Matthew 5:38-48 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' 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. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 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. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
We will not, we cannot be perfect outside of Jesus Christ, the Perfect One. Often people quote the above scripture or part of it to express who God is and what He desires of us. Sometimes Christians will point to someone in the Christian world who fulfills part of the above focus. Of course that is good. However, today’s verses display God’s nature, not man’s nature. In our human condition, we are jealous, envious, hurtful, revengeful, unloving, and the like. Most of us partaking of this breakfast will admit that we and other Christians experience difficulty being good or sinless. Often with sincerity Christians reject those troubling characteristics of mankind as part of their own humanness. However, for us not to understand the basic nature of man that is within us is to declare Jesus Christ’s crucifixion for our sinful state as unnecessary. If we accept it, we might consider Jesus Christ’s work as somewhat nice, curative, restorative, not accepting totally the fact that we too are as depraved as anyone else, only our circumstances differ from the most evil among us. We might think, maybe the world is rather evil, but we are not. However, we know we would strike back if assaulted or if our loved ones were assaulted in front of our eyes. We would probably even kill to get away from such evil. We know that our spirits are extremely reluctant to help an enemy, definitely not willing to carry his satchel or pack an extra mile. We know we would not gladly hand over all of our possessions to someone who sues us. Our nature does not fit in well with such actions. We definitely will not in any way love those who line us up against the wall and then shoot us for no reason. We will not love those who behead us. Our nature does appreciate these subservient ideas. In spite of our imperfections, we claim that the Holy Spirit will help us face the adverse situations in our lives. We so easily deceive ourselves. We tend to excuse our spirits of anger or bitterness; we justify them with excuses. Often when we think of the basic nature of mankind, we ascribe sinful deeds to the other side, not to our side or to ourselves. It is the others who are wicked, not us. If others would only agree with us and be reasonable, then we could be friends, allies, and so on. But dear friends around the table, you need a SAVIOR, ONE WHO IS PERFECT, for God fully understands your sinful nature. He knows your life from the very beginning when you were a child. He has investigated you, found you on the wrong side of PERFECTION. In him you will follow his will to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:44)
A cursory look at the history of mankind reveals the violent, vindictive nature of humans. On every continent, we find violence beyond our imagination: murder, genocide, human sacrifice, rape, terror, and slavery exist in all people’s history. We find newborn babies smashed against the ground or a wall; women collected by the victors as part of the winning collateral of a battle or war; men slaughtered in the camps of the opposition; boys and girls dragged off as slaves of the victors. This is humankind. We do not want to accept the Cain nature within us; instead, we are the innocent Abel who is murdered. We are the white hat people: the innocent, the good, not the black hat people: evil, corrupt; those who are so easily discernible in the old cowboy movies. But mankind, every “good person,” needs a savior, a rescuer, from the sin intrinsic to us. We need a way to be perfect, a way to be acceptable to a holy God. Dad was talking to a young man the other day about needing a Savior, testifying about God and his salvation plan. The young man wanted to know why Dad thought God wanted us to be perfect. Of course in asking that, he knew he was not perfect. Dad explained the idea that eternity is a forever existence and that no residue or smudge of sin can enter into heaven. Sin is cancerous, intending to kill, to stop life. Eternity will not accept that condition, for God is holy, eternity is holy. The God who knows every hair on our heads, every leaf on the trees, every blade of grass on the land, that unimaginable God will not let sin contaminate his eternal existence. Of course, Dad gave him the answer to his question: you need a perfect one to be your eternal substitute; you need his sacrifice for your unrighteousness. This is the answer to the sin question so prevalent in the souls of men, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23) People sometimes dismissed the ancients as if they did not know what is good or bad. They were not ignorant; they knew what is good and that positive attitudes and actions are better that what is bad and negative. They knew how to organize a cohesive society, a culture dependent on cooperation, not dissemblances and self-interest. They knew laws such as the Ten Commandments were good and helpful in organizing society. However, these restrictions on their behavior were never accepted completely by any society or culture. For man’s basic nature is to do what he thinks is right. As with the Jews, In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes. (Judges 17:6) When collectively they knew their way of self-living was bringing violence and chaos, they often would attempt to start over. In the Old Testament, no matter how many times they repented and said they would start over, to do good and not evil, often with tears, sackcloth and ashes in their repentance, their subsequent behavior betrayed their intentions and words. Violence in men is why God intended to destroy all of mankind in the days of Noah; the same was true in his decision to destroy Nineveh. But as Jonah said, he knew God was a God of mercy and grace. This irritated Jonah, for he had the heart of mankind in him; he wanted God to destroy this city, for they were often an enemy to his own people. For him, justice would be carried out with the destruction of Nineveh, but God had other plans for the wickedness of Nineveh or the world. A Savior would be needed, even for the ancients: Jesus Christ.
Many believe in personal goodness, not the sinful nature Paul talks about in Galatians 5. The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. (19-21) Yes, maybe some of the people partaking of this breakfast might have some of these attitudes and actions in their lives, but for sure, not us. We are the loving, the caring, the helpful; we are not the ungodly, the imperfect, not us. But, if you do not understand the nature of man, accepting his condition as your condition, you will never understand the freedom God won for you through Jesus Christ. You will never be free indeed, for your actions and attitudes will always be dependent on your work and not on God’s work. You will always evaluate things as good or bad by the Tree of Knowledge, determining your status with God based on human understanding. Salvation, perfection, and acceptance come by God’s plan. All of this is the work of Jesus Christ. He made you perfect. He has presented himself in your hearts in the form of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says: “This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.” Then he adds: Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.” And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary. (Hebrews 10:15-18) Because of Christ, God forgets your sins and lawless acts. Your violent nature that is sparked when someone disagrees with you, or when you are mistreated, or when someone detests you for what you believe will be remembered no more by God. Instead, He identifies the works of the Holy Spirit inside you, your advocate before the throne of God. WE ARE PERFECT, for God through the SAVIOR has made us his own. Nothing impure will ever enter it (Kingdom of God), nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. (Revelation 21:27) God gave mankind the Lamb, a once and for all sacrifice. He writes ETERNITY on our lives as we take Jesus’ life for our own life. Definitely, as Christians we do good, for we image God to the world. But our goodness is not salvation goodness—only God holds that in his purview. We are new creatures, designed in Christ’s image. Our goodness is not innate but from Christ, his holiness. The old law or every sermon that places light on us for efficacious reasons will never work. Yes, we attempt to be better, but walking in the light of right and wrong never persuades the flesh completely. The old nature of the flesh is very strong within us. Consequently, we consider the old nature dead, unable to determine our eventual destination. Our new nature that we live by is the nature of Jesus Christ, acquired by faith, sometimes not very evident in our lives, but always there, completely acceptable to a righteous God. This light burns within us, not set upon us as the light of right or wrong or as the law did to the Israelites. With this light IN US, we are no longer slaves to sin. God sees the light within us, freeing us from the nature of the flesh that leads to death. The light in us expresses new life: Jesus Christ. Violence and disruption are not the primal characteristics of our new lives. No, the blood of Jesus has made us completely whole, transplanting our spirits to a new environment of love and caring. Let us endure to the end, forsaking our nature of hurt and hate, rather loving God with our whole being, loving our neighbors as ourselves, succumbing to the light within us, not to a lifestyle of law, evaluating whether we are good or bad. We had no power in the old life but in the new we enjoy eternal life and perfection, for Jesus is the carrier of perfection for us. We are free from the bondage of sin; therefore, forget your sins, for God has forgotten them. Amen!
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