Love your enemies

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Matthew 5:43-48

I have a real aversion to television advertisements. In particular, I find their mangling of statistics incredibly irritating. The worst culprits are shampoo adverts that make claims along the lines of ‘95% of 113 women found that our shampoo left their hair softer and shinier’. Surely such claims are pretty much meaningless? At the moment there’s one advert that winds me up more even than shampoo adverts, and that’s the promotion for Freeview television. This makes the claim that ‘95% of the nation’s favourite programmes are available subscription-free’. Of course they are, I scream at my television. The reason they’re the nation’s favourite programmes is because they are available subscription free! The advertiser’s logic has got cause and effect entirely the wrong way round.

Throughout the Sermon on the Mount we’ve seen that to live as a Christian – to follow God’s ways – is to take a counter-cultural approach to life. The wisdom of God is frequently the reverse of the wisdom of the world. God’s logic is the opposite of our logic. And so we see in this memorable, and challenging, passage above, in which Jesus responds to the prevailing wisdom of loving one’s neighbours and hating one’s enemies. This, of course, is how many people live their lives today. To the world it makes perfect sense to hate your enemies. Why would we strive to love someone who hates us? Jesus challenges this pattern of thought, however. He tells us, ‘love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you’. We should not respond to hatred with hatred, but with love.

Why would we follow this commandment from Jesus? Jesus tells us that we should do this so that we ‘may be children of our Father in heaven’. By loving our enemies, we will be following God’s example, and demonstrating that we are his children. God, after all, loves indiscriminately. As Jesus tells us, God ‘causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends his rain on the righteous and the unrighteous’. It matters not to God whether someone is evil or good, righteous or unrighteous – he has provided, and continues to provide, for all people.

God showed the level of love he has for his enemies by sending his son to save those who hate him and ignore him. The world had turned their back on God, turned to follow their own ways, and rejected him, yet he still chose to send his son to die for all people. If God loves his enemies, then it is right that we should strive to love ours too. God’s display of love for humanity through the death and resurrection of his son brought many millions of people to the point of loving him back. Perhaps by loving our enemies they might come in time to love us – and also God, when they come to understand the reason we love them.

If we love only those who love us, we are no better than the tax collectors or pagans that Jesus refers to in this passage. We should instead flip the logic around and love not only those who love us, but also our enemies. Some people will not find this tricky, but others of us will find this incredibly difficult, especially if we have enemies who have wronged us deeply, who have hurt us or upset us. Loving in these circumstances is incredibly hard. Yet if we stay close to God, strive to gain a better insight into the person of Jesus by immersing ourselves in his word, and dedicate ourselves to prayer – even praying for our enemies – then God will fill us with his love. This, in turn, will equip us to love our enemies.

38 ‘You have heard that it was said, “Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.” 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. 40 And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. 41 If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.”

Matthew 5:38-41

I’ve just returned home from London after another very trying day on the train. At times I just cannot believe how rude my fellow commuters are. Whether it’s barging to get onto the train in front of everyone else, fighting their way to get a seat, or just protecting their own space by keeping elbows firmly jabbed into the person they are sat next to, they really are quite a crowd. Of course, most of these people are, I have no doubt, lovely people, but commuting by train seems to bring the worst out in everyone. The problem is that as soon as one person starts acting in this aggressive fashion, the people around them feel that they have to act in a similar way if they are going to get onto the train and get a seat. The cycle of rudeness spreads, and before you know it, travelling by commuter train at rush hour becomes the perfect demonstration of human nature at its very worst.

Jesus did not teach about train etiquette, but he did, in the Sermon on the Mount, teach a way to avoid this escalation of rudeness, violence and abuse. He referred to the teaching of Deuteronomy 19:21, when the guidance to the judges of Israel states, ‘show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot’. This was practical advice for the time, since it prevented a spiralling war of revenge by imposing a punishment that exactly met the offence. But this advice did not go far enough for Jesus.

Throughout the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus has told his followers that the moral and ethical behaviour that God expects his followers to observe goes beyond anything that might be deemed fair by the world. And this passage of teaching is no exception. Jesus doesn’t settle for the principle of an ‘eye for eye, tooth for tooth’. He expects his followers to go over and above this, and offers three examples. If anyone insults you by slapping you on the right cheek, don’t slap them back, but offer them the other cheek to slap too. If someone in court seeks to humiliate you by taking everything you have – and then your shirt from your back as well – give them your coat too. And if anyone forces you into undertaking a task for you – as a Galilean might be forced to carry a Roman soldier’s pack for a mile – then do twice as much as they ask of you.

The rationale behind this extreme teaching, it seems to me, is twofold. Firstly, responding in such a positive fashion to challenging circumstances defuses the whole situation. The person offended might ordinarily seek some kind of revenge against the ‘evil person’ who is making such unreasonable demands, but by not doing so, and instead going above and beyond what is asked, the spiral of revenge is halted. Secondly, such a positive response to unfair requests turns the humiliation full circle. No longer is the victim facing humiliation. Instead, the one making the demands is humbled by the response they receive, and through such extravagant actions exposed to the love of Christ.

There is no denying that the expectations Jesus has of his followers in this passage of the Gospel are challenging. In our fast-paced world we have little time or respect for unreasonable demands. Yet in such times as ours Jesus’ teaching here is doubly valid. Just think how our trains, our roads, our offices – our whole society indeed – would be transformed if we heeded Jesus’ words here. Why not reflect today how you can turn the other cheek, hand over your coat, or go double the distance, when unreasonable requests are made of you?

I have not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets

17 ‘Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19 Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practises and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 5:17-21

A few years ago I spent some time on a mission in Belarus, which Condaleezza Rice, whilst US Secretary of State, described as “truly still the last remaining true dictatorship in the heart of Europe.” This was a truly life changing trip for me for many reasons, but particularly as a result of getting to know a young student named Macsim. Whilst speaking to Max, as we knew him, about the Gospel, it quickly became apparent that he knew as much as any of us about Jesus and about the teachings of the Bible. For him, though, the Bible was pure ‘head knowledge’ – he knew a great deal about it, but that knowledge had not changed his life. We spent a great deal of time telling Max that Christianity was not just about knowing stuff, but about allowing that knowledge to transform our hearts and minds and to shape our whole lives. I think, by the end of our time in Belarus, Max was beginning to understand this, and whilst he did not make a personal commitment of faith whilst we were with him, I am sure that we had given him a great deal to think about.

The passage that we’re looking at today speaks to me a great deal about the difference between ‘head knowledge’ and true, transformational faith in Christ. This is framed through teaching on the Law and the Prophets. Jesus was quick to challenge the role of the ‘law’ and the ‘prophets’, that is, the Old Testament. Clearly some people had suggested that Jesus believed that he had come to sweep away all the old scriptures, and was going to build a new set of guidance for living in a Godly way. Jesus stepped in to tell his audience that this was most certainly not the case. He couldn’t be any clearer in his statement at the beginning of this passage, “‘Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets’.” Indeed, in the coming verses, Jesus can be seen to be teaching a strict adherence to the rules set out in the New Testament, making it clear that obedience needs to be wholehearted and not simply a legalistic attempt to keep to the letter of the law. Jesus expected his followers to have a living faith and not just follow a behavioural checklist.

Jesus does not just say that he has not come to abolish the Law; he says that he has come to fulfil it. The Law set out what was necessary for humanity to establish and maintain a relationship with God. A key element of this was the establishment of a sacrificial system by which God’s people could make offerings to gain forgiveness from their sins. This was an imperfect system, which is evident from the fact that sacrifices had to be made over and over again. When Christ went to the cross, however, he paid the price for all of humanity’s sins, in a once-for-all offering that covered the wrongdoing of all people, across all time. The Law still applies, but in Christ’s sacrifice of himself, the punishment has been served. We are still required to strive for holiness, but when we inevitably fail, our sin is already forgiven since Christ was the fulfilment of the law.

Jesus is also the fulfilment of the Prophets. The Old Testament contains hundreds of prophecies – word from God sent to teach people about who he was, how people should live, and what they needed to do to build a relationship with him. Many hundreds of these prophecies also, of course, foretold the coming of a messiah who would save God’s people. The Jewish people had waited for hundreds of years for the arrival of this messiah. In Jesus, all of the prophecies of the Old Testament were fulfilled. Here was the messiah who would save God’s people from death. And here was the person who embodied both perfect adherence to the Law and perfection in relationship with God, since he was not only wholly human but also wholly God.

In confirming that he has come to fulfil, and not to abolish the Law and the Prophets, Jesus also makes it clear that we, as his followers, are expected to both practice and teach the commands set out within them. Jesus tells his followers, “‘unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven’.” This must have seemed hugely shocking for those listening at the time. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were known for their knowledge of Biblical law and for their efforts to follow it. The issue was, though, that for them adherence to the law was something that they made a great show of, but which they did largely to show how great they were to others. Their righteousness was public and demonstrated by their actions, but it was not deep righteousness at the level of their hearts. Following Christ is not just simply following a check list of rules, but allowing the spirit of the laws to transform our hearts and our minds as well as our actions. We need to go beyond mere ‘head knowledge’ – knowing what the rules are, and aim for transformed hearts and minds.

These five verses are quite complex and within them lurks a great deal about the nature and purpose of Jesus. Much has been written on this short chunk of scripture, but for me, today, the take home message is how we respond to the commands found in the Law and the Prophets. Do we practise and teach these commands? Have they taken deep hold of us and impacted our hearts and minds as well as shaping our actions? Do we constantly strive to live in a righteous fashion? As we begin this new week and this new month, do take time to reflect on these questions and pray that the Holy Spirit might work within us to ensure that our righteousness ‘surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law’.

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.”

Matthew 5:13

I have a colleague called Danny who often pops into my classroom. He is a regular visitor during school breaks, when he often brings me biscuits! His visits aren’t restricted just to break times, however. He sometimes pops in during lessons and sits and the back, observing what is happening. He ribs me that my lessons consist entirely of videos and source exercises. Danny tells me that if I want to make my lessons more enjoyable I should try to make the History I’m teaching my pupils more relevant. I need to make the material I teach relevant to the lives our children live today. Whilst I’m happy to take his biscuits I usually ignore his teaching advice!

In today’s Daily Reflection, we move from the section of the Sermon on the Mount known as ‘the beatitudes’ in which Jesus outlined the character traits expected of a Christian and onto specific guidance about how to live as a Christian in the world. Jesus begins with this thought provoking teaching focused on salt. Jesus describes his followers as “the salt of the earth.” By seeking to live in the world as prescribed in the beatitudes Christians serve as the “salt of the earth.” Just as salt is rubbed into meat to prevent it decaying, Christians living a Christ-like lifestyle will stand against the moral and spiritual decay that we see all around us. By seeking to build the Kingdom of God in the here and now our influence can actually hold back the rot of a world without God.

Having established that Christians are like salt to the world, Jesus warns his followers of the importance of maintaining their distinctiveness. Christians must not seek to conform to the world or to limit their Christian-ness around their friends and colleagues. We must be wary of ‘making Christianity more relevant’ to the world of today. Christians must strive to live as outlined in the beatitudes at all times. If we do not, we lose our saltiness. And what is salt that is no longer salty good for? Absolutely nothing, other than for being thrown away and trampled into the ground. If we, as Christians, downplay our beliefs, or limit our Christianity, then we no longer serve as a defence against the moral degradation of God’s beautiful creation.

So today let’s remember that we are the salt of the earth and strive to maintain our saltiness at all times and in all places. Let us ensure that we are not fit only for being discarded, but instead stand firm as God’s preservative, holding back the decay of the world in which we live.

Blessed are those who are persecuted

“Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Matthew 5:10-12

Scarcely a day seems to go by at the moment without news of Christians being attacked because of their faith somewhere in the world. Not long ago 21 Egyptian Christians were apparently beheaded by Islamic State militants in Libya. In New Delhi in India several churches were attacked. These are just a couple of examples of Christians being attacked for their faith in a world that sometimes seems like a dark and frankly frightening place. Incidents like these put into context any insults or slights that we might be subjected to from our friends and colleagues.

The grim reality is that Christians will be attacked as a direct consequence of their faith in Jesus Christ. Over the preceding verses of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus has, through the beatitudes, shown that the way of Christ is generally completely the reverse of the way of the world. Christians are expected to live in a manner that is totally counter cultural. Jesus understands that living in this way, seeking to follow the path of righteousness, will lead to persecution. He takes this as a given when he says, “blessed are those who are persecuted.” If we live righteous lives, if we live as Christ lived, we will attract strong opposition, just as he himself did. He was, of course, ultimately executed for what he was saying and how he lived. We should, therefore, expect persecution, insults and abuse for following him.

Jesus tells us that when we are insulted, persecuted or lied about as a consequence of our relationship with him we are to “rejoice and be glad” for we are following the ways of the prophets who have gone before us. All those who have sought to bring God’s good news to the world have found themselves facing opposition. Yet it is worth persevering with our distinctive lives since the reward for living righteous lives is “a reward in heaven.” We will join Jesus in his heavenly kingdom, in God’s new creation, if we continue to follow the example that he set us.

Of course, it might be that the most challenging element of this beatitude for those of us living in the comfortable west is not enduring persecution and insult. Perhaps what we are most challenged about is the fact that we are not actually being insulted or slandered. Maybe, like me, you find yourself pondering whether in fact the life you are leading is marked out as righteous, if it is in fact distinctively Christian. Perhaps, as you scan through the beatitudes, you have found yourself thinking, “but this isn’t me?” The challenge for those of us thinking like this is to strive to follow Christ more closely, to live lives that are more righteous, and to reflect more clearly the example of Christ.

There is a great deal for us to reflect on in these verses. Are we living lives that are truly righteous, and evidently so to those around us? Is our faith deep enough to mark us out as a distinctive followers of Christ? Are we deserving of the reward that awaits us in heaven? At the same time we should be thankful that we are not subjected to the brutalities that our brothers and sisters in Christ are forced to endure elsewhere in the world. We should admire their faith, that they continue to follow Christ despite the appalling threats that they face. And we should pray for their continued strength, and that they will draw comfort from the teachings of Christ in these verses.

Blessed are the peacemakers

Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.

Matthew 5:9

In my day job I am a History teacher. In the last few weeks I have taught my pupils about King John allegedly killing his nephew, Arthur, Joan of Arc and the Hundred Years’ War, and King Charles and the causes of the English Civil War. If you took these few weeks as indicative of history, you would think that the past is a very violent place. You might not be wrong. History is chock full of records of battles and wars, and of leaders killing others in order to secure their own position. This, it would seem, is the way of the world. War, violence and death are the way to secure greatness. Those who love peace are destined to be a footnote in the records of history, and probably found themselves weak and helpless in the face of stronger, more forceful leaders.

Once again, here in this beatitude, we see Jesus being totally counter-cultural in his teaching. If you told any of those powerful leaders of the past that the way to ultimate success lay in making peace, they would have laughed you out of the room. Yet this is the expectation that Christ has of those who dwell in the Kingdom of Heaven. ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’, he says.

It’s not just the powerful kings, queens and military leaders of the past who might struggle to comprehend this beatitude. I wonder if you have ever felt yourself embroiled in office politics? Have you seen one of your colleagues consciously trample over others to gain a promotion? Maybe you have been tempted to do this yourself. This attitude might lead to short term gain, yet if we take a long term view it is not helpful. We are just as guilty as those military leaders of the past if we take this attitude. Instead we need to be more Christ-like in our approach. Whilst the Messiah was envisaged as a strong, dynamic military leader who would defeat the enemies of the Jewish people and lead them to freedom, Jesus turned out to be a rather quieter figure, who told his followers to turn the other cheek to anyone who slapped them, and to offer their coats to anyone who tried to take their shirts. Jesus was more interested in love than hatred, in peace rather than war.

Interestingly we are not called to be at peace in this beatitude, although that is implicit within it. Instead we are called to be peacemakers. Jesus expects us to further his kingdom by bringing peace to the world around us. This might be within our own families or friendship groups, it might be between rival factions in our offices, or it might be lobbying our governments to work for peace on a global scale. Jesus, the son of God, sought to bring peace to the world. We, as his followers, as his co-heirs are called to do the same. If we do, we in turn will be deserving of our place as children of God.

Let’s all pray for peace in our world today. Let’s pray for peace in our cities. And let’s pray for peace in our homes. Above all, let us all strive to work for peace where we are, to aim to be peacemakers where peace is lacking. Let’s strive to be true children of God.

Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.

Matthew 5:8

It seems like a while since we’ve had a proper political scandal here in the UK. Of course, our tabloid newspapers like nothing better than a good scandal; for them it’s front page news. They enjoy the hypocrisy of a politician who has been living a life of hypocrisy. They like nothing better than running with a story of a politician who has been sleeping with his secretary, or fiddling his expenses, or covering up his former misdeeds. Reporting such scandals is in the public interest, the media maintain, since it is important that we see our leaders for who they are.

Politicians are real people. The media might not like to recognise this, but our leaders are not some kind of super-being. Politicians, like the rest of us, make mistakes. They are ordinary human beings with the frailty that goes with this. They are prone to the same failings as the rest of our species. Can we really blame them when their errors of judgement are discovered? Can we really expect them to live lives of purity?

Whilst the debate could rage for ever about whether is appropriate for politicians to be held to some higher moral standard than the rest of us, there is no doubt about whether this is the case for followers of Christ. Christians are called to a higher standard of living than that expected of other people. We are expected, as Jesus states in this beatitude, to be ‘pure of heart’. The life of a Christian is one that is marked by diligent study of God’s word, a faithful life of prayer, and a conscious effort to live in the same way that Christ did. We are expected to love all those whom we encounter, and to model Christ-like living to the world. There is no room for hypocrisy here. It is not enough to be Christ-like on a Sunday morning, or once a week at home group. The Christian’s way of life is to be consistent at all times. If we model Christian living sometimes, but are consciously sinning by omission (not doing the things that we should have done) or by commission (doing the things that we should not have done), then we are not pure of heart. There is simply no room for a Christian to behave in this way; we are called to a higher standard of living, and if we are truly to honour Christ, we need to ensure that we are pure of heart.

This is hard. There are no two ways about this. Being pure of heart in a fallen, sinful world is incredibly difficult. Thankfully we have a God who forgives us when we inevitably fall, a God who through his son has wiped our sins clean. Nevertheless, our aim should be to strive for purity of heart, for consistency of living, for avoidance of sin.

Let’s confess our sins before God now and pray that through his Spirit he will strengthen us to live lives free from sin, to be ‘pure of heart’ in a fallen world.

Blessed are the merciful

Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.

Matthew 5:7

Saturday was a beautiful, sunny day here in the south of England. It was certainly cold, but nevertheless the sun was shining. I found myself in Brighton with my friend Howard, and we strolled along the promenade and to the end of the pier and back in the glorious sunshine. One of the things I always notice when I go to Brighton is the extent of the homeless problem; it seems that you can’t walk more than a few metres without finding someone bundled up in a pile of sleeping bags, sheltering in the doorway of a building. I’ve never really known what to do when encountering a homeless person on the street; my instinct is to give them money, but at the same time I find myself thinking that this isn’t dealing with the root cause of homelessness.

Of course, many churches now support homeless people by running night shelters, which provide beds for those who need them, as well as helping people to resolve the issues that are at the root of their problems. It is great to see churches taking a lead in providing this sort of service, since it is this practical support that I believe Jesus is advocating in the beatitude above.

As followers of Christ, we are expected to be merciful – to show mercy to those around us. If we show mercy, then we will be blessed by God because he, too, will show us mercy. Mercy here means being willing to forgive those who wrong us, since we have been forgiven infinitely more by God. But mercy here, I believe, also has more positive connotations; we are called to show mercy to those who find themselves in difficult, uncomfortable or even painful circumstances. This extends to being merciful to the homeless people we encounter on our streets, but also to those who are suffering as a consequence of illness, stress, relationship breakdown, economic hardship or any other number of other afflictions. In a sinful world, the tendency is to ignore the plight of others – especially those with whom we do not have direct contact – yet here, once again, Christ’s followers are called to take a counter-cultural stance. We are expected to make ‘being merciful’ to others as a key priority for our lives.

What is the end result for us if we are merciful to those around us? Well, we, in turn, will be shown mercy by God. He will support us, protect us, encourage us, and provide for us when we find ourselves in difficult circumstances. And ultimately he will show us mercy by welcoming us into his new creation. Whilst being merciful is not our ticket to salvation – that comes only as a result of a personal relationship with Jesus Chris, our saviour – mercy will be a key character trait for those who genuinely know and follow Christ.

How merciful are you do you think? Are you closer to the world or to the kingdom of God in your application of mercy? Why not join me in praying today that Jesus, through his Spirit, will enable us to be more merciful to those who need to be shown mercy? Why not pray that he will transform our lives in order that we might transform the lives of others?