Message Aim: (Second Sunday of Lent) Be true children of God by loving His way.
Sermon Title: “Loving Like God”
Scripture: Matthew 5:43-48 (NLT)
43 “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’[q] and hate your enemy. 44 But I say, love your enemies![r] Pray for those who persecute you! 45 In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. 46 If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. 47 If you are kind only to your friends,[s] how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. 48 But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect. (NLT)
Synopsis:
Can you understand why people want to get back at persons who treat them angrily? We all do this at some time. We call it revenge, pay back, giving someone what they deserve, giving back as good as you were given, or “an eye for an eye”. Let’s admit there’s something in us that wants to get even with those who hurt us. Even as Christians we struggle with reactions of nastiness toward others.
Now we could easily say, “We are just being human. We can’t help it”, but today’s reading from Matthew’s Gospel doesn’t let us off that easily. What we hear today is part of the Sermon on the Mount and Jesus speaks some quite radical things here that make us cringe. “You know you are forbidden to kill someone. I forbid you even to get angry with anyone.” (Matt 5:21). That’s some pretty straight talking as he cuts deep into relationships issues. Jesus gives a further challenge. “Why should God reward you if you only love those who love you? … And if you speak only to your friends, have you done anything out of the ordinary?” But that’s what we do.
Jesus is taking everyday examples of life in his time and highlighting those times when it’s really easy to be vengeful and nasty and horrible especially to those who mistreat us or ignore us. Jesus is not saying do nothing when people mistreat you. He is saying that the cycle of revenge and violence needs to be broken. This is not God’s way.Then Jesus concludes, “Love your enemies! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven”. Break the cycle of unkindness, hatred, violence and revenge with the love of Christ that dwells within you.
In short, Jesus is saying 4 things,
- Disciples of Christ are to love everyone, friends and enemies alike.
- As they love all people, they are imitating Godand his love for all people.
- As they imitate God, they will stand out and be different from the world.
- By doing all this, disciples of Christ will be like their Creator, as meant to be.
That’s what Jesus means when he says, “You are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matt 4:48).
It’s just at this point that we throw up our hands in frustration and declare that this is impossible in this life; that Jesus is being way too idealistic and hasn’t taken into account that sin has far too tight a grip on our lives. It’s tempting to dismiss all this as something that we should aspire to knowing that we can never really achieve it. It’s unfortunate the way the word ‘perfect’ has been interpreted as only meaning sinless. When Jesus is talking about being perfect he isn’t urging us toward perfectionism but urging us to be complete as people who have been saved and redeemed by the blood of his Son and now reborn in the image of God.
Jesus calls us to love with the same love as he loves us, to imitate the patience and love of our heavenly Father and to make God’s will our will. When we are ruled by the love of Christ then we have reached fullness and completeness in our walk as disciples. It changes our whole perspective on things especially our relationships with other people whether friend or enemy. We are no longer followers of the world’s moral view; we follow Christ. We are called to live like Christ every day.
But all this is only possible because he allowed himself to be lifted high on a cross. With the newness that we receive through God’s grace and forgiveness we are able to be what God intended us to be when he first created humanity. The question that needs to be raised now is this – what are we to do with these words from Jesus in our own lives? We are challenged to look at our own lives to see how well the love of Christ is ruling our lives and how well we are imitating God. Have we been the people God called us to be?
We all know hard it is to love and forgive a person who has hurt us. Our feelings and emotions are telling us that the person doesn’t deserve our friendship and healing. Sometimes we need to will ourselves to love and forgive.
Be prepared to be surprised the way God’s grace impacts on our lives and we become conduits of his love and forgiveness. To do that at home, at school, at church, among friends is to be perfect, whole, mature, complete people of the Kingdom of God.
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