Matthew 5:43-48
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 causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Introduction
Some people approach the bible with a cafeteria mind set…they pick and choose the passages they like and they pass over the ones they don’t like. A good example is Romans chapter one. A lot of so called Christians leaders are passing over Romans one because it condemns homosexuality. Romans one is not in the political correct version.
Jesus never sugar coated anything. If you can’t handle the Truth, you don’t need to hang out with Jesus–He is the TRUTH SPEAKER, for He Himself is TRUTH.
Jesus said, You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
They had heard it said but they did not read it from OT scripture for nowhere in scripture are we commanded to ‘hate our enemies.’ This was yet another instance where the Jews had perverted the law.
The way the Jews circumvented the injunction to LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR was to define NEIGHBOR. A NEIGHBOR to a Jew was a fellow Jew; to a Pharisee, it was a fellow Pharisee. This, in their thinking, gave them the right to hate all Gentiles or in the case of the Pharisees, anyone who wasn’t their kind, or like them. The Jews were notorious for despising others. In Jesus own life and times, the Jewish hatred for the Samaritans was off the charts. Any racism you have seen in America pales in comparison. We are talking about pure hate: the Jews wished them to be dead. They would not lift a finger to help them under any circumstance.
Transition
Here is today’s message in a nutshell: God loves everyone and He expects us to love everyone
I. GOD LOVES EVERYONE
Jesus said, He, [the Father] causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
We call this common grace…God is good to everyone. Paul said to the Jews in Romans two…
Do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? {Ro.2:4}
God is good to all because He loves all…FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD.
I John 2:2… He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
2 Peter 3:9 clearly states.. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
II. GOD DOES NOT LOVE AS MAN LOVES
The Greeks had four words for love but Jesus used ä-gä-pä’-ō which is UNCONDITIONAL LOVE. I call it “The Love From Above.” It is not a merited love. A-gä-pä’-ō is the ability to love the unlovely. This is illustrated in several places in the OT but one of favorite stories is of the prophet Hosea. His wife Gomer was unfaithful. To put it bluntly, she was a tramp who had no morals. She had relations with men without number. We could call her a harlot which sounds better than the modern word. Hosea was a good man and he felt a tinge of guilt about loving such a wayward woman. God told him, “Go ahead and love her. I know how you feel. Israel has also played the harlot and I still love them.”
How many times did Israel fail God? How many times were they unfaithful?
A-gä-pä’-ō is not only UNCONDITIONAL, it is based on the character of the one who loves, not on the one who is being loved. Joseph’s love for his sorry lowdown good for nothing brothers was based on his character, not their’s: they didn’t have any character.
Do our enemies deserve our love? NO! Are they going to love us back if we love them? Probably not! A-gä-pä’-ō is not a requiting love…you don’t always get it back. This is what makes it so unique. Eros is highly conditional and demands love in return. Agape simply loves with no strings attached.
III. GOD EXPECTS US TO LOVE AS HE LOVES
Look at the last verse… Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Does Jesus actually expect us to be perfect? The Greek word is te’-lā-os which means complete, consummated, finished, mature or perfect. What is our goal as followers of Christ, as believers? Isn’t it to be like the Father, to love like the Father. This verse had been grossly misunderstood. No one is perfect. None of the apostles reached a state of perfection. This is simply a challenge from Jesus for you and I to be like the Father who loves everyone.
This brings us right back to verse 44… 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…
There are three things that Jesus tells us to do in regard to our enemies… [1] LOVE them [2] PRAY for them [3] TREAT them cordially [greet them].
One and three are hard for all of us; the place to start is with two…PRAY FOR THEM. Prayer is an antidote to bitterness. Prayer will release the poison of bitterness, ill will and envy. We cannot and will not love our enemies if we refuse to pray for them.
You say…I DON’T HAVE ANY ENEMIES! Yeah, right and I am a nuclear physicist. Your first enemy is PRIDE. You don’t need to pray for it, you need to confess it. The logic to such wrapped thinking is…“I such a good person, no one would dislike me.” Listen Einstein, Jesus was much better than you and He was hated by thousands then and millions now.
Whether or not you are sane enough to be aware of your enemies, you have them. When you get ready to be real or to be honest, remember that Jesus said to pray for your enemies. In the meantime pray for yourself: you are in denial. That’s not a river, it is a delusional state of mind.
Sermons 