If you are in Jesus, then one day you will be perfect like your heavenly Father is perfect. But that commands comes to you today. And by His Spirit he calls you that life. If there is one thing I have come to realize is that we too often compare ourselves with those around to see what the he Christian life is like, rather then with God. God is our standard, not the most holy member in the church.
Today we are going to briefly expand on some thoughts from last week, and look at what the command “be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect means.Your father in heaven still sends rain and gives food every day to the worst of sinners. To those rebelling against him and blaspheming him In word and deed he returns his care and provision. The gospel of Jesus Christ is always driven and motivated by love. Even in the worst of persecution. Even in the face of the worst enemy.
Following Jesus means that you are becoming more like him
- In Love
- In perfection
Love your enemies
Verse 43-44a says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate you enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies…”.
Here is the climax set forth in what is virtually an oxymoron. Love your enemies. Is not an enemy someone that is not loved by you? Is that not the definition of an enemy? And when you love him, doesn’t that entail that he is no longer your enemy?
Exacrtly. This the the path that the cross opens up for us. This whole sermon is pushing us toward the cross. Through his death enemies become family. This is not offered as a piece of pragmatic wisdom but as a reflection of the character of God himself. This is a challenge to live as a disciple. . You are drawing your standard from God, not from those around you.
Verse 44 continues and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.
About a year ago a reformed chines pastor was imprisoned for continue to preach. In a letter to his church he wrote
If I am imprisoned for a long or short period of time, if I can help reduce the authorities’ fear of my faith and of my Savior, I am very joyfully willing to help them in this way. Those who lock me up will one day be locked up by angels. Those who interrogate me will finally be questioned and judged by Christ. When I think of this, the Lord fills me with a natural compassion and grief toward those who are attempting to and actively imprisoning me. Pray that the Lord would use me, that he would grant me patience and wisdom, that I might take the gospel to them.
He says, pray that the Lord would use him, to love his enemies! He knows this happens supremely through prayer. Pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. What does the son do for his persecutors? He prays for them! You see the more you pray for someone the harder it becomes to hate them. And the less we hate them the more we will want to pray for them. So start today. We all have those people that we dislike. Whether its our boss, co-worker, teacher, fellow brother. Make that person the special object of your prayers. Commit to pray especially for that one.
And its not about just pretending to love.I do not really like it when people say, “I have to love you but don’t have to like you.” What does that even mean? That we can just pretend, but meanwhile harbor bitter thoughts in our hearts? That love is just an act of the will not something that flows from a transformed heart. That was not the way that Jesus loved us. That is not the heart of the Father. We were his enemies and he loved us. Again, only his love will enable us to love like this. We love because he first loved us.
I think in order to really get this we need to get the full weight of who our enemy is. Jesus tell us the parable in the good Samaritan. First a pastor walks by. A respected member of the community. He preaches nice, dresses nice, has a nice family. And is well liked. He sees a stranger. But he has a visit to go on. He is busy. The man doesn’t look like he is going to make it anyways. And its a dangerous part of town to stop anyways. And he walks by. Next an elder walks by. He has been an elder a few times. Nice respectable family. Good marriage. He sees the man and he think, I have a family to take care of. The bussines is not going to run itself. And he goes on his way.
Next, Jesus says that a Samaritan walks by. When he said this word, “Samaritan”, you could feel a hushed silence over the crowd. This was one of the most hated groups. It would be like saying something like the head of the neighboring terrorist organization walked by. And he sees this man, his own life in danger, takes his time, his money, and energy and gives this man what he needs. Who was a neighbor to the dying man? The Samaritan. I can imagine how to the religious leaders it would have been hard to even get that word our of their mouths when Jesus asked them this question.
You see we read this too easily. In case you forgot: Enemies are people that do not like you. The Jews were really good at taking care of their own. But the problem was they were supposed to be light. How are we doing? Are we loving those who don’t return the favor? Reformer John Calvin referred to his detractors or enemies in 16th century Geneva as “tearing wolves.” These were not stuffed kids’ toys; they were leaders in the church, leaders in the political life of the community, snarling enemies with power and the will to use it against him.
You see when we are not in the middle of the battle, waging war against the kingdom of darkness, and all our relationships are intact, this command seems kind of manageable maybe even easy. Loving pretend enemies is a lot like singing opera in the car by yourself. It sounds good and doesn’t seem too hard. But in the parable of the good Samaritan Jesus teaches them that the neighbor is their enemy.
So who is your neighbor? It includes the person who has leveled canons at you, wants to destroy you, and seeks your ruin.
The Psalms are written by people who had these enemies. Worst of all, some of the psalmists’ enemies were once friends, members of his own household, people he had worshiped with, his partners in ministry (Psalms 55:12-14). And Jesus tells us to love these enemies.”
Let’s not sugar coat things when we say enemies. This is an impossible command unless you have the spirit of God, and you have been born of him. Don’t even try. You need to understand the love of Jesus, soak in that love for you to make a beginning at this command. Again this is all about Looking to Christ! That is the WHOLE of discipleship!
Vs 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same. Tax collectors: These were the most hated, and very often the corrupt of society. They are often used in the same sentence as prostitutes, and sinners. if you are just going to love those who love you, this church is just like any gang on the cap flats. That is exactly what they do. They love the other members of the gang they love their moms. But the disciples are not the same as the tax collectors or the gangs! I imagine the religious leaders during that time didn’t like being compared to tax collectors. But he says if you act like them, then you are like them. If you act like the world your
He goes on in verse 47, “And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than the others? Do not even the gentiles do the same? The point Jesus is making in these verses is everyone can do the easy thing of loving the people that you love. Hanging out with the people you like. Talking to the people that listen. Ubenelievers do that. Say hi make small talk to the people they like. The Christian I a new community, Made p of very diverse people, personalities, characters. We greet, speak to, love each other. Grow together. Experience more of who Christ is through each other. If all you do ever is friendly greet the people you like, you are not really being salt and light then. You are not really acting and living the heavenly life. The Spirit filled life. You are blending right in with the world, and if the salt has lost its saltiness, its only good for being thrown out. As he says you may as well be thrown out.
If you love those who love you. If you love the people that are like you that think like that act like you that worship like you that have the same culturally background like you, that care about the same things like you, that have the same political leanings as you what good is that you.
The Christian witness stands out when they love their enemies. When a man hugs the killer of his brother and offers forgiveness. Like what happened last year in a courtroom. When an sexual abused offers forgiveness to her abuser even as she witnesses against him to give him life sentence in prison. Like what happened two years ago. When a man hangs on across and asks the Father to forgive his murderers. Like what happened two thousand years ago. That is what made it all possible. That there could be reconciliation. Between God and man, and between humanity. This love had to come from above.
So it is so important in obeying this command that you first are a disciple. Because only then will you begin to obey. Of you see that this is how Jesus has loved you, even after you treated him as an enemy. And still does…
The best of our good works done this side of glory are, as Augustine called them, merely “splendid sins.” So, it is for all of us. Our enemies don’t know the half of what actually lives inside us. In the dark recesses of our hearts, we’re worse than they think. It’s not just they who are enemies. We have done what they are doing. Every flirtation with the world aligns me as an enemy of God (James 4:4). Every sin is enmity against God. Who among us does not have our lingering friendships with the world? We are the enemy. Yet we are loved. And that love has turned us from enemies to friends. From strangers to family.
Jesus, who calls us to love our enemies, supremely did so when he laid down his life for me his enemy, fully to pay the debt of sin I owed for my cosmic offenses against a holy holy holy God.
Be perfect:
In Christ the impossible becomes possible. Until we see how impossible it is on our own to live this life, we wont run to Christ. We wont fall before him and ask him to enable us. If we are not in Christ we will be crushed and be in despair. Only in him can we go to him for forgiveness, a million times. Only by his Spirit are we enabled. You see this is first and foremost about your relationship with Jesus. If that is not there. Forget it.
We need him. It’s not for nothing that Prayer stands at the center of this sermon.
Just listen to his final command in this section. “You therefore must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” Wrongly understood, that has to be the most terrifying verse in the Bible. I can’t manage ten minutes of perfection, let alone a life that is pronounced perfect as God himself is perfect. We must have an mediator. We must have someone who is perfect. Who can stand in for us - who acts on our behalf and for our eternal perfection? Jesus himself is our righteousness, the one who faultlessly obeyed his Father’s will, and imputed his own perfect righteousness to my account. And as we come to realize that, that righteous becomes more and more a part of our life through he Spirits work.
The OT prophets foretold a time when there would be a change among Gods people. Not only would sins be forgiven, but obedience for God would spring up from the heart. tThroughout this sermon he has gone to the heart. To the character of a person. Who are you? Who is your striving to be? Better than the person next to you? The character of the law was to point to God. To his perfection.
This commitment is about a complete commitment to our Heavenly Father. That is why the word here is telious. It is more then just moral flawlessness, it is about completeness, spiritual maturity. It is about a total and absolute allegiance to God. Matthew uses this same word again in 19:21 when Jesus says to the rich man who had obeyed all the commands and wanted ot know what he still ad to do to have eternal life. Jesus says, “If you would be perfect (telios), go, and sell all you have and give to the poor…. And come follow me.”
Follow me. That’s what The Son is saying to all who would be adopted sons. Follow me in proclaiming who God is. Just as it was in the OT Israel was set apart to God to reflect his character and who he is, so the church community carries on this task. They are Gods chose people. This does not mean unqualified perfection is possible this side of eternity. No he has taught us to acknowledge our spiritual bankruptcy, and ask for forgiveness. But the perfection of the father, the goal of the law, is what all disciples of Jesus pursue.
He is summarizing this whole section with this one line. Be perfect as you heavenly father is perfect. The true direction of the law is not just restaint upon sin, or concessions arising from the hardness of heart, or even the love of the law. Not it points to the perfection of God found in His Son Jesus. In whose image every true Christian is being moulded. We are set about for God, to show the world and each other who God is. Is this happening?
Without Christ life death and resurrection being mine, I can no more love my enemies than I can measure up to the perfect holiness of Almighty God. But as I grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ and he continues his gracious work of sanctifying me–and using my enemies to help in that–I come to love him more as he first loved me while I was yet his enemy. The God who changes enemies like me into friends and fellow heirs, is at work in me. In Christ, I can do all things through my elder brother who strengthens me, even forgive and love the tearing wolves encircling me.
Let’s abandon hope in our own efforts to love our enemies or aiming at perfection! Lets fall down again before the cross, confess our sins, and ask for his all suffiecnt power to be at work within us. Let’s press on in the all-powerful strength of Christ today, as we–once willful enemies ourselves–seek his gracious enabling to do the impossible–love our enemies. And pursue his perfect righteousness.
Amen