Week 36 Matthew 5
You have heard that the law of Moses says, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say love your enemies. When Jesus said that his audience would have felt a bit unsettled. Who in the world loves their enemies?
But what catches my attention is the example the Lord gives of Enemy-Loving. He says the Father-in-heaven shows love for his enemies by indiscriminately giving life & time & advantageous living conditions to everyone. There’s a kind of Generalized Non-Selectivity Rule in play where everyone gets similar treatment. The days and the rain are equal-opportunity universal benefits. No pre-conditions. No behaviour qualifications necessary.
I don’t think equitable treatment for everyone is an endorsement of bad people
I don’t think it means that good and bad people are roughly equal
Don’t think the Lord is happily affirmative of bad people
Don’t think bad people are getting rewarded for being bad
Don’t think the benefit has much to do with goodness or badness.
I think it means the Father gives everyone default access to the basic elements of life.
Jesus was saying: You have to love your enemies because that’s how the Father acts. It’s how he treats people. He’s constantly benefitting his friends and his enemies. He’s running a kind of Welfare-State World. We all get helped.
That was Jesus’ illustration. His point was that if I want to replicate how the Father acts then loving-my-enemies is a good place to start.
Note: quote from Matthew 5:43 (NLT)