Lies That Limit Life #6

line


Text: Matthew 5:43-48

How wonderful it is to be here this Lord's day morning together with God's people thinking about Jesus. We must never forget that really everything centers on Jesus. Paul told the Christians at Colosse that "He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence."

We are going to conclude our series this morning on the passage of Christ's Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:17-48. As we have seen many lies had been told concerning God's will and even today people are believing them to be a better way of life and Jesus shows the opposite.
He has exposed one by one the enslaving doctrines of the Pharisees:
  1. it's okay to have anger in your hearts towards a brother.
  2. It's okay to have lust in your heart for someone other than your spouse.
  3. It's okay to seek a way out of marriage for any reason.
  4. Its okay to break your word as long as it is not tied to God.
  5. It's okay to do to others as they have done to you.
  6. And finally today: its okay to limit your love to only those who love you!
Remember however, that Jesus said if we seek to reduce God's commands we will not be great in the kingdom of heaven and if we do not exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees we cannot enter God's kingdom. (Matthew 5:19,20)

So, let's read together vs.43-48 and look at lie #6-
love only those who love you!

Now, notice again the mastery of the teacher-
you have heard it said!
What was the teaching that went around Israel in the days of Jesus?
simply this- love your neighbour and hate your enemy!
Now, this is a problem that even exists on a large scale today!
What is interesting with this teaching is that no where in the Old Testament is this ever stated!
It is true that the Law stated you were to love your neighbour! Leviticus 19:18!
But nowhere did it state you were to hate your enemy!

Where did they come up with such a teaching we might want to ask?
Perhaps through two different methods:
  1. There were some texts given in the Law of Moses that were judicial restrictions placed against certain peoples!
    Deuteronomy 23:3-6 for example. However, as in the case last week- this was a judicial procedure and not a personal one!
  2. If the Law stated to love your neighbour, then it is correct to infer that it is right to hate your enemy!
Whatever the source of the teaching, Jesus says it is wrong and not the proper path of life!
To live in the idea that the only thing you have to do is love those who love you, you are severely limiting your life and falling far short of God's will!

Why do people want to be allowed to hate their enemy?
The word 'enemy' there can be translated 'hated ones'!1
It makes sense then to leave that as a natural law, love your friends, and hate your enemy!
In fact it feels good for the time being to be able to hate them and secretly or publicly wish a fall!
"'Righteous hatred' is a tailored suit that always seems to fit! It allows you to reserve your compassionate and loving behavior for those who like you, while unleashing your bitterness on your enemies. This might include:
· A sibling who drained all the family's emotional energy or all the family's financial resources so there were none left for you
· A competitor whose idea of fair advertising includes hype and lies so that now you're suffering
· A teacher, a church leader, a spouse, a former spouse, a boss -- all those who have made it their job to make your life miserable
'Righteous hatred' is a high-octane fuel that burns forever as churchgoers lash out viciously at politicians, educators, media, and anyone else considered to be the enemy."2

So, this is the theory that many live by. I will only love those who love me!
I think there is an obvious warning with this teaching:
What if God the Father lived by that same rule?
How many of us could be confident of heaven?
How many of us could have any moments on earth that was good?
If the Father's love were dependent on us fully loving Him, where would we be?
And yet we read a passage like John 3:16 and understand that God's love is not conditional on us first loving Him!
What did Jesus teach?
What is the true intention of God's will and what is the true path that will lead us to abundant living?
Look again at vs.44!
Just as last week we are dealing with more than an action but an attitude that produces a specific type of action!

Last week in the discussion of revenge, Jesus' main instructions are to not strike back. In this discussion, the instructions are to actively send forth love!
"We are told we must positively love these people. We are even to love our enemies. It is not simply that we are not to strike back at them, but that we must be positive in our attitude towards them. Our Lord is at pains to have us see that our 'neighbour' must of necessity include even our enemy."3

So, here is the key that Christians must understand!
The teaching to love one's neighbour is a universal law! Matthew 22:39!
But, the million-dollar question is who is my neighbour?
Because if you can limit that to people like you (religiously, racially, socially) or whatever other possible human division exists, you can lessen God's directive!

This is exactly the motive behind the question that led to the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-29f.
"Seeking to justify himself, he asked who is my neighbour?"
The Pharisee would answer that question with whoever belongs to my religion; anybody else is my enemy!
(You notice this in Matthew 15:21-28- with the reference to dogs).
Jesus however answers this with everybody, including the ones you are supposed to hate!
Could you imagine how different our world would be if we lived by this rule?
No more internal interviewing of others to see if they are deserving of our love! (No more what religion are you? What branch of that religion? What colour is your skin? Who are your friends? What kind of a car do you drive? Over and over we could go).

What did he mean though loving our enemies?
This could be termed one of the hardest commands of the Bible!
Where some people get caught up in is the word 'love'. What does this mean?
I believe it is important to notice that the word for love here does not necessarily imply a liking of that individual!
"The word love describes an emotion of our being under the control of the will. It directs a course of conduct above all the natural faculties of speech, actions and feelings."4

That being said, the love Jesus speaks about here has more to do with what we wish for someone than liking them! Basically, we are to want the best foreven our enemies. Or, in another way, we would do no less good for an enemy than we would for a friend.

We are to love all men!
We are to want to do well towards all!

Now, notice the course of Christ's teaching:
  1. Love our enemies!
    If we look around us today and see those we do not like, Jesus says we are to love them. Get rid of any feelings of doing evil towards or not caring about what happens to them.
  2. Bless those who curse you!
    Now, he gets further into the reasons for hating. People who speak unkind words to you, you speak kind words in return! 1 Peter 3:9
  3. Do good to those who hate you!
    Even further along the line of disliking someone, Jesus says the one who hates you, you respond to that person with good deeds.
  4. Pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you!
    This is as bad as it can get, but when people are on our backs really hard, we need to take them up to the Father in prayer.
    Who is our greatest example of this? Luke 23:34
What is the hope of this course of action?
That we may be the sons of our Father in heaven.
What can we conclude about this?
  1. Our treatment of others does not depend on who they are or what they have done!
    Why does God not just bless the Christian farmer but also the wicked one? Because God doesn't show partiality in the divvying out of His love!
  2. Our reaction to others must be on a higher level than them.
    Again with the revenge aspect in mind, we don't deal with others on the level of the world, but on the higher level of the Father!
  3. There is a difference between liking and loving!
    However, we are to treat & love people as if we actually like them!
    There are things that are hard to like, but Jesus does not command us to like, but to love them!
To love one's enemies is the Christian ideal.
When this is accomplished the perfection of the Father can be seen!

When we live by the old motto that says, only love those who love you we severely limit ourselves. Why?
Because our circle of true fellowship becomes smaller and smaller and smaller until all that is left is me and you and I'm starting to have doubts about you!

Did you notice what happened to the first century Jewish leaders?
Not only did they stop loving Gentiles and Samaritans but soon it happened that they couldn't love some of their own people who didn't measure up!
The same thing can happen among us. If we reduce ourselves to people needing to meet specific criteria in order for us to love them, we will soon stop loving each other, brothers and sisters bought by the same precious blood!

"Who is my neighbour? Any man who is in need, any man who is down through sin or anything else. We must help him, whether he is a Jew or a Samaritan. Love your neighbour, even if it means loving your enemy. 'Do good to them that hate you.' And our Lord, of course, not only taught it, but He did it."5

So, Jesus ends this portion of the most wonderful sermon ever preached; How to be a citizen in God's kingdom.
The aspiration of every citizen is not just scraping by or reducing God's will to be easier to accomplish, but being perfect as our Father is!

Does that phrase scare you?
Admittedly it did me for many years, but the same mouth that said that phrase also said this one, "It is finished" and with that last breath sealed sins doom and won a victory for all those who would long to live like He wants us to.

Doestoevsky was a 19th century Russian writer and had a novel called the Idiot. In it a man was imprisoned and sentenced to face the firing squad. They are about to die when all of a sudden the execution is stayed for 20 minutes until finally a rider comes with the note of pardon. The man never forgot his thoughts during those 20 minutes and the ones that were most persistent were "what if I don't have to die? What if life should be given back to me? I would turn each moment into a century, I would miss nothing."

What if this morning, you are not yet saved by Jesus but an opportunity was given to you that you do not have to die?
What would you do?
Jesus said to you when he died on the cross that You are the reason I am doing this!
If you could speak to him today with all of your millions of questions, what would you say to him after you saw the scars on his hands and feet, and forehead and side and he said, would you do this for me?
Wouldn't you do it?
Jesus said; He that believes and is baptized shall be saved.
You don't have to die!
You don't have to spend an eternity without God.
You don't have to pay for your sins!


1. From Ralph Sweet, Moments on the Mount (Austin, TX: Sweet Publishing Company, 1963 Revised Edition 1969) p.76
2. Mike Cope & Rubel Shelly, What Would Jesus Do Today? (West Monroe, LA: Howard Publishing Co., Inc., 1998) p.97,98
3. D. Martin Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount Vol.1 (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, n.d.) p.303
4. Foy E. Wallace Jr., The Sermon on the Mount and the Civil State (Nashville, TN: Foy E. Wallace Jr. Publications, 1967) p.58
5. D. Martin Lloyd-Jones, p.308


line

Back to lessons page.
Back to home page.