SERMON ON THE MOUNT
LOVE AND HATE
COMMUNION SUNDAY
DR. JIM DIXON
MATTHEW 5:43-48
AUGUST 26, 2001
More than 7 years ago on March 2, 1994, a Jewish man named Baruch Goldstein entered a Palestinian mosque near the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the village of Hebron in the nation of Israel. In a murderous rage, he shot and killed 48 Palestinian people. In the midst of the violence, Baruch Goldstein himself was killed. A week later, his memorial service, his funeral service was held in the city of Jerusalem. At that service, Baruch Goldstein was eulogized with words of praise. It was in the context of that funeral service that the Jewish Rabbi, Yakof Perrin, made his incredible, infamous statement, “The lives of one million Arabs are not equal in value to one Jewish fingernail.”
That same week, in the same city of Jerusalem, another memorial service was held for the 48 Palestinians who died. The loved ones and the family members came in the midst of rage and great sorrow and with the sense of incomprehensible loss. It was in the context of that memorial service that the PLO leader, Kahlil Azziz, gave a prayer, and that prayer should be equally infamous. For he prayed, “God, help us to murder every Jew one by one until they are gone from the face of the earth.”
Now if you have been reading the newspapers regularly or watching the international news, you know that the hatred continues. The hatred continues in Israel and in the Middle East—the hatred of some Jews for some Arabs, some Arabs for some Jews. A brief glimpse of history shows us that there has always been hatred for one’s enemies. It would be nice if, from a historical perspective, we could look back and be able to conclude that Christians were innocent with regard to such hatred, but that would not be the case. As we look at history, we see that Christians have also hated their enemies. This morning as we’re gathered here, God would remind us of the Crusades when, in the name of Christ and under the banner of Christ, Christians marched in hatred, perpetrating atrocities on the earth, some of them actually butchering Hebrew and Muslim women and children.
This morning God would remind us as Christians of the Inquisition, when in the name of Christ the church of Christ participated in ethnic cleansing, seeking to eradicate Jewish people from sections of Europe through deportation and genocide. And yet, as Christians, we also want to remember the good things that those before us have done—the hospitals that Christians have established all over the world, the schools, the churches, the loving effort that has been made by many Christians to minister to peoples’ body, mind, and soul.
Of course, this morning as we gather here as Christians, Christ would remind us that we in our generation and in our time are called to be people of love. We focus on love this morning; not hate. The call of Christ upon His people is the call of love. The charge of Christ is the charge to love. I have two teachings this morning, and the first teaching is this: Love is meant to be the distinguishing mark of the Christian. In my life as a Christian, the distinguishing mark is meant to be love. In your life as a Christian, the distinguishing characteristic of your life should be love. This is what should distinguish us from the world. Jesus said, “By this, all people will know you are My disciples, if you love one another.” The Bible says, “God is love.”
The Apostle Paul tells us that the entire law, the entire Torah, is summed up in love. Jesus said, “This is the first and greatest commandment. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind. The second commandment is like unto it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” It’s all about love. But Jesus wants us to understand the type of love He’s called us to, and it’s different than the world’s concept of love.
You see, in the Greek language, there were many words for love. The Greek language is highly specific, more so than English. One of the Greek words for love is the word “eros,” which refers to romantic love, love between the sexes. Falling in love is eros. Making love is eros. Another Greek word for love is the word “storge.” This word storge is also rendered by our English word love but it refers to family love, the love that parents have for children; the love that children have for parents; sibling love, the love that brothers and sisters have for each other.
Another Greek word for love is the word “phileo.” This is also rendered by our English word love, but phileo refers to friendship love, love amongst friends, the affection that friends feel for one another, love that is reciprocal.
These were the three primary Greek words for love, but the problem is that these words do not represent great virtue. Anyone in the world is capable of these three types of love. As Jesus tells us in this passage of scripture for today, everyone—even the unbelieving, even the tax collectors—is capable to these three kinds of love. Everyone can love those who love them. Even criminals have friends, and they may be loyal to their friends. Even criminals have families, and they may love their families. Even criminals experience romantic love and have sexual desires. There’s no great virtue in eros, phileo, or storge. I mean, they are good and they are part of life on earth, but there’s no great virtue in them. You see, Christ has called His people to a higher standard of love.
And so, we have this fourth Greek word, “agape.” The word agape in the noun form was non-existent prior to Christ. It was not used prior to the Christian era. In the verb form it was rarely used. It was non-specific. But, you see, the Christian community took this word agape over, and they used it to describe Christian love, divine love, the love that Christ has called His people to. It is a love that is a benevolent love. It’s a love that can’t be conquered. It’s benevolent towards all. It’s a love that seeks to bless all people. It’s a love that seeks to benefit all people, even one’s enemies. This is the call of Christ upon us, that we would love our enemies. We don’t have to like our enemies, but we have to love them. That means we seek to bless them. That means we seek to benefit them. This is the call of Christ upon all of us.
How are we doing? I don’t know about you, but I oftentimes fall short. Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan. He told the story of the Good Samaritan because He wanted us to understand Christian love. Of course, the Samaritans and the Jews hated each other because the Samaritans were descended from Jews who intermarried with the Assyrians during the siege of Assyria upon the Northern Kingdom. They intermarried, producing offspring of mixed blood. Then, according to the Jews, they corrupted the Jewish faith so that they were heretics and half-breeds. The Jews hated the Samaritans, and the Bible says they had no dealings with Samaritans. The Samaritans hated the Jews and had no dealings with the Jews. So, when Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan who came to the aid of a wounded Jew, the message was clear. “Love means you love your enemies. You reach out and seek to help and bless even your enemies.” That’s the call of Christ upon the Christian community.
In the year 1890, a man named John Forney created a brass ring that he mass marketed all over America and all over the world. The great thing about this brass ring created by John Forney in 1890 was it was inexpensive, and it looked just like gold. Everybody wanted to buy it. They wanted to buy it because it was cheap, and they wanted to buy it because it looked expensive. They were called “Forney rings.” They became so popular that eventually, as we approached the turn of the century in the year 1900, the word Forney began to refer to anything that was bogus, anything that was kind of imitation. Anything that was counterfeit was Forney. Anything that was pretense was Forney. Etymologists tell us that the word phony comes from the word Forney.
I think it is true in the sight of Christ that many of His people are phony. I know there are times in my life when I’m phony, when I do not love as a Christian is called to love. That might be true of you too, and yet love is meant to be the distinguishing mark of the Christian on earth.
We shouldn’t become too discouraged because there’s a second teaching, and the second teaching is this: Love is the pathway to maturity. It is the path that leads us to maturity. We look at the last verse in our passage of scripture for today and Jesus says, “You, therefore, must be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect.” The Greek word for perfect is the word “teleios.” Perfect is an unfortunate rendering of the Greek word teleios because the word teleios rarely meant perfect. What it means is “mature.” Sometimes it means “complete.” But it was used to describe a baby as the baby grows, and through the years eventually reaches the fullness of its growth so that it becomes an adult. The child has reached the fullness of his or her height and size. The child is then called teleios—mature, complete.
Christ is saying He knows we are in process. He knows we are in process, and we are on a journey to maturity. With regard to love and agape love and this divine love that we’re called to manifest on earth, He knows we are in process. But we are to seek maturity. We are to seek completeness in Christ.
Is that true of us? Are we really seeking to love as He has loved us? Are we really seeking to love in the way He has called us to love? We do this every day. I mean, do we wake up each day thinking, “I need to choose to love”? Because, you see, the biblical word for Christian love, this word agape, is rooted in your volition. It’s rooted in the mind, not the heart. The other forms of love, eros, phileo, storgay, are rooted in emotion and feeling, but agape love is a decision. You can choose to love with Christian love. It may involve emotion, but it is a choice, a choice to seek to bless and benefit another person. You can wake each day and make that choice. You can wake up each morning and make the choice to love as a follower of Jesus Christ and to seek to bless and benefit even your enemies.
In the year 1595, in the time of William Shakespeare, in the region of Norfolk, England, a wealthy man was dying. His wife had died just a few years earlier in childbirth, giving birth to their third child. Now he was dying, and he was very concerned for the three children because they were very little, very young. In his will, he stipulated that all of his wealth was to go to his three children. He also stipulated in his will that his three children were to be given to the care of their uncle, his brother. He further stipulated in his will that if by some remote possibility, the three children were all to die before reaching maturity, all of the wealth would pass to his brother.
He didn’t really know his brother that well, and he didn’t know that his brother, deep in his heart, had great greed and envy and jealousy. He longed to have that wealth. As time passed, he began to want the three children to die so the wealth would come to him.
One day, the uncle, the brother, decided that he would take these three kids, his nephews and nieces, out into the woods—far out into the woods. There was a cliff there he knew about and he would push them off the cliff. When he came to the precipice to push those kids over the cliff that he might gain the wealth of his brother, he couldn’t do it. He was evil, but he wasn’t THAT evil. He couldn’t just push the kids over the cliff, and so he resolved that he would leave them there in the woods.
He thought, “They’ll never get out of the woods. We’ve traveled so far. The woods are so vast. The children are so young. They’ll never get out. I’ll abandon them. I’ll get home. I’ll receive the money.” He did this, and indeed, tragically, the kids never made it out of the woods. They all died in the woods. Their bodies were found in subsequent days. This man inherited all the wealth, but from that story in 1595, there came an expression that became common. The expression is “babes in the woods.”
If you’re middle-aged or if you’re older, you’ve probably heard that expression. Perhaps you’ve used that expression. “Mere babes in the woods.” The idea behind that expression is not simply that someone is young, but their youth is dangerous. I mean, it’s dangerous to be “mere babes in the woods.” You see, Christ wants His people to understand that if you remain mere babes in the woods, it’s dangerous. If you don’t grow in maturity, if you don’t seek this path of love, if you don’t seek to grow in love, it’s dangerous. It’s dangerous to your soul.
I want you to understand before we come to this table this morning how dangerous it is to choose to not grow in love. It’s a dangerous choice. It is dangerous first of all because if you don’t grow in your love for God, you won’t grow in obedience. If I don’t grow in my love for God, I won’t grow in obedience. Jesus said, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” To the extent we love Him, we obey Him.
Did you know that in the Korean War there were many soldiers who were not stationed in Korea, many American soldiers? Some American soldiers were actually stationed in Japan and some of the other Pacific Islands. When an American soldier was on leave or when an American soldier left the base, there was great temptation because many Asian women, during the Korean War, were willing to go to bed with American soldiers. They wanted to elevate, if only for a brief period of time, their lifestyle.
Now, many American soldiers were married. And yet the temptation was there, and it was all around them and it was real. Those American soldiers (it is a fact of history) who gave in to that temptation and went to bed—those married American soldiers who gave in to that temptation and went to bed with Asian woman—were called “broken arrows.” That’s what they were called during the Korean War. They were called broken arrows. Those American soldiers who remained faithful to their wives back home were called “straight arrows.”
What was the difference? What makes a person a straight arrow? Is it not love? At least that is one of the great sources of inspiration for a straight arrow. Love. Love of God. Love of one’s wife. Love of one’s spouse. It’s love. If you want to be faithful to God (because the church of Christ is married to Christ), if you want to be faithful to Christ, you need to grow in your love. That means spending time with Him every day in the Word and in prayer. That means fellowshipping with other Christians, seeking to kindle the spark of love that you had when you first received Jesus as your Lord and Savior. It’s a dangerous thing not to grow in love.
It’s also dangerous not to grow in love because if we don’t grow in love and if we don’t move towards maturity in love, there will be no power to our ministry in this world. You see, ministry, Christian ministry, is empowered by love. That’s what enables Christian ministry in this world. If you want to have a ministry for Christ or with your children or anywhere, then you must learn love. By the power of the Holy Spirit love enables ministry.
I’ll tell you a little story. It took place in my life a little less than 27 years ago. I was at the DMV, the Department of Motor Vehicles in Aurora. Barb and I had just come to Colorado. We’d moved here a little over a year before that. I’d been pulled over by a cop because I’d run a stop sign. When he asked for my license, he saw that I had a California license. He asked me how long I’d been in Colorado. I told him over a year. He gave me a mercy period of time where I could get a Colorado license. I had waiting until the last day of that mercy period.
There I was at the DMV, the Department of Motor Vehicles in Aurora. I was in a bad mood. I don’t fully remember why now… I’m sure there was a complexity of reasons, but I was in a bad mood. I was kind of irritated. I didn’t want to be there. I got there, and there was a big crowd and a long line. I not only had to take the written test, but I had to take the driver’s test. They told me I just might as well wait for a period of time. There were a whole bunch of chairs set up. Most of the chairs were empty. I didn’t want to talk to anybody. I went to a section of chairs where I was as far away from everybody as I could possibly be, and I sat down on a chair. I just didn’t want to talk to anybody.
There came a guy who also needed to get his license. He was also told to wait. He could have chosen any chair, but for some reason this guy came and sat in one of the chairs that was right next to me. He invaded my space. He just came and sat right next to me. There were countless chairs, but he sat right next to me, and he wanted to talk. He was really friendly. I wasn’t friendly. I wasn’t even nice, but he was really friendly, and he wanted to talk about the whole situation and how there’s always a line here. He began to tell me about the car he drove and what kind of car do I drive. I was kind of being rude. I mean, not blatantly, but I was just giving real short answers. I wasn’t saying much, and I really didn’t want to talk to him.
Well, finally, he turned to me and said, “What do you do?” At that time, I was a minister at Faith Presbyterian Church in Aurora. I told him that. He said, “You’re a minister?” He said, “What type of minister?” I said, “Well, I’m a rude minister…” No, I said, “I’m a Christian minister.” He didn’t say anything for a second. He just paused and then he said, “You know this is amazing. I was just telling my wife this morning that I’m really interested in Christianity, and I think I would like to become a Christian, but I don’t know how.” In an amazing moment, and by an amazing act of God and by His incomprehensible mercy and grace, I was able to lead this young man to saving faith in Jesus Christ. But I can look back on 28 years in the ministry and I can tell you that’s the only time anything like that has ever happened when I wasn’t loving. I mean, it just doesn’t normally work that way.
God’s all-powerful, as He demonstrated that day. God can do anything, but I want you to know (and He wants you to know) it doesn’t normally work like that. Normally when you’re rude, you have no ministry. When you’re not loving, you have no ministry. That’s the way it normally works. Through the years I’ve learned that, and Christ tells us that. It’s so dangerous if we don’t learn to love. It’s so dangerous if we don’t grow in love because we don’t bear fruit in this world. Love empowers ministry.
Finally, it’s dangerous if we don’t grow in love because we invite the judgement of God. You see, the church at Ephesus, if you read the letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3, you notice that the church at Ephesus received the judgement of Christ because it had abandoned its first love. It’s a dangerous thing.
I think a lot of Christians are in the doldrums. Do you know what the doldrums are? In the oceans of this world north of the equator, there are vast sections called the doldrums where there’s very little wind, very little breeze. In the days of sailing vessels, these ships always avoided the doldrums because they would become stagnant there and they would sometimes sit there for weeks because there’s no breeze. The doldrums. I think sometimes in my life (and surely sometimes in your life) you experience the doldrums in your spiritual life. You want to feel the breeze, the freshening, the quickening of the Holy Spirit again.
Did you know the word in the Bible for Spirit is, in the Greek language, “pneuma,” and in the Hebrew language, “rhua”? These words also mean “breeze or wind.” I think that we all need to pray for the Holy Spirit to breathe on us, to blow a quickening wind upon us and to fill us and anoint us and bring us out of the doldrums again.
I know in Christ that it’s part of my call as a pastor to seek to bring us out of the doldrums. I am reminded of what the Apostle Peter wrote in the first chapter of 2 Peter, when he writes, “Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, your virtue with knowledge, your knowledge with self-control, your self-control with steadfastness, your steadfastness with godliness, your godliness with brotherly affection, and your brotherly affection with love. If these things are yours and abound, they will keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in your knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Whoever lacks this growth is blind and short-sighted and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his sins.” He goes on to say, “I intend always to remind you of these things though you know them, but I think it right that as long as I’m in this body to rouse you by way of reminder since I know that the putting off of my body is soon.”
You see, that’s the call of a pastor to rouse by way of reminder. I think a lot of times people come to church to be comforted. That’s important, and we all need comfort, but sometimes we need to be roused. Christ wants to rouse us to love. That’s what He wants to do today as we come to this table. He wants us to be people who are distinguished by our love, that that’s our distinguishing mark. He wants us to understand that love is the path to maturity, and that it’s dangerous not to walk that path and not to seek growth. We won’t grow in our obedience if we don’t grow in our love for God. We won’t have ministry in this world. We won’t bear fruit in our communities if we don’t have love for people. If we don’t love, we invite the judgement of God. Let’s have a word of prayer before we come to the Communion Table.