Sunday Sermon: Love Your Enemies (Matthew 5:43-48)

You're listening to the teaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on this podcast, we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a New Testament book.

On Thursday is a study in the Old Testament, and then we answer questions from the listeners on Friday. Each Sunday, we are pleased to share our sermon series. Here's Pastor Gabe.

Love Your Enemies in the Sermon on the Mount

Matthew chapter five, verses 43 through 48, the words of our Lord Christ. You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. 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.

For he makes his son rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?

And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. Let us pray. Heavenly father, as we come to your word this morning, I pray that we would read and recognize the call to holiness that is upon each and every believer's life.

But you do not leave us to struggle for holiness on our own, for we have a holiness that is not our own. It is the righteousness of Christ that has been imputed to every believer, every follower of Jesus.

We have received your Holy Spirit poured into our hearts, that we might be justified, made holy before you and pursuing holiness in sanctification. Here we have the command of our Lord Christ to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.

And may we understand that this counter-cultural calling, that this behavior that we are called to is different than the attitude of people that we're gonna observe in our culture. It was different for those people that Jesus was talking to in this particular time.

But we are not of this world. We are of heaven, of your kingdom above. And so we are called to live as Christ, growing in godliness, fleeing from this present darkness and the sin and corruption that are in the world.

Forgive us our sins. May we be convicted of those ways in us that yet need to be submitted to Christ. And may we be in obedience to our God and King.

Who has said to us,.

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you. So you must also love each other. We ask these things in Jesus' name and all God's people said, amen. Thank you, you may be seated.

The Law, the Pharisees, and the True Meaning of Matthew 5

So we're looking today at this last portion of Matthew chapter five, but we're only a third of the way through the Sermon on the Mount. So we still have more of the sermon next week beginning in chapter six.

Last week I told you that in this chapter, Jesus addresses five statements that begin this way. You have heard that it was said. Technically it's six statements because verse 31 begins with the shorter form, it was also said.

Today we're looking at the last of those statements. It's here in verse 43. You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. Now each one of these statements pertains to something that we find in the law of God.

Verse 21 says, you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder and whoever murders will be liable to judgment. That's right out of the 10 commandments. That's out of the law of Moses.

Likewise, verse 27 says, you have heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery. That's the seventh commandment. Jesus uses these two commandments, number six and number seven, to show people just because you have not committed these sins outright does not mean that you are holy.

If you have hated your brother in your heart, you've committed murder in your heart. If you have lusted after another woman, then you have committed adultery in your heart. In verse 31, Jesus states, it was also said, whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.

That's out of Deuteronomy 24. And this wasn't a command to get divorced, but that's how the Pharisees had interpreted this and that's what they were telling the Jewish men. You may divorce your wife for any reason as long as you give her a certificate of divorce.

Jesus was saying that is wrong. Divorce is sin that begets sin. The point of the law was to discourage divorce, but the Pharisees were encouraging divorce. In verse 33, Jesus says, again, you have heard that it was said to those of old, and this one pertained to how the Pharisees had twisted laws concerning swearing oaths and making commitments on things that were beyond simply saying yes or no, believing that a word was more righteous or more holy if you swore upon something.

Instead, Jesus said, let your yes be yes and your no be no. Anything more than this comes from evil. Last week, we looked at verse 38. You have heard that it was said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

This was the law of just or equal measures as we find it in Genesis all the way through Deuteronomy. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law had twisted this to apply to absolutely everything, but Jesus said, do not make a federal case out of everything.

Do not escalate a conflict, but turn the other cheek. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. We're not to cling too tightly to those things that the Lord has blessed us with, but rather using those things to bless others.

Give to the one who begs from you and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. Now we get to the last of the you have heard that it was said statements, but this one is different than all the rest that we've heard Jesus say thus far.

Every other statement was a direct quote from the law, but this one is not found in the law at all. You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. Where is that in the law?

Nowhere. We've not read this statement in the Bible up to this point. So where did it come from? Came from the Pharisees and their false teaching, adding to the law of God. What every one of these statements has in common, even this one that we're looking at today, all of these are commandments that the Pharisees and the teachers of the law have taught falsely.

They take actual commandments and they twist them to mean something that they don't actually mean. And they also make up commandments that are not actually commandments. Love your neighbor and hate your enemy is an example of that.

In Deuteronomy 4 .2, Proverbs 30, verse six, and in Revelation 22, we are told repeatedly, do not add to the word of God, nor take away from the word of God. Revelation 22, specifically it says, if you add to God's word, then it will be added to you all the plagues written about in this book.

If you take away from God's word, then it will be taken away from you, the chance to take from the tree of life and glory. Here, the teachers of the law, the teachers in Israel were doing exactly this in the time of Christ.

They were taking away from God's word and they were adding to God's word. I remind you again that in verse 17, Jesus said, do not think that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets, I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.

And then everything that Jesus has taught after that has been the law. And there were people among the Jews who were apt to think that what Jesus was teaching about the law was so different than what they were hearing from the scribes and the Pharisees, Jesus is abolishing the law.

Certainly the Sadducees tried to tell the people this, the lawyers, the scribes, the Pharisees, they all accused Jesus of that. But Jesus was saying here, I'm not the one messing with the law of God.

They are.

Verses 18 through 20, for truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Who is it that has a higher reverence for the law of God here between Jesus and the Pharisees?

He goes on to say, therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. I've told you how the Pharisees would diminish the word of God to make it more attainable, but this is not how we attain righteousness.

Romans 3, 21 through 22 tells us exactly how we attain a righteousness that is greater than the scribes and the Pharisees. We read this, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it.

The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. Again, the righteousness of God is given to you by faith in Jesus Christ. If you have faith in Jesus, you do have a righteousness that exceeds the scribes and the Pharisees.

But that is not to say that the law no longer applies. For Paul goes on to say in Romans 3, 31, do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means. On the contrary, we uphold the law. I'm gonna be teaching on this on the podcast this coming week, exactly this section of Romans 3.

The Pharisees and the teachers of the law, they were overthrowing the law, but we must not. We must know the word of God that he has spoken, and we as followers of Christ must desire to uphold his commandments.

Jesus said in John 14, 15, you will show me that you love me when you obey my commandments. Do you think that the command that comes from Christ himself to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, do you think that no longer applies?

Do you think that the commandment to love your neighbor as yourself no longer applies to us? Absolutely they do, they've been commanded of Christ. Anything that Jesus tells us to do is a commandment of God.

And if you desire to love Christ, then you desire to uphold his law, including this one that we read today. I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. This is a commandment from our king, our master, our savior who has bought us and purchased us by his blood, by giving his life for us.

And we, in upholding his commandments, demonstrate that we are sons and daughters of our father who is in heaven. Now, related to this commandment, I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

Just as I had mentioned last week, this does not pertain to civil laws and civic governments. That's not the context here. If a man kills another and he is found guilty of murder, he should receive a sentence of death.

That is just, even according to the law of God. Protestors will stand outside the courthouse and they will have cardboard signs and they will proclaim, Jesus said, love your enemies. You're taking this verse out of context.

This is not a reason to overthrow justice and God will by no means clear the guilty unless you have faith in Christ who has paid for your sin. When we read in 1 John 1, 9, that he is faithful and just to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

The reason why God is just to cleanse you from all unrighteousness is because your fine has justly been paid in Christ. But those who are not followers of Christ, they will absolutely pay the price for the sins that they have committed against God.

There are consequences for our actions. So again, in no way do we read this as an understanding of, well, we should not hold people accountable for their actions. But rather in your own personal experiences, love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you.

When we talk about enemies, like what would be the definition of that? I mean, it could be anybody who comes against you for any reason. They may make fun of you with words or they may actually try to physically harm you in your body.

Anybody who opposes you in this way, who oppresses you like this would be an enemy. It doesn't matter whether they hate you for your faith or they hate you because I just don't like your stupid face. You are to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

Remember back to what we read in the Beatitudes. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Are we not reading the same thing here? Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons and daughters of your Father who is in heaven.

Jesus goes on to say, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Where are the prophets now? They are with their Father in heaven according to what we read in Hebrews chapter 11.

So will be the same reward for you if you are persecuted for the name of Christ and you endure. Blessed are you when others revile you. Blessed are you.

Do you believe that?

Do you believe that when others make fun of you or hate you for keeping the word of God,.

That you're blessed?

In 2 Corinthians 12, 10, the apostle Paul said, for the sake of Christ then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. You don't see a whole lot of contentment with those things in the world today.

But the apostle Paul says, I'm content with them.

Why?

So that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For when I am weak, he is strong. Last week, I quoted to you from Peter who said, if when you do good and suffer for it, you endure, this is a gracious thing, a gracious thing in the sight of God, 1 Peter 2, 20.

Later on in the letter, he says, beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you, but rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

Listen to this.

This is verse 14. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. When you suffer for the name of Christ, do you rejoice and are you glad?

We have a picture of this from the apostles in the book of Acts when they were persecuted and beaten for sharing the gospel of Christ. They went out from that place rejoicing for having been considered worthy to suffer for the name.

If you are insulted for the name of Christ, do you consider yourself blessed? If you are, if you're suffering for the name of Christ, if you know that you are blessed in Christ, then your faith will be manifested in this obedience.

You will love your enemies and you will pray for those who persecute you. If you do not suffer for the name of Christ, can I ask you why? Why do you not endure hardship for the name of Christ? You've never received any kind of persecution or ridicule or no one has ever opposed you before because of the faith that you have.

Why is that? Because Jesus said we would be hated for his name. We have just heard Jesus say here, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

In John 15, 18, Jesus said, if the world hates you, know that it has hated me first. In 2 Timothy 3, 12, the Spirit says, indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

All who desire godliness will be hated by the world. If you are not enduring any kind of backlash for your faith, I encourage you to ask why that is. Now, don't get me wrong here. I'm not saying that you have to be persecuted in order to be saved.

That's not what I'm saying. But your salvation will have an effect. It will have an effect on you and it will have an effect on others around you. It will have an effect on you in that being saved in the hearing of the gospel of Jesus Christ will produce in you godliness.

We're told in 1 Timothy 6, 3 that the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ are teaching that accords with godliness, meaning that your belief in the gospel and your love for the word of Christ will awaken within you a desire to be like Jesus, to be Christ-like, or to be holy as God is holy.

Jumping to Jesus' last statement here in Matthew 5, 48, you therefore must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. There is a desire, therefore, godliness. As you progress in your Christian walk, you will grow in godliness.

Another word for this is sanctification. It comes from the Latin word sanctus, meaning holy. It is the process of growing in Christ-likeness. You who are justified by His grace are also being sanctified by His grace.

You came to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ who died on the cross for your sins, who has given you victory over the grave and citizenship in His eternal kingdom. This faith changed you, and it continues to change you.

You no longer walk in your old sinful ways, and you're still wanting to put off your old self, your earthly self, as you long for the kingdom of heaven where God is. This is how salvation has had an effect on you, but it also has had an effect on the people around you.

This can be positive, and it can be negative. For some, it has a positive effect on the people around you. They will see that a change has happened to you, and they will love it.

You are different.

You're a different person than you were before. You're a different person than other people are in this world. When the Bible says take off the old self and put on the new, they can look at you, and they can see that.

You've changed for the better. The old sinful man or woman that you were has been raised from the spiritual deadness that you were in to a new life pursuing godly character, moral goodness, sacrificial love, with grace, generosity, and forgiveness toward others as God has given these things to you.

You speak kindly of others. You are a servant to others. You are at peace with others. Who would not find that instantly attractive? You wanna be around people like that, right? So other people are going to like it when you are that way.

So this is how the salvation that you have can have a positive effect on the attitudes of people around you, but this can also affect others in a negative way, or the response could be negative. Some people will actually hate your moral character, and the more godly you become, the more they hate you because they hate God.

Even though you have come to know that you are a wretched sinner in need of a savior and that you have no good apart from Christ, people who are worldly will accuse you of being self-righteous. In Christ, your beliefs have changed.

Your speech has changed. Your actions have changed. Your desires, your orientations, your ambitions, all of these things have changed, all for the good if it is in the righteousness and the character of Christ, and that is why people are gonna hate you for it.

You are not of this world. Peter even refers to us as strangers and exiles. In some translations, you have aliens. We're aliens in this world.

Why?

Why would the world hate you so much for wanting to do good? We're told in 1 Peter 4 .4, they may even, they're even surprised when you don't join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they're gonna malign you, meaning that they will actually hate you for doing good, and they will call you evil for doing the right thing.

They do this because your good character exposes their deeds as evil, and that is something that the world simply will not tolerate. Oh, our culture will talk about tolerance. They'll proclaim it from the highest radio, television, cellular, and internet towers, but they will not tolerate the truth.

They will do everything to suppress the truth that they may continue in unrighteousness and not feel any guilt or shame or fear of judgment for their evil behavior. In John 3 .19, we read the following, and this is the judgment.

The light, who is Christ, has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his work should be exposed.

But whoever does what is true comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. Yesterday in the women's study, Becky had shared with the women a reference from 1 John 1 .7 that if we are in the light, we will walk in the light as He is in the light.

So as Christ is light, so may we also walk in light and no longer be in darkness. And people will hate you for that because according to John 3, the light is the judgment. And they want to feel no shame or judgment for those things that they do that are contrary to the commandments and the character of God.

So let me ask you again, if you do not have enemies to love and to pray for, why? I'm not saying that you have to have enemies to prove that you are saved. I simply put this question to you that you may examine yourselves to see that you are in the faith.

2 Corinthians 13 5. I'm also not telling you to act like a jerk so that you may gain some enemies. We're being told here to love our enemies so deliberately stirring up trouble would be contrary to the commandment of Christ that we have here.

If you don't have enemies against you for your faith, let me give you a couple of reasons that you can examine for yourself. Could it be that the reason that you don't have enemies is because nothing about you is actually different than the world?

If you talk like the world, if you act like the world, if you do all the things the world does, if you want to have all the things that the world has, if you believe the way that the world believes, well, the world's gonna love you because you are of this world.

And that should greatly concern you because James 4 4 says, you adulterous people, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

And that's not where you wanna be. If you have enemies in this world, you are blessed. But if you are friends with this world, then your enemy is God. And I think that it goes without saying that it's better for you to have enemies in the world than it is to be an enemy of God.

Could another reason why you don't have enemies against you for your faith is because you don't share your faith. Does the world even know that you are a Christian? Is your faith nothing more than a bumper sticker on your car, a cross around your neck, or a t-shirt that you might wear occasionally?

Now, you can even say that you love Jesus. And there's gonna be people in the world that'll applaud you for that.

Hey, you love Jesus? I love Jesus, too.

But when you act like Jesus, that's when they hate you for it. They think they know Christ. They do not know the Christ of the Bible. Do you know the Christ of the Bible and have you shared the gospel message with others?

Look back at Matthew 5, verses 13 through 16, where Jesus said this, you are the salt of the earth. But if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? What happens to it? What happens to the salt that has lost its taste?

It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. Where do you find that salt that has lost its saltiness? On the earth, in the world, right? Jesus goes on. You are the light of the world.

A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

See, even there, Jesus talks about the positive aspect of what kind of effect your works will have on the people around you. They may give glory to your Father who is in heaven. If you follow Jesus, you walk a different path.

Jesus will talk about that even when we get to chapter seven. He says that following him is a difficult, narrow road, whereas most people are on the broad, easy road. The narrow road is hard enough without people from the wide way attacking people who are walking on the narrow way, but that's what's gonna happen to you if you decide to walk the narrow path.

There's been a number of times that I've been called narrow-minded. I've said, amen, because I desire to enter through the narrow gate. Your enemies may be a number of different people. They could be members of your own family.

They could be someone you're married to. They might even be your parents. Later in life, maybe they're your own children. They could be people that you thought were your friends. They could be people that you go to work with.

They could be random strangers. Your enemies might be Democrats. Your enemies might be Republicans. They might be conservative or liberal. They could even be people that you hand a tract to or share the gospel with, and they wad it up and throw it down on the ground and stomp on it right in front of you.

I speak from experience. If you attend a church that is worldly or you have people in your church who are worldly, your enemies might even be people from your own church, but no matter who they are, no matter what context that we're talking about, people antagonizing you and coming against you and hating you for whatever reason, you must love them and you must pray for them.

The person who loves his enemies manifests that love in this action. He prays for his enemies. And here Jesus gives us three reasons why we must love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. The first reason I've already given to you, look at verse 45, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.

You may also read this so that you may be sons and daughters of your Father who is in heaven. So number one, the first reason you love your enemy and pray for them is the biggest reason why you love your enemy and pray for them.

It's because God told you to. Are you a son or a daughter of your Father in heaven? Prove it.

Do what he says.

Love your enemy. Pray for those who persecute you. Understand that at one point, you were an enemy of God, but God loved you and sent his son to die for you so that all who believes in him, you're no longer enemies of God, you are friends of God.

And this is because of what God has done for you. God sent someone to you to share the gospel with you that you may repent of your sin and follow Jesus. Romans 5, 8 through 10 says this, but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 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.

Love your enemies is a very popular concept. I've talked about this being counter-cultural, but our culture loves the idea. I think we all want that. You want everyone around you to love their enemies, but it's something we want for somebody else.

The world will say, you have to love your enemy. I am gonna complain and ridicule and cry foul on all the people that I don't like, and you can't criticize me for it because you have to love your enemy.

My friends, if love your enemy is a commandment that applies to other people, but it doesn't apply to you, you are not a follower of Jesus. A second reason Jesus gives for loving your enemy is this. Look at the rest of verse 45.

For he makes his son rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. This is one of the most central verses in scripture where we find a declaration of what we call God's common grace.

Even those who do evil enjoy the blessings of God's creation to a certain degree. So you must also be gracious toward them as well. There are people in this world headed to heaven, and there are people in this world who are headed to hell.

You don't get to determine who gets what. God determines that. Therefore, it is not for you to discriminate. Certainly, we must not discriminate because of color, race, creed, nationality, sex, age, accent, background, social class, style of clothing, or whether they're KU fans or K-State fans.

But you cannot even discriminate against them if they are your enemies. You must love one another, especially your enemies. For you were once as they were, walking as enemies of God in this world. You were once dead in your sins and your trespasses like the rest of mankind, as it says in Ephesians 2 .1.

But God showed mercy to you, someone preached the gospel to you, and by faith in Jesus, you've been brought from death to life. My friends, the Lord may be using you to bring the gospel to someone else who is currently walking as an enemy of God.

We cannot attack the mission field and expect them to listen to us when we try to share the gospel with them. Several years back, there was a man here who was attending one of our Sunday school classes.

I wasn't a teacher in this class, it was somebody else, and he told me about this later. But at the start of the class, he was complaining about his neighbor, and apparently these two quarreled about absolutely everything, including the height of the fence that was between their two property.

This man was taking his neighbor to court because his fence was too high. Then during class, the teacher was talking about sharing the gospel with your neighbor. And the man spoke up and said, I've tried sharing the gospel with my neighbor, but he just won't listen to me.

He's as hateful and as spiteful toward Christianity as any atheist you've ever met. After class was over, the teacher approached him and said, is the neighbor that you're talking about the neighbor you're also taking to court because his fence is too high?

Is that the one you're trying to share the gospel with? And the man said, well, yes. And the teacher said, come with me, I think we need to have a little talk about loving your neighbor. Remember last week we read, if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.

This command to love your enemy flows from that same commandment. Don't give worldly people a reason to hate you. We're supposed to be humble, merciful, pure of heart peacemakers. That was in the Beatitudes.

Hebrews 12, 14 says, strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. We're told in 2 Timothy 2, 24 through 26, the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, patiently enduring evil, correcting opponents with gentleness.

God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will. God may perhaps grant them repentance.

So pray that the Lord would turn their hearts to God. It's really difficult to hate somebody that you're praying for, unless you're praying in precatory prayers from the Psalms, I guess. Lord, break the teeth of the wicked.

Certainly there's a righteous way to desire this. Jesus called the Pharisees sons of hell, producing more sons of hell, Matthew 23, 15. Rebuking false teachers may need to be that harsh for the sake of defending the sheep who are otherwise being led astray.