If there is one thing the world really needs to know more about, & to put into practice, it is "love." How often Jesus tells us to love one another. In John 15:12 He commanded us to love one another. In fact "love" is so important that Jesus devoted a whole section of the Sermon on the Mount to it.
Let’s listen to what He had to say about "love" in Matthew 5:43-48. READ.
I’m afraid that our very first reaction when we hear these words of Jesus is to think that He is being unrealistic, telling us to do something that we can’t possibly do. But Jesus doesn’t make impossible demands. I believe that what He is asking here is that when people look at us that they see a family resemblance between us & our heavenly Father. When someone looks at us do they see any resemblance of God?
Often we see children who look just like one of their parents—the son who is the "spitting image" of his father. He has his father’s profile. He talks like his father. He walks like his father. And then the day comes when he looks in the mirror and sees his father staring back at him.
Jesus is saying, "When people see you, I want it to be obvious that you are children of your Father in heaven. You know that your Father shows His love to everyone, & I want you to learn to do the same thing."
But before we go any further into that, I want to call your attention again to vs. 48 where Jesus concludes His comments on "love" by saying, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
That word "perfect" there causes us a lot of problems because we think of something "perfect" as being without any flaw or blemish. How many of you are perfect? How many of you think that a person can become perfect while still alive? No one raised their hand. That’s because when we think of perfect as sinlessness—of having no sin. After all, how can we be perfect and still sin?
And no matter how hard we try, we know that there are going to be flaws & blemishes in our life. We know that we are not without sin because the Bible tells us so. But the Greek word that is used here also means "mature, fully equipped, ready & able to do the job that needs to be done." That’s the form of the Greek word used in this passage—meaning to be mature. And I believe that that is what Jesus expects from us in putting into practice God’s love in this world.
So let’s take one more look at the subject of love. And in doing that, there are 3 things that I want you to see: 1. The Magnificence of God’s Love. 2. The Mediocrity of Man’s Love. 3. The Maturity of Christian Love. In that I think we will better understand what Jesus is trying to teach us about love.
I. THE MAGNIFICENCE OF GOD’S LOVE
Now, as we consider the magnificence of God’s love, notice the words of Jesus in vs. 45: He said that God "...causes His sun to rise on the evil & the good, & He sends rain on the righteous & the unrighteous."
First of all, it’s God’s “sun,” & we couldn’t exist in this world without it. It’s the sun that provides light & warmth to the earth. Without it, we would live in perpetual darkness. Nothing would grow in our soil. Life on this planet would be totally impossible if it were not for God’s “sun.”
And yet, God freely shares it with everybody—the good & bad alike. His generosity is not determined by man’s goodness or by our faithfulness to Him. And we can be very thankful that it’s not. If God’s generosity to us was proportional to how good we were, we would starve to death.
God not only shares His sunshine with us, but He also sends His rain on everyone in an unselfish expression of His love.
What if God were to say to us, "I’ll give you some sunshine today if you’ll go to church?" Maybe our attendance would increase. Or what if God were to tell us, "I’ll send you some rain provided you say five prayers next week—or if you read 5 chapters in your Bible." Maybe we would pray a little more or read our Bibles a little more. Maybe that’s what God is waiting for right now. It sure is dry.
God also owns the gold & the silver & the cattle on a thousand hills. The riches & the vastness of this world - they all belong to Him. But somehow, man has concluded that it all belongs to us. And that has caused a lot of our problems in the world today.
We say, "If you have enough money I’ll let you have some of my oil," or, "If you’re my ally I’ll let you have some of my wheat," or, "If you behave in the right way, "I’ll let you have some of my corn." That’s what we do. But God showers His blessings upon us all. And Jesus says, "That is an example of God’s love, & I want you to be just like your Father."
How thankful we should be that God doesn’t give sunshine on the merit of our goodness - or withhold it on the lack of our goodness. Oh, the magnificence of God’s love, & the mediocrity of man’s love! Let’s talk about that next.
II. THE MEDIOCRITY OF MAN’S LOVE
Now, that which separates man’s love from God’s love is that man divides people into categories. If people are attractive to us - if people can benefit us - if we happen to like them, we put them over here in this category & we say, "We love you."
Other people are just on the borderline. Maybe we kind of like them, so we put them over here. But other people we don’t like - so we put them away over there.
Now think what a mess this world would be if some of us were in control of the sun & the rain—if we were suddenly like a wizard of Oz - sitting before the great control box.
1. To those over here we would say, "We love you." So we would push the button & give them lots of sunshine. Then, when they’ve had enough sunshine we would pull another lever & give them just the right amount of rain.
2. To the people over here who are kind of in the middle, we would say, "If you behave yourself just right - if you toe the line & are the kind of people we think you ought to be - then we’ll send some sunshine & rain to you. But otherwise you won’t get any."
3. Finally, to these folks over there. "You don’t get any at all, because you haven’t behaved yourself, & I don’t like you!"
And too often, that is exactly the way we behave - like little children in the Nursery, fighting over a toy. "It’s mine & you can’t have it! I’m not going to share it with you unless you behave exactly the way I want you to behave!" You see, our love is mediocre because we just don’t know how to put it into practice in our lives.
So Jesus comes along & He knocks all the props out from underneath us. We talked about this last Sunday. He says, "I want you to love in such a way that when someone hits you on the right cheek - you’ll turn the other one as well. If someone asks you to go with them a mile - you’ll go with them two.” And today He says, “I don’t want you to love only your friends - but also your enemies." And that is hard for us to understand.
Do you read "Charlie Brown?" The reason that Charlie Brown is popular is because there are so many of us who have been where he is - feeling lonely & unloved, unwanted & unneeded. But Jesus says, "I want you to love those people that are unloved & unlovable. I want you to love even the people who hate you, who are your enemies. For if you just love those who love you back, you’re no better than the tax-collectors."
Jesus couldn’t have selected a group more despised by the Jews. The tax-collectors were people who ripped off the public. They made an agreement with the Roman Empire to collect "X" number of Dollars for taxes from their district.
But if they collected more than that - if they were able to extort more than that from the people - it was all theirs to keep. So their fellow citizens, their friends, maybe even their relatives, became the victims of their greed. The Jews had no love at all for the tax-collectors!
And that’s why Jesus said, "If you only love people who love you back, how are you any better than the tax-collectors? I want your love to be like your Father’s in heaven."
So here is the magnificence of God’s love - & the mediocrity of man’s love. But what Jesus wants for us is the maturity of Christian love. So let’s talk about that.
III. THE MATURITY OF CHRISTIAN LOVE.
What is Christian love, & what demands does it make of us?
One day a man came to Jesus & asked, "What is the greatest commandment of all?" Jesus said to him, "Love the Lord, your God with all of your heart & with all of your soul & with all of your mind & with all of your strength." That is an all-encompassing love, isn’t it? We are to love God with every bit of our being.
Then, He said, "You are to love your neighbor as yourself." Now that is interesting. You see, you cannot love your neighbor as yourself until first of all you have learned to love yourself. And when you love God with everything that is within you, then you’ll love what God has created.
Lo, & behold - we were created by God & in His image. So we learn to accept ourselves for what we are - with all our limitations & all our gifts. And as we use them for the glory of God, & rejoice in the fact that we are God’s people, created in His image - then we begin to love ourselves & our neighbors, as undesirable as they might seem to be.
I came across a little poem entitled, "Observations Of An 8-Year Old?" It goes like this:
We have the nicest garbage man,
He empties out our garbage can;
He is just as nice as he can be;
He always stops & talks with me.
My mother doesn’t like his smell,
But then, she doesn’t know him very well.
It’s not our right to separate & divide people into categories. Instead, our love is to be like God’s love, a love that reaches out to all classes & races of people. And when we do that, there is a dynamic to our Christian love.
Do you remember some years ago when Roger Banister broke the 4-minute mile? Up to that time no one had ever broken the 4-minute mile. It was thought to be a human impossibility.
But one day, long, thin, lanky Roger Bannister stood at the starting line & he ran one mile in less than 4 minutes. The first time it had ever happened! He made the headlines - He received a trophy - & he was acclaimed around the world as the first man to ever break the 4-minute mile.
Since that time more people have broken the 4-minute mile than you can remember. We don’t even know who they all are! What happened? Roger Bannister showed that it could be done. Then behind him came a whole army of people who said, "If it can be done, I can do it too." And they did! They ran the mile in less than 4 minutes because someone had set the example.
So, when Jesus says, "Turn the other cheek, & go the 2nd mile, & love your enemies," we say, "It can’t be done." Jesus says, "You’re wrong, I did it. I am the example. And you can do it too."
Some years ago Collier’s Magazine published a story about a little girl in an orphanage. She was quite unattractive & had many annoying habits, which resulted in her being shunned by the children & disliked by the staff.
The director of the orphanage looked for any good excuse to ship her off to some other institution. For some time it had been suspected that she was writing secret notes to people outside of the orphanage. And then one afternoon their suspicions were confirmed. One of the children had just reported, "I saw her write a note & hide it on a tree near the stone wall."
The director hurried to the tree & found the note, then passed it silently to his assistant. The note read, "To whoever finds this: I love you." That one catches us off guard, doesn’t it?
(PAUSE)
Someone else wrote a note & put it on a tree outside the city wall. Of Him, too, it was written, "He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him. He was despised & rejected by men. " So they sought to get rid of Him.
They took Him out to Calvary’s hill where they crucified Him. They nailed Him to a tree. But when men go there they find on that tree a note that reads, "To whoever finds this: I love you."
(PAUSE) And you know what?
He still loves us, & He is the one who gives us the power to love like that, too. We can’t do it on our own. It is humanly impossible. But with Christ as our example, we can begin to have that kind of love, too.
Will you come & share in that love as you accept Jesus into your life?
