Matthew 5:43-48 Love Your Enemies Proposition: If we are truly the Sons of God, then we will love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us Introduction The 20th century was the bloodiest in human history. – Ron Sider ☢ In Humanity: A Moral History of the 20th Century, Jonathan Glover estimates that 86,000,000 people died in wars fought from 1900 to 1989. That means 2,500 people every day, or 100 people every hour, for 90 years. ✣ In addition to those killed in war, government-sponsored genocide and mass murder killed approximately 120,000,000 people in the 20th century—perhaps more than 80,000,000 in the two Communist countries of China and the Soviet Union alone, according to R. J. Rummel's Statistics of Democide. – Excerpted from our sister publication Christianity Today, © 2007 Christianity Today International. For more articles like this, visit ChristianityToday.com/ct - Ron Sider, "Courageous Nonviolence," Christianity Today (December 2007) There are certain things that come naturally to us all ☢ Yelling at or hitting a sibling for some wrong done to us ☢ Loving our parents as a child and having conflict with them in our teen years ☢ Loving those who love us and hating those who hate us Jesus challenges us this morning with an entirely different ethic ☢ If we are truly the Sons of God, then we will love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us Love Your Neighbor & Hate Your Enemy (v. 43) The Letter of the Law 43 "You have heard that it was said, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.' Jesus quotes the Old Testament Law – Love Your Neighbor as Yourself ☢ Leviticus 19:17-18 " 17 'You shall not hate your fellow countryman in your heart; you may surely reprove your neighbor, but shall not incur sin because of him. 18 'You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD." ✣ God commands here to “not hate your fellow countryman in your heart” This is difficult but rather obvious ❉ It is easier to love someone like ourselves ❉ Even those we love can bother us, but at least we can agree on basic ideas Mutual protection, Mutual benefit, common cause The second part – Hate your enemies – is not commanded by God ☢ He is relating what “People Say” ✣ This is a good example of the half-truths we often use Half is commanded by God – love your neighbor as yourself Half is man-made – hate your enemies ☢ The Natural Man says, hatred of enemies is obvious ✣ Our assumption – It is OK to hate those who hate us (Who doesn’t?) Jesus is not condoning or approving of this natural attitude in each of us ☢ He is challenging the ways in which the religious leaders of His day justified their sinful attitudes and behavior ✣ In Jesus’ day, the Romans were the occupying force in Israel Many thought Jesus had come to save Israel from the Romans ❉ Their definition/desire for Messiah was to Free Israel from oppression They had no problem if this included the shedding of blood Jesus Gives A Different Ethic (vv. 44-47) The Spirit of the Law 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? Love Your Enemies ☢ Jesus is telling the people to love their Roman oppressors ✣ Not – just go through the motions of loving them Jesus is calling for a radically different attitude towards our enemies ❉ He wants us to love our enemies in the same way He loved His enemies (us) Pray for those who persecute you ☢ One could easily twist this command to pray for their demise ✣ Jesus is calling us to pray for our enemies in the same way we pray for ourselves and those we already love The longer you pray the softer your heart becomes towards them Why does Jesus give this ethic? ☢ The Sons of the Father should be like their Father ✣ How does our Heavenly Father treat His enemies? He causes the sun to rise on the evil and good He sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous ✣ This is common grace and mercy God shows patience and mercy with even the worst of people ❉ Romans 5:8-10 "8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." Jesus, the Son of God, died for His enemies If you wish to be a Son of God, then you will act like the Son of God What reward is there for loving the people who already love you? ☢ Even the tax collectors do this! ☢ If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? ✣ You claim to be this “good” person Should you not be better than those who hate their enemies? ☢ Even the Gentiles (whom you despise) do this much ✣ Should not the righteous live according to a higher standard? Love Your enemies as you love yourself A Perfect Standard (v. 48) 48 "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Be Perfect – God has a perfect unchanging standard – Himself ☢ You may be tempted to say “That’s Not Fair!” ✣ Is it wrong for God to want what is best for you? ✣ Is it wrong for God to want you to be like Him, perfect? ☢ God’s standard flows out of His Character ✣ The Law perfectly reflects the Righteousness and Holiness of God The Law lovingly but unyieldingly exposes our desperate situation ❉ We have sinned against a Holy and Just God ❉ We are His enemies by nature, and this is why Jesus died for us Jesus perfectly embodies both God’s Justice and Mercy ☢ Jesus’ death satisfies the Justice of God in punishing each and every sin ✣ Romans 3:23-26 "23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; 25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; 26 for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." You and I cannot even keep the smallest part of the Law ❉ One failure is enough to condemn us Jesus took upon Himself the punishment we deserve, so He could be both Just and Merciful This is why the Gospel is Good News ☢ It is His Free gift to all who trust Him by faith God freely gives what we could not earn ❉ Today He is simply calling us to be like Him in extending that same love, forgiveness and mercy to all, even our enemies Therefore: Demonstrate the love of Christ in you by loving your enemies and praying for those who persecute you Christian Woman Helps Bury Tamerlan Tsarnaev – Audie Cornish ☢ Tamerlan Tsarnaev was the older of the two brothers who set the bombs in Boston, the one who died in the process of the chase. Since the tragedy, no cemetery has been willing to allow Tamerlan's body to buried, due to widespread protest. No-one wanted his body buried in their town. ✣ Martha Mullen, a Christian, felt a conviction to respond. As reported on National Public Radio, Martha began researching and contacting Islamic funeral services, eventually locating a Muslim cemetery in Doswell, Virginia that would accept Tamerlein's body. NPR reporter Audie Cornish asked Martha, a total stranger to the Tsarnaev family, why she chose to get involved at all, especially given the risk that she might, herself, be targeted by angry protestors. ❉ Martha answered, … it made me think of Jesus' words, "Love your enemies." I felt that … [Tamerlan] was being maligned probably because he was Muslim, and Jesus tells us to, in the parable of the Good Samaritan, "Love your neighbor as yourself," and your neighbor is not just someone who you get along with but someone who is alien to you … if I'm going to live my faith then I'm going to do that which is uncomfortable and not necessarily what's comfortable …. I feel like it was the right thing and it's important to be true to the principles of your faith. – by Audie Cornish, "All Things Considered," National Public Radio (5-10-13) Old Woman Walks to Cemetery to Spit on Grave In his best-selling book The Telling Room, Michael Paterniti shares a true story he heard when visiting his father's ancestral village in Sicily. Every day while he was in the village he saw a very old woman walking with her cane, struggling up a steep road to get to the local cemetery.