What Are You Doing More Than Others? - Matthew 5:43-45 Series

Matthew 5:43-48 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 sons 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 brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Introduction

More than others

In v.47 Jesus asks a very striking question.

47 …what are you doing more than others?

That question speaks volumes about what the Lord expects from the Christian life. If what we are doing is not well beyond what unbelievers are doing, it is not the Christian life – especially in the area of love.

Love – the summary of righteousness in relationships

If you want to measure a person’s righteousness the way to do it is by examining that person’s love. Love is the core of righteousness. If you examine his words or his actions, that might give you a little bit of a clue about his righteousness, but the most accurate gage is his love. A person’s love is what really tells you how righteous or unrighteous he is.

The Sermon on the Mount is a sermon about righteousness in the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. In ch.6 Jesus will discuss righteousness in religion – they way we interact with God, and then righteousness and resources – the way we interact with our possessions. But here in ch.5 for the last 15 weeks or so the topic is righteousness in relationships – the way we interact with people. (not being angry, reconciling broken relationships, being faithful to your wife, being reliable, keeping your word, telling the truth, turning the other cheek, going the extra mile – it is all been about what righteousness looks like when it comes to relationships with people. And so it is no surprise that this closing portion focuses on love, because when it comes to relationships with people, that’s the summary of what righteousness is – love.

What is the Christian life? When it comes to interactions with people, the Christian life is a life of love. But it is a completely different kind of love than the world has. When Jesus tells the Pharisees that their love is no different from the world’s, that is a very serious indictment. It means their love was worthless.

Jesus requires that citizens of His kingdom have a kind of love that is fundamentally different from the world’s kind of love. And that is devastating, because look at how Jesus describes the world’s love.

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 brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?

So the world’s kind of love is when you love your brothers – your friends – the people who love you. If you do that you are like the world and, according to v.46, you will get no reward.

46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?

Think of all the times in your life when you loved someone like that. Add it all up on Judgment Day and you get zero reward – which means it is absolutely worthless. God promises rewards for some pretty small things. If it has any value whatsoever you get rewarded for it. But there will be zero reward for any affection you had for your family or friends or anyone else if that love is like the world’s love – even if you sacrificed greatly for it. People in the world make all kinds of sacrifices for their kind of love – but in God’s eyes it is worthless.

So what is the difference between Christian love and the world’s love? We need to figure out what is wrong with the world’s way of loving, and what is different about the Christian way of loving. The Pharisees’ love was no different from the world’s love, so let’s look at the Pharisee’s approach.

At first it is not very easy to spot, because loving friends and family seems like a perfectly good thing to do. Scripture commands that you not only love your family and friends, but that you have a special love for them. So what is it that’s so evil about loving my wife and kids and all of you? It is not that it is simply missing a component. If you love your friends and hate your enemies you cannot solve the problem by just adding enemy love in with your love. It is not that you are missing that one ingredient. If you do not love your enemies, what that reveals is that ALL of your love is worthless, worldly love because it is the wrong kind of love altogether.