The following is a sermon preached at Sunnyside Baptist Church on Sunday morning October 5, 2008.
The world around us is not passive. As Christians, we need to realize this. The world around us is not passive… it is constantly trying to conform us to its image. It does this all the time and in many different ways. The world is always trying to mold us and shape us to be just like it… and all too often, it succeeds. Often we are conformed to the image of the world and live according to its expectations rather than living according to the expectations of our great God and Savior.
The Bible calls this sin. We shouldn’t mince words. The Bible calls this sin. God created all things in this universe for one purpose and one purpose only… to glorify Him. All things are created to show something of Who He is and what He is like. That is true whether we are talking about the sun, moon and stars in the heavens… or the vastness of the Pacific Ocean… or the grandeur of a redwood forest… or the majesty of the Grand Canyon… or even if we are talking about you and me. All things were created by God to glorify God… and people uniquely so, because human beings alone in all of creation are made in the image and likeness of God (Gen 1:26-27.)
And yet we all fall short of this (Rom 3:23.) We all tend to reflect the character of this world more than the character of God. This is sin… and the consequence of sin is death (Rom 6:23.) Physical death… spiritual death and separation from God and judgment for all eternity. Yet God has loved us… despite our sin… and He sovereignly chose to save some from this judgment. He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, into the world, who suffered for our sin when He died on the cross. He took our place and became our substitute so that we could be saved from being punished eternally for our sin (I Cor 15:3-4.) Salvation is of the LORD. God has chosen to love us and be gracious to us so that some will be saved forevermore. To receive this free gift of salvation, we must repent and trust in Jesus.
This begins a relationship with God as our Heavenly Father… and as we have seen over the past several weeks… relationships bring with them responsibilities. God expects that we will strive to be conformed to His image rather than being conformed to the image of this world.
Two weeks ago, we saw what Jesus called the first and great commandment… to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind and with all our strength (Matt 22:37, Mk 12:30.) This must precede everything else in the Christian life. God must be the center of everything. If we love Him, then we will keep His commandments (Jn 14:15.) Loving Him is the motivation for living the Christian life. As we love Him, we are drawn ever nearer to Him and this deep-seated affection for Him motivates us to live our lives in such a way that He is honored.
The second expectation in the Christian life is like the first. It too involves love. The second commandment is to love our neighbor as ourselves (Matt 22:39.) As we saw last week, our neighbor is anyone that God brings across our path (Lk 10:29-37.) We are to love them as much as we love ourselves. We should value them highly as people made in the image of God. We should seek to provide for the needs of those around us. And we should desire the best for them. After all… this is how we love ourselves.
As we saw last week… some of our neighbors are easier to love than others. Take for example… our enemies. How are we to relate to our enemies? Must we love those who mistreat us and persecute us in any number of ways? Does God expects us to love them?
Jesus addresses this issue in Matthew 5:43-48.
Matthew 5:43-48 (ESV) – 43 “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.
In context, this is part of Jesus’ most well-known sermon which is often called “the Sermon on the Mount.” In contrast to the passage we looked at over the past couple of weeks in Matthew 22, this sermon was delivered early on during Jesus’ ministry. His opposition had not yet fully developed. People were flocking to hear what this new preacher on the scene had to say. And what He had to say was in sharp contradiction to the common wisdom of the world in His day.
He says, “You have heard it was said…”… implying that they had been taught something. His hearers had been impacted the teaching of the world around them. They had been taught that it was good to love your neighbor… but you don’t have to love your enemy. In fact, popular wisdom among the 1st century Jews encouraged people to hate their enemies.
How does the world around us teach us to relate to our enemies?
I was teenager in the 80’s. I grew up watching Rambo and Arnold Schwarzenegger and Steven Segal. They were my role models for how to treat my enemies. Do you remember how they treated their enemies? They pretty much crushed them. That may be an understatement. They crushed them… they crushed their family… they burned their enemies’ houses to the ground… and kicked their dog in the process. Now, in reality, I didn’t exactly follow in their footsteps… but I must admit that I grew up with a certain worldly motto burned into my self conscious… “Don’t get mad… get even.”
Isn’t that how the world tells us to treat our enemies? If we have a business competitor… how do we respond to them? We strive to put them out of business. In fact, we tend to gloat if they go belly-up. If we have an athletic competitor… how do we respond to them? We crush them on the playing field and often we don’t even care if they get hurt in the process. If we have a rival suitor for the affections of a member of the opposite sex… how do we respond to them? We put them down and show them up in any way we can in order to demonstrate our superiority. If there is a person who constantly insults us… how do we respond to them? We tend to insult them back. Or… maybe we insult them behind their back. Isn’t this the way that the world teaches us to relate to our enemies? Isn’t this the same thing which Jesus is dealing with in our passage? The world around us, in an effort to press us into its image, teaches us that it is good to love our neighbors, but it is okay to your enemy
How do we feel about our enemies? How do we relate to them? To really answer this question, we need to make sure that we understand who our enemy is. The term here is ἐχθρός (pronounced echthros) in the Greek and it simply means anyone who is hateful or hostile toward you. Anyone who opposes you in any way. Drawing from the near context here in Matthew 5 and a correlating text in Luke 6:27-36… our enemy is anyone who hates you and despises you as a person. It is anyone who curses you… or insults you… or speaks unkindly of you. It is anyone who threatens you or persecutes you in anyway. Your enemy is anyone who takes your things without permission with no intention of returning them or someone who forces you into service you don’t want to perform. In Matthew 10:36, Jesus even says that a member of your own family can be your enemy if they oppose you in the Christian life.
So who is your enemy? Anyone who is hostile toward you in any way. Your enemy is anyone who dislikes you or works against you. By this definition… your enemy could be: The school bully who always kicks sand in your face. Or the inconsiderate driver on the freeway who shows his lack of affection for you through various hand signals. Or the business rival who maligns your reputation in the community and is always trying to steal away your customers. It is the person in your church who slanders your name and character. It can even be a member of your own family who mocks you continuously for your faith.
The world says we are to love our neighbors and hate our enemies. “Don’t get mad… get even…” Right? That may be the world’s wisdom… but it isn’t what God expects of us.
Jesus says we are to love our enemies. As we have seen over the past couple of weeks, the biblical definition of love is to feel affection for another which leads us to take action on their behalf. In other words, Jesus says that we are to feel affection for our enemies… strong affection… which leads us to do things for their benefit.
What does this look like? How do we demonstrate love for our enemies?
We are going to come back here in just a moment, but first, turn over to Luke’s account of Jesus’ teaching here in Luke 6…
Luke 6:27-28, 31 (ESV) – 27 “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.”… 31 And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.
Jesus commands us in Luke 6:27-28 to do good to those who hate us. Rather than seeking to crush our enemy… rather than seeking to “get even”… we are to seek their gain.
Jesus goes on to command that we are to bless those who curse us. This means that we are to speak well of others, even when they speak poorly of us. In fact, Luke records Jesus giving “The Golden Rule”… do unto others as you would have them do unto you (Lk 6:31)… in this very same context.
How do we wish our enemy would treat us? How do we wish the school bully would treat us? With respect and kindness, right? That is how we are to treat him. How about the inconsiderate driver on the freeway? We wish he would be courteous and polite. That is how we should treat him. How about the business rival who maligns your reputation in the community? How would we want him to relate to us? With respect. With honesty and integrity. We should do the same to him. How about the person in your church who slanders your name and character? How do you wish they would treat you? With love. With respect. You wish they would speak well of you. You wish that they would encourage you and bless you. This is how we should treat them. How about the family member who mocks you for your faith? You would want to them to listen… to hear you out… to speak to you with kindness and love, even though they disagree with you. We should do the same.
This paints a pretty good picture of what it looks like to love our enemies, but… remember… love is more than what we do. It is a strong affection for someone which leads to action. To simply do good to our enemy when we don’t feel like doing it doesn’t fulfill the command which Jesus is giving us here. How do we love the person who doesn’t love us? How do we stir up love within ourselves for those who hate us and persecute us?
This isn’t easy. In fact, it is impossible in our own strength. We simply can’t do it on our own. It must flow out our love for God. Love for enemies only comes as God creates in us a love for our enemies.
I believe this is why Jesus commands us to “pray for those who persecute you.” The Greek here implies an ongoing and continuous action of prayer for those who actively oppose us. We are to start praying… right now… for our enemies and not stop as long as we have life and breath. We are to be constantly interceding on their behalf before God. We are to be constantly lifting them up before God and seeking His best for them.
Have you ever tried to do this? This is incredibly hard. Let’s face it… we don’t want to pray for our enemies. We don’t want God to bless them, do we? We want God to smite them. We want don’t want God to bless them… we want justice. We want them to hurt just like we have been hurt. That’s when you start going through the Bible and thinking… wouldn’t it be great if God just opened up the ground the ground and swallowed them whole? Or maybe He could just send down some fire from heaven. He doesn’t need to completely consume them… but maybe He could singe their hair and eyebrows? Where is a big fish when you need one?
Jesus commands that our attitude toward our enemies be entirely different. We are commanded to seek their blessing by going directly to the God of the universe and interceding on their behalf.
How do we do this? I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time praying authentically for those who hate me and oppose me. I tend to pray that God will show them how wrong they are and change their sinful attitudes. I tend to pray that God will do “whatever He must” to make them the people He wants them to be. If I am honest… this is the equivalent of calling for “the divine belt.” I don’t want to say that we should never pray for justice. The Psalmists often pray this way regarding their enemies. But I don’t think that this is what Jesus is getting at here in Matthew 5. We are to pray for their good. We are to pray that God would bless them.
How do we do this? I am far from an expert in this, but there are two things I have found helpful in this:
1) Whatever I am praying for myself… I strive to pray it for my enemies as well. I don’t think I have ever prayed for divine discipline to fall upon myself. I pray for God’s grace and mercy and peace to be showered upon me and my family. If I pray this for me… then I should pray the same thing for those who are my enemies.
2) Pray the promises of Scripture for them. As I come to a promise in Scripture… I strive to pray that this promise will be fulfilled in the life of my enemy. I strive to pray for the blessings of salvation and provision and guidance for those who oppose me.
Something amazing tends to happen in our hearts when we do this. God tends to reshape our hearts and affections toward our enemies. Whereas at one time we disliked them intensely… we tend to soften in our attitude toward them. We begin to care about the person we are praying for, even if they don’t care about us.
This isn’t easy. It is an ongoing process. Jesus commands us here to pray continuously for our enemies and, as we do so, God will do His work in our hearts and cause us to progressively… little by little… truly love those who hate us. Then we will start to speak well of them and do good to them, even if they don’t speak well of us and do good to us in return.
Now I want to be clear about something. This doesn’t mean that we are to blindly allow our enemies to harm us and take advantage of us. Jesus doesn’t expect us to intentionally place ourselves in situations where our enemies can harm us. When Jesus sent His disciples out into the world to preach on His behalf, He knew they would encounter many enemies. He knew they would encounter opposition and hostility and hatred and He gave them this instruction…
Matthew 10:16 (ESV) – 16 “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.
We are to be innocent in our dealings with those who oppose us, meaning that we are not to intentionally bring harm to our enemies. We aren’t to lash out against them. But at the same time, we are to be wise in dealing with our enemies. We aren’t to walk blindly into an ambush. Jesus doesn’t expect us to allow ourselves to be unnecessarily abused by our enemies.
We see this demonstrated by Jesus Himself on more than one occasion during His earthly ministry (Lk 4:28-30, Jn 8:59.) Since Jesus is our only perfect example of how to fulfill the expectations of God, then we know it is not opposed to God’s will to avoid the abuse of enemies if we can.
This sounds like a lot of work, doesn’t it? Why would we want to do this? Because God commands us to and we desire to do that which glorifies Him. That should be a sufficient answer for us.
But why does God expect this of us?
There are two main reasons given in the text here for why God commands us to love our enemies.
1) To become sons of our Heavenly Father
2) To be different than the world
Let me deal with these in reverse order here…
Jesus makes it clear that He expect us to be different than the world around us. Even tax collectors and Gentiles love those who love them.
Tax collectors were considered by the Jews to be among the most sinful of sinful people. They were considered traitors because they served the Roman government and they were hated by everyone. They were often crooked and self-serving. They were hated. Yet even they feel and show affection for those who love them.
Gentiles, on the other hand, were considered even worse than tax collectors. They were considered to be ritually unclean by pious Jews. They knew nothing of the one true God. They were pagans… completely separated from God. Yet even these heathens greet their own family members. Even they love those who love them.
Jesus is saying that His followers should be different. The world loves those who love them, but as Christians we should be different. Rather than be like the world, we should be something like God in the way in which we love. Jesus expresses this by saying that we should become sons of our Father who is in heaven.
In a 1st century context, a son was expected to become like his father. He was expected to follow in his father’s footsteps. He would do what his father does. If his father was a fisherman… it was likely he would grow up to be a fisherman. If his father was a carpenter… it was likely he would grow up to be a carpenter. He would grow up in the same town as his father. He would marry from among the same group of people as his father did. He would live and die in much the same way as his father.
Do you see what Jesus is getting at here? The purpose behind loving one’s enemies and praying for them is so that we can become progressively more and more like our Heavenly Father. The reason why we do this is so that we can show forth something of the character of God in our lives.
What is God like? How does God relate to His enemies? He causes the sun to shine on the evil and the good… He causes the rain to fall on the righteous and the unrighteous. God shows love and kindness to all mankind… whether they are actively opposed to Him or not.
Theologians sometimes call this “common grace” and they distinguish it from saving grace. God is gracious to all mankind in that He allows us to live despite the fact that we are sinners. He allows sinners to enjoy something of the blessings of this life… family and home and food and life and breath… even though none of us deserve it. God doesn’t save everyone, but He is gracious to some extent to everyone. The sun shines on the good and the bad. The rain falls on those who are right with God and those who aren’t.
God expects us to glorify Him in the lives that we live. We are to be like Him… conformed to His image… not the image of the world… so that something of Him might be seen in us. We are in a very real sense intended to be fuzzy photographs of God. The world can’t see Him, but they should be able to see something of who He is and what He is like in us. As Christians, we are becoming “sons of our Father in heaven” through becoming more and more like Him, so that the world may see Him in us.
In fact, ultimately, we are to be perfect… or complete and mature (τέλειος in the Greek) as our Heavenly Father is perfect. We won’t succeed in this during this lifetime… we can’t… but we must strive to be like God in every way. And God is loving to His enemies. In fact, to some He sovereignly chooses to bestow more than simply common grace… even though naturally we are all His enemies.
Romans 5:8-10 (ESV) – 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
God is gracious and loving to all His enemies… but to some, He is particularly loving. If you are a Christian, then God loved you enough to send His only begotten Son, Jesus, to die for your sin… even while you were His enemy. Is it too much for God to ask us to love our enemies… and do good to them… and speak well of them… and to pray for them?
Isn’t this example we see in Jesus? As His enemies nailed the Son of God to the cross… what did He do? He loved them. He prayed for them…
Luke 23:34a (ESV) – 34 And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”…
Commenting on this, Dr. John Stott has written, “If the cruel torture of crucifixion could not silence our Lord’s prayer for His enemies, what pain, pride, prejudice or sloth could justify the silencing of ours?” (Stott, quoted by D.A. Carson, Matt 5:44.)
As Christians we have been saved by God’s grace. God has brought us into a relationship with Himself and He expects us to love Him with all that we are and to show forth His love to all those He brings across our path… even our enemies… even those who hate us and curse us and mistreat us and steal from us and abuse us and persecute us. We are to love them… and do good to them… and speak well of them… and pray for them continuously. We do this so that we will be unique and stand out as God’s people in the midst of the world. But probably most importantly… we do this because we long to be like Him… who loved us…even when we were His enemies. We do this because we long to glorify our Father in heaven and show forth something of what He is like in the lives that we live here on this earth.
Do you love your enemies?
I would challenge us all to prayerfully examine our own hearts. How do we feel toward those who oppose us? How do we act toward those who dislike us and hurt us and speak poorly of us? Do we love them? Do we do good for them? Do we speak well of them? Do we pray for them?
Secondly, I would suggest that we begin to pray consistently for our enemies. I’m sure many of us have a prayer list which we work through every morning in our times of private prayer. Have you ever thought of adding your enemies to that list and praying for them specifically every day? Try it… and see how God changes your heart toward them.
Finally… if there is bitterness and unforgiveness and anger stored up in you toward those who have hurt you… confess it before God. Admit it for what it is… sin. Remember that Jesus died for the sin of failing to love our enemies, just as He died for all our other sins as well. Confess your sin. Seek forgiveness in Jesus Christ. He is faithful and just to forgive your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness (I Jn 1:9.)
Matthew 5:43-44 (ESV) – 43 “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,
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