The Sermons of Jesus, Part 14

Let’s finish Chapter 5 of Matthew’s Gospel today.

“43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. 44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; 45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust. 46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same? 47 And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? Do not even the publicans so? 48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”

There is little hyperbole in this passage. What there is becomes obvious in reflection. It is an exaggeration to say that the “publicans” (literally tax collectors, not bar tenders) all love their neighbors and salute their friends. In fact very few friends would be attracted to the tax collectors of the Roman empire. But the point is to love all without regard to how they treat us. God does not stop loving the sinners who reject Him. He sent Jonah to Ninevah, didn’t He? We are made to be like God. That means we are made to love.

I covered the meaning of the words for love in a prior post on this blog. But the word in this passage, ̓αγαπή, or as we write it agape, is the most intense form of love, that which give of oneself without expectation of return. God loves all of the creation in this way, and we are to emulate Him in that love.

This is the key to all of Jesus’s preaching, to love. The rest of the sermon is centered on it. What came before is the build up, and what follows is more applications of that love. This kind of love is not a feeling, it is an act of will, conscious and intended. We must make up our minds to love, choose to do so every minute of every hour of the day, seven days each week, all year long.

I will write more on the will and its importance in Christian living again in a later post, once I complete the series on the sermons of Jesus. But in this instance the emphasis is on love. Elsewhere Jesus said, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all your mind, all your heart, and all your soul; and... thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On this rests all the law and the prophets.” In His sermons He merely expands on the concept.

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