Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount: Love your Enemies

Matthew 5:43-48, “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 sun 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.” 

Ok, what Jesus is referring to here when he says, “You’ve heard it said, “love your neighbor and hate your enemies” is from Law of Moses.  It comes from Leviticus 19:17-18, “You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him.  You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.”

So many people in Jesus’ day, the religious leaders probably included, mistook this passage.  There was this idea that there were Jew and Gentile.  The Jews were friends, but the Gentiles were enemies.  And they’d probably say something like, “The Law of Moses commands me to love my neighbor.  Well, the Jews are my neighbors, (see it says “the sons of my own people”) but not those Gentiles over there.  They’re the enemy, so we don’t love them, we hate them.” 

But is that what the passage in Leviticus says?  Is the Law of Moses telling them to hate the Gentiles?  No way!  That passage is commanding them to love, to love and not hate their neighbors.  But this is an example of a people twisting the word to justify themselves, and their own prejudices. 

Jesus says, “you’ve heard it that way.  But I say, Love your enemies.  Pray for those who persecute you.  Even the Gentiles who terrorize you, seek their wellbeing.  Pray for them.”  That’s revolutionary!  I’ve shared this teaching with people from other religions and some have been very taken aback by it.  They says, “How is that possible?  You don’t pray blessings on your enemies.  You curse them!” 

Jesus provides the theological reasoning behind his teaching, he says, “so that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.  For he makes the sun to rise on the evil and on the good; he makes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.”  Well, we’re citizens of God’s kingdom and our purpose is to reflect God’s image in the world.  If that’s so, we want to imitate God in this.  That means we do not curse our enemy and those who wish us harm; we love them and we pray for them.  We desire their best. 

We’ve mentioned multiple times in the Sermon on the Mount how Jesus takes the Law, which is so often mistook and misrepresented by the people of Jesus’ day, and he deepens its meaning and he internalizes it so that we’re not just living according to the letter of the Law, but we, having it hidden in our hearts, are living out its intended purpose. 

And Jesus says, therein lies your reward.  You receive no reward just for being nice to those who are nice to you.  Your reward lies with showing love to those whom it is hard to love.

I heard this recently (or read it, can’t remember which), I think it was Timothy Keller, but whoever it was said, “Loving those who love you is human.  Hating those who love you is Satanic.  But loving those who hate you, that is divine.”  We are truly showing ourselves to be children of God, truly reflecting his image, when we show love to those who despise us.  And there’s a reward there. 

Now, how does this teaching work itself into our daily lives? 

Well, we mentioned a few examples back when we had our talk about retaliation.  These teachings kind of go together.  If there’s someone at work who has decided you are their enemy, they’ve made you their target, love them.  Love them and wish them the best.  Pray for them that God would do a work in their lives and change their hearts.  If you have an opportunity to bless them in some way, do it.  Show yourself to be a true child of God. 

Again taking from our example last episode, if you have a family member who is just out to get you, they’ve made you a target of attack, love them.  Bless them.  Pray for them.  That’s how we show to a lost world that we’re different.  We’re not citizens of this world, our permanent citizenship is in heaven.