Revenge and Love – Matt 5: 38-48

A. Revenge – Matt 5:38-42
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away

1. Retribution
- The Old Testament (Exo 21:24; Lev 24:20; Deut 19:21) allows for physical retribution for injury. But note that the proportion is equal, an eye for an eye, etc; not more and not less. Revenge inevitably requires more than needed, that is our sinful nature
- Retribution is to seek compensation for a loss that someone has done to us or we have done to someone else
- Note that this is an act that is void of love, meekness and mercy

2. Love
- To love God is the first and greatest commandment; the second is to love our neighbor. To love unconditionally is the choice that we make; it is a commandment of the Lord that requires our obedience
- Jesus came in obedience to the Father (John 3:16) and He died while we were still enemies (Rom 5:10). He didn’t save us when we love Him, the converse if true
Rom 13:8, 10 Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
Gal 5:14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Jam 2:8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well;

3. Meekness and mercy
- Jesus explicit stated two antithetical beatitudes of the blessed
- The meek not only inherit the earth but also will be saved in Day of the Lord and His judgment
Zep 2:3 Seek the LORD, all you meek of the earth, Who have upheld His justice. Seek righteousness, seek humility. It may be that you will be hidden In the day of the LORD’s anger.
- We want God’s mercy to answer our prayer in our desperation (Psa 4:1), for strength and healing (Psa 6:2), help from our enemies (Psa 9:13), for forgiveness (Psa 25:7), etc. The blessed ones are those who first show mercy to receive more mercy. If we cease to show mercy to those who wronged us, then we will stop receiving God’s mercy

4. Don’t resist an evil person
- This is where we have to decide if we are concern with self preservation or with obedience
- This commandment (Jesus tells us plainly which doesn’t warrant explanation) reminds us that we have no rights, if indeed we belong to him
- Instead we are reminded to submit to God and resist evil and the Devil. Godly humility brings victory, while retaliation or revenge doesn’t
Jam 4:7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
- Vengeance is God’s responsibility. Waiting for God is to totally trusting Him for the outcome; we don’t determine the next course of action nor the judgment to be meted out. Trusting Him entirely is a journey in our spiritual pilgrimage that we are privileged to learn as sons of God. Ultimately it is our salvation that God is more concerned about
Prov 20:22 Do not say, “I will recompense evil”; Wait for the LORD, and He will save you.

5. Three things we are asked to bear patiently
- ‘Turn the other cheek’: be ready for the next one. This is about forgiveness, if we can’t forgive the first time, we won’t be able forgive at all
Matt 6:14,15 “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Matt 18:21,22 Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.
- ‘Let him have your cloak also’: A tunic is an undergarment or inner garment, but Jesus asked us to let go of the outer garment as well. Jesus is telling us the antithetical life is a costly one. We must learn to willingly count all things as dung for a greater Treasure. Have we found the pearl of great price (Matt 13:46)? It is costly to be Christ’s disciple.
Php 3:8 (KJV) Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
- ‘Go the second mile’: Unfortunately people use this to indicate one’s initiative. Rather this speaks to us about willing to go further in meekness. The blessing of the meek is inheriting the inheritance of what Christ has for us.
Rev 21:7 He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.
Matt 19:28, 29 So Jesus said to them, “Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life.
Psa 37:11 But the meek shall inherit the earth, And shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

6. Give generously
The paradox of the Kingdom of Heaven is give cheerfully in order to abound. The reason why people are not generous because there is a fear that they won’t have enough, however this ‘fear’ can and will replace our dependency on our Father.
2 Cor 9:6-8 But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.
Godly generosity is having beatitude of mercy, and God will provide in His mercy to those who show it, abundantly!
Psa 37:25, 26 I have been young, and now am old; Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, Nor his descendants begging bread. He is ever merciful, and lends; And his descendants are blessed.

B. Love your enemies – Matt 5:43-47
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so?

1. Love your enemies
- Here again the emphasis is love, but now love is to shown to those outside the boundary of brotherhood
- We will be hard press to find anything in the Old Testament that tells us implicitly to hate our enemy; Jesus was destroying a manmade law concocted by those who don’t know the extent of carrying our crosses daily. The truth of the matter is the law teaches us to do good to our enemy and to those who hates us
Exo 23: 4,5 “If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again. If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden, and you would refrain from helping it, you shall surely help him with it.
- This part of the sermon is an extension of being a peacemaker. It not peacekeeping that God wants His children to do, but turning situations that isn’t peaceful to one of peace.
Matt 5: 9 Blessed (happy) are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God.
- To love our enemies is the power to uproot any bitterness. Bitterness is a bondage which can only be set free through love and forgiveness
Acts 8: 23 For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity.”

2. Three actions we must take
- ‘Bless those who curse us’: we are not to respond in reviling (to assail with our mouth) but to bless that we in return will inherit God’s blessing
1 Pet 3: 8,9 Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous; not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing.
- ‘Do good to those who hate us’: This is as commanded in Exo 23: 4,5. Not merely a suggestion.
- ‘Pray for those who spitefully use and persecute us’: Being persecuted shouldn’t be a strange to us because we are who are in the world and not of the world, we have God’s glory which awaits us. True Christ-likeness in our life should culminate to the moment on the cross where the fullness of God’s love opened like floodgates to pray for those who don’t understand their actions (Luke 23:34)
Phil 1: 29, 30 For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, having the same conflict which you saw in me and now hear is in me.
1 Pet 4: 12-14 Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified.
Rom 8: 18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
- Jesus had every reason to react negatively to those who nailed Him to the cross; likewise as the Son of God died, we too have to grasp this life of taking up our crosses and following Him daily. The Father didn’t spare His son; neither will He spare us (Psa 44:22, Rom 8:36 , if indeed we are considered His sons.
- God’s mercy avails to all by causing His Son of Righteousness to shine on all and sends rain His Word and Gospel. It is not our duty to determine otherwise.

Tax collectors
- ‘Do not they also do the same’ is the message that Jesus wants us to note, are we living the antithetical life that is beyond the ordinary?
- The tax collectors are that who live in the natural, with more concern with self, earthly life that is doesn’t carry any connotation of an extraordinary life or supernatural life that is fit to live a life in the Spirit. We don’t live for ourselves but live for the Greater (Gal 2:20)
Rom 8:9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.
- This is where the goats and sheep divide, the righteousness that exceeds the righteousness of the Scribe and Pharisees. This is determining factor whether we inherit the Kingdom of Heaven or not!

Jesus calls us to spiritual maturity
God wants to bring us to completeness in Christ. He wants to build into us the beatitudes of His Son (conform to His image, Rom 8:29) to His Children who will be eventually glorified to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven
Matt 5:48 Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.