Sermon on the Mount - Matthew 5:43-48 (Loving Enemies)
MATTHEW 5:43-48
43 You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
INTRODUCTION
Matthew 5:43–48 continues Jesus' teaching on love and humility, a part of the Sermon on the Mount. After commanding believers not to seek revenge in the face of insults, Jesus expands the idea of love to include one's enemies. Human beings naturally struggle with the idea of submissively accepting persecution. We naturally recoil at expressing active love—in our deeds, not necessarily in our emotions—for those who hate and attack us. However, loving those who love you is easy; God's standards are higher.
COMMENTARY
43 You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'
This statement is slightly different from Jesus' previous comments about teachings from the scribes and Pharisees. Up to now, statements such as "you shall not murder" (Matthew 5:21) and "you shall not commit adultery" (Matthew 5:27) were legitimate commands given by God in the Old Testament. Jesus' intent in using "but I say…" in response was not to reject those teachings but to move them beyond shallow, legalistic, unloving interpretations (Matthew 5:22, 28). Here, however, the teaching Jesus presents includes a detail God never gave the people of Israel.
God never commands hate for other people. Leviticus 19:18 commands love for one's neighbor, but there is no Scripture where Jesus' listeners would have been told to hate their enemies. It is possible that Israel's religious leaders seized on the "neighbor" concept, claiming that those who were not their "neighbors" were not to be loved. Religious leaders might have taught that hatred toward God's wicked enemies was justified and required since God hates evil.
In Jesus' earthly ministry, He clarified that loving one's neighbor was the second-greatest of all God's commandments (Matthew 22:36–39). He also expanded the definition of one's "neighbor" (Luke 10:29) well beyond the cultural norm through the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 22:36–37). That does not mean this is easy; It is hard to love other people. Jesus, though, will show that loving one's enemies can genuinely be powerful when done as a representative of God.
Once again, Jesus flips the common understanding of righteousness on its head. Jesus' original audience probably wondered how any person could be righteous if a person must love His enemies. That, of course, is part of the point Jesus intends to make (Matthew 5:48). While we ought to strive to meet God's standards, only salvation by grace through faith can bring us into heaven (Titus 3:5).
(44) But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
Jesus' long list of reversals in chapter 5 concludes with this one. His listeners had grown up under partly correct teaching. God's Word does, indeed, command us to love our neighbor as ourselves (Leviticus 19:18). However, it seems that the religious leaders were also teaching that it was permissible—possibly even mandatory—to hate one's enemies (Matthew 5:43). Jesus again declares that God's intent for the righteousness of His people goes beyond selfishness and legalism. It implies something much more complex and more like God Himself.
Instead of only acting in love towards neighbors, Jesus tells His disciples to love their enemies and even to pray for those who persecute them. Though few people live this out in a meaningful way, the idea is deeply ingrained in western culture. Many modern people have heard this teaching, or variations on it, all our lives. That makes it easy to forget the radical claim, especially for those who live with daily threats from dire enemies, as did the first-century Israelites.
On the one hand, becoming part of the Roman empire brought benefits. Rome typically did not destroy those they conquered—instead, they allowed relative freedom with conditions. Israel continued to function as Israel in many ways, and they experienced a form of peace under Roman rule. That said, Rome ruled over conquered nations absolutely and severely. Dissent beyond the established limits was savagely punished. Crucifixions were common and brutal. Roman soldiers enjoyed privileges and took liberties with Jewish citizens under their thumb. The Roman tax burden left many people in near poverty. The Jewish people understandably viewed Rome as their enemy.
However, a man thought by many to be the Messiah, the Savior who was supposed to free Israel from her enemies, has just commanded His disciples to love and pray for their enemies. Worse, He equated this with the righteous living needed to enter the kingdom of heaven. This is hard enough to grasp today, but they would have been shocking when the words were first spoken.
Christ does nothing to take the edge off this command, either. This is not described as emotional love or affection. This kind of love is meant to be expressed in action. Offering prayers to God for people who are actively hurting you, especially for being associated with Christ, requires looking at the world differently. Jesus will escalate the difficulty of His command in the following verses.
45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
God loves everyone in the world, both the good people and those who are evil. How do we know that? Jesus offers some evidence: God causes the sun to shine and the rain to fall on everyone, no matter who they are or what they are guilty of. God is the provider, and He provides good in this way and countless other ways to all people.
Jesus has commanded His disciples to love their enemies and to pray for those who persecute them (Matthew 5:43–44). Now He gives one reason for doing so: to imitate God the Father, as earthly sons imitate their fathers. Jesus describes imitating the Father as a way to become one of His Sons.
Theologians refer to God's goodness to everyone, no matter who they are, as "common grace." Jesus has described His disciples as the "light of the world" (Matthew 5:14–16). God is the source of the light in His people. Born-again believers are the tools with which He distributes His light into the world's spiritual darkness. One of the ways God shows His light through us is when believers love their enemies the way God loves them.
The big picture in this is that nobody is beyond God's redemption by grace through faith in Christ. Believers attract people to faith in Christ when they give good in exchange for evil and when they pray for those who bring them pain.
46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?
Jesus has commanded His disciples to love their enemies and to demonstrate that love, in part, by praying even for those who persecute them (Matthew 5:43–45). This is the level of righteousness God desires from those who want to enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:48). If that seems like an impossible standard, it is: part of the gospel message is that no person's good deeds can ever earn eternal salvation (Romans 3:10; Titus 3:5).
Even from a worldly, unspiritual perspective, everyone loves the people who love them. Nobody gets a reward for that in the kingdom of God. Jesus says this is so easy that even "tax collectors" do it. It is easy, and it requires nothing.
The Apostle Matthew is writing this story of Jesus' life. He was a tax collector for the Romans before Jesus called him (Matthew 9:9). These men gathered taxes for the Roman occupiers. That made them hated among their Jewish brothers, who saw them as collaborators and traitors. The job also lent itself to deep corruption: as employees of the Roman government, tax collectors often lined their own pockets by collecting more than was due. Such men became wealthy at the expense of their fellow citizens.
Jesus' declaration that "even tax collectors" can love those who love them was meant as a challenge. Tax collectors were associated with a lack of integrity, poor morals, and no loyalty. Even "those people" find it easy to love family and close friends. Loving your enemies, though, requires imitation of God Himself since it is unnatural for human beings to do.
47 And if you greet only your people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?
Jesus has commanded His disciples to love their enemies, challenging both culture and human nature. In doing so, they will imitate God as sons naturally imitate their fathers. After all, God does good for everyone on earth, whether they love Him or hate Him. He provides sun and rain to all (Matthew 5:43–46).
Matthew, the former tax collector, included a quip from Jesus in the previous verse: "even the tax collectors" love others who love them first (Matthew 5:46). It requires no exceptional integrity or faith to love someone good to you. Merely loving your neighbors is not righteous enough to be like God the Father. Nobody is rewarded in the kingdom of heaven for loving people who already love them.
Now Jesus gives an example of what loving an enemy might look like: greeting them! Jesus said that everyone greets their brothers, people who love them. By implication, he is saying that only the genuinely righteous greet those opposed to them, meaning their enemies. In this cultural context, to greet someone gladly and mean it requires removing any animosity in your heart toward that person. Someone who greets their enemies this way demonstrates God's love for everyone. This love and righteousness go way beyond what is normal for humanity. It is what Jesus expects of His disciples.
(48) Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
How much righteousness does God expect from His followers? Jesus has demonstrated in one example after another that truly godly righteousness, the kind that would earn a person eternal salvation, is well beyond what they had been taught by the Jewish religious leaders (Matthew 5:20). It is far more righteousness than Jesus' listeners were expecting of themselves.
Jesus teaches that the heavenly standard of righteousness is absolute. You must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. That does not mean salvation is only offered to those who are "good enough," mainly because no one is ever "good enough" (Romans 3:10). That is why God offers salvation by grace through faith (John 3:16–18; Titus 3:5).
In this chapter and this final sentence, two things follow from Jesus' teaching. First, following the law of Moses, as Israel's religious leaders taught, was not nearly good enough. Those who would follow Jesus' teaching, His disciples, must live out a righteousness that begins with their inner lives (Matthew 5:21–22, 27–28). That righteousness means surrendering personal rights for the good of others (Matthew 5:31–32, 33–37, 38–39). This extends to loving and praying for their enemies (Matthew 5:43–47).
Second, it becomes clear that sinful human beings cannot live up to God's standard or righteousness in our power. That is why the Apostle Paul will famously state in his letter to the Romans, "None is righteous, no, not one" (Romans 3:10). He and Matthew and the rest of the New Testament writers will make it clear that perfect righteousness as Jesus has described it in this chapter can only be received as a gift from God through faith in Jesus (Romans 3:23–25).
Summary
Matthew 5:43–48 continues Jesus' teaching on love and humility, a part of the Sermon on the Mount. After commanding believers not to seek revenge in the face of insults, Jesus expands the idea of love to include one's enemies. Human beings naturally struggle with the idea of passively accepting persecution. We naturally recoil at expressing active love—in our deeds, not necessarily in our emotions—for those who hate and attack us. However, loving those who love you is easy; God's standards are higher.
