BUT I SAY
Matthew 5:43-48 NKJV
43 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? 48 Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
This is a section of Scripture from the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew recounts three full chapters of the words of Jesus. There is such good content in these chapters. And there is something else. Jesus is refuting what has been taught and said with what He says. So He starts many passages with "you have heard it said" or "it has been said." Then, making a clear contrast, Jesus states, "But I say." Some of these sayings and teachings had been around for years and years, but Jesus was bringing new light and new understanding.
In our verses for today, Jesus is talking about love and hate. The conventional wisdom was that we love our neighbor and hate our enemy. But Jesus had a new thought. He was an advocate for loving our enemies. And He did not stop there. "Bless those who curse you." "Do good to those who hate you and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you." This is not a natural reaction. Our fleshly human tendencies are to strike back at those who strike at us.
But Jesus was not asking this of us because He wanted us to be weak or passive. Although it may appear to be a weak response to bless those who curse and do good to those who hate. It requires more strength to love, to bless, and to do good. And praying for those who spitefully use and persecute you is typically not the first thing that comes to your heart when it's time to pray. Those people who have decried Christianity as being for the weak have absolutely no idea what they are talking about. Christianity is a call to strength.
The call to live as Jesus requires is not to torment our lives. The opposite is true. This is a way to keep from being tormented. When someone has done us wrong, the natural patterns of our thoughts run toward getting even or feeling hurt and wanting to isolate. The problem there is that that is the place where our thoughts can run wild and cause us even more pain than the initial infraction. I have spent way too much time going over in my mind how I was going to respond to insults and mistreatments. But going directly to Jesus' words gives us a way to effectively deal with the problems without causing more damage and occupying more of our mental energy.
But wait, there's more. Jesus said that when we respond in this higher way, not only do we rise above the situation, but we show ourselves to be God's children. Anyone can love those who love them. Even people with no regard for God are good to those who are good to them. Jesus is calling us to be different; to operate as our Heavenly Father operates. We are to be perfect. But don't allow that word to throw you. Perfect means to be complete and mature. We are imitating our Heavenly Father, and He is perfection personified. No way we ever surpass Him, but we are endeavoring to be like Him.
PRAYER
Lord, help me to operate as You did when You were on the earth. Help me respond on a higher plane than those who have treated me poorly. I want to be more like You.