Matthew 5:43-48, Love Those Who Persecute You

Tod Kennedy, April 20, 2005

Key Verse of Matthew 5. Matthew 5:20 “For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

1.    Outline of Matthew 5

a.    Characteristics of Kingdom people, the repentant people, or the righteous remnant (Matthew 5:1-16).

b.    Christ’s relationship to the Old Testament (Matthew 5:17-19). Christ fulfills the Law.

c.     Kingdom righteousness contrasted with the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 5:20).

d.    Illustrations of Kingdom righteousness contrasted with the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 5:21-48).

i.       Personal conflicts (Matthew 5:21-26).

ii.    Man and woman relationships (Matthew 5:27-32).

iii.  Vows (Matthew 5:33-37).

iv.  Retaliation (Matthew 5:38-42).

v.     Love your enemies (Matthew 5:43-48). 

Matthew 5:43-48, Love those who persecute you

1.    The Scribes and Pharisees followed the oral law—the interpretations, explanations, and expansion of the written law. This was the Mishnah.

a.    Jews believed that the oral law also came to Moses at Sinai. This oral law had equal authority with the written law. By the third century AD the oral law had taken a written form. (The Mishnah, Tranlsated from the Hebrew with introduction and brief explanatory notes by Herbert Danby, Oxford University Press, 1933)

b.    Later, Jewish scholars wrote commentaries on the Mishnah. These commentaries were called Talmuds. The Jerusalem Talmud has twelve printed volumes and the Babylonian Talmud has sixty printed volumes.

2.    Remember the context of this sermon by Jesus. The Jewish community was regulated by this oral law, and this oral law was oppressive and works oriented.

a.    Jesus’ main audience in this sermon is his disciples (5:1-2). They will soon be sent to preach the kingdom to Israel (10:1-11:1). He instructs them in the Word of God in contrast to the oral law.

b.    The frame of reference for Jesus and his disciples is the OT and its promise of a coming Jewish Messianic kingdom.

c.     So, when he gives these instructions, he is directing them to this group of people.

d.    We in the church gain principles for living, but we must be careful. We live under a different economy.

e.    When we think of the interpretation, we must go back to that time and put ourselves in the disciples sandals and realize that we are about to go about the country preaching the kingdom. We will face much opposition. How were we expected to act?

f.      Even today, if a missionary is mocked or physically attacked, the worst thing to do is to retaliate in kind.

i.       John Wesley, in his journals, records many incidents when he was attacked while trying to preach. He did not retaliate.

g.    This section follows very naturally from the previous section. That emphasis was do not retaliate; this emphasis is on the positive—love your enemies.

3.    Matthew 5:43 refers to a wrong interpretation that the religious leaders had made of Leviticus 19:18, “You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.”

a.    The current thinking was that one could hate the personal enemy. That, of course, was wrong. See Exodus 23:4-5 where the right treatment for one’s enemy is portrayed. It certainly is not hatred.

b.    Jesus sets the correct standard. God’s ideal was that believers should portray His love, not hate. Luke writes also records this lesson in Luke 6:27 and 32.

4.    Matthew 5:44, love and pray. He instructed them to love their enemies and pray for their persecutors.  Instead of retaliation, love; instead of retaliation, pray for them.

a.    Enemies are those opposed to you. Those who attack, undermine, hate, and try to stop or destroy you (ἐχθρός, echthros).

b.    Love is the verb, agapaw (ἀγαπάω) in the present active imperative, which stress the command for action as an ongoing process. Love is simply wanting God’s best for another. In the Hebrew OT love (ahab) could be toward family, friends, things, special people, and God. The context gave the emphasis and meaning. The Greek NT has more words for love. Here Jesus is not commanding a emotional attraction to one’s enemy, but both the lack of hatred and the mental desire for God’s will and best, or welfare for one’s enemy. Paul and the other NT authors will develop the meaning of love.

c.     Prayer for someone who persecutes you is a prayer for his blessing. And, their greatest blessing would be for him to come into a faith relationship with God.

5.    Matthew 5:45 gives the reason for love and prayer—so that the disciples show themselves to have the same character as their heavenly Father.

a.    God blesses both the evil person and the good person, the righteous and the unrighteous. This shows that God loves both groups and all mankind.

b.    This shows us God’s grace to mankind.

c.     By loving the enemies and praying for those who persecute them, believers—and specifically the disciples when they are sent out to preach—will show themselves to be Father-like. The trait of their heavenly Father will show through in his sons.

i.       Note that this verse does not teach that one must do this so he can become sons of God. It says do this so that he passes on what the Father is like.

ii.    This is in a context of persecution. This is hard. This is a characteristic of God.

6.    Matthew 5:46-47. Jesus compares what he demands with what the tax collectors and Gentiles do. They love those from whom they get something and those whom they have some sense of commonness. This is not commendable. The kingdom of God kind of life is a higher life—one that reflects God, the Father of the King.

7.    Matthew 5:48 brings this section to a summary conclusion.

a.    This verse is reminiscent of Deuteronomy 18:13, “You shall be blameless before the Lord you God.”

b.    First, he has addressed those who are in the kingdom of heaven. Note that Jesus uses the terms, heavenly Father. This refers to the kingdom of heaven, and God their Father.

c.     Jesus concludes with the command that his disciples, and especially those whom he will send out, be like their heavenly Father. The English uses the word, perfect. The Greek word is τέλειος, teleios. This refers to something or someone that has attained the end or limit or goal. It can refer to the moral sense, to age or adulthood, to absolute moral perfection (God), and to something renowned. Since God is the only perfect one, here it refers to the relative condition of God’s character in his believers, or Christ-likeness.

8.    Summary and So Whats?

a.    Believers will gain enemies. And not only enemies at a distance, but those who persecute believers. Jesus says love and pray for them; do not hate them.

b.    Grace demands this. God graces both righteous and unrighteous—believers and unbelievers. So, his disciples can do no less.

c.     Believers who love their enemies, and spiritual enemies especially, portray God’s grace and God’s love.

d.    God is honored, not dishonored by his disciples. This is good.

e.    Review spiritual maturity or “Christ formed in you” from the Christian life checklist.

i.       Galatians 4:19 My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you

ii.    Romans 13:14, But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.

iii.  Ephesians 4:13, until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ.