Verse 43
Heard it said – Love your neighbor, … Love? The Greek word is agape. It is also used later in Matthew 22 when Jesus says to Love God with all your heart, soul, and mind. This means we should know this kind of love is something of importance. If we look up agape in a concordance, we’ll see meanings such as to welcome, wish well, entertain, show preference for. But in the Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament, we see the phrase ‘v’ahavta’.
“Do not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the children of your people. And you shall love (v’ahavta) your neighbor as yourself. I am YHWH.
Leviticus 19:18
This kind of love is active and requires actions. We can’t just wish a neighbor well, we do well to a neighbor. We don’t just say they are welcome, we do things to show they are welcome. This isn’t about a feeling, it’s about a doing.
Heard it said – Hate your enemy … This is an example of why Jesus is so against the religious leaders of the day, because they made up man made laws and taught them as though they came from YHWH/God. There isn’t anywhere in Torah/Law of Moses, that says to hate your enemy. You won’t find those words, look it up.
Verse 44
And/But I/Jesus say – love your enemy, bless those cursing you, do good to those hating you,
We see several verses in the Torah such as if your enemy is hungry or thirsty give him bread and water – Proverbs 25; Set bread and water before them 2 Kings 6; If you meet your enemy’s ox – bring it back to him. Exodus 23. None of these things sound like hateful actions, do they?
pray for those accusing you falsely, those persecuting you. … this one can take on a whole new meaning if you truly understand what the word here tefilla/prayer means to the people Jesus is speaking to. A lot could be learned in looking into this word but for content sake, telfilla is about changing the person doing it. On the tefilla project page they say:
Tefilla, then, is the balance between receiving exactly what we deserve, and on the other hand, providing us the opportunity to grow and elevate ourselves to another level, beyond our current state.
The Tefilla Project / Rabbi Ariel Tal
(Adapted from the lecture on Prayer by Rabbi Akiva Tatz on simpletoremember.com)
Once again, God has a flipped reality from what we think. We think we are praying for our enemy, but it really is about changing ourselves.
Verse 45
So you will be sons of your Father in the heavens/where God reigns … We love our enemies in order to benefit ourselves. By loving our enemies, we show the essence of our Father. We also are showing just how much we trust our Father. We have to trust he is just.
As sons of your father in heaven, you will do what he does and he causes His sun to rise on evil and good and he sends rain on righteous and unrighteous … Remember tov/good and ra/bad from previous blogs? Here it is shown as plural: the tovim/good and tzaddikim/righteous ones compared to the raim/bad and reshai/unrighteous ones. All too often we forget we can also be considered someone’s enemy. Justifiably or not, it is highly likely at one point or another we will be someone’s enemy. And don’t forget, Jesus sacrificed for “whosoever” and “while” we were still in sin. Thankfully, he didn’t wait for us to become his neighbor or his brother before he loved, blessed, and did good to us.
Verse 46
If you love those loving you – what reward do you have? … The literal Hebrew translation would be “what wages will reach to you?”
Tax Collectors love those loving them. … the literal Hebrew translation would be wicked ones – not necessarily tax collectors. Stop for a moment and consider – what if you were a Tax Collector sitting and listening to Jesus. What if you were the writer, Matthew, recording this?
Verse 47
If you greet your brothers only, what do you do abundant? … Basically, what are you doing different then those you don’t want to be like?
[blank] also greet their brothers … there are several translations used where the blank is: nations, pagans, gentiles, tax collectors, publicans, etc. We can get the picture here – just think of someone we don’t want to be like and realize if we only greet the people we like, we are just like the one we don’t like.
Verse 48
Therefore, be perfect, as your Father in the heavens is perfect … there was an Aramaic idiom at that time meaning to know all about a trade, to be all inclusive which was very similar to what Jesus said here.
Yet, if we knew the Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament as well as those listening did, when he spoke these words, there are two torah/teachings which would have jumped to the front of our minds.
- Leviticus 19: You shall be holy/kedoshim for I, adonai your God, am holy/kadosh. This is what God said before giving a recourse which sounds very much like what Jesus has said thus far.
- Deuteronomy 18: You are to be blameless/tamim before Adonai your God. This verse comes right before Moses speaks of a promise from God to send a prophet, like God, to live among them. Try to envision yourself sitting among the other disciples and Jesus says this – BOOM! They had already asked John the Baptist if he was this prophet, but he wasn’t. He said he was just announcing the one to come. It might just be dawning on some that this prophet is THE promised prophet.
But let’s talk about the word perfect here, you might want to sit down for this one, let go of everything you thought you knew about perfect.
Shlemim (שְׁלֵמִים) – in general it means whole, complete, restore. We see this word used in several places which can help us understand more clearly:
- Genesis 34, These men are enjoying a peaceful/shlemim relationship with us.
- It is a word scatter through out Exodus 21 and 22 related to the ordinances dealing with being in covenant with one another. We see it translated as words like pay, restore, restitution.
- In Deuteronomy 25, You must have a just/shlemim weight and measure.
- Ruth 2, May God repay you for what you have done, and may you be fully/shlemim rewarded by God.
- 1 Kings 8, Let your heart be wholly/shlemim devoted to God, to walk in his statues and to keep his commandments.
If we understand how the word perfect, besides being whole, mature, and complete, also has to do with payment, restitution, and restoring, we can understand how it is not an out of the blue statement following Jesus’s rhetorical questions in Verses 46 and 47.
I can see some struggles with the concept of loving, blessing, and doing good to those hating you, due to the picture of a mean God we have when reading the Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament. We all know what he has done to some of his enemies, and if he does that, what is a little bit of “hate” for our enemies in comparison right?
God IS a just, kind, merciful god. He gives unsparingly to those we would say should not be given to, he let’s the sun rise and the rain come, even on the despicable. In fact, if you read more closely, he is much harsher on those who call him Father, than those who do not. And he is most harsh on those who intend to do harm to those who call him Father.
Because God is kind, merciful, and just, even to the evil people, it doesn’t mean he hates them. And as his children, we should not become like them (hating and being evil), we should become more like Him. It doesn’t mean there won’t be consequences for our enemy’s actions. This again, is Jesus taking what was seen as a physical sin and turning it into a heart sin. There may be punishment to dish out – but it shouldn’t come from an angry, hateful feeling in your heart.
This one can sure be a tough one to walk out. Imagine the impact of applying these verses to today’s world. Oh, how different it would be.
CalltoCeaseFire 