FORGET WHAT YOU HEARD: LOVE WITHOUT DISCRIMINATION!

43 You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
44 But I tell you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 
45 To show that you are children of your Father Who is in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the wicked and on the good, and makes the rain fall upon the upright and the wrongdoers [alike].
46 For if you love those who love you, what reward can you have? Do not even the tax collectors do that? 
47 And if you greet only your brethren, what more than others are you doing? Do not even the Gentiles (the heathen) do that? 
48 You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect [that is, grow into complete maturity of godliness in mind and character, having reached the proper height of virtue and integrity].
(Matthew 5:43-48). [Amplified Bible].


43 The command "Love your neighbor" is found in Lev 19:18; no OT Scripture adds "and hate your enemies," though this seems to be the result of popular reasoning. Such reasoning seems to have said that if God commands love for "neighbor," then hatred for "enemies" is implicitly conceded and perhaps even authorized.


44-47 Jesus allowed no casuistry. The real direction indicated by the law is love, rich and costly, and extended even to enemies. Many take the verb and the noun "love" as always signifying self-giving regardless of emotion, but such an interpretation is unwarranted. The content of Christian love is not based on a presupposed definition but on Jesus' teaching and example. To love one's enemies, though it must result in activities such as doing them good (Lk 6:32-33) and praying for them (Matt 5:44), cannot justly be restricted to activities devoid of any concern, sentiment, or emotion. There is no reason to think the verb here in Matthew does not include emotion as well as action.
   The specific "enemy" referred to here is one's persecutors. Jesus himself repeatedly warns his disciples of impending persecution (e.g.; vv. 10-12; 10:16-23; 24:9-13). If Matthew's first readers were being persecuted for their faith, that was doubtless one application they made.
Jesus' disciples have as their example God himself, who loves so indiscriminately that he sends sun and rain on both the righteous and the unrighteous. Yet we must not thereby conclude that God's love toward people is in all respects without distinction, and that therefore all will be saved (see Matt 25:31-46). Theologians call this love of God his "common grace" (i.e., the gracious favor God bestows "commonly," without distinction, on everyone).
   God's example provides the incentive for Jesus' disciples to be "sons of [their] Father" (v.45). Ultimately this clause points to the necessity pf pursuing a certain kind of sonship patterned after the Father's own character. Jesus' disciples must live and love in a way superior to the patterns around them. Jesus goes on to point out that even the despised tax collectors love those who love them; Christian love must go beyond what naturally takes place.


48 It is best to understand v.48 as the conclusion to all the antitheses. The OT background to this verse is Lev 19:2, with "holy" displaced by "perfect". Here for the first time perfection is predicated of God.
   In light of the preceding verses (vv.17-47), Jesus is saying that the true direction in which the law has always pointed is not toward mere judicial restraints, concessions arising out of the hardness of human hearts, still less casuistical perversions, nor even the "law of love."  No, it pointed rather to all the perfection of God. exemplified by the authoritative interpretation of the law bound up in the preceding antithesis. This perfection Jesus' disciples must emulate if they are truly followers of him who fulfills the Law and the Prophets (v.17).
[NIV BIBLE COMMENTARY Volume 2: New testament].

[http://twitter.com/sowersoftheword].


JESUS IS LORD.

GOD'S GRACE MAKE THOSE WHO ARE LAST FIRST

(READ: MATTHEW 20:1-16).


KEY VERSE: V.16. So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen.


From this parable, we learn how "the last" person can become "first" (19:30)-by free grace. The parable begins with a typical scene and introduces atypical elements to surprise the reader and make a powerful point about the kingdom of heaven.


1-2 The normal working day was ten hours or so, not counting breaks. The landowner in the parable finds his first set of workers about 6 A.M. and agrees to pay each one a denarius-the normal wage for a foot soldier or day laborer.


3-7 There were twelve "hours" from dawn to sundown. The third hour (v.3) would be about 9:00 A.M, the sixth about 12:00 noon, and the eleventh about 5: P.M. The marketplace would be the central square, where all kinds of business was done and casual labor hired. The third-hour workers are promised "whatever is right"; and, trusting the landowner's integrity, they work on that basis. The last group were standing around because no one had hired them.


8-12 Laborers were customarily paid at the end of each day (cf. Lev. 19:13). The foreman is told to pay each worker the standard day laborer's wage. Who gets paid first is crucial: it is only because the last hired receive a full day's wage that those first hired expect to get more than they bargained for. They "grumbled against" the owner because he has been generous to others and merely just to them. They have borne "the heat of the day" (v.12, either direct sunlight or hot wind), which could drive workers from the field; and, though fairly paid, they feel unfairly treated because others who worked much less received what they did.


13-15 The landowner insists, in a mild rebuke, that he is not cheating anyone. He has paid the agreed wage. Should he want to pay others more, that is his business. Provided he has been just in all his dealings, does he not have the right to do what he wants with his money? These rhetorical questions (vv.13b-15) show that God's great gifts, simply because they are God's, are distributed, not because they are earned, but because he is gracious. In the kingdom of God, the driving force is not merit and ability (as in the world) but grace.


16 Jesus makes a final statement that God's grace makes some who are last first.


[NIV BIBLE COMMENTARY Volume 2: New Testament].

[http://twitter.com/sowersoftheword].


JESUS IS LORD.

I'M STILL HERE!!!

But you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long suffering, love, perseverance, persecutions, afflictions, which happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra-what persecutions I endured. And out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. But evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. (Read: 2 Timothy 3:1-15). 


[http://twitter.com/sowersoftheword].

JESUS IS LORD.