them, forgiving with them, holy in our actions toward them, truthful with them, bear with them , believe them , hope the best for the and endure them!

To love our enemies means that our heart is tender toward them. We are genuinely concerned about them. The rest of the verse describes the actions that should flow from a heart of love.

Bless them that curse you. To curse someone means to wish them evil or ruin. To bless someone means to wish them favor and prosperity. When someone desires the worst for us Jesus teaches us that we should hope the best for them In blessing you are hoping the best for a person. You are desiring that God would do good things in the life of that individual.

One of the reasons this is so hard for us to do is because we have a misunderstanding of God’s goodness. We believe that if a person is receiving good things, is prospering, and blessed that he has God’s favor. People will think that person is pleasing God more than we are, is our thought. The NT teaches that God’s blessings do not necessarily mean that He is pleased with a person (Matthew 5:45; Luke 16:19-ff). In fact God’s goodness leads sinners to repentance (Romans 2:4). It may be that the blessing of those that curse us is what God uses to draw a person to Himself.

Do good to them that hate you. It is easy to “say” that you love your enemies. It is quiet another thing to show that love for them. Jesus tells His followers that they should do good things for the people that hate them. Of course the greatest example of this would be Christ dying for His enemies. There are other examples as well:

* Christ restoring Malchus’ ear (22:49-51).

* Stephen preaching the gospel to his soon to be murderers (Acts 7:54-60).

* Paul and Silas remaining in prison for the sake of the Roman guard (Acts 16:25-40).

It is a humbling thing to know that someone hates you. It is even more humbling however to do something good for that person despite your knowledge of how they feel about you.

Pray for them. We could interpret this as referring to when people take advantage of us. It may be that someone is profiting at our expense. Maybe it is an insult to our character for the purpose of getting a laugh. Maybe they use us for financial reasons. When we are taken advantage of it hurts. We are instructed to pray for those that take advantage of us. Prayer is an intimate time when we often poor out our hurts before God. Many times our prayers are a result of the way people have treated us. In fact we are often complaining to God about being used by others. Therefore, it is a humbling thing to use our prayer time for God to bless those who have hurt us. Jesus is the supreme example of this (Luke 23:34).

The Ultimate Example

God is to be our example in reacting to our enemies. The phrase “that ye may be” should not be understood to mean that our works change us into the children of God. We become children of God through adoption into His kingdom as we trust Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior (John 1:12). The meaning behind this phrase is that our works reveal that we are indeed children of God. 1 John 4:20 says that if we say we love God and yet hate our brother that we are liars. Our works reveal our citizenship.

God reveals His love for His enemies and His children in the same way. He provides them with their daily needs. He gives the evil and the good the rain and sunshine they need to have the necessities of life. Without sunshine and rain there would be no food. Without rain there would be no water to drink. It would be just as easy for God to give His sunshine and rain only to His children. If God wanted He could curse the work and effort of every enemy He has. Nothing they did would prosper. They would starve to death and die penniless. Note that it is “His sun”. The sun belongs to Him and He can shine it where He wants. The rain belongs to Him and He can drop it where He wants. God is not obligated to take care of His enemies. Yet He chooses to because He loves them.

In verses 46-47 Jesus asks a series of questions to illustrate His truth.

“If ye love them which love you what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same?” To be compared to a publican was an insult to Jewish people. Tax collectors were considered the bottom of the barrel in the morality category. Especially Jewish tax collectors:

*They were working for a Roman government that was oppressing the Jewish people.

* They charged more taxes than were owed so they could pad their own pockets.

Jesus point is that even the most immoral people in your society love their own. He is telling them that if their love is reserved for people who love them they are no better than tax collectors.

He then asks “If ye salute your brethren only what do ye more than others?” “Salute” means to greet. It implies friendly conversation upon meeting someone. The religious leaders in Jesus day loved, but they only loved one another. They spoke to people, but they only spoke to one another. They were no better than the immoral people in society they despised.

Jesus point is that everybody has their own clique. We all love those we like. The people we enjoy are the people who like the same things we like and think the way we think. These people are easy to love because they remind us of ourselves, and we love ourselves! Think about that. We love the people who remind us of ourselves. It is love of self that keeps us from loving our enemies.

Jesus ends the section with another appeal for us to emulate God. His love is a perfect love. It is without respect of persons. It is His perfect love that we are all to seek after. Just as He cares for and provides for His enemies, we are to do the same. Let’s consider some application to this great truth.

* We should examine our hearts. Do we really care about our enemies. God has not called us simply to exercise restraint and not slap them! He has called us to love them. We should examine ourselves and see if we genuinely love our enemies. If we do not, turning the other cheek and praying for them is simply hypocritical.

* We should examine our actions. If we genuinely love our enemies we will pray for them and bless them. Do our actions reveal our heart. If the actions are not there, the love is not in our hearts.

* We should examine our relationships. Have we surrounded ourselves with people just like us. If so that could reveal a love of self. We should make a conscious effort to become friends with people who are not like us or maybe with people who do not like us!

* We should examine our conversations. There were people that Jews would simply not talk to. They were cold to them. A sure way to hurt someone is to refuse to talk to them. We should make it a priority to speak to all people. Even those people who make us uncomfortable, have hurt us, or who hate us. God spoke to us through the gospel while we were His enemies and we should be willing to speak with our enemies as well.