Loving Your Enemies…Kick It Up a Notch (Matthew 5:43-48)

In the last post  we saw that when faced with persecution disciples who follow Jesus are called to:

1. Respond to others better than they deserve.
2. Give them more than they try to take.
3. Go further and work harder than they can demand.
4. Care more relationally than they actually expect.

Jesus did all four of these things for us… And he did them out of His love for us. This is a thought that we need to keep in mind as we wrestle with applying Jesus words here in Matthew 5:43-48 on love, greeting, and common grace.

What They had heard… (v. 43)

                       You have heard that it was said,

                      ‘You shall love your neighbor

                                and hate your enemy.’

They heard the first part right, but got into trouble by assuming that its opposite must also be true. There is no command to “hate your enemy” in the Law. This addition was the Pharisaic equivalent to the many non-biblical factoids that contemporary Christians like to quote as if they were biblical. A “factoid” is a false report; based on fake or unreliable data that has been repeated often enough (and seen in print) that it is believed to be true. There are plenty of website that are happy to list some of these sayings. Here are some non-biblical Christian factoids which are commonly quoted:

o   “God helps those who help themselves.” [Greek mythology…attributed to Aesop]

o   “Cleanliness is next to godliness.” [A Persian/Hebrew saying]

o   “Hate the sin, love the sinner.” [Augustine 426, Gandhi 1929]

o   “Money is the root of all evil.” [a misquote of 1 Timothy 6:10]

o   “The lion shall lay down with the lamb.”  [Isaiah 11:6 actually the wolf and lamb…]

o   “God just wants me to be happy.” [Not on the list, happiness is dependent upon circumstances…God wants something better and more counter-intuitive than that, even though many interpret the beatitudes as “Happy are…” instead of “Blessed are…”]

o   “God won’t give you more than you can handle.” [It seems that almost everything in more than we can handle…on our own! We were not made to be independent of God and family.]

o   “Bad things happen to good people.” [Well…bad things do happen, but no one is “good”]

 

What They Should Have Heard…

There is ample testimony on this subject of loving neighbors as well as a righteous response to one’s enemies in the Old Testament which the Pharisees and the people should have heard and not forgotten. These verses reveal something of the mercy of God that had either been forgotten or ignored by the leaders of his day.

"Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself.  I am the Lord." (Leviticus 19:18)

“If you come across your enemy’s ox or donkey wandering off, be sure to take it back to him. 5 If you see the donkey of someone who hates you fallen down under its load, do not leave it there; be sure you help him with it.”  (Exodus 23:4-5)

“If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you.”  (Proverbs 25:21-22; quoted in Rom. 12:20)

“When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.”  (Leviticus 19:33-34) 

What Should We Do? (v. 44-45)

         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.

As we follow Jesus in kingdom discipleship then our loving and merciful actions and attitudes will begin to show a family resemblance! D.A. Carson comments, "To be persecuted because of righteousness is to align oneself with the prophets (5:12); but to bless and pray for those who persecute us is to align oneself with the character of God."  

What kind of love does Jesus ask us to show to our enemies? R. Kent Hughes comments that,

There are people for whom we have a spontaneous, natural, instinctive love. We do not have to make any effort to love them—we just do. Jesus is not asking us to have a romantic love or a buddy love or a family love or an emotional love for our enemies. What he commands is an agape love—that is, a deliberate, intelligent, determined love—an invincible goodwill toward them.[1]

But if we determine to love them and then act on that love in prayer and merciful deeds, God just might surprise us and change our heart as well as theirs.

I find it very helpful to keep in mind the timing of God’s love for me and for his followers wherever they may be. It is when I think that God can only love me when I am perfect before him that I act out of my own fear and insecurity to judge and disdain others (in an effort to make myself look better).

When does God love us? (Romans 5:6-11)

This passage in Romans 5 makes a very clear and progressively profound statement about God’s love for us. Look for the repeated phrase, “while we were”,

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— ⁸ but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹ Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. ¹⁰ 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. ¹¹ More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

The answer is clear. God chose to love us and manifested that love in redemptive action—while we were… still weak (6), still sinners (8), and his enemies (10). Wow! So what does that say about the love and mercy we should show to others?

Homework assignment: Pray for your “enemy” daily for 30 days. At least weekly, take a few moments to record:

• how you pray,
• how they change, and
• how you change.

One comment about how to pray, is that we are to “pray for” them. This doesn’t mean to “pray against” them. A few years ago there was a humorous country song entitled, Praying for You, that took the command to “pray for” in terms of praying an imprecation (praying God’s judgment down upon the perpetrator) on the “enemy”. While the song is all too true to human nature and to our culture, Jesus called us to pray more mercifully than that.

Common Grace and Uncommon Love (v.46-48).        

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.

It is his sun… he gives light to all regardless of their moral character. God also sends the rain, it doesn’t happen by chance, and it comes to just and unjust alike. Sun and rain, essentials for life all the more appropriate metaphors for God’s loving provision for the agrarian society listening to Jesus’ words. God’s love was wider than they thought.

So, how wide is our love? Do we speak encouragingly to strangers or just to those in our circle? Do we deem some as not worthy of our greeting? I often wonder how many people I see during the day actually have anyone actually talk to them beyond taking their coffee order. Jesus says that his kind of love reaches beyond our cultural circles to touch those in the margins. So how different are we from those who don’t know the gospel of the kingdom? If the answer is, “Not very,” have we really listened to and obeyed the message Jesus spoke?

Jesus tells us that we must be perfect (Greek = teleios) but what does that mean? R.T. France writes that the meaning of “teleios is wider than moral perfection: it indicates completeness, wholeness, a life totally integrated to the will of God and thus reflecting his character.”[2] It is instructive to see that the only other use of teleios in Matthew is in 19:20-21 where Jesus is pointing out the compartmentalized heart of a rich young man who was holding back from full commitment to following Christ. Is there anything in our lives that might keep us from following Jesus into the merciful love of his missional kingdom?

Perfect means brought to completion, full-grown, lacking nothing. Jesus is saying to the people of that day, as well as to us now, that they and we should not be satisfied with half-way obedience to the law of love, as were the scribes and Pharisees, who never penetrated the heart of the law.[3]

Perfect is where following Jesus leads. It is the goal towards which we journey together. But we followers of Jesus can’t journey together without love and mercy to share. And frankly no one from outside would want to go with us either. Mercy remembers that Jesus set us free from the guilt of our past. We all have a past, and having been delivered from that ugly history by the mercy of God in Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 6:9-11) we are called to share it with others (2 Cor. 5:14-21).

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[1] Hughes, The Sermon on the Mount, 143.

[2] R.T. France, Matthew, 129. 

[3] Hendricksen, The Gospel of Matthew, 317.

Responding to Insults, Lawsuits, and Forced Labor—Jesus’ 4 Case-studies in Applied Meekness

In this week’s post, we consider Jesus’ take on the perhaps the oldest law in the world, Lex Talionis, or in English, the Law of Retribution in Matthew 5:38-43,

                    “You have heard that it was said,

‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’

   But I say to you,

        Do not resist the one who is evil.

    But if anyone slaps         you on the right cheek,

                                 turn to him the other also.

   And if anyone would sue you

                                       and take your tunic,

                                 let him have your cloak as well.

   And if anyone       forces you to go one mile,

                                         go with him two miles.

       Give to           the one who begs from you,

and do not refuse the one who 

                                     would borrow from you.

The law of retribution taught “An eye for an eye” and as harsh as it sounds to the modern ear it was actually designed to limit the escalation of violent responses, and prevent ongoing blood feuds like the Hatfields and the McCoys. It also took retribution away from the realm of an individual vendetta and put it in the hands of the Government. We can see this law applied in three different contexts in the Old Testament,

• Exodus 21:22-25 Premature Birth injuries 
• Leviticus 24:17-22 Personal Injury claims
• Deuteronomy 19:15-21 Laws Concerning Witnesses (penalties for perjury)

However, at the time of Christ, the focus of retaliation had shifted back to that of revenge. People were using this law as a way to get their pound of flesh from those who had offended them. Jesus forbids retaliation in the face of persecution for the sake of Christ and kingdom righteousness. He gives

Four Case Studies

Jesus' subsequent teaching contains four examples, or illustrations, of how Christian disciples should endure personal injury and endure self-sacrifice in the face of persecution.

v. 39 Slapping (Insults)

    But I say to you,
        Do not resist the one who is evil.
    But if anyone slaps          you on the right cheek,
                                 turn to him the other also. 

This slap on the right cheek is not an “I could have had a V8!” kind of slap on the forehead, nor a Special Agent Gibbs’ “get it together” slap to the back of the head.  It was a deliberate and dehumanizing insult. Rabbinic literature shows that being slapped backhand was twice as insulting as an open-handed slap. Notice that Jesus specifies the right cheek…which, since the majority of people are right-handed would imply a most insulting backhanded slap. This was not someone trying to kill you or your family this was someone who wanted to treat you disrespectfully. Jesus’ ethic doesn’t necessarily demand absolute pacifism although many take it that way. What it does suggest is that you don’t stoop to their level and slap them back…instead, you let them insult the other side of your face as well.

v. 40 Suing (Lawsuits)

 And if anyone would sue you
                                 and take your tunic,
                           let him have your cloak as well.

I can’t think about a tunic now without laughing as I remember Kahmunrah’s “It’s not a dress it’s a tunic” scene in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009). However, what this verse describes is not funny. This type of lawsuit describes someone wanting to wring the last possessions possible away from the very poorest in the land…those whose tunic, or the very shirt on their back, was their most valuable possession that could be repossessed. This is indicative of those who have lost all they own because of their discipleship.  Exodus 22:26-27 says,

If ever you take your neighbor's cloak in pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down, for that is his only covering, and it is his cloak for his body; in what else shall he sleep? And if he cries to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.

If someone wants your tunic, Jesus says we should not hold back our cloak as well, which represents our basic human rights. We are not called to defend even our own basic human rights to a cloak to wrap up in at night. This is a far cry from our “demand-your-rights-and-more” culture that is willing to use the power of litigation to enrich themselves at the expense of others. The disciple of Christ is not to be a taker, but a giver.

v. 41 Schlepping (Forced labor)

    And if anyone       forces you to go one mile,
                                         go with him two miles
 
In case you didn’t know, schlepping is actually a Yiddish word that means “to carry or drag an unwieldy object” and it may also be a term used to refer to a “clumsy person”. So in a sense, when asked to carry the soldier’s pack, schlepping was what you were doing, as well as what you might be called by the owner of the pack. Simon of Cyrene was pressed into service by the Roman soldiers to carry Jesus' cross. Some believe it was because they knew that he was a follower of Jesus.
So, when compelled by an oppressive law to carry the soldier’s pack and luggage for 1000 paces, what was the disciple to do? Jesus encouraged his disciples to show coercive love by carrying the load 2000 paces. In fact, the point was not to begrudgingly give another 1000 paces but to cheerfully serve with a generous and loving spirit. How can the man show the oppressor that he is not merely a slave or an object to be used? You cannot rebel without suffering a beating or even death, you cannot respond with a bad attitude without giving the soldier the satisfaction that they have power over you What can you do?  In love, you can go twice as far as they have a right to expect... Recently a bakery was sued for refusing to bake a cake for a gay wedding and has been hit with huge fines. Some astute conservative politicians noted that it might have been a more biblical response for the bakery to bake them two cakes instead of refusing to bake one.

v. 42 Siphoning (economic harassment)

    Give to               the one who begs from you,
 and do not refuse the one who  
                                     would borrow from you.             

This verse about giving to those who beg does not mean that anytime someone asks for money you should give it to them. Sometimes helping hurts, as Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert make clear in their book, When Helping Hurts. Do we ever stop to consider who was permitted to beg at the time of Christ? They were usually blind, maimed, or diseased not merely those who would not work. Today we are faced with people begging for money at almost every freeway onramp and exit. Some have legitimate needs and some do not. What captured my attention in this passage was the word apostrepho which is here translated as “do not refuse.” Literally, it means “do not turn away from” and I like this aspect of our response to those who ask to borrow. What if we chose to not turn away? What would that mean? What would it look like? How can we best be loving and relational? Sometimes it is easier to give a bit of money or food and walk away, but even that superficial giving can still be a “turning away from” them. I am reminded of 1 Corinthians 13:3, “If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.”

So in these four examples of persecution and harassment which Jesus put forth, we can see that disciples who follow Jesus are challenged to:

1.    Respond to others better than they deserve. (v.39)

2.    Give to others more than they try to take. (v.40)

3.    Go further and work harder than those in power can demand. (v.41)

4.    Care more relationally for those in need than they actually expect. (v.42)

In applied meekness, Jesus did all four of these things for us…out of His unmatched love for us. To Him be the glory!

Blessed are the... Beatitude Blogs?

We recently spent three weeks in church talking about the beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-12) and I will be blogging on them individually at Compelled2 my cultural engagement blog throughout the summer as part of my doctoral work. 

You are welcome to follow along...and comment too. 

I will add links to these blogs below, as they become available.

1) Blessed are the poor in spirit (Matthew 5:3)
     Psalm 26: King David vs. Jesus?
Posted July 2, 2015

2) Blessed are those who mourn (Matthew 5:4)

"Mourning Has Broken": Living in the Blessed Sorrow and Joy of Jesus

 Posted July 15, 2015

3) Blessed are the meek (Matthew 5:5)

“It’s Happy Slappy Time!”: Whose character do we reveal by what we do and say?
Posted July 31, 2015

4) Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (Matthew 5:6)
Daughters of the Leech, or Disciples of Christ?
Posted August 14, 2015

5) Blessed are the merciful (Matthew 5:7)
Like Admah and Zeboiim? Pardon me but your mercy is showing!
Posted August 24, 2015

6) Blessed are the pure in heart (Matthew 5:8)
“I Can See Clearly Now…”
Posted September 11, 2015

7) “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God." (Matthew 5:9)

From Blue Helmets to Family: Blessed are the Peacemakers

Posted September 25, 2015

No Oats! (Oops, I mean Oaths)

Review: “You have heard it was said…But I say to you…” In recent weeks we have been challenged by Jesus’ counter-cultural teachings about the heart of God's law in areas where the spirit of the law was being violated by a merely external righteousness. Tough subjects like...

1. Anger Insults and Murder
2. Lust and Adultery
3. Divorce and its results

In all these areas, we have seen that Pharisaic legalism was not righteous enough, for it was simply looking for an authoritative ruling on what it could get away with. Jesus boldly pointed his hearers back to the heart of the Law. This week, we examined why Jesus said, “Do not take an oath at all.” in Matthew 5:33-37.

But before we start, try saying "No oaths" three times fast. If you are like me, it comes out sounding like "No oats!" which would be tragic for me since Cheerios are my favorite breakfast cereal. This silly exercise got me thinking about cereal box promises—that often try to make chocolate-flavored marshmallow-laden sugary cereal sound healthy. I don't buy it—literally. Are we given to the inaccuracies of fast-talking, over-promising, puffing the product, or spinning the facts, to our own benefit? Here is what Jesus said about oaths in Matthew 5:33-37,

               “Again you have heard

                          that it was said to those of old,

                     ‘You shall not swear falsely,

              but shall perform to the Lord

              what you      have sworn.’

    But I say to you,

                   Do not take an oath at all,

either by heaven,

                       for it is the throne of God,

        or by the earth,

                       for it is his footstool,

      or by Jerusalem,

                       for it is the city of the great King.

             And do not take an oath

          by your head,

                       for you cannot make one hair white or black.

          Let what you say be simply

                                   ‘Yes’ or ‘No’;

       anything more than this

                                         comes from evil.

What is an Oath?

An oath was originally the act of verbally invoking someone or something greater and more trustworthy than yourself to vouch for your truthfulness. It was something you said to get people to believe you that often involved an implied self-curse for lying (along the lines of the children’s rhyming oath, “cross my heart hope to die stick a needle in my eye”). Similarly, a vow was a promise (often conditional) to do something for God or for another. While two different things, by the time of Christ they were virtually synonymous.

The Old Testament Supported Oaths

Several passages in the Old Testament support using oaths while at the same time warning against not telling the truth and not keeping your promises.  Here are a few of those verses:

• Leviticus 19:11-12 “You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; you shall not lie to one another. You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.
• Exodus 20:7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
• Numbers 30:1-2 Moses spoke to the heads of the tribes of the people of Israel, saying, “This is what the Lord has commanded. If a man vows a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.
• Deuteronomy 23:21-23 “If you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay fulfilling it, for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and you will be guilty of sin. But if you refrain from vowing, you will not be guilty of sin. You shall be careful to do what has passed your lips, for you have voluntarily vowed to the Lord your God what you have promised with your mouth. (also Psalm 50:14)
• Ecclesiastes 5:4-7 When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow. It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. Let not your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands? For when dreams increase and words grow many, there is vanity; but God is the one you must fear.
• Hebrews 6:13-17 (Genesis 22:16) For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath

Why were Oaths such a problem for Jesus?

In keeping with the other passages we have studied, Pharisaic legalism would say that it is only when you swear (by God) that you have to keep your word. In fact, there was a whole section of rabbinic law dedicated to making clear what oaths/vows were binding and which were not. What had once guaranteed truthfulness and faithfulness had become a way to lie and cheat. In this passage, Jesus was saying something revolutionary—you have to keep your word all the time! If you have to "promise" or "swear an oath" to get people to believe you then you are not known for being an honest person. It should not be any surprise that this follows on the heels of the passages on lust, adultery, and divorce which all have to do with deception or broken promises.

Later in Matthew's Gospel, we see that Jesus went to great lengths to expose the hypocrisy and the legalism of the scribes and Pharisees. The focus in this current passage is on the place of oaths in the kingdom, but the scathing rebuke of the scribes' legal nitpicking is helpful in revealing the attitude of the Pharisees at that time.

“Woe to you, blind guides, who say,

     ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing,

but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’

You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? And you say,

     ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing,

but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.’

You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred?

  So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it.

And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it.

And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.” (Matthew 23:16-22)

The lawyers of Jesus’ day knew that oaths invoking God were binding via the 3^rd Commandment's, “You shall not take the Lord’s name in vain.” So instead of keeping their promises, they carefully crafted loopholes to show that what they were swearing by did not invoke God’s name. D.A. Carson puts it in perspective, ““If oaths designed to encourage truthfulness become occasions for clever lies and casuistical deceit, Jesus will abolish oaths….Jesus insists that whatever a man swears by is related to God in some way, and therefore every oath is implicitly in God’s name—heaven, earth, Jerusalem and even the hairs of the head are God’s sway and ownership…”[1]

Do you remember Kaa the Constrictor in the old animated Jungle Book movie? His hissing hypnotizing song was much like the deceptive oaths of the Pharisees.

 “Trust in me, just in me,... and soon you’ll be inside of me.”

We should not lie to lower the defenses of others so that we might consume them!

There are at least two commandments involved here, “Do not take the Lord’s name in vain” and “Do not bear false witness.” No matter what we might swear by, we have no right to invoke it. There is no co-signer to our verbal promissory note and there should be no appeal to absent authority.

So how should a follower of Jesus speak and answer others?

Here are some of the simple notes we took…

1.    With Sincerity: give a thoroughly honest, integrous answer!

• Tell the truth all the time (Eph :15-16, 25) "Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, ¹⁶ from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love…Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another."

                    —not just when you swear
                    —not just when you swear to the Lord
                    —not just when you are in court (false witness)

• Mean what you say, and live your life in accordance.
• Tell the same story no matter who is listening.
• Sincerity doesn’t mean we have to be rude. We are to speak the truth in love.
• When you find yourself fudging the facts, correct the record. Remember my cereal box illustration. Even my healthy Cheerios' box makes the claim to be GMO free, but then stops to clarify that there may be some cross contamination from other product lines. Let's not minimize our inaccuracies, instead let's confess and correct them!

2.    With Simplicity: Yes or No. (v.37) anything more comes from evil.

·         Where many words are present, sin is not absent (Prov. 10:18-19) and we often use profanity to convince people that we are serious.

·         An Oath is needed only if a person’s word alone is unreliable; it is an admission of our failure in living a life of truthfulness.

3.    With Steadfastness: an answer that can be counted on to be dependable.

·         When we swear and break our word then

o   We hurt ourselves,

o   We put ourselves in bondage whether we realize it or not.

o   God holds us accountable for our vows.

·         James 5:12 [in the context of being patient while suffering] repeats Jesus command, “But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.”

In my message, I added several “Bonus Points” that I knew I would not be able to cover in church for people to figure out on their own, and I include them here for your use as well. #4 and #6 are easy, #5 will require interpretation and #7 is two words. Have fun!

4.    With ________________: to turn away wrath (Proverbs 15:1-2)

5.    With ________________: to keep from causing injury or offense (Col 4:6; Eph. 4:29)

6.    With _______________: giving the Lord time to speak to our hearts (James 1:19)

7.    With ____________  __________: If we are filled with the Spirit then He will direct our words (Eph. 5:18-20; Col. 3:15-17)

[Answers will be provided in comments at a later date...if anyone is interested.]

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[1] Expositors Bible Commentary, Volume 8, 153-154.