|















| |
INDEX
PREVIOUS
NEXT
|
COLLECTIONS
Commentaries, Word
Studies, Devotionals, Sermons, Illustrations
Old and New Testament. |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Click to
enlarge
"Sermon on the Mount" (Bloch) |
|
|
|
FOR IF YOU LOVE THOSE WHO
LOVE YOU WHAT REWARD DO YOU HAVE? DO
NOT EVEN THE TAX COLLECTORS DO THE SAME?: ean gar agapesete (2PAAS) tous
agapontas (PAPMPA) humas tina misthon echete? (2PPAI) ouchi kai oi
telonai to auto poiousin (3PPAI) (Mt
6:1;
Luke 6:32-35;
1 Peter 2:20-23)
(Mt
9:10,11;
11:19;
18:17;
21:31,32;
Luke 15:1;
18:13;
19:2,7)
See F B Meyer's related
discourse on
Mt 5:43-48.
Love
(25)
(agapao
from the noun
agape)
(Click
study of
agape)
describes an unconditional, sacrificial love,
which ultimately is the love that God is (1Jn
4:8,16) and that God demonstrates (see note
Romans 5:8) (Jn
3:16,
1Jn 4:9) in its supreme form at
Calvary.
Jesus said we are to love our enemies
because it shows we are loving like God loves His enemies (see notes
Romans 5:6,
5:8,
5:10).
Here Jesus adds that when we love like God does, such love distinguishes
us from the way the world loves.
Reward
(wage) (3408)
(misthos)
literally refers to pay which is due for labor performed or dues paid
for work. Misthos is used in two general senses in the NT, either
to refer to wages or to reward, recognition or recompense. In this
latter figurative usage, misthos refers to rewards which God
bestows for the moral quality of an action, such rewards most often to
be bestowed in eternity future.
Although Paul does not use
misthos in the following passage, the principle of spiritual reaping
clearly is related to rewards both here and in the future...
For the one who sows to his own flesh
shall from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit
shall from the Spirit reap eternal life. (Gal 6:8)
Jesus associates rewards
with giving, fasting and praying, teachings that are dependent upon
one's motive (see notes
Matthew 6:1;
6:2;
6:5;
6:16)
and who receives the glory by those acts (giving,
fasting and praying).
Note especially future rewards for having suffered for the Name of
Christ in this life (see note
Mt 5:12;
Lu 6:23).
Tax gathers were disloyal
Israelites hired by the Romans to tax other Jews for personal profit and
were crooks, who most Jews literally loathed. Matthew himself
belonged to this disgusting, despised brotherhood. What is Jesus saying?
He is saying "Look, even these despicable tax gatherers loved their own
kind! So how will your love show itself distinctive if the only ones you
love are your own kind? If you are only showing love to friends, you're
no better in loving than the thieving tax collector!" One can just
imagine the stir that went through Jesus' listeners when he presented
this pithy comparison!
Jamieson comments that...
The publicans (tax collectors),
as collectors of taxes due to the Roman government, were ever on this
account obnoxious to the Jews, who sat uneasy under a foreign yoke, and
disliked whatever brought
this unpleasantly before them. But the extortion practiced by this class
made them hateful to the community, who in their current speech ranked
them with “harlots.” Nor does our Lord scruple to speak of them as
others did, which we may be sure He never would have done if it had been
calumnious. The meaning, then, is, “In loving those who love you, there
is no evidence of superior principle; the worst of men will do this:
even a publican will go that length.”
If we treat our enemies as they
treat us, we are stooping to their low level. And if we treat them just
like tax-gatherers treat those who treat them well, what are we doing
that's more than lost men do? What makes us any different from them, if
that is all they see? How can we act as salt and light if we respond
only the unregenerate men do? Nor should we be satisfied to do what the
average professing Christian does. Jesus "raises the bar"
exhorting us to go higher and imitate our Heavenly Father.
><> ><> ><>
Good For Nothing - I
attended a get-together with some people I had pastored 40 years ago
when they were in their teens. Several men said their most vivid
memories centered around the snowball fights we had after our midweek
Bible class. I was glad that at least a few remembered some of the
things I had said.
One man reminded me that I once told him to be a "good-for-nothing
person." We had been discussing Matthew 5:43-48 when he piped up,
"I'm through going out of my way
to be nice to the old people who live next door. I mowed part of their
lawn one evening, but the very next day he yelled at me when I ran into
his yard to get a football that got away from me. What good do you get
from being nice to a person like that?"
In answer to his question, I
said, "Jesus wants you to be a good-for-nothing person." He grinned and
replied, "I've been called that before." But he got the point.
Being a "good-for-nothing person" by repeatedly going out of our way to
be nice to someone who doesn't return even a smile of appreciation isn't
easy. But that is what Jesus expects from us. And it becomes easier when
we remember His continued goodness in spite of our selfishness and
ungratefulness. —Herbert Vander Lugt (Our
Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by
permission. All rights reserved)
It's easy to be kind and good
To those who show us love,
But loving those who won't respond
Takes grace from God above. --Sper
Love helps those who may never return the favor. |
|
|
|
|
IF YOU GREET ONLY YOUR
BROTHERS, WHAT MORE ARE YOU DOING THAN OTHERS? DO NOT EVEN THE GENTILES
DO THE SAME?: kai ean aspasesthe (2PAMS) tous adelphous humon monon, ti
perisson poieite (1SPAI)? ouchi kai oi ethnikoi to auto poiousin?
(1SPAI) (Mt
10:12;
Luke 6:32;
Mt 10:4,5)
(20;
1 Peter 2:20)
See F B Meyer's related
discourse on
Mt 5:43-48.
The unsaved greet each other so
there is nothing distinctively Christian about it. If our standards are
no higher than the world’s, it is certain that we will never be very
salty salt or clear bright lights.
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
speaks to this call to be distinct (not weird, but distinct) explaining
that...
The Christian is the man who is
above, and goes beyond, the natural man at his very best and highest...
There are many people in the world who are not Christian but who are
very moral and highly ethical, men whose word is their bond, and who are
scrupulous and honest, just and upright. You never find them doing a
shady thing to anybody; but they are not Christian, and they say so.
They do not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and may have rejected the
whole of the New Testament teaching with scorn. But they are absolutely
straightforward, honest and true... Now the Christian, by definition
here, is a man who is capable of doing something that the best natural
man cannot do. He goes beyond and does more than that; he
exceeds. He is separate from all others, and not only from the worst
among others, but from the very best and highest among them.
(Lloyd-Jones, D. M.
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount)
(Bolding added)
Dwight Pentecost elaborates
on loving those other than brethren with a question...
Would you prove before the
world you are a child of God? Our Lord says prove it by your care
and concern for one with whom there are no emotional ties. Take one
outside the family circle or your circle of friends or perhaps even your
circle of acquaintances. Love your enemies. To respond to the needs of
those who are in your family is to show natural affection. The natural
man loves his wife and his children, seeks their welfare, provides for
their needs. Such is natural affection. To love those who are in the
family of God is only to display a natural affection. To go
beyond the bounds of those with whom we are one, and have concern for
those who are outside of the family is to display a supernatural
affection. Our Lord calls for this in Matthew 5:46-48." (Pentecost,
J. D. Design for living: Lessons in Holiness from the Sermon on the
Mount. Kregel Publications)
(Bolding added)
Jesus command to
love and pray for enemies begs the questions...
Is there something
"supernatural" about my love, something that cannot be explained in
natural terms?
Is
there in my love something which is not present in the love even
unbeliever's show to one another?
If our answers to
these questions is not "Yes" (at least to some degree) then we must each
ask ourselves "Why not?"
Jesus' teaching probes and
searches deep within our hearts, in those secret places that no one else
sees or even knows. We are called to be radically, distinctively
different. Salty salt. Bright clear light. The world is in desperate
need of seeing such supernatural love without limits and you are the
salt that someone needs to taste and the light that someone needs to see
today. Let your light shine before men in such a way that when they see
the way you love without limits or conditions, they will receive a
proper opinion of and be drawn to our Father Who art in heaven.
|
|
|
DOWNLOAD
InstaVerse
for free. It is an easy
to install and simple to use Bible Verse pop up tool that allows you to
read cross references
in context and in the Version you prefer. Only the KJV is free
with this download but you can also download a free copy of
Bible Explorer
which offers
free Bibles
that work with InstaVerse, including the excellent, literal
English Standard Version (ESV). Other popular versions are available for
purchase. When
you hold the mouse pointer over the Scripture reference, the passage
pops up immediately and can even be highlighted (Go to "Menu" > Options
> Appearance. Yellow
works great).
InstaVerse
works anywhere on
the Web as well as offline in Word for Windows, in email such as
Outlook, etc. It can be enabled or disabled easily (Menu > Disable).
This little tool really does work -- you will be amazed and edified. (click
here)
|
|