Matthew 5:43-48
Righteous Words ~ love your enemies
Read…
Matt.
Matt. 5:44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,
Matt. 5:45 that you may be sons of your Father 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.
Matt.
Matt.
Matt. 5:48 Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
Pray
Intro
√ You’ve heard that it was said
With this closing section of Matthew chapter 5 Jesus concludes His commentary on what the Pharisees said.
Specifically, their false teaching that misrepresented the heart of God in that they prided themselves in keeping the Letter of the Law…
…yet failed to keep the Spirit of the Law.
With the Lord’s closing comments He reveals the motivation of God in the Law, which the Pharisees totally missed…
…love!
That is, the Spirit of the Law is love.
The Letter of the Law (vs. 43)
Matt. 5:43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
√ The Letter of the Law
Once again Jesus calls our attention to the false teaching of the Pharisees…
“You’ve heard that it was said…”
In this example the Lord deals with the Pharisees teaching on human relationships, specifically, Leviticus 19:18 which says…
Lev. 19:18 You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.
Note that the Pharisees correctly quote the Law…
“You shall love your neighbor”
But, then they added their own spin onto to God’s Word…
“and you shall hate your enemies”
Did you notice that’s not in the Law!
In fact, you won’t find a commandment anywhere in the Bible that tells us we’re to hate our enemies!
Rather, the religious teachers wrongly concluded that since we’re to love our neighbor (fellow Israelite or believer)…
…then the inverse must also be true, that we should hate our enemy (the Gentile or unbeliever)!
But, God never said that!
Ap. Don’t speak where God is silent!
The Pharisees made the same mistake that many people do today, even Christians! That is, they find a truth in the Bible and then conclude that the inverse must also be true.
But, the reality is that God’s thoughts are higher than our own and therefore what we may believe to be a logical conclusion…
…can be totally off base!
There’s great wisdom in sticking to what the Bible says…
…not what it doesn’t say!
With regard to our enemy it may seem logical that we should hate them, but the reality is that God wants us to love them!
The Spirit of the Law (vs. 44a)
Matt. 5:44a But I say to you, love your enemies…
√ The Spirit of the Law
Jesus contradicts the teaching of the religious leaders and tells us that God’s intention, the spirit of the Law…
…is that we’re to love everyone – including our enemies!
Just as we saw in our study last week, this teaching of Jesus would have come as huge shock to the people.
Because, it runs contrary to all that the religious leaders were teaching…
…and it’s contrary to our human nature.
Ex. Hatred of the Gentiles
The Pharisees justified their hatred of all other people groups by adding to the scripture what God had never said.
In doing so they missed the Spirit in which the Law was given, and thereby did not achieve the righteousness they claimed to posses.
They failed to grasp that while they were the chosen people, God was interested in saving everyone!
Ap. Hatred in the Church
Beware of so-called Christian groups that justify hatred of other people groups.
Ex. Identity movement
Violate the scripture in the same way that the Pharisees did…
…adding to God’s Word what God never said!
The “serpent seed” doctrine ~ teaches that the sin of Eve was that she had a sexual relationship with the Devil and produced Cain.
They believe that the “mark” of Cain was black skin and that all of Cain’s descendants are of the Devil and thereby justify their racism.
It doesn’t take much of a Bible student to see that none of that is in the scripture!
Rather, it is the warped perspective of men who are seeking to justify their hatred of those not like them.
Just as Jesus condemned the Pharisees, so He will condemn any who adds to His Words and violates the spirit in which He spoke them.
The Practice of the Law (vs. 44b-48)
√ The Practice of the Law
In this next section the Lord gives us practical ways in which we can demonstrate love toward our enemies.
It is if you will…
…the practice of the Law.
What you’ll notice is that the presence of love, agape, is the defining quality of true righteousness!
Love is the motive behind the Law
Lack of love is what reveals the unrighteousness of the Pharisees
Love is the foundation of the true righteousness offered by Jesus
So, by following Jesus’ instruction to love our enemies we will manifest that we have the true righteousness of Christ.
1) Evidence of righteousness
Matt. 5:44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,
Matt. 5:45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven;
Jesus tells us that the primary evidence that we are the “sons of God” is that we love people the way that God does!
He says it even more clearly in John 13:35…
“By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Paul expounds upon that truth in I Cor. 13 where he tells us that we can exercise all of the gifts of the Spirit, and perform great works of faith…
…yet, if we lack love then we’re nothing.
So, the primary evidence that we’ve plugged into true righteousness is the mark of love.
2) Example of righteousness
Matt. 5:45b …for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
Jesus reminds us that to love our enemies is God-like!
He shares good things (sun & rain) with both the just and the unjust, the good and the wicked…
…and thereby creates an environment in which He can reach even those who oppose Him.
As such He’s set an example for us to follow of what true righteousness looks like in action.
In fact, Paul tells us that it’s God’s love that turns the wicked back to the path of righteousness…
“Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?”
Romans 2:4
So, Matt. 5:45 suggests that God shares His good gifts with both the good and the wicked to create a climate of blessings that make it easy to win the lost to Christ.
Ex. God gave His Son to those who hate Him!
The perfect example of God sharing His love with everyone, including those who oppose Him, is found in the testimony of the Cross.
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 5:8
So, the example of true righteousness is found in the model of God’s benevolence toward all of Mankind to which, Jesus calls us to follow.
3) Excellence of righteousness
Matt. 5:46 For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
Matt. 5:47 And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so?
Jesus calls us to a higher standard of conduct, the standard of excellence if you will, a standard higher than that of the Pharisee and those in the world.
That standard?
Love! Note the Lord’s question to those who want to be truly righteous…
“what do you do more than others?”
That is, true righteousness is revealed by practicing a higher standard of love…
…a love that seeks to do good, not just to those who love us, but also to those who don’t love us!
Ex. Agape vs. Phileo
The love practiced by the people in the world is a reciprocal kind of love. It’s characterized by the attitude…
“I love you if you love me”
In the Greek language the word that describes this kind of love is phileo.
It’s an emotional love.
It’s the kind of love that is performance based.
It’s not a permanent love, it’s a love conditioned upon how the other person behaves toward us. If their behavior changes, then we stop loving them.
The love that Jesus calls us to demonstrate is agape love. It’s the…
“I love you anyway”
…kind of love.
It’s a spiritual love.
It’s a love that lasts forever because it isn’t conditioned upon what others do, it’s love born of choice.
That is, the excellence of righteousness is demonstrated when we live by a higher standard of love…
…the agape love of God.
Ap. Our high calling
The apostle John had a very clear understanding of this truth. He tells us in I John 4:11 that we’re to follow Jesus’ example…
“Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
The context of John’s teaching is the Cross of Christ. The point is that since God loved us even before we loved Him…
…then we also ought to love one anther, even those who don’t love us.
√ The perfection of the Law
Matt. 5:48 Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
Jesus tells us that the goal of practicing true righteousness as demonstrated by the agape love in our lives…
…is to be perfect just like God!
Before you all run home screaming let’s define what Jesus means!
He’s not calling us to sinless perfection because that’s not possible in this body.
Rather, He’s calling us to grow into mature believers whose lives will be marked by the true righteous character of God…
…His love.
We know this to be true because the word translated “perfect” is teleios (tel´-i-os) which, means…
“complete (in various applications of labor, growth, mental and moral character, etc.); of full age (mature).”
The conclusion then of this section of Jesus’ message is that the true standard of righteousness is God Himself.
Those who desire to be righteous must become mature, or perfect, like God.
While we can never hope to meet that standard in our own strength because we’re all guilty of…
Murder
Lust
Hate
Dishonesty
Vengeance
…the person who trusts in Jesus will by faith enjoy God’s righteousness as it is reproduced in our lives by His Holy Spirit!
In contrast the Pharisees who sought to develop their own righteousness were doomed to fail because they sought it by their own effort.
So, our only hope to exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees is found in a relationship with Jesus who grants to us His righteousness!
Close
√ The Law & the King
In this section of Jesus’ sermon He has proven beyond any doubt that we’re all guilty before God.
Even the Pharisees who taught that they were righteous because they claimed to keep the Law.
But, Jesus has shown us that simply keeping the Letter of the Law does not make a person righteous…
…Rather, God’s standard of righteousness includes keeping the Spirit of the Law!
Therefore, we all need a Savior Who can fulfill the righteous requirements of the Law.
Ap. Are you still trusting in your own righteousness?
You can tell if you are by whether or not you’re experiencing the love that Jesus promised would by yours.
No love = still trying to earn God’s favor
Love = received God’s favor by faith
Trust in Him alone and you’ll find the love in life that God promised and power over the unrighteous desires of your old nature!