Matthew 5:43-48

If you think Jesus is confronting us with an impossible righteousness, this passage makes the impossible harder.  He here refers to a law (love your neighbor) found in the Old Testament (Lev. 19:18) and joins it to a commonly accepted thought (hate your enemy) not found in the Old Testament.  While not found there it was nevertheless inferred from passages like Deut. 23:3-6.  The distinction between Israelites and foreigners, based in Israel’s relationship with God, often came to mean in Jesus’ day that Gentiles (all non-Israelites) were to be hated.  

For people today we also understand and tend to accept the idea that it is okay to hate your enemy.  It goes along with the idea of retaliation as well as the issues of hatred and divorce referred to earlier by Jesus.  How can one possibly be asked to love someone who intentionally is at enmity with him?  And yet that is exactly what Jesus says (v44, But I say to you).  The impossible gets harder. 

This love is to be expressed in acts of kindness.  It is to pray in faith for them.  It is to reject the tendency to only be nice to those who are nice to us.  It is to be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.  The impossible gets harder.

While this may seem a bit much, in fact Jesus’ explanation makes perfect sense.  He is calling people, created in God’s image (Gen. 1:27-28) to be like God.  The Creator continues to be kind to all mankind, both those who love Him and those who reject Him.

Let us be sure we understand the enemy.  The term is related to the term enmity, both in Greek and English.  The idea is that our enemy is simply someone who is at odds with us.  It’s not just the buffoon who lives next door but is separated by a well-built fence.  It’s not just the self-centered relative two states away that we just have to avoid at the occasional reunion.  The enemy might be our spouse, our partner, or our friend.  This person close to us may be treating us with enmity, and is thus in the role of enemy.  Whether they are far away or nearby Jesus calls us to a God-like relationship with them.  As God loved us while we were sinners (Rom. 5:8) so we are to love and speak well or and be kind to those who speak ill of us and hate us.  The impossible gets harder.

Remember Jesus’ words earlier in the chapter.  For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven (5:20).  Jesus loved those He spoke to.  He loves us.  He desires we enter His Kingdom.  But to enter His Kingdom means we leave the kingdom we are now in; and many of us are trying to be at home where we are.  Jesus knows the result of that thinking is disastrous (remember the references to hell in 5:22,29-30 as well as the sadness of living lives of hatred).  

Consider your relationships.  Who are your enemies?  Do you love them?  Do you speak well of them?  Are you reaching out in kindness?