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MATTHEW - Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand!
A Bible Study Course on the Gospel of Christ according to Matthew
PART 2 - Christ teaches and Ministers in Galilee (Matthew 5:1 - 18:35)
A - The Sermon on the Mount: About the Constitution of the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 5:1 - 7:27) -- The First Collection of the Words of Jesus
1. Our Duties Towards Men (Matthew 5:21-48)

e) Hatred of Enemies is Replaced with Love (Matthew 5:43-48)


MATTHEW 5:43-48
43 You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? 47 If you only greet your friends, what more do you do than others? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? 48 Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
(Exodus 23:4-5; Leviticus 19:2.18; Romans 12:14-20)

The Old Testament did not mention any teaching that one must hate their enemy. However, the Pharisees and the scribes concluded from Leviticus 19:18 that the commandment to love their neighbor requires them to hate the enemy, because the laws of the tribes demand reservation of rights, adherence to honesty and keeping away from the enemy. Christ’s kingdom destroys the boundary of tribes and nationalities by giving all people access to God’s love and by calling us to follow Him. Therefore, your faith in Christ is proved through your love for your enemy, not toleration of him. Love for the enemy is much higher than a mere human virtue. Without Christ, it is impossible for a normal man to practice.

If somebody wants to love his enemy, he has to cast away his selfishness, think of the beloved and look after him actually. How rather if your Lord asked you to love your enemy? Had the spiritual fellowship between Christ and the believer not been firm, no one could ever carry out this commandment. So thanks to our Savior, because His Spirit leads us to overcome our hate and helps us to love everybody. But beware! As long as you are angry with someone or some group of people, the Spirit of God can hardly overcome your wicked motives.

Pray for them that persecute you. This is the first step in realizing love for your enemy. Once there was a man who did wrong to a colleague and his family, which troubled their lives, but the Spirit of God urged the colleague to pray for the offender, so he asked his Lord to keep on blessing his adversary more than his own family. Our Father in heaven wants to bless you by your adversary through the joyous prayers of your heart.

If you are freed from resentment and have brought down the blessing upon your adversary through your prayers, you can visit him. If he is in distress, help him in a way that he does not notice your help so that he might not be embarrassed by you. Spend as much as you can to save him and his house, in body, soul and spirit, even if he does not accept you but carries on rejecting you, for God treats us, as humans, this way in spite of our disobedience.

Your position would not be better than that of God and His Son. As much as men rejected the love and the sacrifice of Jesus mockingly, they might not accept your love and might not trust you, but meet your attempts to help them with insults. They would raise a complaint against you to the authorities accusing you of deception and wickedness, because there is a strange spirit working in them. But you have become a child of the peace of God and you understand some of the motives in others. Ask your Heavenly Father to free them from their malice and shower them with love as God did you. He is the Almighty who can overcome and crush also the stony heart of your enemy.

God is love. He has called us to guide us into the fullness of mercy. His call to perfection leads us to brokenness so that we may confess our failures, especially in loving our enemy. But our Father in heaven gives us a deposit of His own perfection and forgives our sins completely through the blood of His Son. This purification is perfect since there is no purity greater than the forgiveness of the crucified. Finally, for your free justification, God pours His own Spirit with His complete love into the heart of the believer. Christ is not a theoretical philosopher who speaks of inapplicable ideals, but He is perfect in Himself. He gives you in the indwelling of His Holy Spirit in your heart the evidence of perfection shown in your love for the enemy.

You are unable to perfect love by your own accord, but as God’s spiritual child it is possible. The essence of love requires partnership, therefore God revealed Himself as the Father of Jesus. Likewise believers should love one another in the unity of the Holy Spirit. Do you meet with believers in the patience and amazing love of Jesus? How does the perfect love of God appear in your life?

PRAYER: O Father, thank You for calling us through Your Son to become perfect like You. But we are often disobedient and stubborn sinners, and Your love raises us from the mud of our sins to Your level through our purification by the blood of Jesus, that we may be righteous and pure in perfection. Your Holy Spirit is the divine power and the sign of Your perfection in us, the failures. Please enable us to really love our enemies and adversaries, that Your joy in us may be fulfilled.

QUESTION:

  1. How can we be perfect, as our Father in heaven is perfect?

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