Following Jesus Isn't Normal
You have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy." 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 makes his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. Matt. 5:43-45, RSV.
So you want to be like God? If so, read verses 43-45 through thoughtfully several times.
Just how much does our righteousness need to exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees (see Matt. 5:20)? From Matthew 5:21 onward Jesus has been illustrating that "exceeding" righteousness. And it has been exceeding in the extreme. He has told us that we can't have hateful thoughts, lustful desires, or easy divorces, and that our thoughts and speech must be pure.
Then in verses 38-42 Jesus appears to have topped it off by telling us we can't even retaliate toward those who do us wrong. But now in verses 43-45 He goes even further than that. It is one thing for me to hit you back when you hit me. But it is quite another for me to love you when you do me wrong, to pray for you when you misuse me and persecute me.
Jesus has upped the ante to the highest possible amount in terms of what it means to have a righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees. How can anyone do such things? It's not normal.
That's right. Loving one's enemies isn't normal, but it is Christian, and the next few verses will tell us why it is Christian. The key words are "so that." We are to love our enemies and pray for those who spit upon us "so that [we] may be sons of [our] Father who is in heaven." That is what God is like. He sends the gifts of sunshine and rain on both those who love Him and those who hate Him. He even gave His Son to die for those who were His enemies (Rom. 5:8). And Jesus prayed for those who put Him on the cross.
We must do the same in our daily lives "so that" we will be like the Father. Ellen White helps us see the picture when she writes that God's "love received, will make us...kind and tender, not merely to those who please us, but to the most faulty and erring and sinful....It is not earthly rank, nor birth, nor nationality, nor religious privilege, which proves that we are members of the family of God; it is love, a love that embraces all humanity....To be kind to the unthankful and to the evil, to do good hoping for nothing again, is the insignia of the royalty of heaven, the sure token by which the children of the Highest reveal their estate" (Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, p. 75).
You have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy." 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 makes his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. Matt. 5:43-45, RSV.
So you want to be like God? If so, read verses 43-45 through thoughtfully several times.
Just how much does our righteousness need to exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees (see Matt. 5:20)? From Matthew 5:21 onward Jesus has been illustrating that "exceeding" righteousness. And it has been exceeding in the extreme. He has told us that we can't have hateful thoughts, lustful desires, or easy divorces, and that our thoughts and speech must be pure.
Then in verses 38-42 Jesus appears to have topped it off by telling us we can't even retaliate toward those who do us wrong. But now in verses 43-45 He goes even further than that. It is one thing for me to hit you back when you hit me. But it is quite another for me to love you when you do me wrong, to pray for you when you misuse me and persecute me.
Jesus has upped the ante to the highest possible amount in terms of what it means to have a righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees. How can anyone do such things? It's not normal.
That's right. Loving one's enemies isn't normal, but it is Christian, and the next few verses will tell us why it is Christian. The key words are "so that." We are to love our enemies and pray for those who spit upon us "so that [we] may be sons of [our] Father who is in heaven." That is what God is like. He sends the gifts of sunshine and rain on both those who love Him and those who hate Him. He even gave His Son to die for those who were His enemies (Rom. 5:8). And Jesus prayed for those who put Him on the cross.
We must do the same in our daily lives "so that" we will be like the Father. Ellen White helps us see the picture when she writes that God's "love received, will make us...kind and tender, not merely to those who please us, but to the most faulty and erring and sinful....It is not earthly rank, nor birth, nor nationality, nor religious privilege, which proves that we are members of the family of God; it is love, a love that embraces all humanity....To be kind to the unthankful and to the evil, to do good hoping for nothing again, is the insignia of the royalty of heaven, the sure token by which the children of the Highest reveal their estate" (Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, p. 75).
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