In 1567, King Philip II of Spain appointed the Duke of Alba as governor of the lower part of the nation. The Duke was a bitter enemy of the newly emerging Protestant Reformation that was going on. His rule was called the Reign of Terror. His council was called the Bloody Council because he had ordered the slaughter of so many Protestants, those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ alone as Lord and Savior of their life. It's reported that one man who was sentenced to die for his biblical faith managed to escape during the dead of winter, and as he was being pursued by a lone soldier, The man came to a lake whose ice was thin and cracking. Somehow he managed to make it across the thin ice to safety. But as soon as he reached the other side, as soon as he got across, got his feet on solid ground, he heard his pursuer screaming. He turned around. and saw that the soldier had fallen through the ice and was about to drown. At the risk of being captured, of being tortured, of eventually being killed, or of himself drowning, the man went back across the lake, rescued his enemy, because the love of Christ constrained him to do it. He knew he had no other choice if he was to be faithful to his Lord. I wanna ask you first of all this morning, what would you have done if you were in that man's place? This morning we're gonna be looking at a passage where we're called to this kind of love. In Matthew chapter five, verses 21 through 48, which we've been looking at, Jesus has given us six corrective examples that show his superior righteousness and true interpretation of God's law in stark contrast to the self-righteousness and the false interpretations of the scribes and the Pharisees. So we've been going through each one of these six corrective examples where the scribes and the Pharisees said one thing, taking the scripture out of context, perverting it, and yet Jesus then comes along and says, this is what it means. Thus far, we've seen the first five Corrective examples. First, murder and anger. Second, adultery and lust. Third, divorce and remarriage. Fourth, vows and truthfulness. Last time we looked at retaliation and selfishness. Now we come to the sixth and the final corrective example. Again, if you have your Bibles, turn with me to Matthew 5. We're in verses 43 through 48. I want us to look this morning at four aspects, four aspects of Jesus' sixth corrective example regarding loving our enemies and the selflessness behind it. Last time we looked at retaliation, revenge, and the selfishness behind it. This morning we're gonna see the opposite. We're looking at loving our enemies and the selflessness that is motivating our heart behind that. The first aspect is what I call the priority of love. The priority of love Look what Jesus says in verse 43. You have heard that it was said, you shall love your enemies. Now stop there. And we've already seen that in each one of these six corrective examples, in verses 21 through 48, each one is introduced by the same two-part formula. But the first part is, you have heard that the ancients were told, or this minor variation as we see here, you have heard that it was said, or simply it was said. That's the first part. The second part is where Jesus then states, but I say to you. And he uses the same thing as we will see here. The people heard from the scribes and the Pharisees what the ancient Jewish rabbis taught regarding human relationships. The command, you shall love your neighbor, you shall love your neighbor is clearly taught in Leviticus chapter 19 and verse 18. But listen, listen to the whole passage. It says, you shall not take vengeance nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall, here it is, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. When asked by a lawyer what was the greatest commandment of the law, Jesus said, First of all, quoted Deuteronomy 6, verse 5, and Matthew 22, verse 37, he says this, you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. He then went on to quote Leviticus 19, verse 18. when he said, the second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two, these two commandments depend the whole law and the prophets. The law and the prophets is a reference to all of the Old Testament scriptures. In other words, the whole intent of the Word of God is to make us better lovers of God and lovers of people, lovers of one another. Loving God and loving others in the Great Commandment is inseparably connected in that our true love for God, our true love for God is going to be most clearly seen by how well we're offering love. to other people. You see, it's not enough to say, well, I love God, and then the way we relate to people is horrific. It's totally self-centered. Loving God and loving others are connected. So if we are truly loving the Lord, that will be evidence, it will be seen in how we relate to other people. The second commandment. To love our neighbor as ourself is often repeated in the New Testament. It's called the royal law. In James chapter 2 verse 8, Paul calls love the fulfillment of the law. Paul goes on to say that love is the goal of our instruction from the word of God. It's the goal as we learn God's word to become better lovers. Without it, he says in 1 Corinthians 13, one through three, without love in God's eyes, we are nothing. This is the priority of love. The priority of love for others has always been God's standard for human relationships. Now in its broadest sense, to love your neighbor, means to love everyone with whom we come in contact with, especially those in need. Jesus later would teach his parable of the good Samaritan to drive home that very point, that our neighbor is everybody in our life that we come in contact with, especially those who have a need. God commanded Israel to not only love one another, but also the stranger who resides with them. They were to show love for each other in very tangible ways, such as caring for and returning a lost animal to its rightful owner, as we see in Deuteronomy chapter 22, verses one through four. But they were to do the very same thing in Exodus chapter 23, verses four and five, for a personal enemy. They are to do the very same thing. A personal enemy is anyone who is antagonistic against us, who does us harm, who is not looking out for our best interest, and obviously is relating to us in ways that are sinful. Proverbs 25, 21 says, if your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat. If he is thirsty, give him water to drink. The Pharisees knew this very well. We will see what they did with that. God never condoned harming a personal enemy. He never told us to rejoice in their demise. Instead, God's people were to live out the priority of love towards fellow Jews, non-Jews, and even personal enemies. But the self-righteous scribes and Pharisees taught otherwise, and we see that in the second aspect of Jesus' sixth corrective example here. I call it the perversion of love. We had the priority of love. This is the perversion of love. Look again at verse 43. You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. Since the Jewish leaders knew God's standard of love was impossible, it was impossible to keep, An unbeliever cannot live out these truths. That's why we've said in the beginning that those who want to socially reform society is just trying to call people to live out the Sermon on the Mount. It's impossible. They can't do it. It takes a regenerated heart. It takes the Spirit of God's power within us to live the Christian life. An unbeliever can't do that. But these unbelieving Jewish leaders knew God's standard of love was impossible to live out in their own strength, and therefore they lowered God's standard. They brought it down to a humanly acceptable level that was less demanding, that didn't require heart obedience and faith in God. They perverted biblical love in three ways. First, by omitting from God's word the phrase, as yourself. That's why we see here, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. They knew exactly what Leviticus 19.18 said. They omitted as yourself. This means that we are to love other people with the same commitment that we already have to ourselves. They knew that Leviticus taught this, but because of their own selfish pride and love for personal honor and praise and the respect of people, they didn't want to love others as much as they love themselves. This is why we're told by Paul in Philippians chapter 2, verses 3 and 4, he says, do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit. But with humility of mind, regard one another as more important than yourselves. Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. What a beautiful definition of what true love is. It's other-centered. It puts their interests above our own. The Pharisees were not doing that. Secondly, they perverted biblical love by restricting the word neighbor. Instead of including everyone, especially those in need, they limited their neighbor to refer only to fellow Jews that they personally approved of and considered worthy. You see, everyone else, they either arrogantly looked down upon, or they despised as enemies and unworthy sinners. And we see that in the Gospels. where they looked down upon even common Jews because they didn't know the law. Those who were immoral, those who were Gentiles, those who were Samaritans, they saw as their enemy. And then third, they perverted biblical love by adding to God's word this phrase, and hate your enemy. They added that to Leviticus chapter 19, verse 18. But nowhere in the Old Testament does it ever say to hate your enemy. Nowhere. To a Jew, all Gentiles, they would call Gentiles dogs. All Gentiles and even the Samaritans were kind of a half-breed. They were their enemies. No wonder the Romans themselves charged the Jews with hatred of the human race. Now the Jewish leaders probably justified their hatred of their enemies based upon two things. First of all, God's command to Israel to utterly destroy all of the Gentile Canaanites and the other heathen nations. Remember when they entered into the land, the promised land? But you go in and annihilate them, utterly destroy the people. They did that under Joshua's leadership. But Israel was not to be God's instrument of judgment from a heart of hate. That was not to be their motivation in doing that. God wanted to use them to preserve his righteousness on earth. Those pagan nations, they were so despicably vile and corrupt and idolatrous that even the land itself described in Leviticus 18.25 is said to be spewing out its inhabitants. They were so bad, they were so wicked. They were offering their own children before their false gods. They were so immoral that God was bringing judgment through his people by destroying them. And God would warn Israel that if they ever followed these pagan practices, she too would share their fate. And yet we know the history of Israel. So first of all, it had to do with they based their hatred on destroying the Gentiles. But secondly, they justified their hatred of their enemies based on the numerous imprecatory Psalms that speak of hating those who hate God. As you read the Psalms, it's called the imprecatory Psalms, there's a number of them where they are calling down judgment upon those who hate God. However, the psalmist never prays this way out of personal animosity. or revenge. Instead, it's always where they are defending God's name, His honor, His glory by praying that justice be executed on the enemies of God and His people. So there's, therefore, no reason at all that the Jewish leaders should be hating their enemies. The reason why they have that is from their own selfish pride and arrogance. That they were the ones that were special. And therefore, the enemies of them would be hated. But Jesus then rebukes them. In the third aspect of his six corrective examples, I call it the perspective of Jesus, the perspective of Jesus. In verses 44 through 47, Jesus goes about laying out for us, I believe, five truths about the kind of love that God requires. of His people. The first truth is the command to love. God commands us, if we're His child, to represent Him, to show His love towards others. Look at verse 44. But I say to you, love your enemies. Love your enemies. In stark contrast to hate your enemies, love your enemies. Now remember that when Jesus declares, but I say to you, he is not correcting or modifying the Old Testament scripture itself. What he is doing is he is authoritatively contrasting the perversion of the rabbinic tradition with the true teaching of God's word that he is giving. Again, this is the most powerful teaching in the scripture about love. When he commands that our love for our neighbor is to extend continuously, the word is in the present tense, continuously, it's to extend to our enemies. Even though those who hate us, we are not free to hate them. In the New Testament, there are four Greek words for love. Phileo, which has to do with brotherly love of friendship. Storge, which refers to family love, relational family love. Eros is sexual love. And then there is agape. This is the word that Jesus uses here. Agape love is the love that God is, that God demonstrates when we were yet sinners. God demonstrated his love for us in sending Christ. Even when we were his enemies, he loved us. That's the word that's used. God gives this love to us as a gift to every believer. If you placed your faith in Jesus Christ, God has poured out His love into your heart through His Holy Spirit. This love is a fruit of the Spirit, as we see in Galatians chapter five, verse 22. When we're walking in the Spirit, when we're controlled by Him, this is manifested in our life. Agape love is God's supernatural love. It's not human love. It's far beyond just human love. It's a supernatural love that God has poured out within us. It is the selfless, sacrificial, other-centered love that begins in the heart. It puts the other person's highest welfare, their best interest in good, above our own. As I said, it begins in the heart of the giver. It doesn't depend on the person that we're loving, their appearance, their merit, their worthiness. It begins in the heart of the giver and then expresses itself in actions toward the recipient. It is this love that is to characterize and to mark every believer. Remember what Jesus said. In John chapter 13, verses 34 and 35, a new commandment I give to you. Again, it wasn't new. Again, it was clear back in the Old Testament. What he meant is this is how you're going to be characterized. This is what marks you as my disciple. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you. And he has shown us His selfless, sacrificial, other-centered love most clearly at the cross. By this, all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. Now, this doesn't mean that we're gonna like our enemies, that you're gonna feel warm feelings towards them. as they are harming you and hurting you. But by the grace of God, we show a supernatural love that responds to them in a Christ-like way that seeks their highest good. The second truth is the action of love. The action of love, look again at verse 44. But I say to you, love your enemies, here it is, and pray for those who persecute you. As we saw last time, not only are we to refuse to retaliate vengefully against an evil person's insults and abuse of us, but here Jesus also commands us that we are to continually pray. The word praise in the present tense, again, it's to be ongoing, continually. Pray for our persecutors, those who are causing us harm in some way. God's forgiveness and grace we received before he saved us. And we are to pray that our persecutor, our enemy, that they too will be able to receive God's forgiveness, God's grace in their life that will transform their lives if they repent of their sin, if they believe in Jesus Christ and be saved. Salvation transforms our lives. It makes us different, it changes us on the inside, in the beginning. That's why Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5, 17, that those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ are a new creation. Old things pass away, behold, all things become new. We're changed in the very essence of our being. And then that works out. of the true believer to bring about a changed life, a transformed life. Concerning praying for forgiveness, praying for your persecutors, your enemies, Jesus is our supreme example. While suffering the unjust agony of the cross, he prayed, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. John Stott said, and I quote, if the cruel torture of crucifixion could not silence our Lord's prayer for His enemies, what pain, pride, prejudice, or sloth could justify the silencing of ours? End quote. Also, William Barclay states, we cannot go on hating another person in the presence of God. The surest way of killing bitterness is to pray for the man we are tempted to hate. God calls us to pray for those who are persecuting us, those who are insulting us, those who are hurting us, those who are causing some harm to our hearts or to our bodies. Jesus says in Luke chapter six, verse 27 and 28, again, the other passage in the Sermon on the Mount, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. Is that what we do? Our natural response is to do the opposite of that. Paul said in Romans chapter 12, verse 14, bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. Verse 21, he goes on to say, do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. By lovingly doing good to our enemies, blessing them, praying for them. We overcome all forms of evil in a Christ-like way. Giving somebody a piece of our mind because they have done something terrible to us is not a Christ-like way. Retaliating, as we saw last time, is not a Christ-like way. But it is only possible for us as believers to love our enemies in this supernatural way when we die to that inside of us that wants to do the opposite. As we said last time, dying to self, dying to selfishness, dying to pride that demands to be treated better. and by God's grace, dependent fully on the Holy Spirit to empower us to produce in our lives the fruit of the Spirit of love. The third truth is the purpose of love. Look at verse 45, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. The word so that clearly expresses the purpose of loving our enemies, which is to prove that we are truly the children of God. Notice how God calls his children to love as proof of being part of his family. We don't love to become a part of the family, we love as evidence that we are part of the family of God. Because since God is love, the greatest evidence that we are his children and that we possess the divine nature is that we express our family likeness by reflecting to others Christ's selfless, sacrificial, other-centered love. We show what both the Father and Christ are like when we exhibit Christ's holy love. And when we exhibit Christ's holy love in our lives, we are to do so to both friends and foes. And that brings glory to Him. The fourth truth is the example of love. Look again at verse 45. Now God does show special favor to his own children. We will see that in Matthew chapter 7, verses 9 through 11. But as the sovereign creator, the ruler of the universe, He is the greatest example of showing indiscriminate love that blesses all of his creatures. This is what is called common grace, common grace. And he shows this, he pours this out on all mankind. And Jesus gives two examples of this. Again, common grace is different from saving grace in that saving grace enables a sinner to repent of their sin, to believe in Jesus Christ and be saved. But notice here that Jesus says that God causes his son, his son, he's the one who created it, to rise on the evil, on the enemies, and the good, his children. His common grace gives to everyone. Now, although we know the earth orbits around the sun, it's common to speak of the sun rising above the horizon early in the morning or setting below the horizon every evening. Again, from our perspective, from a man's perspective, but what Jesus is trying to get at is look at the sunshine that's there. It's for everyone. There are certain graces, blessings that God gives out of His love that are for everyone. Also, God sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. When it rains, everyone is blessed. Jesus' point is that God shows His indiscriminate love by not limiting the blessings of sunshine and rain, but giving them equally to everyone. Likewise, we are to emulate God by having an indiscriminate love for both our friends and our foes alike. The fifth truth is what I call the challenge to love. the challenge to love. Jesus says in verse 48, for if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? Here Jesus challenges our natural self-centered and self-serving love by saying that when we love only those people in our lives who love us, that is not deserving of any heavenly reward. Why? Because anyone can do that. Even the tax collectors, he says, do the same. Who's a tax collector? You remember Matthew himself, who wrote this, used to be a tax collector. What was a tax collector? The Jews who collected taxes from their own people for the hated Roman government were among the most loathed and despised people in Israel. They were seen as defiled traitors, licensed robbers who extorted more money in taxes than was actually necessary and therefore they were building up a nest egg. They were doing all of that for personal profit and gain. Jesus' point is that since even the despised tax collectors love their own tax collecting buddies, to love only our friends, our love is no better than a swindling tax collector. It's self-serving. It's for our benefit. It's not true biblical love that God is calling us to. He then underscores this point in verse 47. If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Anyone can greet those that they know, that they're comfortable with. that they feel good around. But notice that Jesus says, even the Gentiles, whom the Jews hated, do the same. Then notice that Jesus asks the question, what more are you doing than they? How are you different than them? What kind of love do you have that's different than what they have? Is our love as believers different from the world of unbelievers? Are we different? Jesus has been driving that point home since we began looking at the Beatitudes, that his children are to be different from the world. Are we showing a Christ-like selfless love? Or do we have a self-serving love? You see, God calls us to a much higher standard of love. As we saw back in verse 20, our righteousness is to surpass that of the scribes and the Pharisees. And we're going to see that now in the fourth aspect of Jesus. Sixth corrective example, the perfection God requires. The perfection God requires. Jesus concludes by commanding in verse 48, therefore, you are to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. Now the word therefore sums up not only what Jesus says in this passage, verses 43 through 47 about love, but also all of these corrective examples starting in verse 21 all the way up to verse 47. Some even say that this command is so broad that it summarizes the entire sermon. You see, the word perfect basically means to reach an intended end or goal. It has to do with completion. Now, although it is often translated in Scripture, the New Testament, as mature, In this context, it refers to perfection because our heavenly Father is the standard. He's the one. We're to be perfect as Him. He's the standard. Let me say that sinless perfection, this side of heaven, is impossible to meet. It is impossible to meet by our own efforts, by our own good works, If we're going to try to earn our way to heaven, again, God's standard is perfection. We all have fallen short of the glory of God. The only way to salvation is through faith in Jesus Christ, who, as our substitute, took upon himself the holy wrath of God the Father against sin. He paid in full the penalty for sin that we deserved. The gospel of Jesus Christ has met this perfect standard on our behalf. He is the only way to heaven. No good works can get there. But having been saved, put in our faith in Christ, every believer is then clothed in the perfect righteousness of Christ. The moment of salvation, when God looks at each one of us as believers, he sees us as in Christ, clothed in Christ's righteousness. And being clothed in perfect righteousness of Christ, He now provides the power for us to increasingly become more like Him in our daily lives. That's the whole goal of God in the life of a believer, is to make us more like Jesus in our daily life. And the whole process of sanctification is to continually do that until the day when He makes us eternally, eternally perfect in heaven when we see Jesus face-to-face. God calls us to pursue the perfection of Christ, knowing full well that we can't do it in ourself, but as we depend upon God, the Spirit of God inside of us, He will continue to move us, to increase us, to make us more and more like Jesus. Until that day when we see Him face to face, and then we are perfect, just as He is. Though this is a difficult passage, we may all feel intimidated by this, what God is calling us to do. But I want to encourage you that although we cannot live the Christian life and love as Christ commands us to love in our own strength, the encouragement is that Christ can through us. That's why the command here, therefore, you are to be perfect as your heavenly Father. He is calling us as Christians to pursue that. Just as Paul did. He forgot what was behind. He kept pursuing the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. God wants us to pursue, but in realizing that Christ is the one who does it. Therefore, know that when we crave His righteousness and we fully depend on Him for the power to love as He commands, He has promised us already, back in verse 6, as we saw, that we shall be satisfied. Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness shall be satisfied. And He will do that in our lives, to the glory of God.