Welcome newcomers/welcome back. Notes on handout… PRAY

Closing out Mt. 5 this week. Two final contrasts: old/new dikaiosune/righteousness. Progression: Anger/lust first, then divorce/oaths, now forgoing rights/loving enemies. (can’t love enemies if angry/lustful/verbal manipulation/etc.) “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’[g] 39 But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40 And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41 If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.” JMB: Difference between “suffering hardship” and “suffering the loss of one’s rights” As you can see…several “basic human rights” at stake here. Look at each individually…

This fifth contrast deals primarily with the right to retaliate. Old Rightness: Punched? Punch back. Something taken? Take back. Killed? Kill back… Equal measure in OT Law (rather than additional penalty) was a big advancement in contemporary morality. “lex talionis” & “Reciprocity through equalization” Also: responding to personal injuries, not war/social ills. Clear from the context and the OT Laws referenced. Turning cheek = remaining vulnerable, not taking defense/retaliation into our own hands. NOT turning someone else’s cheek/making them vulnerable. If anger/contempt/lust/etc. have been dealt with, a personal injury does not consume our world: have greater trust in God, security from Him, compassion for the offender, etc. Jesus our example  1 Pet. 2:22-24 ““He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” 23 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.”

Forgoing the right to our things. Using things to make peace. If somebody wants to sue you… (implies they will win  vv25-26 “Settle matters quickly…” + more than he asks for) Interesting: many tunics, usually just one cloack  i.e. t-shirts vs. coat/parka… 1 Cor 4:7 “What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though it were your own?” Why do you guard it and keep it as though it were your own when it could be used to bring reconciliation and peace or meet another’s needs. Ultimately: God’s Glory, not our comfort.

One/Two miles  time. Roman practice of compelling service, up to one mile (still need to walk back). Simon of Cyrene as example. Jesus: go the extra mile cheerfully (God’s Glory). Today: take the call that “wastes your time”, don’t complain about extra work at the office (staying late when others have gone home), etc. Col. 3:23-24 “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”

V42 gets into money: “Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.” To illustrate this: Can I have $100 from each of you? In the next chapter: “where your treasure/money is there your heart will be also…” Give someone your money, you’ll start caring about them. A principle behind tithing and giving offerings to projects or other ministries. Before I started tithing/giving to other ministries: no compassion, really didn’t care much about much. Back to the illustration: fortunately, Jesus is talking about genuine need not being a doormat for exploitation. However, the one who asks of us may be the guy at Wal*Mart and the one who wants to borrow from you may be your daughter and son-in-law who are making a lot of bad choices and you know it is not a “loan.” And we should give generously when we see needs around us and have the means to do so. 1 John 3:17 “But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his [g]heart [h]against him, how does the love of God abide in him?” Before we move on: These four verses are enough to cause most people to throw up their hands and say it’s impossible. Not four laws, rather, four descriptions of how the heart dominated by the movements of the Kingdom will respond. Outward examples/evidence of interior rightness… Not: did I do the specific things in Jesus’ illustrations, but “Am I being the kind of person Jesus’ illustrations are illustrations of?”

The final contrast concludes this first major section of the SOTM with the concept of loving our enemies: a uniquely Christian concept. And He adds that we should do so, first and foremost, with the highest act of love: prayer. CS Lewis: ~“I prayed for my enemy to change. He didn’t, but I did.” “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor[h] and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you: Love your enemies[i] and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?” Completes the exposition of the “goodness beyond” that of the scribes and Pharisees. DW: “Love does not illustrate, it simply IS the goodness beyond the goodness of the scribes and Pharisees…all illustrations in 5:20-48 are illustrations of agape love…

That’s what agape love is: divine love. It is literally the love of God in us that causes us to choose a self-sacrificing surrender. To remain vulnerable, to forego our rights, to refuse to use verbal manipulation, to keep our vows—especially in marriage, to make a covenant with our eyes and to rid ourselves of anger and contempt are all supernatural acts of God’s diving love working in us and through us. 1 Cor. 13 “Love Chapter” vv4-8: “ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  8 Love never fails.” Bookends: 12:31 Spiritual Gifts  “Eagerly desire the greater gifts.  And now I will show you the most excellent way.” Three remain: faith hope love… 14:1 “Pursue love.” Not eros (erotic/sexual love—never used in Bible), storge (familial love, also not in Bible), or even phileo (brotherly love/deep affection—the highest love we are capable of on our own). Peter & Jesus in John 21:15-17  Jesus: agape, agape, phileo. Peter: phileo 3x.

Perhaps this goes without saying, but I’m going to say it anyway: The clearest and most profound example of divine love is the Cross of Jesus Christ. It is inseparable from God’s divine agape love for us. In fact, JMB makes the point that there is hardly a verse in the NT that speaks of God’s love without also speaking of the Cross. John 3:16, Gal. 2:20, 1 John 4:10 (God is love in v8) “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” Rom. 5:6-8 “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” I would gladly die to save my wife or my children, maybe a few family members or some friends, but somebody that has wronged me over and over, has abused me and persecuted me? That would require a resource that I don’t possess apart from Christ: agape love.

So here’s the good news: it doesn’t say we are to like them, just to love them. Coach Hayman: Circle of Love, like/love, not mushy/gushy Hollywood love, real love: best interest at heart, willing to do whatever you can to help them succeed. Liking somebody is a feeling, Jesus doesn’t command us to manufacture feelings  Very hard/impossible. He commands us to perform the action of loving them  allowing His love to work through us in the ways we have talked about. Some of you may object to the word perform, but I would encourage you to consider that God doesn’t ask us to bother with whether or not we love our neighbor, but rather to act as though we did. When this becomes our habit, we will find that we do love our neighbor/enemy and might even start to like them a little. CSL: “The worldly man treats certain people kindly because he ‘likes’ them; the Christian, trying to treat everyone kindly, finds himself liking more and more people as he goes on—including people he could not even imagine himself liking at the beginning.” (Personal Testimony: PS)

My older sister used to do this… Want to take a step back and look at what is taking place in the verses we have considered so far. When you do these things, you’ll likely find that the recipients react very curiously and may even be frustrated by your blatant disregard for “the rules” of tit for tat.

There is a presumption of retaliation in much of our culture… “I’ll push you, so you’ll push me back so I can slug you…” But Rom. 12:17 “Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.” MC Escher: “Are you sure that a floor cannot also be a ceiling? Are you absolutely certain that you go up when you walk up a staircase? Can you be definite that it is impossible to eat your cake and have it?” When we start acting in the ways of the Kingdom, we will be reversing some pretty deep-seated presumptions about the way the world works. Upside down Kingdom? No…upside down world  right side up Kingdom. Most of the world has a terminal case of vertigo  don’t know which way is up. DW: The presumption is precisely reversed once we stand in the Kingdom. There the presumption is that I will return good for evil and resist others only for very compelling reasons, that I will do more than I strictly must in order to help others, and that I will give to people merely because they have asked me for something they need.”

When we do these things, we shift the scene from ourselves to God and he gets the glory. Those who torment us are counting on our resistance or retaliation to support their continuation of the evil that is in them. Anger feeds anger, so patient goodness will usually deflate it. When we respond in the Kingdom manner, our attackers will find that they are no longer in control—no longer playing the game they thought they were playing—the game they have gotten pretty good at playing/winning. 1 Pet. 3:9 “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.”

So now the only thing we have left is v48 “Be perfect, therefore as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Ok…I’ll get right on that, Jesus! THEREFORE: climactic statement. Crushing any shred of human performance that might still be lingering in our minds. What are we to do then? JMB: “You must turn away from your own efforts completely and receive instead the perfection which God has already taken steps to provide for you. Nothing that you will ever do on your own will be perfect. Only what God does is perfect. Hence, if you are to reach the perfection which God requires, it must be as the result of His working for you and in you.”

Perfection in the Greek: teleios  literally “complete”  moral realm: blameless. OT/Hebrew: tam/tamim (without defect/blemish  sacrifices) or shalem (whole/complete  shalom: peace). This is the process of becoming Christlike, spiritual formation, transformation, discipleship, of “Pursueing love”/”the most excellent way” (1 Cor 14:1) etc.

It requires our participation and a good deal of effort, but God is the one who perfects us, not ourselves. Not works-based RELIGION  a relationship of transformation and growth. “Grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning.” We can’t sit around waiting for the Holy Spirit to transform us  He’s usually waiting on us, never us waiting on Him. David understood this… Ps. 18:30-32 “ As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in him. 31 For who is God besides the LORD?  And who is the Rock except our God? 32 It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect.” Phil. 1:4-6 “In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

Not a list of things to do, but changed people do things differently… Who can you share this with? To whom would it be Good News?

Featured Resource? New People…run through website slides that follow…

What About My Rights? (Mt. 5:38-42)

a. The Right to Retaliate

b. The Right to Our Things

c. The Right to Our Time

d. The Right to Our Money

II. Loving Our Enemies (Mt. 5:43-47)

II. a. Understanding Divine Love

II. b. Love and the Cross

II. c. Loving vs. Liking

III. Changing the Rules in the Middle of the Game (Mt. 5:38f)

III. a. Reversing the Presumption

III. b. Shifting the Scene

IV. Becoming Perfect (Mt. 5:48)

IV. a. Understanding Perfection

IV. b. Understanding the Perfector

What is YOUR next step?

Questions???