Matthew 5:43–48

Bible Studies for Life
Associate Professor of Religion, Samford University

Distinct in My Love

Matthew 5:43–48

Today we conclude our unit on the Sermon on the Mount with the most challenging teaching of all, especially during a presidential election. We hear candidates ignoring our better natures to prey on our fears. Even Christians who know what Jesus says about enemies — and how He responded to His own — allow their fear to drown out Jesus’ words and examples.

Love even those who hate you. (43–45)

We know that Leviticus 19:18 says, “Love your neighbor.” When Jesus mentions that listeners know the saying “hate your enemy,” perhaps He is talking about an oral religious tradition in His day or just a common practice. In any case, what Jesus says next is just as hard to swallow today as it was for Jews living under Roman occupation: We know that people exist who seek our destruction, who indeed are killing our brothers and sisters in Christ in Iraq and Syria. So these are the enemies we must think about if we wish to take Jesus’ instructions seriously. Some readers also will be able to bring to mind co-workers, family members and former friends who have wronged them.

Why should we love these people and pray for them (compare Luke 6:27–36; Rom. 12:4–5)? It is because when we do so, we become like God. With the phrase “so that you may be children of your Father in heaven,” Jesus invokes creation, specifically to humans being created in the image of God. In Genesis 1 this means doing what God does: creating (“Be fruitful and multiply”) and controlling destructive chaos (“Fill the earth and subdue it”). In the Bible, both the rising sun and the falling rain signify God’s blessings (see Num. 6:25; Job 5:10; Ps. 18:11, 147:8; Jer. 5:24; James 5:7). Jesus contests the idea that God blesses only the righteous and punishes only the wicked (examples abound in Proverbs and Job). If God can send good things to evil people, we can love them and pray for them.

Notice that the challenge is even more difficult than it seems at first. “Love your enemies” is the counterpart to God’s tangible blessings of sun and rain. Jesus says not only to feel loving feelings for our enemies, but also to do loving things for them (see Matt. 5:38–42 and last week’s lesson).

Love in a way that is a testimony to others. (46–47)

Roman tax collectors were allowed to bid for their jobs. They made a living by taking for themselves a cut of what they collected. Hence, taxes and tariffs became quite onerous and some people counted tax collectors as the worst of sinners. The meaning of these verses is clear.

Love like God does. (48)

“Perfect” means “complete.”

It seems impossible to start with Jesus’ first instruction: “Love your enemies.” We might find it easier (but not easy) to pray for them first. If we genuinely pray — ask God to heal their infirmities, provide them with food and shelter and safety, to grant them wholeness and grace, to soften their hearts so that they repent — we will allow God to bring about a transformation in ourselves. For one thing it’s difficult to hate people for whom you are praying in genuine goodwill. Also it becomes much more difficult to dehumanize them by calling them animals or by thinking of them as insane (“madmen”) or as purely evil (only Satan is that). When we pray in this way we realize that we are asking God to give them the same things we ask for people we love and for ourselves.