There is a trend to use verses of scripture such as the one we are looking at today, by taking them out of their context of all that is taught in the Sermon on the Mount, as a pretext for the social gospel. And unfortunately, in a lot of mainstream churches today, the social gospel is the only gospel that is being preached. The social gospel is applying the teachings of Christ not towards personal conversion but primarily towards social reform, especially as it relates to matters of social justice, environmental issues, race and gender relations, and even economic disparities among the population.
And at first glance, if these statements by Christ are removed from the greater message of His sermon, they would seem to support many of the social gospel’s goals. The social gospel message is that love is the only important thing. And so they take the doctrine of Christian love out of context, and magnify it to the point that it eclipses or nullifies any other doctrine that does not support that in the way that they think it should.
And let me be clear; the social gospel is a false gospel. It’s not something that can coexist in the church without damning results. Because the doctrine of the Bible teaches that man is condemned to die because of God’s judgment against sin, and after physical death is the judgment of God in which He will separate the righteous from the sinner, and will give each it’s reward, either heaven or hell. Hebrews 9:27 says, “it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” So any gospel that does not warn people of the coming judgment, and offer them a way to escape, is not only not the gospel, but it directly contributes to men and women ending up at the judgment with the only outcome that of being sentenced to hell. So we cannot just tolerate a certain measure of the social gospel because it is appealing to social activists, or it is appealing to people who want to do something good in hopes of earning their way into heaven. It’s something that needs to be dismissed as a false gospel.
So in looking at these verses, you must consider all that Jesus teaches and give equal weight to all His teaching. You can’t just isolate a few verses out of this sermon and ignore the rest. For instance, Jesus has already had much to say about the judgment and about hell. In vs 21 He speaks of those who murder being held accountable at judgment. And in vs 22 He speaks about being guilty enough to be cast into hell. In vs29 and 30 Jesus speaks of the unrighteous being thrown into hell. In chapter 6 He talks repeatedly about our eternal reward. In chapter 7 He talks about judgment, and then in vs 13 He speaks of the gate and the way to destruction being wide and many people entering it. In vs 21 He speaks of those who will come to His judgment and be told “depart from me I never knew you,” and He says not everyone who says to Me “Lord, Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven. So then it becomes clear as we look at the sermon in it’s entirety, that the true message cannot be separated from the doctrine of the coming judgment against sin, and salvation from that judgment, without which one is doomed to spend eternity in hell. So the need for salvation of your soul is the paramount doctrine of Jesus’s message. And only within that context and as it is subservient to it, can we properly understand the passage before us.
That being said then, it is imperative that we have the right perspective on these verses today. This sermon is the Lord’s Manifesto of the Kingdom of Heaven. He has laid out the characteristics of it’s citizens. He has told us that such citizens will be hated by the world and persecuted for their faith. He has told us that the laws by which this kingdom operates are not done away with, nor different than the laws which God gave to Moses. And He has given us six illustrations of these laws which contain principles for how we are to live and operate as citizens of His kingdom.
But just as the social gospel today perverts or twists the doctrines of Christ to use them for their own purpose, so also the Pharisees of Jesus’s day twisted the law of Moses for their own advantage. And so as Jesus gives these 6 illustrations, He contrasts what the Pharisees were teaching in regards to the law with His interpretation of the full extent of the law, even to the point of the spirit of the law.
Now the law we are looking at today is found in vs 43, Jesus said, "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 causes His sun to rise on [the] evil and [the] good, and sends rain on [the] righteous and [the] unrighteous.”
Now let’s first examine what the Pharisees were teaching. They said, “you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” The first question we should ask is where did they find that in the law, or even the entire Old Testament for that matter? Well the first part is found in Lev. 19:18 which says, '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.”
The Pharisees interpreted this to mean that your neighbor was only a fellow Israelite. Everyone else was considered the enemy. You were either a Jew or a Gentile, and all Gentiles were considered worse than dogs. Gentiles were routinely called dogs by the Jews.
But let’s try to understand why they considered everyone other than an Israelite to be an enemy and therefore it was ok to hate them. In fact, they went so far as to say that it was their duty to hate Gentiles. How did they come to that point? Well, it probably had something to do with way back when they first entered into the Promised Land, they were told to wipe out the Canaanites completely, leaving none of them alive. They didn’t do it completely, but it was a direct command from the Lord to wipe out the Canaanites. And so that may have fostered this idea of hating their enemies.
But it’s important to understand that when God told the Israelites to enter the land of Canaan, and completely destroy the people there, it was a judicial decree of God that was to be carried out by the Israelites. It wasn’t just because they were foreigners, or even just because they were pagans. But because the Canaanites had rejected God and the law of God, and their depravity had progressed to the point that God decided that their time was up, and He was going to act in judgment upon them and wipe them out.
Now for justification for God’s decision, let me tell you a little about the Canaanites. They worshipped Baal, the male god, and Ashteroth the female goddess. The temple of Baal hosted male prostitutes, and the temple of Ashteroth hosted female prostitutes. Worship consisted of orgies of the worst sort imaginable. Furthermore, the excavations of an archeological organization called the Palestine Exploration Fund, back at the turn of the century, found in the Canaanite excavations under the temple a great number of jars containing the remains of children which were sacrificed to Baal. Another thing that they did was when they built a house, they would sacrifice the first born child and bury it’s body into the wall, to bring good luck to the family. The Canaanites were worse than Sodom and Gomorrah and as a result, God brought His judgment upon them and used Israel to wipe them out. That is the prerogative of God. He made the world, and He has the right to destroy it whenever He choses. And He chose to do so not only as judgment, but as protection for the Israelites so that they did not become corrupted by the practices of the pagans.
God is holy and just. Holiness and justice are essential to His nature. And a just God must act justly. At some point He must avenge wrongs against the innocent. I would add here that it’s a dangerous thing in the life of a nation to turn it’s back upon God and do things like kill the unborn. America sanctions the killing of millions of babies a year. God is going to execute justice on a nation that kills the innocent. And it’s important that we understand that such things are the judicial prerogative of God, and not comprehensive of His dealings with the individual. Jesus speaks of loving our neighbor on the one hand, and then talks about the judgment against sinners resulting in hell in another section of the same sermon. Now how do we reconcile this apparent discrepancy? We look at it this way, we love our enemies because that what God does. “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.”
Now the social gospel interprets that to mean that all that matters is the love of God, and that it doesn’t matter whether a man sins or not; everyone is going to heaven regardless. God is love, and so therefore love wins; God can never punish sin. But that is to deny all that the Bible teaches. You have to deny the flood, deny the punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah. You have to deny the exile of the Israelites. And finally, you have to call Jesus a liar, for He said that the unrighteous are to be cast into the lake of fire, where the worm doesn’t die and the fire is not quenched.
To have the correct perspective then we must understand that it is the right of a just God to enact judgment. He does so at various times in history to preserve His creation. The dispensation of God does have a judicial element. It is the prerogative of a Holy and righteous God to be judicial. And furthermore, those of you that are parents should understand this, it is possible to love someone and yet also discipline them. But that is the prerogative of God to determine. However, the Pharisees took this judicial principle and applied it to ordinary affairs in their own lives. They regarded it as justification for hating anyone they disliked.
So how did Jesus respond to the Pharisee’s teaching of the law? What contrast did He give in the way it should be applied? Jesus said in vs44, “But I say to you, love your enemies.” Now I need to point out something here in regards to the translation of this text. The KJV includes some phases in the remainder of the verse which most of the newer Bible versions do not include. And I readily confess that I am not a Greek scholar, but in this case I would rather include the text from the KJV rather than leaving it out as the newer translations do. The problem is that the KJV uses one ancient text for it’s translation and the newer versions use another text, or a compilation of other texts, some of which they say are older than the text of the KJV. In my opinion I believe the fact that God allowed the KJV to stand virtually alone for almost 600 years as the authorized text in the English language should be reason enough to give credence to their translation in regards to disputed texts such as this. But let me hasten to say the teaching found in the KJV is also found in other places in the scriptures, and so I think that bolsters my belief that this should be included.
So the NKJV reads as follows, and that’s what I would like to use today; “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,” Now what I find interesting in this translation is the emphasis is on the response to persecution. It’s not just the blanket statement to “love your enemies.” But it’s more specific than that in this translation. The emphasis is on loving enemies who curse you, who hate you, who spitefully use you and who persecute you. So you see that the emphasis is on retaliation against persecution, something that Jesus has already spoken about. He said do not take the approach of an eye for an eye, or a tooth for a tooth back in vs 38 and 39. He was talking about personal retaliation, especially in the realm of persecution. And all of that ties back to the Beatitude in vs 10 and 11 regarding being blessed if you suffer persecution.
That provokes the question, what are we to suffer persecution for? Is it because we defrauded someone and that made them our enemy? Or because we took advantage of someone and that turned them into our enemy? No, of course not. The proper perspective is that we endure persecution because of our relation to Christ. Vs. 11, “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.” Because of Christ, you will suffer persecution. That is, if you are indeed acting like a representative of Christ.
So how is this principle supposed to be lived out? First of all, our response should not be governed by how they treat us, but how we were treated by God when we were enemies of Him. We must understand their condition, that they are blind, they are dead in their sins, and they are lost, and if we don’t help them to come to Christ for salvation, they are destined to eternal death.
God doesn’t deal with sinners according to how they deal with Him. Rather Jesus says He causes it to rain on the just and the unjust. It’s what is called in theological terms “common grace.” Every good gift comes from above. And to a farmer, rain is a good thing. But not just the righteous farmer receives rain, but so does the unrighteous farmer. God has given to mankind good gifts such as a husband or wife, He gives children, He gives sunshine, He gives rain. He gives common grace to all, the good and the evil.
God is governed by justice, but He is also governed by love. And in order to manifest His love for the world, He had to first satisfy His justice. So God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son to be our substitute and our sacrifice for sin, so that those who believe on Him should not perish, but have eternal life. Love comes only by accomplishing His justice.
So how do we reflect this attitude of God towards sinners who hate us, who slander us, curse us, and even persecute us? Well, we have a perspective that is not attached to the things of this world. We are citizens of another kingdom, and we no longer live for ourselves, but for the kingdom of God. And if we have that kind of attitude, then we will not defend ourselves when these attacks come from our enemies against the kingdom of heaven, but we will try to win them over with love. The same kind of sacrificial love that Christ showed for us, we should show to others. Not concerned with our rights as individuals, but concerned with winning their souls for the kingdom of heaven.
How tragic is the Christian who still lives in this world as if this is what is important. Who thinks it’s important to stand up for my rights, to not let this person get away with treating me this way. Who like Peter when confronted with armed soldiers who came to arrest Christ, pulls out a sword and cuts someone’s ear off. It’s tragic because when we do that, it reveals that we are still living according to the flesh, we are still carnal, natural. We are not living in the Spirit. And the blessing comes when we live in the Spirit. “Blessed are you when men persecute you.” You’re not blessed when you respond to their attack and hit them as hard as they hit you. But you are blessed when you turn their attack into an opportunity to give them the testimony of Christ.
When you have that attitude, then you show compassion to them, knowing that they are being controlled and held captive by Satan. And so we do everything we can to expose that to them and to lead them to salvation. That’s what God did. He looked at the world which was at enmity with Him, who had denied everything that He said was right and instead did what they thought was right in their own eyes, and He sent His only begotten Son into this corrupt world to die in their place because He knew that was the only way to save the world. And we must have in our hearts this same compassion for the lost that we might win some for the kingdom of God.
Now why should we do this? Why should we love our enemies? Some people say it is to turn them into our friends. I think there is a great effort on the part of the modern church today to try to turn the enemies of the cross into the friends of the church. And so we do all kinds of things hoping to get our enemies to think that we are cool, we are hip, we’re not as weird as they think we are. We think maybe if they like us, then they will want to become like us, and join the church or something. The problem with that is that liking us is not the issue; it’s liking Christ and His gospel. The gospel of Christ calls people to recognize that they are enemies of God, that they are sinners, that they are hopeless, and that they must die to themselves and live for God. It’s not about whether or not they feel like they fit in with the church. The fact is, they cannot fit in until they are born again.
Another misconception in regards to why we are to love our enemies is they say, “God sees them not as they are, but as they have the potential for becoming.” That’s the psychological approach. That’s the modern parenting approach. Such parents don’t ever punish or discipline the child, but they try to treat them as an adult, regardless of how infantile they are acting. The idea is that there is a spark of divinity in man, and if you just nurture it, and fan it into a flame, then you will see that man is basically good. Of course, that idea goes against the Biblical view that man is hopelessly a sinner, hopelessly corrupted by sin and he needs a complete transformation.
How then are we to manifest this love of God in our dealings with our enemies? Jesus said, “Bless those who curse you.” Our language should be the language of blessing and not cursing. How we speak to others is important. Simply put, reply to unkind words with kind words.
Secondly, Jesus said we manifest love by, “Do good to them that hate you.” That means that we overcome evil with good. Paul said in Romans 12:21, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” More specifically, Paul said, "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink. For in so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head.”
Lastly, Jesus said, “Pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you.” When persecution comes from our enemies, then we are to pray for them. I believe this is one of the hardest things for me to do. What are we praying for? Their salvation. That they would be given eyes to see and a heart of repentance. But also to do as Jesus did when He was persecuted. When the nails were being driven into His hands by the scoffing, cruel soldiers, He prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they do.” We are to treat others even as He did.
There is another aspect of loving our enemies, if we are going to deal with this honestly. And that is we need to recognize the difference between loving and liking someone. We are not called to like everybody. But we are commanded to love. Our natural flesh gets in the way of us truly liking everyone. To like someone requires that I be like them in certain ways or admire them. That is the natural inclination, and that is not what Jesus is commanding here. But He says we are to pray for the one who we don’t like. We may not like them, but we can still love them. Because love is a decision. Like is a matter of affinity or admiration. Love is a decision.
Love is treating someone you don’t like as if you do like him. Love is much more than a feeling of affinity or sentimentality. Love is practical. 1John 5:3 “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.” Love is active. Love isn’t passive. If we don’t like someone, that is not a problem, we just treat them like we like them. It’s how you act, not how you feel that matters.
You all are familiar I’m sure with the parable of the Good Samaritan found in Luke 10. The Jews considered the Samaritans as so despised that they would go out of their way to avoid even walking through Samaria. They hated them, and perhaps the Samaritans hated them in return. But when the Jew was attacked by thieves and robbers on the road and left on the side of the road wounded, several other Jews passed by and did not help him. But the Samaritan, the enemy of the Jews, got off his horse and cared for him, even to the point of supplying his own provisions and money for his well being. That is an example of not only loving your neighbor, but loving your enemy. Love your neighbor, even if that means loving your enemy.
Listen, the natural man cannot love like that. The natural man likes people who are like himself. And he hates those who are unlike him. If someone offends him, insults him, he’s going to naturally respond in kind. But the Christian is different because his makeup is different. He is a new creature, with a new nature, and the Spirit of Christ is in him. And so if he is truly living by the Spirit, then he can be like Christ and love his enemies. The Spirit of God gives him the power to live the life of Christ.
Gal. 5:22 says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love… We must first have been given the Spirit of God to live in us by being born again, and then we must live by the Spirit that we will obey the commands of Christ and manifest His nature and His gospel to the world. Only in this way can we be like our Father who is in heaven. If we would begin to really love like He loves, by the power of Christ in us, then the whole world might come to know the saving power of the gospel.
If you are here today, and you do not have the Spirit of Christ living in you, then I invite you to accept Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord. Repent of your sins, and believe in Him for forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The penalty for your sin was paid for by Jesus, all that remains is that you believe in Him as your Savior and follow Him as your Lord.
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