As we have seen in the last few weeks, Jesus has continued to elevate the standards of the law to one that is absolutely holy. This is revealed no clearer than in what He says in our passage today. Jesus says “You… must be perfect.” And in the context of what He just said about loving our enemies, we realize that perfection is not simply just not getting angry, or not being lustful, or not being unfaithful… There is something more than how we act. Perfection is only achieved and fulfilled when love becomes the foundation of all our deeds and words.
Paul wrote:
1 Corinthians 13: 1-3
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
We could have everything from all knowledge, wisdom, humility, and generosity… We could even give away our very lives to be burned… But none of this means anything if it is not made complete, with love. Jesus tells us that in order to be made perfect, (the idea of perfection here being the fulfilling or coming into completion of ones ultimate goal) we must love our neighbours and our enemies.
Jesus point out for us that it is easy for us to love those who love us and that doing so does not set us apart in any special way. The whole world and all who live in it does this with ease! But recall that the people of God were called to be holy, perfect, and set apart, so that they could reveal God’s glory and love. They were to be holy and perfect, because God is holy and perfect. And we do not reveal God’s glory by loving those who love us, but by loving those that this world would deem the unlovable. Love your enemies.
However we must take care in how we understand this. Because when we think of our neighbours and enemies, we are fairly clear on who these people are. Our neighbours are those we interact with or often run in to. While our enemies remain those we may feel angry or bitter towards, perhaps even disdain. But even in our act of trying to figure out who very well are our neighbours and enemies can be problematic. Jesus’ call is one to perfection and when He says this, He is pointing to God who loves and desires for all of His children to be reconciled to Him through Christ. And in this, He shows no partiality.
James writes:
9 But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.
Jesus’ concern is not JUST with those who love us, or even the ones we would deem our enemies. But to them and perhaps especially all of them who are in between these two groups. The thing about our loved ones, and our enemies is that they hold a place in our hearts and minds. There’s this Korean word “shingyung” that you can use to describe how a person occupies your mind. If it’s someone you love, your attention goes to them in an almost bothersome way. Which is natural for someone you dislike whom you’d like to forget them but can’t. Both our loved ones and our enemies do this. And so when we read this. When we read that we must not only love our neighbours but also our enemies, we develop a fairly clear idea of who fits into these two categories.
But you have to understand that for most of the Jewish people, anyone who was not one of them, was the enemy. Whether they be Romans, Philistines, Caananites, Amorites, or Gentiles did not matter. If you were not an Israelite, you were not one of the chosen of God. Therefore you were an enemy.
This is different for us, because we do not consider everyone outside of our neighbours and loved ones as an enemy. And while we can think of those we love, and those we consider our enemies, we must recognize that there is a group amongst the people around us that we are apathetic, and indifferent to. That there are people we just don’t think about, at all. They are the forgotten and left behind. They are those who get omitted from our conversations and thoughts. And this is simply because we are partial to those we like. Or even partial in the way we hate. So when Jesus says love your neighbours and your enemies, the ancient Jewish person would have understood that this meant everyone.
James gives us a severe warning here. He writes that if you show any partiality you are committing sin, and regardless of how well you uphold the rest of the Law, if you fail even in this one point you have become guilty of all the Law. Jesus says that your neighbour is more than those you love or who love you. Your neighbour are the passerbys, the poor and the sojourners. Jesus says that your enemies are not only those you hate, but you have made an enemy of anyone you are ignorant towards.
Even from back in Leviticus, God makes a provision for these that society have forgotten. We read that everyone, the alien and the foreigner, was to be considered our neighbours and that we must love our neighbours as ourselves. But the ancient Jewish Israelite would have taken this and shown partiality to those closest to them. Loving their neighbours is easy when they are people you love and are partial to anyway! But Jesus is once again elevating the standard here.
Jesus is not talking about loving “enough. He is talking about loving perfectly.
It is that your faith is incomplete…
Your religious life is meaningless…
If you have not love.
According to Jesus, you must have love…
Love for your friends, and family.
Love for the poor and the forgotten.
Love for those you hate and despise.
Love for those who hate you and, not only despise, but persecute you.
Jesus has a problem with how the religious leaders, and the people were living, going about caring for their closed circle of friends and families, while being indifferent and apathetic to the people they were, often knowingly, cutting out. In their desire to maintain their core group, their clique and their position of comfort and power, people were being left behind. And this was not Jesus’ way.
To follow Jesus is to not only acknowledge, but to dignify and make space for those who are not amongst the wealthy, or the favored, or the popular. The Law that was given had set this up for us when it was written
9 “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. 10 And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God.
God made a provision from the very beginning for the poor and for the sojourner. God teaches us that it is about leaving space in our lives, at our tables, in our sanctuaries, in our hearts for those we have been prone to forget or dismiss. Because it does not matter how much of the Bible we read, or how often we pray, or how much we give in our offerings, or what religious practices we follow… None of this matters if we are living a faith that lacks a Christ-like love for others. Christ showed us what this looks like. Christ showed that it required true self-sacrifice.
He showed this to us when, instead of doing what He wanted, which was to have the cup of suffering pass from Him, gave Himself to obedience to what God wanted. And He did this in His love for us, we who were still His enemies. (Romans 5:10)
And then, in the midst of His suffering and final breathes prays for us saying: “Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do” How have we been living in a manner where we know not what we have done to those who have been left behind in our partiality?
I know that as a strong introvert, I have a very small amount of people that I can care for at any given time. My capacity to love others is tiny and frankly embarrassing. But know that this is the natural inclination of humanity. And while some of us might have a larger capacity than others, it remains that we can easily love those who love us and hate those who hate us.
But Jesus is inviting us into a different way of living, where we come to care for all people. And to be honest, that is hard and frankly impossible, for our love is small and fickle.
But when Jesus calls us to be perfect… We know that it He does not leave us on our own to do so. How could we ever? No, rather it is only in Him that we can be made perfect. It is only in Him that we can be made complete. It is only by His love and strength, that we can love others as perfectly as He.
And so we have much to pray about. We must repent of all the ways in which we are consciously and unconsciously being partial to the people God has placed us amongst. We must repent knowing that we are far from perfect, while knowing that we are also being made perfect in Christ. And we must pray that the Holy Spirit, through the Word of God would teach us about this love, and how to embody it and live it. Let us ask he Lord to teach us how we can make space in our self-centred lives for others… To make longer tables… And create space for those beyond our friends and families… for those in our communities we forget about… and for those our enemies with whom we have long refused to eat with.
Amen.