MELVIN M. NEWLAND, MINISTER
RIDGE CHAPEL, KANSAS, OK
A. I’m convinced that if there is one thing the world really needs to know more about, & to put into practice, it is love. In fact, so important is love that Jesus devoted a whole section of the Sermon on the Mount to it.
But first, let’s make certain that we understand the kind of love that Jesus is talking about, the kind of love that the Bible consistently urges to be a part of our lives.
It is not the kind of romantic love, the erotic love for someone else that is splashed across the pages of much of our pulp fiction today. Rather, it is the desire to do that which is the very best for the object of our love. We may not personally like the person we are told to love, but we still seek the very best for that person.
In fact, this love may even cause a parent to say, when issuing corrective discipline to a child, “This hurts me worse than it does you.” And the child is thinking, “Yeah, I don’t believe that.”
Listen as I read what He had to say about this kind of love in Matthew 5:43 48. "You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor & hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies & pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.
“He causes His sun to rise on the evil & the good, & sends rain on the righteous & the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?
“And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
B. I’m afraid that our 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.
Often we see children who look just like one of their parents. Here is a 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 one day he’ll probably look just like his father looks right now.
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."
C. 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 problems to us because we think of something "perfect" as being without any flaw or blemish. And no matter how hard we try, we know that there are going to be flaws & blemishes in our life.
But the Greek word used here also means "mature, fully equipped, ready & able to do the job that needs to be done." And I believe that is what Jesus expects from us in putting into practice God’s love in this world.
PROP. So let’s take another 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.
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."
A. First of all, it is God’s sun, & we could not exist in this world without it. It is 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 is not.
B. God not only shares His sunshine with us, but He also sends His rain on all in an unselfish expression of His love.
ILL. But 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 5 prayers this week." Maybe we would pray a little more or maybe we would pray less. It would all depend, I suppose
C. God also owns the gold & 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 give me 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."
CONCL. How thankful we should be that God does not 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!
II. THE MEDIOCRITY OF MAN’S LOVE
A. 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 kinda like them, so we put them over here. But other people we don’t like so we put them away over there.
ILL. 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 kinda 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 you some sunshine & rain. 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!"
SUM. You see, our love is mediocre because we just don’t know how to put it into practice in our lives.
B. So Jesus comes along & knocks all the props out from underneath us. 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. I don’t want you to love only your friends but also your enemies." And that is hard for us to understand.
ILL. Do you remember reading "Charlie Brown?" The reason that Charlie Brown was 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."
Oh, Jesus couldn’t have mentioned 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!
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."
CONCL. 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.
III. THE MATURITY OF CHRISTIAN LOVE.
A. What is Christian love, & what demands does it make of us?
One day a man came to Jesus & asked, “‘Of all the commandments, which is the most important?’ ‘The most important one,’ answered Jesus, ‘is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart & with all your soul & with all your mind & with all your strength." (Mark 12:28-30)
That is an all inclusive love, isn’t it? We are to love God with every bit of our being.
B. Then Jesus added, "The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these." (Mark 12:31)
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.
ILL. Have you ever heard the 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 is 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.
B. And when we do that, there is a dynamic to our Christian love.
ILL. Many years ago Roger Banister broke the 4 minute mile. Up to that time no one had ever broken it. 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. He made the headlines, received a trophy, & 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 we can count. What happened? Roger Bannister showed that it could be done. Then behind him came many others who said, "If it can be done, I can do it too." And they did it! 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 set the example. And you can do it too."
ILL. 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 other children & disliked by the staff.
The director of the orphanage looked for any good excuse to ship her off to some other institution.
Now 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."
APPL. 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." (Isaiah 53:2-3) 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."
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.
CONCL. Will you come & share in that love as you accept Jesus into your life? Will you come as we stand & as we sing?
