“We have to reduce ourselves from every race to one race –
and that is the human race.”
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your
neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies. Pray for
those who treat you badly. If you do this, you will be children who
are truly like your Father in heaven. He lets the sun rise for all people,
whether they are good or bad. He sends rain to those who do right and to those
who do wrong. If you love only those who love you, why should you
get a reward for that? Even the tax collectors do that. And if you are
nice only to your friends, you are no better than anyone else. Even the people
who don’t know God are nice to their friends. What I am saying is
that you must be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”(Matthew
5:43-48)
First of all, let’s talk about this
concept of ‘love.’ There are four different Greek words for love:
1) storge – family love; love
between parent and child
2) eros – physical love; love between a man and woman; passion; sexual love
3) philia – brotherly love; relationship between closest, nearest, & truest friends
4) agape – unconquerable benevolence, invincible goodwill. This kind of love seeks nothing but another person’s highest good.
The writer of this Gospel didn’t use the first three Greek words for love here. This love Christ was talking about for an enemy wasn’t like the love between a parent and child, nor was it an erotic romantic love, and nor was it like the love of close friends or brothers. The love he was referring to is the fourth one, agape. This love far surpasses the others. It’s not dependent on being loved back either. It is a selfless love. One of the best examples of this kind of love is found in the story commonly referred to as the Good Samaritan.
2) eros – physical love; love between a man and woman; passion; sexual love
3) philia – brotherly love; relationship between closest, nearest, & truest friends
4) agape – unconquerable benevolence, invincible goodwill. This kind of love seeks nothing but another person’s highest good.
The writer of this Gospel didn’t use the first three Greek words for love here. This love Christ was talking about for an enemy wasn’t like the love between a parent and child, nor was it an erotic romantic love, and nor was it like the love of close friends or brothers. The love he was referring to is the fourth one, agape. This love far surpasses the others. It’s not dependent on being loved back either. It is a selfless love. One of the best examples of this kind of love is found in the story commonly referred to as the Good Samaritan.
One day Jesus was asked to define who a “neighbor”
was. Jesus responded with the parable of the Good Samaritan. According to the
story a man was robbed and beaten by thieves and left dying in the road.
Two religious people passed by and did not help. A Samaritan, a
half-breed Jew, hated by the Jews, came by and nursed the man, took him to a
local inn and paid to have him cared for. Luke
10:33 says that a Samaritan “took pity” or “felt compassion” for a Jewish man
that was wounded on the road to Jericho.
Jews hated Samaritans and vice versa. This mean the Samaritan had
no obligation with his people to help the Jewish man, and two Jewish religious
leaders had already passed him up anyway! Yet, he put true love into action and
reached out to a man in need. If a Jew sees that a Gentile has fallen into the
sea, let him by no means lift him out. Of course it is written; ‘Do
not rise up against your neighbor’s life.’, but this man is not your neighbor.”
That’s what the Jews in Jesus’ day thought about the others who lived in their
world. According to this story, our neighbor is anyone who is in need that we
have the ability to help. Jesus gives an honest appraisal of the teaching of
his day. They were taught to love their neighbors and hate their enemies.
But now Jesus gives A HIGHER STANDARD – Matthew 5:44
The
word enemy means an unfriendly opponent. An enemy can be
somebody who hates us and seeks to harm us or cause us trouble. An enemy can be
someone who has wronged us. Or an enemy can just be somebody on the opposing
side, an “unfriendly” in the sense that they are hostile to the values or
beliefs that are important to us. Instead of asking, “Who is not worthy of your
love?” God asks, “Who do you love who’s not worthy?” An enemy does not deserve
your love, but God says “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor
and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies. Pray for those who
treat you badly.”
God’s standard is different from human
standards. Man’s Love is based on Merit.
The human tendency is to base love on the desirability of the object of our
love. We love people who are attractive; we love hobbies that are enjoyable, a
house or a car because it looks nice. The love, of which Jesus speaks here, is agape. That love seeks and works to meet another’s
highest welfare. What Jesus asked his disciples to do is equally binding
on us. This kind of agape love is the love that God is, that God shows us, and
therefore expects of us. “God demonstrates His own love
toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us“(Rom. 5:5, 8).
God’s love sees all the hatefulness and all the
wickedness of the enemy yet desires to free him from his hate, to do him the
highest good, to rescue him from his sin, and save his soul. Our
“enemies,” of course, do not always come in life–threatening forms. Often they
are people who are simply mean, impatient, judgmental, self–righteous,
spiteful—or just happen to disagree with us.
In all our personal relationships, God commands us to love them. Whether
a conflict is with our spouse, our children or parents, our friends our fellow
citizen, a devious business opponent, spiteful neighbor, political foe, our
attitude toward them must be one of love. The world says retaliate. Jesus says
reconcile. Jesus commands us to love our enemies. How can we do that when we
don’t want to?
In Jesus’ day, a tax
collector was a low-life, despised human being. For one thing, nobody likes to
pay taxes. And these tax collectors were considered traitors: Jewish agents of
the occupying Roman government. That also meant they spent time with Romans
which made them “unclean”. In addition
to all that, these tax collectors routinely overcharged people for their taxes
and kept the margin for themselves. They were crooks! So nobody else liked
them, but they liked each other!
We have to reduce
ourselves from every race to one race – and that is the human race. As long as
we consider race beyond human race there will be racism. We need to get a
revelation of what it means to be human. Racism, intolerance, narrow-mindedness
and prejudice are not only related to discrimination of caste, creed and
religion. It can also be related to differences of opinions or differences of
ways. We can be a racist between values and belief systems.
The source of racism is
low self-esteem, low self-worth and a poor self-concept. Once you realize how
valuable you are as a human and recognize that everybody else is also made in
the same image as you are, then equality is an automatic result. The greatest
command in the law is the secret to destroying racism and that is to love God
with all your heart, your soul, and your strength. Then love yourself and love
your neighbor to the same degree that you love yourself. Until you love God
with all your heart, racism will always be present. Racism is a sign of
fragile ego and self-hatred. I don’t care who you are and what position you
have. I don’t care how many degrees you hold and how powerful you are. If you
have problems with people who are different from you, then you are still
suffering from self-hatred. If you discover and really understand God and love
what God is and who God is, then you’ll naturally love yourself because you are
made in His image. It’s impossible for you to love God and hate your brother.
Throughout
Matthew 5th chapter, Jesus has been expounding on what true righteousness, the
righteousness that He fulfills, truly is. Jesus is revealing to us the
righteousness that flows from God's heart, His character. In the last secession
Jesus tells His listeners that true righteousness involves a freedom to love
and serve others regardless of their words or actions towards us. Jesus
indicates that we are living as God's own children, mirroring the life and
character of our heavenly Father. We share the family resemblance when we love
in this way. At the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus declares that
the peacemakers are blessed because they shall be called the children of God.
Peacemakers are those who offer God's shalom in the midst of conflict. God is
the Peacemaker. He is the One, through and in His Son, who makes peace where
there is no possibility of peace, provides forgiveness and healing in the face
of evil and brokenness.
Furthermore,
peace becomes possible when we love our enemies. Jesus goes on to point out
that God "makes his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends
rain on the just and on the unjust." God pours out blessing on all,
regardless of their present state of goodness or evil. God does not look to us
to decide how to behave towards us. His love is not dependent on our behavior
or our attitude towards him. He acts first, moving to love us, to bless us.
There is nothing surprising or unusual about loving those that treat you well
and opposing those who don't. It is not a sign of anything extraordinary. We
can do this without help. Jesus points out that even those who do not know or
trust in God can manage this much.
God’s will is nothing less than that we become like
him. That which God commands, He provides. Our own self-righteousness is
possible, but is so imperfect that it is worthless; God’s righteousness is
humanly impossible because it is perfect. But the impossible righteousness
becomes possible when we consciously, daily, willingly, lay aside our
reputation, lay aside our rights, lay aside our self-righteousness, lay aside
our pride, and trust Jesus Christ to give us His love for all, friend,
neighbor, enemy. And that is precisely our Lord’s point here – The sum of all that Jesus teaches in the Sermon on the
Mount—in fact, the sum of all He teaches in Scripture—is contained in these
words. “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48).