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I’ll just say this: If you were ever going to listen to one Jesus in HD PODCAST, please, please, please listen to this one.
This week, we continue to examine Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.
What does it practically look like to love our enemies, as Jesus told us to do in Matthew 5:43-48
Love Your Enemies
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighborand hate your enemy.’ 44 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,45 that you may be sons of your Father 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. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet your brethrenonly, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectorsdo so? 48 Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
There are two propositions:
Jesus was regularly identified as being “a friend of tax collectors and especially wicked sinners”. In today’s context, if we were to live this principle out on a daily basis, we would undoubtedly be identified as “compromisers in regards to sin” by many in the church community.
The second is not quite as obvious. Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 1:5
5 The purpose of my instruction is that all believers would be filled with love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and genuine faith.
However, it appears to me that the current purpose of our teaching has become sound doctrine over “love that comes from a pure heart”. That the highest virtue that we should fight for is truth – sound doctrine. We have been led to believe that what we believe is far more important than how we treat people. That it’s far more important to fight for what’s right than to treat people rightly?
Really?
Aren’t we supposed to do both? And, if we had to choose, wouldn’t the virtue of love rank above that of “fighting the good fight”?
The night before Jesus’ arrest, He said “by this everyone will know that you are my disciples…” No, he didn’t say that the “this” is sound doctrine. The “this” that he refers to in John 13:35 is how we love one another.
Yet, some say that if we claim that love trumps truth, we are compromisers.
The truth is that sound teaching should fill our hearts with more love, especially toward “wicked sinners”.
Don’t get me wrong – I don’t believe that this should be an either/or proposition. But I do believe that patterns throughout our evangelical church have grown out of balance.
The way many Christians approach this is by thinking, “the most loving thing we can do for these wicked sinners is by proclaiming to them Biblical truth.”
So, how do I know that this is not what Jesus meant?
Two reasons: 1) That is what the Pharisees did. 2) That’s not what Jesus did. The only people He consigned to hell were the religious leaders, not the sinners that He encountered.
You see, Jesus loved them not only if they repented or when they repented. He loved them regardless of their decision to repent or not at all (i.e., the rich young ruler).
If our teaching in evangelical churches does not motivate genuine Christ followers to love others more without any preconditions – to love them just as they are – instead of our teaching leading them to be judging, condemning or criticizing them, then the primary purpose of our teaching has failed.
It all comes down to one word: confusion.
For example, to those of us who do not approve of, for example, a homosexual’s lifestyle, we are almost instantly labeled as homophobes, fear mongers and bigots.
Those of us who express love and acceptance of, for example, homosexuals, many in the evangelical church community almost instantly label us as compromisers or “soft on sin”.
Now, let me affirm and disavow some things.
In Matthew 5, Jesus drew a distinction between two categories of whom we are to love. The first being our “enemies” and the second as being “those who are not our brethren”.
Our enemies (whom we are supposed to love and pray for) are people who purpose to do us damage. They hurt us purposefully. Two examples of people who were Jesus’ enemies were the Romans who killed Christ and the religious leaders who tormented him.
The “Romans” in our lives today might be unbelievers who embody evil. They seem to be determined to do us harm. Bullies, if you will.
The “Religious Leaders” in our lives today could be those who ostensibly worship the same God we do, love the same Jesus and read the same Bible as us – identifiably Christians – who, as Paul put it, “shipwreck our faith” and cause us a great deal of pain.
Yet, Jesus commands us to love our enemies, bless those who curse us, do good to those who hate us, and pray for those who spitefully use us and persecute us.
And I would submit that it is a higher virtue to live out these principles than to accurately preach with acute Biblical doctrine.
The evidence that will show – prove even – that we are sons of the Father is that we would love our enemies.
And, according to Matthew 5:45, Jesus defined how God loves and treats His enemies – He loves and treats them in the same way that He loves and treats His friends.
Moving on, “greeting your brethren only” means to be kind only to those who are just like us. So, what Jesus is suggesting is that we have an obligation not only to love our enemies, but to love those who are different than us.
Unlike our enemies, those who are simply different than us have never purposefully done or willed harm against us.
One example, for many of us, are those who identify themselves amongst the LGBT community. Likewise, those who may not be like us economically, educationally or racially may also fall into the category of “those who are not our brethren only.”
What Jesus is politely saying is: Love those who are not like you, whomever that might be.
They may be of a different religious tradition or people with different sensibilities… or even atheists!
They’re not like us.
So, how are we supposed to treat them?
How does God treat them?
He treats them as though they are His friends.
Like Jesus, we should love, embrace and accept people who are different than us. Whatever that difference is – we ought to love, embrace, accept and befriend people who are not the same as us.
Now, let me be perfectly clear: we can love others without our love meaning that we agree with everything they believe or do.
That’s an altogether separate issue.
Jesus befriended all kinds of people including tax collectors and even wicked sinners, without agreeing with everything these people believed in or did, or every lifestyle choice that they made.
Like Jesus, we can love those “who are not our brethren” without becoming a “compromiser” or “soft on sin”.
In this same way, Jesus does not agree with everything I have ever done or believed. And yet, He still loves me and is my friend.
Likewise, just because we don’t agree with everything that someone believes or does, does not mean that we fear or hate them.
This also is an altogether separate issue.
Just because we disagree with someone’s lifestyle, religion or choices does not make me a homophobe or any other type of “phobe”, nor a hater nor attacker of their belief system.
And yet, when we do love, accept and befriend someone who is different than us in this fashion, we are all too often labeled as “tolerant” by fellow Christians. And the worst thing we can be as Christians today is “tolerant”.
Jesus was not tolerant of sin. He just loved sinners.
Why can’t we?
Shouldn’t we love – and befriend – especially wicked sinners and those who are not our brethren… those who are not like us?
Well, let me tell you something: We don’t have any other option.
We are commanded to.
For more info about Dewey and his ministry, visit www.DeweyBertolini.com