June 22, 2025

Love Your Neighbor

Passage: Matthew 5:43-48
Service Type:
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Introduction

  • I just got back from vacation.
  • We go with a large crowd, generally my family And Natalie’s family come and we take up residence in a big house.
  • Recently, the last several years, we’ve been joined by my closest friend and his daughter, Kate
    • We’re real friends, been so since 2001 when we first met.
  • But when we met, we weren’t really friends. In fact, he was my romantic rival for a woman we both liked.
    • He won, for lack of better words and I hated the guy for it.
  • But, I was trying to be a Christian at the time and these words were brought to my attention.
    • Even though it seemed odd to have an enemy, I did, in a way, or so I thought.
      • So I took what this passage suggests and began praying for him
    • Over the course of several months, things just happened that we became life-long friends.
      • And I wonder, how my life would be different without my dearest friend.
        • I’m grateful to God for this section of scripture for a lot of reasons.

 

International and Political Events

  • What a good time to read this particular passage in light of what’s going on in the world.
  • Right now, we’re being shown our enemies so to speak on the nightly news
    • The Iranians come to mind
    • So do people with differing political opinions, don’t they?
      • We tend to “hate” them, talk bad about them in real life and on social media.

 

Turn towards the passage

  • Comes to us from the sermon on the mount, the clearest ethical teaching of Jesus Christ in the entire New Testament.
  • Jesus is in a section call the antitheses, where he begins with “you have heard it said” and then he adds to or amplifies the position, often changing it entirely
    • This is just another example of Jesus giving us clear moral instruction.
      • These aren’t suggestions, they are in fact the ways to live a Godly life
        • We all want that, don’t we?
          • I mean we’re coming to church, it stands to reason that if we’re going to do that, we’re also going to develop ourselves spiritually, right?
            • Well, this is how we do it, this is where the rubber meets the road, so to speak.
          • Jesus gives us very specific instructions about what do to. We are not to hate our enemies; we are to love them.
            • Think about what that meant to his original hearers.
              • The Romans were an occupying force, had desecrated the Temple and continued to do so, they collected Taxes unjustly using complicit Jews.
                • Now, Jesus was telling them they needed to love and not hate the very people who were persecuting them on a daily ongoing basis.

 

  • Love your neighbor comes from Leviticus, the hate your enemy is just popular interpretation of what the inverse of that meant.
    • The Qumran residents really showed this, HATING the outsiders
  • We tend to create enemies naturally
    • Us versus them
    • Friend versus enemy
    • Neighbor versus stranger
    • People who deserve love versus people we should not.
  • We divide the world so easily into these categories that we miss the mark of what God is calling us to

 

God’s Love

  • While we were yet sinners, God loved us enough to send Jesus Christ
  • IT means his love is not conditional upon our behaviors, in fact, if anything, God’s love is present despite our failures
    • This shows us something of the way we’re to love, without exception, even for those people we dislike.
      • Everybody has somebody or class of people they dislike, Its just natural human nature unfortunately.
    • And Jesus drops the ultimate demand
      • We not to tolerate our enemies
      • Not to ignore our enemies
      • Not to defeat our enemies
        • BUT TO LOVE OUR ENEMIES
          • The Greek word here is agape, the self-sacrificing love that is indicative of God’s love
            • That’s a high calling.
          • Impossible, right?
            • Right, without God this is truly impossible
              • In order to do it, you’re going to need to be walking right with the Lord

Walking Right with the Lord

  • Prayer
    • You must have an ongoing dialogue with your God
    • Prayer doesn’t need be formal or using flowery words
      • IT’s the honest expression of your heart to your God with words and thoughts and time spent in prayerful conversation
    • It amazes me how few Christan’s have robust prayer lives, as this is one of the key blessings of faith
      • The ability to know and converse with your God is an amazing practice, one that is worthy of your time, to be sure.
    • Reading of Scripture
      • This too is often an under-represented practice
        • How many of you are actually reading your Scriptures on an ongoing basis?
          • I don’t mean to berate you but why is your Bible collecting dust?
            • Are these not the Words of our God?
          • Scripture reading changes us
            • One of the great theologians of the post war age was CS Lewis
              • CS Lewis was an atheist to begin with teaching at Cambridge
                • But he had some great friends, JRR Tolkien among them who were Christian
              • They encouraged CS to read the Bible
                • It was while reading the Bible that Lewis had an epiphany,
                  • He was really Christian in nature so he got baptized and the rest, as they say, is history
                • The Bible changed him
                  • The Bible changes us as we read God’s Word and understand the people we are called to be
                • Service
                  • Christians must show their love in concrete ways
                  • You must be engaged is some ministry as your time allows
                    • We’ve got great ways to be engaged and there are a great many other ways
                      • Volunteering at a food bank, for example
                      • Writing cards to people undergoing difficult circumstances

 

  • Jesus doesn’t stop with just loving your enemies, he gives further instructions, you’ve got to pray for them
    • Let me tell you from experience, this is HARD to do.
      • IF often requires asking God for help to do it in the first place
      • But what you’ll find is that hatred is rooted out by prayer, particular prayer in which you pray for every good thing to happen to them that you want to happen to you.
    • Why prayer? Because prayer does several revolutionary things:
      • It changes us.You can’t consistently pray for someone and continue to hate them.
      • It acknowledges their humanity.When we pray for enemies, we remember they’re made in God’s image.
      • It seeks their good.Prayer moves us from wanting revenge to wanting redemption.
        • A very real example of this occurred in 2006
          • In 2006, a gunman entered an Amish schoolhouse in Pennsylvania and killed five young girls. The world watched to see how this peaceful community would respond. Within hours, Amish leaders were visiting the gunman’s family to offer comfort and forgiveness. They set up a fund for his widow and children. They even attended his funeral. Why? Because Jesus said, “Love your enemies.”
            • This is an amazing response that can only come from a place of Spiritual strength and obligation.

BE perfect as I am Perfect

  • tHe word is telos, so more like complete
  • This is telling us how to be a COMPLETE CHRISTIAN
  • Don’t get down on yourself when you fail
    • You’re going to fail at times, you’re human, broken by sin still

“Love Reflects Our Father’s Character”

[The Purpose Statement – v. 45a] Jesus tells us why we should love our enemies: “so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.”

  • Notice he doesn’t say “so that you may becomesons of your Father.” The grammar suggests we already are God’s children, and loving enemies demonstrates that relationship. This is about family resemblance. Children look like their parents. God’s children should love like their Father.

[God’s Character Revealed – v. 45b] And how does our Father love? “For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”

This is one of the most beautiful descriptions of God’s character in all Scripture. Every morning, God’s sun rises on:

  • The honest businessman and the corrupt politician
  • The faithful spouse and the adulterer
  • The generous giver and the greedy hoarder
  • The devout believer and the committed atheist
  • This reveals something crucial about God’s love:
    • it’s not based on merit.
    • God doesn’t love us because we’re lovable;
      • God loves us because God is love. His love flows from His character, not our worthiness.
        • And that’s exactly how Jesus calls us to love our enemies—not because they deserve it, but because we’re becoming like our Father.
      • Jesus tells us that if our love is only reciprocal, it isn’t Chrsitan love entirely
        • That means if we only love the people at the church potluck, we’re missing something in our love
          • Here’s a tough question
            • What in your loving response to the world requires God to explain it?
              • Where are you showing love in a costly fashion
            • That’s the point of this section, if we’re only to love reciprocally, we miss our calling to be truly authentically Christian.