You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.’ Matthew 5:43

In my New American Standard Bible, when words are all caps in the New Testament it means those words are a direct quote from the Old Testament. In this verse, the all caps are for the phrase, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR.” Jesus is quoting this from the last part of Leviticus 19:17. Notice that the phrase “and hate your enemy” is not in all caps, but it is still in quotes. Jesus is quoting that from somewhere, but where? 

Could it be that the last part of the sentence, “and hate your enemy,” is quoted from man’s traditions? Could it be that over the centuries man just couldn’t believe God meant that “YOUR NEIGHBOR” included everyone, even your enemies? Loving enemies just wasn’t natural, so man helped God out with the “real” meaning of the command and gave themselves a suggestion clause: it’s okay to not only not love your enemy, you could hate them. Now that was much more reasonable and certainly more doable.

Both sides of the first century battlefield could agree with this suggestion clause. For one side, it was a nice addition to his “to do” list. Through man’s tradition, a “legalist” was vindicated in hating his enemy. The “liberal” was free to choose. This suggestion allowed him to pick and choose who was a neighbor and who was an enemy. 

Both camps were leaning, both were unbalanced, and they were fighting each other instead of Satan. Because each camp decided the other camp was their enemy, they didn’t have to love each other. In fact, they could hate each other. And they did. 

The Pharisees didn’t like the Sadducees and vice versa. Both groups were so appalled by the illiterate sinner that they would cross the street to avoid them. And the common Jew resented the burdensome load of all the religious sects, while at the same time despising their Samaritan cousins. And, of course, everyone hated Rome! Talk about class lines and prejudices! 

So, Jesus is about to cut right through the “letter of the law,” tear up their suggestion clause, and erase all doubt concerning God’s intent in regard to this command. Century old walls were about to go tumbling down brick by brick!

But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Matthew 5:44-45

Ouch! For Jesus to compare the Jews sitting on that hill, all sects and classes, with unclean Gentiles and despised tax collectors was a stinging slap to everything they held dear. He might as well have physically knocked them down. For some, these were “fightin’ words” (Matthew 26:4) and they were obsessed with opposing and stopping this radical Teacher and His teaching. They would pay a high price for their hardened hearts.

 For others, they were, “…amazed at His teaching” (Matthew 7:28). They followed Jesus everywhere and heard His teaching, but most didn’t fully grasp what this God-Man was all about or why He was on earth. Some leaned one way trying to hold tight to their tradition while still grasping at the Savior’s message of hope (Mark 10:17-22). Some leaned the other way, throwing out tradition and Jesus’ command to be perfect, “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48). These individuals thought they could follow Jesus and not give up everything (Luke 9:57-62). 

A few got it! Oh, sometimes they leaned one way or the other. Often they were hard headed. And every now and then they gave Satan battle ground. But they clung to Jesus…hard! They put their faith in the Man from Galilee. They rejected what was normal and natural and clung to what was impossible and irrational. They knew they couldn’t “be perfect” on their own. Only by God’s grace and mercy would their lives be all God intended them to be.

Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16

For everyone on that hill, they would never be the same. They would have to do something with these new commandments and with this Jesus. They heard the truth and were now without excuse. It was impossible to be neutral with Jesus and dangerous to try.

Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.‘ Matthew 7:21-23

Every one another, true believer in Christ Jesus, will lean towards legalism or liberalism now and then. And some of us lean to one side or the other as a lifestyle choice. What I am challenging all of us to ask ourselves is who do we consider to be the enemy? Is it that brother or sister in Christ who leans on tradition to help them in their daily living? When I listen to some preachers rant against these brothers and sisters, I have to wonder. Or is your enemy the one another who seems to use grace as a license to get as close to the sin line as possible?

Do Not Lean! When we lean, we are off balance and ineffective. Remember who the real enemy is and stand firm against him in love and in truth. Jesus leaves His followers without excuse. We are commanded to love one another – those who are fellow born-again believers in Jesus Christ. But even if we are convinced someone who claims to be one of us can’t possibly be one of us, we are still commanded to love her as our neighbor. And even if we refuse to treat her as a neighbor because she is the enemy, we are still commanded to love her and to pray for her.

These are not suggestions. These are commands. No one is to be excluded from the love of the Father that is supposed to be flowing through us. Impossible, you say! You bet it is when we try to do it on our own. Our only hope is to put on the whole armor of God, get in the middle of the battlefield, and let Satan have it…using love as our ultimate weapon!

Discussion

In order to be prepared for this battlefield, we must use the full armor of God. On a scale of 1-10 (1 indicating not using it at all and 10 indicating using it all the time) rate your overall use of each piece of the armor of God listed in Ephesians 6:10-20. 

The Belt of Truth                                     

The Breastplate of Righteousness              

Feet Shod with the Gospel of Peace             

The Shield of Faith                                            

The Helmet of Salvation                          

The Sword of the Spirit

Jesus starts his sermon with nine blessed statements that were, to say the least, radical to those who were listening. They still are even today. We just can’t grasp how it can possibly be a blessing to be poor, or to mourn, or to be persecuted. Jesus doesn’t really expound. He simply gives these nine statements as fact. He then tells His listeners to be salt and light and to let that light shine. Maybe some people thought, “That sounds like a good idea. Exactly how should we do that?” He’s about to explain, but before he does, He has to clear up some confusion.

Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:17-19

It’s nothing new that in modern Christianity, there are those who want to emphasize the New Testament over the Old Testament. They would argue that since Jesus was the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets, the first 39 books of the Bible have no real significance for a New Testament believer. Generally, this person would lean to the “liberality” camp on the battlefield. All those “thou shalts” and “thou shalt nots” do not apply to disciples living in the 21st century.

On the other side, those in the “legalistic” camp point out, and correctly so, that since heaven and earth have not passed away, the Law still has a purpose in God’s plan. Often their emphasis is on keeping the letter of the law. They actually find it difficult to function without a list of “dos” and “don’ts” and they may even question the genuine salvation of anyone who doesn’t live by their list. But according to Jesus, what both sides have to ask is, “Does my righteousness surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees?”

Why the chasm between these two schools of thought? How can thoughtful and educated one anothers read the same passage and come away with two very different premises? I dare not claim to have a definitive answer to these questions, but I would like to present a possibility and let you put it before God and His Word. 

Is it possible that we take one position or the other because we are intimidated by the rest of Matthew 5? Is Jesus just asking too much of us, so we decide to practice selective reading? I believe it is much easier for humans to lean to extremes than it is to stand in the middle of a battlefield that challenges everything we consider to be natural human thinking and behavior. 

Stay with me here and open your Bible to Matthew 5:21-47.

In this amazing sermon, Jesus continues to challenge the conventional teaching of that day and, I might add, of our day. Six times the Master Teacher states, “You have heard…” Each time, He completes the sentence with a quote from the Old Testament. Each of these statements is then followed with five words that should jolt us awake every time we read them: “But I say to you…” 

Wait a minute! Is Jesus nullifying the Old Testament Scriptures? No. He can’t. Jesus, as God, cannot contradict Himself. He just proclaimed that He did not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill them. With these six examples, Jesus is correcting man’s faulty thinking and inaccurate practice of God’s laws and commandments. He is explaining how He is the fulfillment of the Old Testament and what that means for His followers. He is telling His listeners, then and now, how to truly submit to and obey God’s commandments. 

What does any of this have to with not leaning and fighting the real enemy? Let’s investigate the last of the six examples Jesus uses and find out.

Discussion

Satan is the father of lies and suggestions. What types of lies and suggestions does he use to keep woman from the middle of the battlefield and from loving one another?

Jesus commanded, yes commanded, us to love one another as He loves us—perfect love wrapped solidly around perfect truth, and perfect truth wrapped solidly around perfect love. How did Jesus do that? He did His Father’s will. The very Son of God submitted and obeyed God’s commands!

I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. John 5:30

This is what a servant does. He/she seeks the will of their master and then they do it. And the will of the master is given as a command, not a suggestion. The cross wasn’t a suggestion, one of many possibilities, or the better of two choices. It was the only choice and Jesus willingly obeyed!

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Philippians 2:5-8

As long as we, Jesus’ disciples, continue to lean and take sides instead of running to Jesus and each other, we will continue to be ineffective, bearing little or no fruit. The result is the world does not know we are His disciples and consequently they do not know Jesus.

In His first sermon, Jesus lays the foundation of just where He is coming from on all this commandment stuff. What’s interesting is that I’ve heard these chapters used to accuse the “legalist” of putting traditions above God’s commands. I’ve also heard this sermon used to accuse the “liberal” of not taking God’s commands seriously. What Satan doesn’t want any of us to see is that this sermon accuses each of us as individuals. Jesus is basically saying, “No one has been getting this commandment thing right. So let me explain…again.”

What we call The Sermon on the Mount is found in the New Testament found in Matthew 5-7. Thousands of sermons and multiple books by people a lot smarter than me delve into the wealth of subject matter found here. As always, I encourage you to read and re-read these chapters, seeking God’s face and His purpose contained in the verses. 

All I have room for in this context, though, is simply to give a glance into what I think are some of the themes in this discourse. My prayer is that you will be challenged to re-think where your position is on the battlefield and adjust that position if necessary. I know for me, if I did nothing else but read and deeply study this sermon and then obey what I learn, Satan would have no hope of stopping my impact on the world for God’s glory. 

Discussion

• What are your thoughts concerning Elaine’s premise that most born-again believers lean, at least a little, to either a “legalistic” or a “liberality” lifestyle? Which side do you lean toward? Why?

• Why do you think it is so hard to achieve the balance between legalism and liberalism?

Definition

The Longest Four Letter Word

A new COMMANDMENT I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another. 

John 13:34 & 35

Commandment – Entellō (noun) (G1781)

1. to order, command to be done, enjoin