Mathew 5: 43 – 48

⁴³ You have heard that it was said, “Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” ⁴⁴ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ so that you may be children 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. ⁴⁶ For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? ⁴⁷ And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? ⁴⁸ You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

A True Story

Let me begin with the story of a couple. They fell in love in high school. They didn’t go on to university and they have decided to start a business. The business grew from nothing and it prospered. And as the business prospered and succeeded, the husband started to be more and more dissatisfied with his wife. Nothing she did was right – the way she dressed was not up to his standard; the way she spoke was not befitting of his new success as a businessman; the way she taught and raised the children was not according to his standard.

But by the grace of God, his wife became a believer in Jesus, a Christian.  And in becoming a believer, she would sincerely want to be the best wife she could be to him. And so she attended services, she attended lessons, workshops and seminars and tried to learn as much from God's word. But no matter what she tried, she was still never good enough for her very successful businessman husband. Because in his eyes, she was weak, inferior and not suitable and up to his standards.

Then he, in all his success and strength, in the moment of weakness, felt into adultery and betrayed her. She found out! She was saddened and heartbroken. By the grace of God, she confronted the husband and said to him: “I forgive you because God has forgiven you. I know this because I believe in Jesus!” In hearing this, the husband’s response was “I never knew how good a wife God has blessed me with all this time! All this time, I thought I was the good one, the successful one, the clever one! But I never knew what a good wife I had.”

Life is full of surprises! Sometimes in our most intimate areas of life, the person we are supposed to love turns out to be our enemy.  And how many people had said to us as Pastors in Ministry, “All these years I was sleeping with my husband… I was sleeping with my wife, but I didn't know that I was actually sleeping with my enemy.” So how do we actually listen to the words of our Lord Jesus? Do you love your neighbour and hate your enemy? But Jesus says to us “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you!”

Mistaken Theology

God’s people had the Old Testament, which is God's word and God’s law to guide them in their life to live such different lives as compared to the gentile people around them. But God’s people by the time Jesus appeared in Israel had failed God; they sidelined God by sidelining His law, and with sidelined God's law you sidelined God's life or lifestyle. You sidelined His words, you sidelined His way of living.

There is no specific instruction in the Old Testament to hate our enemy. But by the time Jesus appeared and ministered to Israel, Israel had very cleverly chosen circles of love and hatred. And so they taught themselves that it was very okay to love fellow Jews or fellow Israelites, and not to love those whom “God doesn't love”; they didn’t have to love Samaritans who are half Jews, and surely they didn’t have to love the gentiles who are considered less than dogs in their walk. They have  mistaken the theology!

Love Your Enemies

Jesus comes along and says that as God's people, and if we are truly God’s people, we will believe in God’s son, Jesus as His end-time King. Now, we have to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. And surely as God's people who sincerely love Him and sincerely want to follow His words, there is one sure thing: we will be persecuted by a hostile world.

Jesus goes on and explains that for God our God, He causes the sun to rise on both the evil and the good, and He sends rain on the just and the unjust, which means that God in His common grace and in His common goodness, He doesn't just reserve goodness for His people, and He is not biased and just sent all bad things to those who don't believe in Him. In God's common goodness and common grace, giving us time to listen and respond to Him, He causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, He sends rain on the just and the unjust. If that is true, if our understanding of God is correct that He is such a big hearted God; He is such a generous God; He doesn't unduly punish, but He patiently, lovingly provides us common grace, common provision, common protection, and He does this so that we would somehow come to know Him.

Then, as Kingdom people who have come to believe in Jesus by His grace, this is how we are to live and we are to witness. We are not simply to love those who love us, because even the tax collectors who are traitors to their own people can do this. We are to love our enemies. And when we do so, Jesus says, “We are to be perfect as our heavenly father is perfect.”

Do you know what Jesus is telling us to do? He is telling us as God’s people, telling Israel first, to show some family likeness, bear some resemblance to God our Father. In Matthew 5 to 7, the most repeated term or word is “Father… Father… Father… Father…” And in Jesus’s way of saying to Israel, you know how far you have drifted from bearing any resemblance to God whom Jesus now introduces to us, as our intimate Father in heaven. We have used this example many times -- If you tell a teenager “You look like your father!” “You look like your mother!” This is a great insult. But if you tell the people of God “You remind me of God!” “You remind me of Jesus!” This is not an insult, but the greatest compliment.

People could walk in and out of Israel, met many Israelite 2,000 years ago, and very few if any, would have shown any resemblance to God, especially in their behaviour of loving enemies.

Satan at Work on Our Sin

Do you realise that due to our fallen and sinful nature, you and I have a great inclination and a great capacity to make our loved ones our enemies? Think about it – how did two people who are so much in love with each other in dating and courtship, end up hating each other so much in marriage? One day, I was preaching overseas and a couple said to me. The wife called out to me after the sermon: “Pastor Chris, thank you so much for God’s words; thank you so much for the sermon. I learned today that my husband is not my enemy!”

How on earth that the two people were so in love in dating and courtship, become so much out of love and hate each other in marriage? The lesson is very clear! In our sinful nature, we carry a great capacity to make enemies out of our loved ones. So I want to ask you: Have your father and mother who loved you so sacrificially, who provided all your needs from changing your nappies to sending you to school, to feeding you, become your enemies in their old age? Do you consider you parents cramping down on your lifestyle as they age? Have they now become your burden as you have to look after them?

if you find yourself in this area, thinking and feeling this way, you have moved from someone you should have loved to now someone you perhaps are toxic against. Simialrly, how on earth did your husband and your wife become your enemy? How on earth did your children become your enemies? How on earth did the two friends or brother and sister in Christ in church move from a loving relationship to now considering each other as enemies?  This is the combination of Satan working on our sin.

Jesus Turning Enemies to Friends

On the other hand, Jesus our Lord is the master of turning enemies into friends. Did you notice that? He cried out on the cross: “Father! Forgive them! They know not what they do!” And so, in Jesus and through Jesus alone, the sacrificial redeeming love poured out on the cross. Only then, can we be so empowered to have a new mind and a new heart to live this way.

Reflection and Prayer

May we listen to the Lord Jesus, need Him deeply and urgently so that we can overcome evil with good. May God grant you great joy in listening to His Son and being a new person and enjoy renewed relationships.