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Matthew 5:33-37—Am I in the Truth? Is the Truth in Me?
Love Your Enemies Your Father who is in heaven … maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust. —Matthew 5:45, ASV Stephen, the first Christian martyr, demonstrated love for his enemies. He had first bluntly told the Jewish council (Synedrion, or Sanhedrin), “Your fathers … killed them that showed before of the coming of the Righteous One; of whom ye now have become betrayers and murderers” (Acts 7:52{1}). As a result, the leaders gnashed their teeth against him. When he then declared, “I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man [Jesus Christ] standing on the right hand of God” (Acts 7:56), these rulers understood it to mean they themselves would be judged by one they had put to death! Crazed, they ordered men to stone him to death.{2} Saul of Tarsus led the executioners (as implied by their cloaks being placed at his feet). Stephen’s last words were a prayer: “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge” (Acts 7:60). Evidently the Lord honored that prayer; Saul heard these words and was a beneficiary. At the Lord’s instruction, Saul redirected his zeal and became the apostle Paul, the writer of half the books of the New Testament. It might have seemed logical here also to cite, “And Jesus said, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). However, a clear majority of the best manuscripts omit this text, even though 99% of all manuscripts include it. Nevertheless, a somewhat similar thought is given in Romans 5:10, “While we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son.” Hence, it behooves us the more to learn to be kind even to our enemies. We are unlikely to be faced with the situation which faced Stephen. The driver who just cut me off on an expressway is rude, but likely did not specifically target me; he is not an overt enemy. Neither is the careless fellow who ran a red traffic light and demolished my automobile, nor the waitress who slipped and poured hot coffee all over me. So who are our enemies that we may be kind to them? Perhaps the manager at work will be moving on. Another man in the group wants that job and is afraid I might get the promotion instead. The fallen human nature tells him his best chance is to find fault with me and tell the world. The Lord is then asking me how I will respond. Will I reply, The same to you and more!? Will I continue to try to do a good and honest job, even if my adversary may claim all the credit for it? Can I even bring myself to tell others about the good things he does? Now I may ask myself how I did on Matthew 5:39, “Whosoever smiteth thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.” And when is the last time I did so? The various doctrines of eternal torture (for others) appeal to the fallen human nature. We can justify being unkind to—or even hating—those who hurt us if we can convince ourselves that God will do far worse to them—and do it forever. Such mentality permits us to compromise on learning to love our enemies. Such thinking permits us to minimize the commandment of Jesus Christ! To please the Lord, each of us must change self. No compromise is allowed. We must each learn to be kind to our enemies, if in Christ’s kingdom we are to bless them.
___________________________ 2. The Sanhedrin’s authority to impose the death penalty had been terminated by the Romans in A.D. 30, the first full year of Jesus’ ministry. For Stephen’s execution they would be in deep trouble with the Romans. Nearly forty years later the high priest, Ananus, Jr., illegally ordered the execution of James the Less, which offense against the Romans led to Ananus being deposed; ultimately it led to the destruction of Jerusalem. |