“Love Who?” 9-17-23
Overview
Love Who?
The call to love runs throughout Scripture—"You shall love your neighbor as yourself" Leviticus 19:18, "Love one another as I have loved you" John 15:12, "Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God" 1 John 4:7. It seems straightforward, yet we manage to complicate it—which is why Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, addresses the issue head-on.
In Matthew 5:43-48, Jesus says, "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'" But that "hate your enemy" was never in Scripture; it was a rabbinical addition. Leviticus 19 also commands, "You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge," and Exodus 23:4-5 requires you to return your enemy's straying ox and help relieve the burden of an animal belonging to one who hates you. The teachers of the day had also narrowed "neighbor" to mean only one's own people. Biblically, a neighbor is anyone in need—as Jesus made clear in the parable of the Good Samaritan Luke 10:25-37, where the despised Samaritan, not the priest or Levite, proved to be the true neighbor through self-sacrificial agape love—love that always shows itself in action.
Jesus then asks two piercing questions: "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 and sisters, what more are you doing than others?" Tax collectors were despised extortioners; Gentiles were considered beyond God's mercy. Yet even they love their own. The bar Jesus sets is higher: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, "so that you may be children of your Father in heaven." We don't become God's children by such love; rather, such love gives evidence that we already are. Just as God sends sun and rain on the evil and the good alike—His common grace—so His children are called to reflect that same indiscriminate love.
This is hard. Our temptation is to love only those we like, those whose personality, politics, and priorities align with ours. Moses faced grumbling, jealous, ungrateful people, yet kept loving them. And the deepest ground of this calling is the gospel itself: "While we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son" Romans 5:8-10. God loved us as His enemies. When Jesus concludes, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect," the word strikes us as law—we fall so far short. But it also comes as gospel: in the waters of baptism we are clothed in Christ's righteousness, and God sees us through the perfection of His Son. We remain saint and sinner at the same time, and God keeps coming with His word of grace, lifting us up and forming in us a love we could never generate ourselves—the fruit of the Holy Spirit, by which we bring glory to the One who loved the likes of us.
Transcript
Would you open your Bibles, please, with me, to the fifth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew 3s
for our study this morning? 9s
Matthew the fifth chapter if you're using a Pew edition of Holy Scripture, you're going 11s
to find that on page 5, Matthew the fifth chapter in the New Testament. 15s
In my first call in the state of Washington, I had the privilege of serving with Pastor 23s
Milton Grim's root. 29s
Pastor Grim's root had founded that congregation 40 years before. 32s
He was a gentle, gentle soul, a wonderful, wonderful pastor. 41s
And if there was a verse from Holy Scripture, that would, was his favorite. 50s
But it was the passages of love, one another. 57s
Love one another. 63s
Pastor Grim's root would say it often and he'd loved those verses. 65s
The call to love is pervasive throughout Scripture, isn't it? 75s
We read, for example, in Leviticus the 19th chapter, it says, 82s
you shall love your neighbor as yourself. 87s
In John the 15th chapter, this is my commandment that you love one another as I have 92s
loved you. 99s
In first, John the 4th chapter, beloved, let us love one another because love is from God. 101s
It seems like a rather straightforward message. 112s
Doesn't it? 115s
Rather, rather clear, right? 116s
That all, how we can mess it up, 121s
occasioning insightful, piercing questions of our Lord. 128s
Look on the police, at verse 43, the setting here is the sermon on the Mount, 136s
greatest sermon. 144s
Jesus has sat down, that's how they would preach in ancient day. 146s
He's sat down to teach and to preach to His disciples. 149s
He's gone through the Beatitudes, the be merciful, or blessed are those who are merciful. 155s
Blessed are the peacemakers, et cetera. He's gone through the Beatitudes. 163s
He's gone through the call to be salt and light. He's gone through the correct understanding of the 168s
law and now he comes to the topic of love. Verse 3, 43, you have heard that it was said, 176s
you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. 184s
Right, that's what they had heard, but it's not what was said. 192s
Because the rabbinical teaching here in the day, they added the hate, 201s
where that's not found in Scripture. We are not called to hate our enemy. 210s
Why, in Leviticus the 19th chapter again, the first part of it, the Scripture says, 220s
you shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people. 225s
What they had done in ancient day, the rabbinical teaching is they also narrowed the understanding of neighbor. 234s
Biblically, a neighbor is anyone who is in need. Scripture tells us in Exodus 23, chapter. 243s
When you come upon your enemy's ox or donkey going astray, you shall bring it back. 254s
When you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden, you must help to set it 261s
free. See they had heard to love, and then they were those to hate. 270s
Oh, they had heard it, all right, but it wasn't what was said. 281s
Was this this call to love? It can get so messed up indeed. 288s
Jesus them, verse 44 says, but I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 302s
so that you may be children of your father in heaven. Now, now we don't become children of our 311s
father in heaven by loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute us. No, when we love our 319s
enemies and pray for those who persecute us, we are giving by God's grace evidence of the fact 327s
that we are children of the father. He goes on to save. For he makes his son rise on the evil 334s
and on the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. That's what's called the 344s
common grace of God. The sun rises for everyone, the rain falls for everyone. That's the common 351s
grace of God and the call then to love. The call then to love is we are to reflect then the 361s
common grace that God gives to us. Our call to love all people means that we are to reflect then 370s
that common grace that God shares with all. You've heard this, I say to you, Jesus says, 382s
then here they come, here come the questions, verse 46, 397s
for if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? If you love those who love you, 404s
not really too spectacular, is it? Question follows, 421s
do not even the tax collectors do the same? Put yourself into the sandals of the 427s
people of old tax collectors were hated, they were extortionists, they could stop you and they could 439s
whatever they could get out of you, they could pocket minus what they had to turn in. 449s
So there was extortion that was rampant with tax collectors. Remember what did Zacchaeus do? 456s
What he wanted to see Jesus? Where did Zacchaeus go? The tax collector? Not only because he was short, 461s
but why did he go up in the tree? He even would be safe in the tree. He's in a crowd there and he wants 467s
to see Jesus. Bad things will happen to a tax collector in a crowd. Jesus turns to them and says, 472s
don't even the tax collectors love those, love them. Can he go on? 480s
Verse 47 and if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even 493s
the Gentiles do the same? In the mind of the Jew of ancient day, a Gentile was beyond the mercy of God. 500s
And so when Jesus drops in these questions here, when he drops tax collectors and Gentiles, 519s
can you imagine how those questions landed to the people? Can you 530s
have any difficult people in your lives that you find it difficult to love? Anybody come from 560s
mind? Someone you say they'd fallen the category of difficult. I think of Moses, he had a few 572s
difficult people in his life, didn't he? Moses here called by the Lord, of course, as he 585s
has Lord propels the people to the Promised Land. Moses here is leading them. And he had a few 592s
difficult people he was dealing with because what was the reaction of the people? They started to complain 600s
about the food. They started to complain about the lack of water. And they started to complain that 604s
they weren't back in Egypt and they said, you know, the good old days, back in Egypt, really, 612s
the good old days, back in Egypt, they were slaves in Egypt under the hand of an oppressive 618s
Pharaoh. But now all of a sudden they look back and they say, all the good old days, why can't we 625s
have the good old days? And then they said, how can we can't have another leader? Why do we have to 631s
word jealous of him? And we see in Scripture that Moses, there were times when he just disappeared. 643s
But what did Moses do? He kept on loving the difficult people in his life. 651s
Kept loving. Our temptation, right, beloved, our temptation is to love those that we love. 666s
Our temptation is to love those that we have things in common with that that are that are 686s
us. Things that we like to, or people that we like to do things with that we have common interests with. 695s
And the love can seem to flow so very easy, right? To those that we love, our temptation is to love 708s
those that we like to love those that we like. Go win about those where your personality just doesn't 718s
mesh with. What about those whose politics differ from yours? What about those whose priorities 734s
are just the inverse of yours? How about how about those people? Maybe the people that should just 755s
don't like? What about Jesus has a conversation with a lawyer in the 10th chapter of Luke? 777s
And as part of the conversation with a lawyer, he says, you shall love the Lord your God with all your 792s
words. And the lawyer says, who's my neighbor? Who's my neighbor? Jesus then tells the 803s
parable. Remember, a parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. He tells the story 812s
about the man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. That root, everybody knew it. Everybody knew that 817s
was a dangerous root. You would take that root. There could be a strong possibility that you could 825s
get robbed and hurt on that root. Jesus tells the story about this man going down from Jerusalem 834s
to Jericho on that root. And what happens? He's robbed and he's beaten. He's left the side of the road. 842s
Jesus says, a priest comes along. He sees it, goes to the other side. Leave it comes along. 851s
He sees it, goes to the other side. And then a Samaritan, Jesus says, comes along. 858s
Okay, back in the sandals here of the people that are here in the story here, 864s
when Jesus drops Samaritan, the Jews and the Samaritans hated each other. They hated each other. 868s
So the same one here, as talking about tax collectors and gentiles, now he's dropping Samaritans 877s
here and says it's the Samaritan that tended to the wounds here of the man. Put him on his own 886s
animal, took him to an inn, gave the innkeeper to Denarii equivalent to two days' worth of labor. 894s
And said, and whatever tab you run up, I'm going to pay you back when I come back. 903s
Jesus says, which of the three do you think was in neighbor to the man who fell into the hands 912s
of the rocks? That's a gaupe, love. That's the highest form of love. That's self-sacrificial love. 923s
A gaupe, love. With a gaupe love, you may have emotion attached to it. Certainly, there's an attitude. 939s
You may have emotion with a gaupe love, but you always have action. 948s
In 1st Corinthians 13, chapter 1 is the love chapter, the 15 characteristics of love are all birds. 956s
They're all birds. Scripture tells us, first John the 4th chapter. 967s
God's love was revealed among us in this way. God sent action. His only son into the world so that we 973s
might live through him. Beloved since God loved us so much we also ought to love one another. 982s
Paul writes in Romans the 5th chapter. He says, but God proves his love for us in that while we 990s
still were sinners Christ died for us. He goes on and to say, for if while we were, 998s
now catch this, for if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, 1007s
much more surely having been reconciled will be saved by his life. That's who we are by nature. 1018s
The Scripture says, we are born as an enemy of God Almighty wanting nothing to do with him, 1025s
but Jesus bears our sin on the cross for giving us. He loves us, his, 1033s
enemies. And we are called bad to the Lord. 1047s
What plays at verse 48? Jesus says, be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly father is 1060s
perfect. You see, as we hear that word, it comes to us. It comes to us as law. 1073s
It comes to us because we realize how far short we fall of the perfection of God. 1085s
But it also comes to us as gospel. 1094s
Because God looks at us through the lenses of Jesus Christ, God looks at us through the 1100s
shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have been mailed, perfect. We are cloaked in His righteous 1109s
garment in the waters of baptism, and God looks at us and sees the perfection of Christ. 1117s
This side of heaven will be Satan's center. 1128s
Same time. And we'll fall short so often of loving, 1135s
we'll fall so short of that. And God keeps coming with His word of grace. 1151s
God keeps coming with His word of grace and lifting us up and then hovering us 1161s
into this, it's not new to be a different people in the world, his people. 1169s
But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Love your enemies. 1190s
And pray for those who persecute you. 1203s
And we're to love who? 1209s
Even the difficult people in our lives. Even the people that we may not like too much. 1217s
Even them. And when we do, when we do that by the grace of God, we give evidence, 1233s
we give evidence of the one to whom we belong. 1249s
When by the grace of God, He births in us and manifests in us, 1256s
a love that we can't generate in ourselves. But it is a love that is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. 1261s
When by God's grace, we manifest that, we bring glory to Him, 1269s
who loves the likes of us. 1284s