Love Your Enemy

Matthew 5:43-48

"But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;"

1. Matthew 5:43-48.

I. Common belief. "Ye have heard that it hath been said….." (5:43).

A. Love thy neighbor.

1. Neighbor (friendly). Old Testament usage often included tribal or national relationship.

2. Law of Moses included the commandment to love thy neighbor as thyself (Leviticus 19:8).

B. Hate thine enemy.

1. Law of Moses did not include any command to hate thine enemy.

2. Jews were forbidden to make peace with Canaanites (Exodus 34:11-16).

II. Jesus’ commandment. "But I say unto you, Love your enemies….." (5:44).

A. Notice Jesus is contrasting what he is saying with what they had previously heard.

1. Hate your enemies was never commanded by the old law. Added by Pharisees and scribes.

2. "But I say" emphasizes the authority of Jesus (Matthew 28:18).

B. Do good to them that hate you, pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.

1. Notice Jesus did not say we are not to have enemies. Consider Philippians 3:18.

2. Loving our enemies is not something we feel but rather it is something we do. Consider the example of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) and that of Christ (Luke 23:34).

III. Desired consequence (5:45).

A. That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven.

1. Just as a child bears a physical likeness to his physical father, we are to bear a likeness to our spiritual Father.

2. That we may be perfect (5:48). Is this the goal set before us (as indicated in Robertson’s Word Pictures)? Or is this indicating relative perfection as of adults compared with children (full grown, adult, of age, mature).

B. That ye may be unlike the publicans.

1. Publicans – hired themselves out to the Roman government to collect the Roman tax.

2. Even publicans saluted (expressed good wishes toward) those other than their brethren.

1. Matthew 5:44.

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