Bowling Green Covenant Church

“You have heard that is was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. …You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”—Matthew 5.43, 48 [ESV]

An old friend from my days in Brooklyn once said, “The thing about Jesus is He don’t let nobody off the hook.” Bad grammar. Good theology. The “thing” that prompted my friend to make his streetwise observation was Jesus’ words from Matthew 5.43-48.

The Pharisees were skilled at reducing God’s commands to black and white, us v. them declarations. They practiced good grammar. They lived by bad theology. For the record, Jesus is referring to Leviticus 19.18 where God said, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” God never said, “And hate your enemy.” The Pharisees added that last bit. Apparently, they used an odd form of theological logic whereby they concluded that since God commanded us to love our neighbors (people like us) the reverse must also be true. Therefore God commands us to hate our enemies. However, to paraphrase Yogi Berra (himself known to fracture the King’s English on occasion), God didn’t’ say everything He said.

By adding to what God said the Pharisees hoped to let themselves off the hook when it came to having compassion for their enemies. But as my Brooklyn friend keenly observed, “Jesus don’t let nobody off the hook.” He demands the humanly impossible because His provision is supernatural.

Rather than hate our enemies we are to choose the way of the cross—the way of humility and the way of obedience. We are to love our enemies just as God loved us when we were His enemies. Paul knew this love and he wrote about it in Romans 5.10, “For is while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life.” We are to love our enemies by praying for them—not that God would annihilate them, but that He would bless them (see also Romans 12.14-21).

Remember, it was while the cross was being lifted into place—with the nails in His hands and through His feet—that Jesus prayed for His enemies, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” (Luke 23.34).

Jesus don’t let nobody off the hook. There are times when I wish He would, but He don’t, er, doesn’t. He commands me to be perfect as my Father in heaven is perfect—a variation of the command God gave to Israel in Leviticus 19.2, “You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.” Jesus demands the humanly impossible because His provision is supernatural. The call to perfection is here put in terms of loving both my neighbor and our enemy.

In this pursuit I, we, will never be perfect. We will never reach full maturity. However, we will come much closer to the mark by following Jesus’ command than by searching for ways to let ourselves off the hook. Then again, why should we try since as my Brooklyn friend observed, “The thing about Jesus is He don’t let nobody off the hook.”

You think about that.

MM