Loving Like God (Matthew 5:43-48)
Loving Like God
Matthew 5:43-48
As you know, we have been studying through the Sermon on the Mount.
And if you are one of those people who really like structure and outlines,
Especially in regard to sermons, then let me give you some here.
With these verses Jesus is concluding
What would be considered His first point in this historic sermon.
Point #1 could be called: – GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS EXAMINED
And thus far as we have examined God’s righteousness
We have learned 4 things about it.
1) The Personality of God’s Righteousness
We saw this in the beatitudes (1-12) as we saw a detailed description of the character of God. All of those attitudes are the attitudes of Christ.
2) The Purpose of God’s Righteousness
We saw this in the analogy of light and salt (13-16). God is light to a dark world and taste to a flavorless world. The purpose of His righteousness is to lead sinners to salvation.
3) The Passion of God’s Righteousness
This of course was verses 17-19 in which we saw Jesus’ passion not to annul or remove even one small speck from the Law.
God is passionate about perfect righteousness, as outlined in His written Law, and He is not interested in lowering the standard one single bit.
4) The Picture of God’s Righteousness
This started in verse 20 and goes through 48, where Jesus told us that unless our righteousness “surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees” we will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
Which then led into these 6 “You have heard…but I say” sermons,
Where Jesus shows us how God’s righteousness applies to everyday life.
Without a doubt it has been a difficult section,
Meant to show us that we are not like God.
And this morning this first point of His sermon comes to a close
With the most amazing aspect of God’s righteousness yet.
And of course that is LOVE
You simply cannot begin to talk about God without talking about love.
In fact John simply said:
1 John 4:8 “The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
And again
1 John 4:16 “We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”
And of course we are all well aware of that all encompassing verse
That hinges upon the magnificent love of God.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
God’s love is truly a fascinating topic.
But many times (as is common with all His attributes)
God’s love gets reduced to a level that is not accurate at all.
Instead of patterning their own love after God’s love,
People pattern God’s love after their own
And needless to say, this is a grave mistake.
Many times we hear illustrations like:
“You know how much you love your children, well God loves you like that.”
WRONG!
Matthew 7:7-11 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. “For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. “Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? “Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!”
Scripture is clear, we are evil, God is holy.
And therefore our love is NOTHING like His love and vice versa;
His love is nothing like our love.
His is infinitely greater.
The love you feel for your children is nothing
In comparison to the love God has for His children.
And so this morning, just by way of introduction
Into this final “You have heard” sermon,
Let me just remind you a little about the love of God.
Scripture actually gives us AN EXPLANATION OF GOD’S LOVE
TURN TO: 1 Corinthians 13.
This is a chapter dedicated to letting you see t
He actual descriptions of God’s love.
And we learn all sorts of truths about God’s Love.
1) IT’S VALUE (1-3)
So valuable that without it, nothing else has any value.
2) IT’S DESCRIPTION (4-7)
We learn how God’s love responds in various situations.
3) IT’S ENDURANCE (8)
“love never fails”
The explanation of God’s love is clearly seen in Scripture
And such an explanation helps us evaluate the love we claim to possess.
Scripture also gives AN ILLUSTRATION OF GOD’S LOVE.
Luke 10:25-29 “And a lawyer stood up and put Him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” And He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How does it read to you?” And he answered, “YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND; AND YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.” And He said to him, “You have answered correctly; DO THIS AND YOU WILL LIVE.” But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
DO YOU REMEMBER THE ILLUSTRATION JESUS GIVES AS THE ANSWER?
– The Good Samaritan.
A man who looked past his own agenda…
A man who looked past his own race…
A man who looked past his own safety…
A man who looked past his own well being…
A man who gave his time, his money, and his plans to minister to a person that
would have hated him, had he not been in need.
That is the love of God illustrated.
Finally Scripture gives us A DEMONSTRATION OF GOD’S LOVE.
Far be it from God to simply talk about love or explain it,
God practices what He preaches and demonstrates His love.
Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
And when we see those concepts of God’s love in Scripture
SOME SIMPLE AND OBVIOUS FACTS IMMERGE.
LOVE IS A CHOICE
It is not a response to the feelings of another, it is a deliberate decision to give love to another.
LOVE IS AN ACTION
If love stops only at words or sentiment it falls far short of the love of God, for God put His money where His mouth was.
LOVE IS SACRIFICIAL
Never do we find an incident of love in which it was doing what was best for itself, but always where it sacrificed self for the good of another.
This is the love of God, and therefore if we are to be like God,
This is the love that we must exhibit.
Now, at this point in the Sermon on the Mount,
I probably don’t have to tell you that this was yet another area
Where Israel was failing miserably.
• We’ve already seen they were murderers.
• We’ve already seen they were adulterers.
• We’ve already seen they were covenant breakers. (divorce)
• We’ve already seen they were liars.
• We’ve already seen they were spiteful. (eye for an eye)
And this morning we learn that their concept of love
Was way off the mark as well.
#1 THE OBSERVATION
Matthew 5:43
There again we see Jesus observation of the basis for Jewish theology.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’”
While to some degree all of the commands Jesus has mentioned have been maligned, none have been maligned more than this one.
Not only did they ANNUL a great portion of this command,
But they also ADDED to it, something that was never there.
The command is actually given:
Leviticus 19:15-18 “You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor nor defer to the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly. ‘You shall not go about as a slanderer among your people, and you are not to act against the life of your neighbor; I am the LORD. ‘You shall not hate your fellow countryman in your heart; you may surely reprove your neighbor, but shall not incur sin because of him. ‘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.”
This passage is extremely clear.
IT SPEAKS OF ACTION
“You shall DO not injustice…”
IT SPEAKS OF JUST LOVE
“you shall not be partial to the poor, nor defer to the great.”
IT SPEAKS OF TOUGHT LOVE
“you may surely reprove your neighbor, but shall not incur sin because of him.”
IT SPEAKS OF THE DEGREE OF LOVE
“you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
IT SPEAKS OF THE AUTHOR OF LOVE
“I am the LORD.”
Now after reading that command
It is obvious how maligned this command actually was.
They had omitted the “as yourself” part.
They had added “and hate your enemy.”
And so whatever their concept of love actually was,
It is clear that it is a far cry from God-like love.
AND WE UNDERSTAND THIS TODAY.
We live in a world that thinks love is somewhere between
An emotional response and a heated attraction.
Today’s kind of love is best described on a Jr. High girl’s book cover.
Which today will say, “I Love so &so” and tomorrow the word love
Will be marked out and the statement will read “I hate so & so”
We are constantly plagued with people who fall in and out of love.
All the time forgetting that if you claim to no longer love a person,
All you are saying is that I am the most selfish person on the face of the planet.
And our world is plagued by that type of love.
But really love is not the proper name for it.
We have a more accurate name for that emotion: LUST
Lust is that tingly feeling you get when you want more of a person.
Lust is that self-serving emotion that wants what another person has.
And the second that person ceases to offer it, lust says, “Forget you”.
I’ll go on to someone else who can meet my needs.
Our world has a whole lot of lust, and very little love.
• Lust feels good, love seldom feels good.
• Lust gratifies self, love gratifies others.
• Lust devours, love builds up.
• Lust abandons, love never fails.
We know all about the type of “love” the Jews were offering.
Jewish love was a love that could turn to hate at the drop of a hat.
It was selfish and it was not God-like.
And that was Jesus’ observation.
#2 THE EXPLANATION
Matthew 5:44-47
Here Jesus explains to us what God-like love is.
It is again a test to evaluate ourselves to see if we love like God loves,
Or if our love is really just lust in disguise.
Let’s break our explanation down into three points
1) THE LOOK OF LOVE (44)
“But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,”
Now that is a turnaround isn’t it?
I know what it is to love my momma.
I know what it is to love my sweet thing.
But love my enemies?
That does not mean we condone the action of our enemies.
That does not mean we even desire the company of our enemies.
But it does mean that we sacrifice self for the good of our enemies.
• We do without, so our enemies can enjoy.
• We suffer, so our enemies don’t have too.
• We give so our enemies can receive.
It is us desiring blessing for our enemies
Even though they do not deserve it.
That is why Jesus said, “and pray for those who persecute you,”
I don’t have to remind you of the day our Lord passed this test.
“Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
Love comes when we sacrifice self for the good of another,
And Jesus says it extends even beyond your neighbor
All the way to your enemy.
That is what the Good Samaritan was exhibiting.
(Jews and Samaritans hated each other)
Today it would be you helping a muslim or a drug dealer
Or someone from Jayton.
He showed love to his enemy.
That is what true love looks like.
Romans 5:10 “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”
John MacArthur shares a story of this type of love:
“In 1567 King Philip II of Spain appointed the Duke of Alba as governor of the lower part of the nation. The Duke was a bitter enemy of the newly-emerging Protestant Reformation. His rule was called the reign of terror, and his council was called the Bloody Council, because it had ordered the slaughter of so many Protestants. It is reported that one man who was sentenced to die for his biblical faith managed to escape during the dead of winter. As he was being pursued by a lone soldier, the man came to a lake whose ice was thin and cracking. Somehow he managed to get safely across the ice, but as soon as he reached the other side he heard his pursuer screaming. The soldier had fallen through the ice and was about to drown. At the risk of being captured, tortured, and eventually killed – or of being drowned himself – the man went back across the lake and rescued his enemy, because the love of Christ constrained him to do it. He knew he had no other choice if he was to be faithful to his Lord.” (cited in MacArthur, John “The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Matthew 1-7” Moody Press 1985, pg. 346)
That is what love looks like.
The Look of Love
2) THE LINEAGE OF LOVE (45)
“so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”
Jesus says that we must love like this
Because this is what God-like love looks like.
God loves those who don’t deserve it.
Every morning He shares “His sun” even with the people who hate Him.
Periodically He “sends” rain even on those who live wicked lives.
And God never fails to do so.
He continually gives of what is His to those who hate Him.
And when we do the same,
It is obvious we are chip right off the old block.
1 John 4:7-8 “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
So Jesus tells us to love our enemies because that is what God would do.
In fact Scripture even says that love is an indicator of righteousness.
Matthew 7:12 “In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”
Romans 13:8-10 “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For this, “YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, YOU SHALL NOT MURDER, YOU SHALL NOT STEAL, YOU SHALL NOT COVET,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”
God loves those who don’t deserve it.
We display God-likeness when we do the same,
And we show ourselves to be His children.
The Look of Love – The Lineage of Love
3) THE LOGIC OF LOVE (46-47)
“For if you love those who love you, what reward to you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?”
And man, doesn’t Jesus cut to the heart here?
You see, He knows us very well.
He knows we all say, “I’ve got You on this one Jesus, I love all sorts of people. I’ve got a long list of the people I love.”
To which Jesus responds,
“Yes, but how many people are on that list who do not love you?”
The challenge is for you to make a list of all the people you love,
Then to mark off everyone on that list who loves you,
And then to see what is left of your list.
Jesus says loving people who love you is nothing special.
“Do not even tax collectors do the same?”
“Do not even Gentiles do the same?”
If you want to be like God,
Then show me the people you love who hate you.
This is what separates a godly man from a worldly man.
In Luke’s gospel Jesus spoke a similar truth.
Luke 14:12-14 “And He also went on to say to the one who had invited Him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, otherwise they may also invite you in return and that will be your repayment. “But when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
(Similar in the sense that we reach out when it benefits us nothing)
If you claim to be like God, then you have to love those who hate you.
If God had only loved those who love Him,
Then He would have never loved anyone, because none loved God.
God didn’t love anyone because they first loved Him.
1 John 4:19 “We love, because He first loved us.”
It was God who looked down upon this sin infested world.
This world that at one point had grieved Him so much
That He actually sent a flood to destroy it.
This world that was filled with idolatry and sorcery…
This world that was filled with adultery and lust…
This world that was filled with murder and hatred…
This world that was filled with hypocrisy and false religion…
And God looked at this world which hated Him
And chose to demonstrate love
In the sending of His only Son to die in their stead.
God loved His enemies.
So before we start comparing ourselves to God
Simply because we love our momma,
You had better ask yourself how many of your enemies that you love.
(Mr. Schaupffner and “The Dirty Japs)
That is God’s love.
The Observation, The Explanation
#3 THE EXPECTATION
Matthew 5:48
And this is more than just the final point to this sermon.
This is the final statement of a point Jesus started back in verse 20.
Remember that eye-popping statement?
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.”
At the time that seemed like an unthinkable statement.
How could Jesus expect you to be better than those guys?
Because He expects you to be as good as God.
“Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
And please let that sink in for a moment.
In a world that praises people who “Do their best”
Please understand that God does not grade based on effort.
He is a holy God who demands absolute perfection
If a person is to dwell with Him in eternity.
You do not enter His presence apart from absolute perfect righteousness.
And that has been Jesus’ point as He told us
You are a murderer.
You are an adulterer.
You are a covenant breakers.
You are a liar.
You are vindictive.
You don’t love people.
WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU WILL BE GRANTED THE RIGHT
TO DWELL WITH HOLY GOD FOR ALL ETERNITY?
And so again we ask:
Are you ready to hear about Jesus?
2 Corinthians 5:20-21 “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
If you are to be declared righteous as God is righteous,
Then you must accept the righteousness that Christ will give you.
He was perfect.
He never murdered, not even in His heart.
He never committed adultery, not even in His heart.
He never broke covenant.
He never deceived.
He never sought revenge, but remained meek.
No one ever showed greater love than He did
He was righteous, and He will share it with all who trust in Him.
So again this morning let me ask you to give your life to Jesus Christ,
You will never make it to the Father without Him.
John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”
