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

It is like if you put water in your gas tank and then notice that your car will not start, and you say, “Oh, I just need to add in that one missing ingredient that makes the engine run.” No – you are not missing one ingredient; you have got the wrong kind of fluid altogether. Failure to love their enemies was not the problem; it was just a symptom that exposed the problem. The problem was they had the wrong kind of love.

The World’s Love

So what is the difference between the right kind of love and the wrong kind? And why is it that the right kind can love enemies while the wrong kind cannot? We will answer that question when we get to the part about how God loves, but first let’s take a look at what the Old Testament teaches about enemies.

The OT Teaching

43 "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'

The first part comes right out of Lev.19.

Leviticus 19:18 Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself.

That is where they got the love your neighbor part, but where did they get the hate your enemy part?

Hate your enemies?

Maybe they just figured if God says, “Love your neighbor” then that implies you do not have to love a non-neighbor. The problem with that logic is that the word “neighbor” includes enemies. Leviticus 19:18 Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. Your neighbor is not just your best friend – your neighbor includes those people who are hurting you, and against whom you are tempted to seek revenge or bear a grudge. Someone asked Jesus one time who qualifies as a neighbor and Jesus told a story about enemies – a Jew in a ditch and a good Samaritan who was a neighbor to him.

Another possibility is they got it from the fact that the Jews were commanded to show no mercy to those nations Israel was to drive out of Canaan.

Deuteronomy 7:2 you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy.

But that command is talking about the nation of Israel being used to carry out God’s judgment on those nations. It has nothing to do with personal relationships. (And when some enemies were not under God’s judgment, they could show mercy.

2 Kings 6:21-23 21 When the king of Israel saw them, he asked Elisha, "Shall I kill them, my father? Shall I kill them?" 22 "Do not kill them," he answered. "Would you kill men you have captured with your own sword or bow? Set food and water before them so that they may eat and drink and then go back to their master." 23 So he prepared a great feast for them, and after they had finished eating and drinking, he sent them away, and they returned to their master. So the bands from Aram stopped raiding Israel's territory.

Another passage they might have used is

Amos 5:15 Hate evil, love good.

Or maybe they got it from the imprecatory Psalms (those are the Psalms that call for God to punish the wicked).

Psalm 139:21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD, and abhor those who rise up against you? 22 I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies.