Text: Matthew 5:43–48
Preacher: Pastor Brian Sauvé
Enemy Love & Winning The World
I’m going to take rather longer to introduce the text this morning than I usually do, so get a finger in Matthew 5, and then bear with me for a moment. I want you to think about Jesus’ coming and what it means. This is fitting in the traditions of our own cultural relationship to the Christian calendar, which still has some vestigial sense of consideration for the advent of Christ at his time of year.
Jesus’ coming is the introduction of a sword through the cosmos, a sword through history. Think about what it is that Jesus has come preaching in the gospel according to Matthew—a Kingdom.
He came preaching the good news of the Kingdom of God. And as the story unfolds, we find out that this Kingdom is going to be a totalizing Kingdom, meaning it is going to claim everything everywhere.
Jesus came to establish a Kingdom whose boundaries would be limitless. Of the increase of his government and of peace, there would be no end. He’s already offered his people something fantastic in this sermon on the mount—literally the earth. He said, “The meek will inherit the earth.”
So apparently, Jesus seems to believe that he owns that. You can’t promise something to someone that isn’t yours, something over which you don’t have authority. By the end of Matthew’s gospel, he says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”
Jesus coming is therefore the coming of cosmic conflict. It is the introduction of a division which is going to swallow up the entire world—every single person is going to be found on one side or the other of this division. As soon as you start talking about kingdoms, you have to deal with things like borders and enemies and opposing kings and their kingdoms.
If Jesus brings a Kingdom, if he is a King, and if what he is claiming for his realm is everything, then his coming is a sword. There are going to be many who oppose his rule, who make war against his realm, and who refuse his crown rights.
The Bible is very straightforward about this reality, this reality that Jesus’ coming is the coming of cosmic conflict, that there will be many enemies. Just think about the beginning of this sermon on the mount: What did Jesus instruct his people to be prepared for?
Reviling.
Hatred.
Opposition.
Cursing.
But it’s not just this sermon here in Matthew where we are taught to expect enemies, to expect opposition to this King and his Kingdom. Think about the Psalms that we sing together, the Psalms we are commanded by the Lord to sing in Colossians 3 and elsewhere. Even if we just limited ourselves to those songs, we would know that one thing which comes with a Kingdom—and comes inescapably—is conflict. To paraphrase:
“The LORD says to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.”
“Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot in vain against the LORD and his Anointed? The LORD in heaven laughs… Be warned, O Kings! Be warned, O Rulers of the earth! Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you perish along the way!”
Kingdoms supplant kingdoms.
Realms overthrow realms.
Rulers conquer rulers.
Our King, King Jesus, has put the enemy forces to open shame. He has made them, Paul teaches us in Colossians, a public spectacle. He has bound, judged, and cast out the ruler of this world, John’s gospel teaches us.
Now, so far, everything I’ve said is quite standard fare for kings and kingdoms, right? This is simply the straightforward history of mankind: Kings squabbling and trading armies and realms. Yeah, that’s normal.
What is absolutely not normal is this King seated on the mountain, giving us the Word of God in the sermon today. He is many things, but one thing he emphatically is not is just another king like other kings.
Not only is this true because his Kingdom and government is everlasting, world-swallowing, and totalizing—not just because he has come to conquer the world, not just the extent of his Kingdom, which Psalm 72 describes as being “From sea to sea and even from the River to the ends of earth”—but also the manner of his conquering.
See, Jesus doesn’t conquer by killing.
I know you know that, but just think for a moment about it: He doesn’t conquer by killing. Friends, that is how every single other king has done it! Not Jesus. He wins his throne and conquers the world, not by killing, but by dying.
And not just by dying: By dying for his enemies.
What happens as you read the New Testament, as you read this account of this King and his coming and his Kingdom—you swiftly realize something terrifying: You are the enemy.
You are the enemy. John 3 describes his coming as light into the darkness—that’s us. That’s the world we’ve made, sons of Adam and daughters of Eve. And John says that this mere fact—this juxtaposition of this light and our darkness—is a judgment. That the light came and we hated it, and we warred against it, and ultimately, we crucified it.
Paul, in Ephesians 5:8, agrees with this—saying that before the work of Christ in us, we were darkness. It was what we were. A few chapters earlier, in Ephesians 2:3, he said that “…we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”
He is totally blunt in Romans 5:10, saying that in this state, we were God’s enemies. But the context of that statement in Romans 5, throws open the door of the Kingdom of God, throws open the door of what makes this King and his Kingdom different—gloriously different—from all others. Paul writes,
“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”
-Romans 5:6–11
Jesus wins by dying. He conquered by dying. And I’m telling you all of this because I want you to understand that he still intends to conquer by dying: To conquer the world through his people, as they love even their enemies.
This morning, Jesus teaches us how the good fight is fought, how his Kingdom goes to war, in Matthew 5:43–48. Look there with me, if you would: This is the Word of the Living God:
“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 rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” -Matthew 5:43–48
Thus ends the reading of God’s Word; may he write it on our hearts by faith. Let’s pray.
This morning, we’re going to approach the text by way of three very simple questions:
1. Who is my enemy?
2. What does it mean to love them?
3. Why? Why should I love them?
Who is My Enemy?
He says, verse 43,
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
-Matthew 5:43
Now, this is not an Old Testament command. This is the sixth time that he’s said this formula—“You have heard that it was said… but I say to you…”—but this time, he’s not citing an Old Testament, Mosaic Law. He’s referring rather to what is basically just the default doctrine of the day: You love your neighbor, and you hate your enemy. Right? And think about the sort of horse sense that this idea is built on. Of course I should hate my enemy! They are… my enemy!
But Jesus says, verse 44,
“But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…”
-Matthew 5:43–44
Who is my enemy? “Is there some loophole in the Greek that would help me get around this one, Brian” The answer is no. Your enemy here is your enemy.
Throughout the teaching, he helps us identify the enemies he’s referring to. He says to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. So your enemy is someone who hates and reviles and persecutes you for your faith.
It’s the person who doesn’t love you, as we see from verse 46, right? “If you only love those who love you, you’re no different from the other kingdoms and their ways.” So your enemy is someone who doesn’t love you—meaning that they are not for you, but against you. They don’t wish good for you. They want you to fail, to die, to suffer, to lose.
They’re on the other team. They belong to the other kingdom, the kingdom of darkness. They are the unrighteous that God sends his rain on, verse 45. They are those who are not your brothers, verse 47.
Thinking concretely and specifically about this body, about us, it’s the abortionist at Planned Parenthood that cussed us out for preaching the gospel of repentance and faith in Christ. It’s the internet commenters who compared this church to an old tee shirt you’re embarrassed you used to wear.
It’s the one gossiping about you, wronging you, sinning against you, hating you in their hearts. It’s all of our non-Christian neighbors who think we’re nuts, our extended family that is embarrassed by us.
And one thing you should know is that your list of enemies will grow with your boldness in the faith. The more you look like the Lord, the more you talk about Christ, the more you obey him, the more you will be reviled, hated, and find out just who it is that Jesus is telling you to love—because they will show up.
Second question:
What Does it Mean to Love Them?
If those are my enemies, what does it mean to love them? How do I do that? What would it look like? There are three parts of
1. Pray for them.
In verse 44, he says, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…”
So love intercedes in prayer for our enemies. Think of Stephen, the first Christian martyr in the book of Acts, praying for the very people killing him, asking that the Lord would forgive them. Think of the Lord Jesus, pleading with God for the forgiveness of those who are crucifying him.
Love pleads in prayer for the souls, the salvation, the repentance, of our enemies. Notice that this isn’t a kind of blind naiveté. This isn’t pretending like our enemies are great, that they are saints, that they are doing us good. No, praying for them in this way includes recognizing, looking full in the face, of their evil towards us.
2. Provide for them.
The example in verses 45 and 46 is illuminating:
“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 rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?”
-Matthew 5:44b–46
God’s enemy love looks like provision. Not just prayer, then, but provision can be a part of what it looks like to love our enemies. An early church historian named Eusebius, who died in the mid 300s, records that during a time of great upheaval in the city of Caesarea—when plague came down on a city already dealing with both famine and war—people fled the city, with the exception of one group: The Christians.
He records, “All day long some of them [the Christians] tended to the dying and to their burial, countless numbers with no one to care for them. Others gathered together from all parts of the city a multitude of those withered from famine and distributed bread to them all.”
Very soon after, the last pagan emperor, Julian, wrote to one of the pagan priests that, “…when it came about that the poor were neglected and overlooked by the [pagan] priests, then I think the impious Galilaeans [i.e., Christians] observed this fact and devoted themselves to philanthropy… “[They] support not only their poor, but ours as well, all men see that our people lack aid from us.”
Christians have long been known for their enemy love, laying their lives down even for the very societies and neighbors that persecuted them.
3. Greet them.
Finally, Jesus even refers to a greeting as mark of enemy love, verse 47,
“And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?”
-Matthew 5:47
A simple, cheerful greeting at an enemy can be a supernatural display of the love of God.
Love Fulfills the Law
But it would be wrong to shrink Jesus’ instructions here to these three things, because when he says “Love your enemies,” he is calling us to an all-encompassing sort of thing, right? Love is a verb.
Why Should I Love Them?
Why should I love them? Look again at the reasons Jesus gives.
“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 rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” -Matthew 5:44–48
There are two basic sides to this coin: We are to love our enemies in order to be like our Father, and to be unlike the Gentiles and tax collectors. Another way of saying this would be to say that Christians are in the process of becoming remade in the family likeness of Father God, and at the same time having the old family likeness worn away.
God loves his enemies. God causes his rain to fall on the unjust. God makes his sun rise on the evil and the good. Every particle of this world is God’s own thing: He owns it all. So every single sip of good wine, every bite of delicious food, every moment of pleasure that the unrighteous experience is a grace.
Verse 48 goes so far as to say that we are becoming perfect. Did you know that? If you are in Christ, that is the trajectory you are set on. Now, of course verse 48 works on two levels: As a door and a destination.
As a door, the perfection Jesus demands here—the very perfection of the Father, total and perfect righteousness—drives us to our need for a righteousness not our own. It drives us to look to Christ for our justification, to cry out, “Father, take my sin away and give me the righteousness of Christ like a white robe!” That’s the righteousness of 2 Corinthians 5:21, double-imputation, the Great Exchange—where God puts our sin on Christ as a sacrificial lamb; where he becomes the record of our debt. And where we receive the righteousness of Christ.
God made him who knew no sin to be sin that we might become the righteousness of God in him. So this text drives us to Christ as the doorway, the gate, to the Kingdom of God. The garments we need for this wedding feast must come from him.
But we also know that this perfection is our inexorable destination. God is making us like unto the Son. That is what our glorification will be in the end—we will put off the immortal and corruptible and put on the incorruptible.
And that is what our sanctification is. That is what is happening as we walk after our Lord and love our enemies like he loved us. We are being made like him. We will not achieve perfection until glory, but make no mistake: That is where God is taking you with every single sin repented of and weight of the flesh put off.
But How?
Let’s end by asking a question maybe we all are thinking: But how? How can I love them? I don’t want to! Let me leave you with this:
Love your enemies for the reward.
Did you see that little rhetorical question Jesus asked in the middle of the passage?
“For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?”
Do you see the implication? He’s saying, “Only loving those who will love you back has its own reward. But if you love those who hate you, as did your Lord, then God will reward you.”
See, we’re not stoics. We’re not doing this for the sake of being miserable and mistreated. No, the point of obeying the Lord is that there is great reward, great joy, in it! For the joy that was set before him, Jesus endured his cross, to love his enemies!
When you obey Jesus in this, he will reward you. It is as simple as that. We are loving ourselves Christianly when we love our enemies, rather than the craven self-love of the world, which says, “Your life for mine!” No, Christian love says, “My life for yours!” And God interrupts that sacrifice with grace. He says that the one who loses his life in this way will find it.
Love your enemies for the reward of Christ.
Love your enemies by repenting of your forgetfulness.
Remember what you have been forgiven, and repent of your forgetfulness.
Love your enemies by seeing the slaver behind the slave.
Remember that every sinner who hates and opposes you is a slave. They are enslaved to a wicked and corrupting master. See that abortionist? Understand that he is slowly becoming more and more of a horror as he worships a horror.
We become what we worship.
We are all worshipers.
We become what we are mastered by.
We are all mastered.
Have pity on the slave and pray for his deliverance. He is what you would be but for the grace of God.
Love your enemies by looking to the prize: The world.
What are we aiming for? What is your life for? What are you for? Do you exist for the sake of having a few kids, working your job, paying off your house, and maybe going on a few vacations here and there?
Those are great, wonderful things—good gifts from the Father of lights, from whom all blessings flow. But those are not what you are for. You exist for God, and you exist for the task he has given you and us together—which is nothing short of winning the world.
All authority has been given to Christ, therefore go and make disciples of the nations. Go and teach them to obey all that he has commanded. That’s a big task. That’s a colonizing-the-world task.
But remember Psalm 72: His Kingdom will extend from sea to sea and even from the River to the ends of earth, the earth’s remotest regions run.
So love your enemies, because the world is ours. Love your enemies, because in this way they might become coheirs of the world with you; they might just become your brother or sister. Love your enemies, because that is how we win the world.