Matthew 5:43-48 The Law Explained Part VI Love Your Enemies

We now come to the sixth of Jesus’ so-called antithesis statements in the Sermon on the Mount. Over the past weeks, we have seen how Jesus unleashes a faithful interpretation of the law of God, exposing the superficial interpretations to which corrupted Judaism at the time was accustomed.

Jesus shows disciples how we ought to have the law written on our hearts, so obedience isn't just something external. So, Jesus takes a simple commandment such as "You shall not murder" in verse 21 and shows us that the naked literal command is not all that is required. Rather, God would have us not even entertain anger in our hearts towards others.

We saw the same deepening principle in the command "You shall not commit adultery," in verse 27. Jesus deepens the commandment from the external literal action of adultery to even the lust and adultery of the heart, calling us to flee from such sin.

We also considered divorce in verse 31. Disciples of the kingdom are to have a high view of marriage, unlike Judaism in Jesus’ day, which enabled divorce over petty things because of the hardness of their heart. Christians are to view marriage as a lifelong commitment.

In verse 33, on the taking of oaths and making vows, Jesus exposes those who would try to leave wiggle room in their oaths, perhaps swearing by lesser authorities than God, trying to leave themselves a loophole in the promises they make. But Jesus says to Christians that they are to have a trustworthy word. Our yes is to be yes, and our no is to be no.

Then last week, in verse 38, Jesus addressed the law, so-called, of revenge; "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth". We noted that this was a law for civil magistrates to exercise proportional justice in a court of law. But some had made it a personal principle by which to live, this Jesus rebukes. Rather, we are called to die to self and refuse to maintain attitudes of retaliation, anger or hatred towards others who wrong us. We ought to deny ourselves.

That brings us now to this sixth example, verses 43 to 47, the last of these expositions of the law, with verse 48 being a single-line conclusion to the wider section as a whole.

This morning, Jesus expounds on the absolute necessity for disciples to have an attitude and actions of love and devotion towards those they might wish to consider their enemies. We are not permitted to have lists of people to whom we show love and pray, and then another list of people to whom we do not show love to or pray for.

Jesus would rid us of this. He would have us repent of this kind of thinking. Jesus challenges here the defective Jewish understanding of who one’s neighbour was. You see, the Jews defined their neighbour by their group—their fellow Jew—and their fellow Jew who was not their enemy. Anyone else was an enemy and did not deserve their kindness or prayers.

Jesus says, 'I say to you, no!' Your idea of neighbour is too narrow! It ought to be broad, so wide that no one is excluded from that scope. Then he points us to the way that even God loves his enemies, and we are to do the same.

We learn here that there is not a single soul on this earth who does not deserve your prayers, your kindness, your charity, your active love and grace. The unlovable, the reveller, the scoffer, the mocker, even the one who foams at the mouth in your presence, they should not receive the believer's scorn but our smile and our sympathy. They deserve not a cold shoulder, but the believer’s warm embrace.

The Christian is to be a vessel for God’s love, to all.

You see, if our enemies and the enemies of the gospel see no love from us, how are they going to see the love of God? Who will bring them that message if those who have the love of God are not showing the love of God themselves? How can they hear of God’s mercy? How can our enemies know of the forgiveness that is in Christ when His messengers have hard hearts toward them?

You see, the whole law of God, as you’ll find in Matthew 22, can be summed up like this: love for God and love for people.

So let’s not get it confused.

You might say, "I love God. I come to church. I sing His praises. I love my Bible." But Christ will ask us this morning, "Do you love your enemies?" How’s your heart? Who are you not talking to? Who do you ignore out of spite? Who do you speak ill of behind their back? Who has hurt you that you refuse to forgive? Who is trying to change, but you won’t let them? Who is it that you have defined as your neighbour within your little group and have excluded the rest?

You’ll never be short of enemies in this world, but Christians should never be short of love. We have it abundantly in Christ, an endless well of love for us to draw from, to fill our own reserves and let it overflow into the lives of others.

The Big Misunderstanding

Let’s move into the passage together. Verse 43 highlights the big misunderstanding. When Jesus says, "You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbour,’" He is quoting from a well-known passage in Leviticus 19:18, which reads: "You shall not take vengeance nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbour as yourself. I am the Lord."

It is the second part of Jesus’ reference where things become interesting, because He adds, "and hate your enemy." He says, "You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’" This is striking because nowhere in the Old Testament is this commanded. Jesus confronts a teaching promoted by the scribes and Pharisees.

He is saying to the people, "You have heard what the scribes and Pharisees have taught you. And what is their teaching? ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’" The first part comes from the Old Testament. The second part is not found in the Old Testament.

So what was this teaching of theirs?

Simply put, it was a false conclusion based on a narrow and mistaken view of their neighbour. Their neighbour, to whom they wished to show love, was only their fellow Jew. All others were considered hostile and enemies. But where did they come to this conclusion that they must hate their enemy?

The Old Testament clearly commands Israelites to show love even to those considered enemies. Think of Proverbs 25:21: "If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink."

Furthermore, foreigners were welcomed into Israel. Non-Jews became part of God's people. Consider Rahab, the Canaanite and prostitute from Jericho, who was part of the birth line of Jesus. Israel was to be a light to the nations, after all. Isaiah 56:7 says, "My house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples."

So where did the idea of hatred for one’s enemy come from? Since Jesus addresses it directly, it was surely a widespread issue.

Let me briefly explain. The scribes and Pharisees misapplied what we call the judicial principle of Scripture. What is this judicial principle? It is the reality that God will judge His enemies and the enemies of His people. The principle is that vengeance belongs to the Lord and He will repay.

But to misapply this judicial principle was for an individual to internalise as a personal ethic those judgments which are reserved for God and to make it a part of one’s ordinary life. For the Jew, this meant they looked only on the needs of their countrymen, not sharing the light of God’s revelation. They loved their neighbour, thinking their neighbour was only their fellow Jew. Therefore, they must hate their enemy to show God’s judgments towards their enemies.

There is even a twelfth-century Jewish work called the Mishneh Torah, written by a well-known Rabbi at the time. It explicitly states that if a Gentile is seen to be drowning, he is to be left to drown. The Jew in such a case has a right to be indifferent towards them because they are not their brothers or neighbours. That is twelfth-century thinking, and it is the same problem Jesus addresses here.

One commentator put it this way: "The popular reasoning seems to have been that if God commands love for neighbour, then hatred for enemies is implicitly conceded and perhaps even authorised."

They internalised this judicial principle drawn from a few Old Testament places, such as the following two examples.

First, God commanded Israel under Joshua to enter Canaan, destroy the Canaanite peoples without mercy, and occupy and defend the land from their enemies. As we find in Deuteronomy 7:2–4, the Israelites were to utterly wipe out the Canaanites and take the land God was giving them. These are the so-called holy wars—the only divinely authorised wars ever in history. God’s divine judgment on sinners was carried out in real time through the armies of Israel. Scripture does not hide this reality from us. God will judge the wicked.

Yes, the Bible shows us a God of immeasurable goodness and love, but this does not come at the expense of His holiness or the necessity of His righteous judgments upon evil. God is equally glorified in the demonstration of His perfect righteous wrath as He is in His merciful salvation. And "The soul that sins will die."

There is this sobering reality in the Old Testament.

Second are the so-called imprecatory Psalms, referring to those Psalms which call curses on the wicked. David, in Psalm 69:24 and following, prays, generally, against the wicked: "Pour out your indignation on them; may your burning anger overtake them. May their camp be desolate. May none dwell in their tents."

He is invoking curses upon the enemies of God’s people. Such prayers were linked to the preservation of the theocratic nation of Israel from their enemies. These prayers were not directed at individuals per se but prayed generally according to God’s promise that He will vindicate the righteous and bring His judgments upon the wicked.

The question is, how do we reconcile such examples with the Bible’s clear command to love one’s enemies? We have God’s judgments, and we have His love. Where does the Christian, the believer, find themselves in that tension?

We need to understand that God is a God who possesses both love and wrath, both mercy and justice. He is the God who forgives and pardons, but He is also the God who condemns and will punish.

Psalm 7:12 says, “If a man does not repent, He will sharpen His sword; He has bent His bow and made it ready.” The point we need to understand, the big misunderstanding Jesus is correcting, is that it is not for us to exercise God’s judgments towards our enemies. Rather, it is our duty to tell of His love, which can be known despite His judgments.

This is why David, who prayed for God to vindicate the righteous persecuted by the wicked, also prayed for God’s mercy on them, as in Psalm 51:12-13: “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners will be converted to You.”

I can put it no better than Martin Lloyd-Jones, who says, "The scribes and the Pharisees took this judicial principle and put it into operation in their ordinary affairs and daily lives. They regarded this as a justification on their own part for hating their enemies, hating anybody they disliked or anybody who was offensive to them. Thus, they deliberately destroyed the principle of God’s law, which is this great principle of love."

So that is the big misunderstanding: they had internalised this judicial principle and made it a personal ethic. Jesus says, "No."

Jesus Correction

With that background, we can now understand what Jesus is saying and how He corrects this erroneous teaching. Here is Jesus’ correction, verse 44. He commands, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."

It has never been the individual believer’s responsibility to internalise judgments that are reserved for God.

We are challenged then aren't we?

This command from our Lord builds on what we saw last week about turning the other cheek, but it goes even further. It’s not simply that we are to resist the urge to retaliate against those who bring insult against us, whether physically or otherwise. We are called to do more than just restrain an evil action in return, we are positively to bring an action of love. We are to love them. This love is active. It is not simply sentimental. It really shows itself in concrete deeds towards enemies.

Not only does it take action, but it happens irrespective of persons. It must be applied to common humanity, no matter who. No matter who has something against you, no matter who speaks evil of you, Christ says there is love for you to show them.

Do you remember the Jewish lawyer in Luke 10 who comes to Jesus, trying to justify himself? The text says in Luke 10:29, "But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, ‘Who is my neighbour?’"

Jesus had just told him that the greatest commandments of God concern love for God and love for one’s neighbour. So he asked the question, "Who is my neighbour?" He probably thought he was doing pretty well in this regard, he had a great love for his fellow Jew!

Then Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan. The point is that there is no one who does not deserve our mercy and kindness. Our neighbour is not only those within our home, district, city, or nation, our little group or posse. This is a command to love without borders, love without constraints.

Your neighbour is your fellow image-bearer of God.

This is the point Jesus solidifies in verses 46 and 47 of Matthew 5. He refers to two groups, tax collectors and Gentiles, that Jews generally despised. Tax collectors were considered traitors and collaborators with the Roman powers and Gentiles were treated like dogs and considered as outside God’s covenant promises made through Abraham.

Jesus is effectively saying, "Oh, you think you’re doing pretty well by merely loving those who already love you, that is, your fellow Jew. Well done. Even the tax collectors whom you despise show that kind of love! Even those Gentiles whom you consider ‘dogs’, they do that too!"

He’s asking, "What’s your point of difference? What’s your reward in simply only showing love to those who will reciprocate? What about love for your enemies?"

You see, that is the Christian point of difference. We have not grown in Christlike love one bit until we have the capacity to bless those who have wronged us or think ill of us and pray for them. That’s the Christian difference, that’s love that extends even to enemies.

I came across this very humbling story of a young six-year-old girl named Ruby Bridges in the 1960s. She was the only black girl to attend her school in New Orleans. For weeks, as she left the building, a mob of students would scream at her and threaten her with death threats. Ruby’s teacher noticed one day that as she walked through the mob, her lips were moving, and she was flanked by federal marshals, it was such a tense situation to protect this young girl. The teacher later enquired of someone else if Ruby had been talking to the people as she walked through them. But when asked, Ruby had replied, "I wasn’t talking to them. I was just saying a prayer for them because they need praying for."

If six-year-old Ruby can do that amidst such hostility, I’m sure we can as well.

So who is it that hurt you? Who insulted you? Who swindled you? Who got angry with you and never let it go? Who hasn’t asked for your forgiveness? Who has made themselves an enemy to you? Or perhaps you have made yourself an enemy to them. Who is that person?

Now Jesus says, go and love them. Now Jesus says, come to Me and pray for them.

The Foundation Of Love

Let’s look at the foundation of love next, verse 45: "So that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven."

Here, sonship is a metaphorical sonship. To become a son of the Father means that when we show love to our enemies, we become like God who also shows love to His enemies.

We are to reflect God’s character of love for enemies.

Jesus then gives two examples of God’s love toward His enemies. First, He says God causes the sun to rise on everyone, the believer and the unbeliever, the one who loves God and the one who hates God. The second example is much the same, the rain that God sends on the earth, He does this for the righteous and the unrighteous.

A lot of people forget that this is actually God’s love! We call this in theology "common grace". It is that general kind of love that all people experience from God.

So, the one who blasphemes God’s name for their whole life, God still sends rain to water their crops so they can run their farms. They are sinners. They are unrepentant. But God shows common grace and mercy, withholding His just judgments until the appointed time. This is God’s love. It is distinct from the special love and grace experienced in salvation.

Psalm 145:9 says, "The Lord is good to all, and His mercies are over all His works."

One author put common grace this way in a longer, important quote: "For example, you are not a believer in Christ and yet you are still out of hell—that is the grace of God. You are not in hell but on earth in good health and prosperity—that is the common grace of God. The vast majority of those who read these words are living comfortably in homes or apartments—that is common grace. You are not fleeing as refugees along the highways of a country desolated by war—that is common grace. You come home from your job and your child runs to meet you in good health and good spirits—that is common grace. You are able to put your hand in your pocket and give the child an allowance—that is common grace, you have such abundance. You go into your house and sit down to a good meal—that is common grace." He ends by saying, "If you think you deserve anything at all from God beyond the wrath which you have so richly earned, you merely show your ignorance of spiritual principles."

Common grace does not remove the reality of the judicial principle that God will judge the wicked. But what Christ is saying is that because God shows this general love despite coming judgments, we too must show love even to our enemies. We are to supply this common grace as our God does.

Jesus Love For His Enemies

Let’s look finally at Jesus’ love for His enemies, a final example surpassing even the common grace we just saw. It is the love God showed when He sent the Son into the world to save enemies. It is our first memory verse we learn isn't it? John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."

The good news of Jesus Christ is not that God came to save a world who already loved Him! Jesus came to save those in the 'enemy’s box'. He poured out His grace and sent the Saviour into the world to die for people who did not know Him. People who did not want Him. We were not searching for Him. We were content without Him. We were people who sinned against Him.

He came and sought out enemies. As Paul contends in Romans 5:10, "while we were still enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son."

We were not neutral by nature. All humanity is born hostile to God. The Scripture calls us children of wrath. But the love of God in Jesus Christ makes all the difference for enemies.

We did not deserve to be here this morning. We deserved, by our own merits, to be in hell, that is where enemies of God eventually end up, cast from God’s presence forever. But the gospel’s good news is that God’s hand is reached out in love. By believing in Jesus, we do not have to perish but can have everlasting life with Him before His wrath comes.

Now is the day of His mercy and salvation!

So if you don’t think you can love your enemy or those who have hurt you in the past, I wonder if you truly understand what Jesus has done for you while you were an enemy of God. I wonder if you grasp the great sin debt that was taken from you and placed upon Christ to bear on that cross. Instead of executing His judgments on you, judgment fell upon the Son. While He hung on that cross enduring hell for our sakes, He prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

So the question is, are we able to pray the same for others? Because Jesus has already prayed it for you.

This morning, let us commit together, friends, to love as we have been loved, to forgive as we have been forgiven, and to show kindness as God has shown kindness to us.