(Mat 5:43-48 ESV) “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.
I find myself frequently quoting this passage. In fact, in my decade or so of being an elder, I’ve found the SOTM to repeatedly provide answers to pastoral problems. To me, it’s the central passage on how to lead a church.
This passage is particularly important to me because it addresses the nature of God as revealed in Jesus and as he should be revealed in us. Jesus builds his teaching on the character of God —
For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
This is one of the most profound teachings in all of scripture, and we’d do well to dwell on it for a while.
[In spite of the seriousness of the topic, I can’t resist this quotation —
In the light of vv. 39–42 there is perhaps a grain of truth in Lord Bowen’s satirical comment on this verse (which betrays a European rather than Middle Eastern attitude to rain!):
“The rain it raineth on the just
And also on the unjust fella —
But chiefly on the just, because
The unjust steals the just’s umbrella.”
R. T. France, The Gospel of Matthew, The New International Commentary on the New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publication Co., 2007).]
N. T. Wright comments on the paradox raised by Jesus’ comments to Jews — God’s chosen people —
The shocking thing about this passage in the Sermon on the Mount is that we are told to watch what our heavenly father is doing and then do the same ourselves. Here is the puzzle: Israel, the chosen people, are challenged to realize that God doesn’t have favourites! What sense can we make of that? If they are chosen, doesn’t that mean they are God’s favourites?
The answer to the puzzle is found earlier in the Sermon. Israel isn’t chosen in order to be God’s special people while the rest of the world remains in outer darkness. Israel is chosen to be the light of the world, the salt of the earth. Israel is chosen so that, through Israel, God can bless all people. And now Jesus is calling Israel to be the light of the world at last. He is opening the way, carving a path through the jungle towards that vocation, urging his followers to come with him on the dangerous road.
Tom Wright, Matthew for Everyone, Part 1: Chapters 1-15, (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2004), 50–51.
And therefore, we as Christians must not see ourselves as more loved than others. Rather, we are called into God’s family to serve God’s mission, which is to redeem the entire cosmos — those who love God as well as those who reject him. We are saved not because we are better but because we are forgiven — forgiven to be able to pursue God’s mission to the lost.
Our forgiveness, therefore, is not the end. God did not save us because he expects us to be great company in eternity. He already had angels to spend timelessness with. He saved us so that, through us, the whole world would be saved. He saved us because he “so loved the world.”
Therefore, we must see the world as God sees the world. Yes, there will come a Day of Judgment. Vengeance will come. But now is the time of patience, while God desperately wants everyone to find Jesus and salvation.
This is also the theme of Paul’s sermon on Mars Hill —
(Act 17:23-28 ESV) 23 “For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.'”
Paul says that God gives life and blesses all men, not just Christians, in hope that “They should seek God … and find him.” We should do the same.
Jesus said,
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.
Jesus was speaking of Jews, about whom Moses had said,
(Deu 14:1-2 ESV) “You are the sons of the LORD your God. … 2 For you are a people holy to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.”
Jesus seems to say that the Jews will no longer be sons of God solely by virtue of their Jewishness. In the Kingdom, the test will be whether you’ve committed to become like God. To have faith in Jesus is to, among other things, commit to a life of faithfulness, and part of faithfulness is loving the damned as much as the saved.
While nearly all Christians and all churches talk about evangelism as a part of their mission, many see evangelism as inviting the lost to change so that they may be loved. But Jesus is telling us to love the lost as they are, and to invite them into the Kingdom because they are already loved.
This is no easy thing. It’s so much easier for Christians to play church-league softball so that they only have to deal with players who are good sports, who set examples for their children, and who play by the rules. But our increasing tendency to withdraw from the larger society to form our own schools, our own sports leagues, our own coffee shops, and even our own gymnasiums shows how little love for the lost we really have. We’re not even willing to share a coffee shop with the damned.
It’s no wonder the church is struggling to grow in the West as it is. We no longer much care for our lost neighbors.
Living in a large city now I am often struck by the important role churches and Christian faith still play in the city. Most of the community meetings I attend are held in churches. Almost all community meetings, no matter where they are held, begin with prayer. One secular meeting I attended even opened with a prayer and a hymn. I think it comes down to the needs being so great in the inner city that almost everyone who wants to make their neighborhoods safer and more hospitable places to live accepts churches who care as allies to be appreciated and honored. Beyond that, even people who are not particularly religious here want God’s help and blessing in their lives. They tend to respect God even if they don’t know God.
This is seemingly a new command as they understood to love thier God and to love thier neighbor, but to love your enemy seems counter-intuitive, as I would not immediately connect my enemy to be my neighbor. If they are your enemy, then they are worthy of being hated by the definition of enemy. But Jesus places the concept of love beyond just those that agree with you and you with them, to those who don’t and you don’t. The love is an over arching love where you do for others not based on them, but based on you and what you have been given by a God who once considered you an enemy as well. This is grace at its highest point.
Kevin, this results from “we are right” and “you are wrong” philosophey, instead of “we are all wrong and we are all seeking God”.
Here again, the Rabbi’s mistakenly inferred that their neighbor was only a compatriot. Thus, Gentiles and even Samaritan’s were left out and hated. The Pharisees smugley felt superior to Gentiles and Tax Collectors because of their morality and rigorous obedience. Yet they were no better since they both only loved their own inner circles. But Jesus calls us to have a complete(telious) love. A love that knows no boundaries(just like God’s). In Luke it’s mercy. The Hebrew word(Hesed) bears both meanings.
RJ, brings up a good point. We often say, if you are not for me, then you are against me, but the Jews (and even the Romans) understood that if you are not Jewish (or Roman), then you are not anything and thus my enemy and while they might not kill you, they would not help you or associate with you, etc., and mostly they would not consider you on any level. Too low to be regarded or noticed or involved with. The love that God showed and Jesus brought was to all nations.The Jewish leaders regarded the other Jewish leaders and sects, even placing thier own Jewish people at a lower level, higher than the Gentiles, but lower than them.
Jesus became a servant to all in life, in death and in living again.
I would like to add that even people who attend and sit in the pews every Sunday who were baptized in the proper way but who may be politically liberal are often regarded as the enemy by some. You don’t have to go to the Middle East and ISIS to find an enemy.