Daily Devotional For Monday, September 30, 2024
Hello Southside! It’s “Ministry Monday.” You have all day today to serve the Lord at work, or school or in your neighborhood today. So, “Carpe Diem” – seize the day. Today, we pick up in Jesus’ Sermon On The Mount in Matthew 5:43-48:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ (44) But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, (45) so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. (46) For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? (47) If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? (48) Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (NASB).
Today we come to Jesus’ sixth “You have heard that it was said . . . but I say to you , , ,” As you can tell from this passage above, it is going to take some time to break it down into several individual devotionals to learn and apply what Jesus is telling us to do here. In this sixth and final contrast, Jesus contrasts the false righteousness of the religious leaders with the pure righteousness of God. He also compares the false love of the religious leaders with the genuine love of God.
Let’s start with context first. Jesus starts with a reference to the Old Testament in Leviticus 19:18. Love for others, shown in sympathetic concern and moving care for them, has always been God’s standard for our relationship to others. The Jews were commanded by God to help their fellow Jews by returning anything lost. Look at Deuteronomy 22:1-4:
“You shall not see your countryman’s ox or his sheep straying away, and pay no attention to them; you shall certainly bring them back to your countryman. (2) If your countryman is not near you, or if you do not know him, then you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall remain with you until your countryman looks for it; then you shall restore it to him. (3) Thus you shall do with his donkey, and you shall do the same with his garment, and you shall do likewise with anything lost by your countryman, which he has lost and you have found. You are not allowed to neglect them. (4) You shall not see your countryman’s donkey or his ox fallen down on the way, and pay no attention to them; you shall certainly help him to raise them up” (NASB).
Believe it or not, God had commanded His people to treat their enemies the same way in Exodus 23:4-5, “If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey wandering away, you shall surely return it to him. (5) If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying helpless under its load, you shall refrain from leaving it to him, you shall surely release it with him” (NASB). In the Sermon On The Mount, Jesus’ reference to “enemy” is not a reference to a soldier encountered on the battlefield, but another Jew or foreigner living in Israel who is antagonistic. This was Jesus’ teaching in the Parable of the Good Samaritan about who is a “neighbor.”
After all Job went through, he wrote this in Job 31:29-32:
“Have I rejoiced at the extinction of my enemy, Or exulted when evil befell him? (30) No, I have not allowed my mouth to sin, By asking for his life in a curse. (31) Have the men of my tent not said, ‘Who can find one who has not been satisfied with his meat’? (32) “The alien has not lodged outside, For I have opened my doors to the traveler” (NASB).
Job, who scholars believed lived during the same time of Abraham, understood this God principle even before God had given the Old Testament Law. David understood and obeyed this principle from God. Look at Psalm 7:4-5, “If I have rewarded evil to my friend, Or have plundered him who without cause was my adversary, (5) Let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it; And let him trample my life down to the ground And lay my glory in the dust” (NASB).David grieved over and prayed for his enemies when they were sick and in need, despite the fact that they repaid him “evil for good” and rejoiced when he himself was in trouble. We see this in Psalm 35:12-15:
“They repay me evil for good, To the bereavement of my soul. (13) But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth; I humbled my soul with fasting, And my prayer kept returning to my bosom. (14) I went about as though it were my friend or brother; I bowed down mourning, as one who sorrows for a mother. (15) But at my stumbling they rejoiced and gathered themselves together; The smithers whom I did not know gathered together against me, They slandered me without ceasing” (NASB).
These were not mere words by David. When King Saul became jealous over David and tried many times to kill him, every time David had an opportunity to kill Saul, he refused. He did good to King Saul. Even when David cut off a part of Saul’s robe in 1 Samuel 24:3-7, he was eaten up with guilt for even doing that. He wanted that piece of cloth to prove to Saul he was no threat to Saul nor did he resent him or wanted him dead. Later, after David was king, a descendant of Saul threw rocks at David and David did not retaliate. See 2 Sam. 16:5–10.
The Old Testament has several verses and stories about being good to one’s enemies. Look at:
- Proverbs 17:5, “He who mocks the poor taunts his Maker; He who rejoices at calamity will not go unpunished” (NASB).
- Proverbs 24:29, “Do not say, “Thus I shall do to him as he has done to me; I will render to the man according to his work” (NASB).
- Proverbs 25:21, “If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink” (NASB).
Questions To Consider
- Think of someone who is an enemy in your mind. Do your thoughts, attitudes, and comments reveal a person who loves them like Jesus? If not, then should Jesus treat you the same way you treat them? Explain.
- Loving and doing good to people we know who have hurt us does not come easy for us. Why? We want justice. We want them to pay. How could you pay them back with kindness and love?
- One of the issues Jesus addresses here is how we think our own self-righteousness is better than theirs. What is the problem with this kind of thinking? How could you be different instead of like our culture?
Scripture To Meditate On: Romans 13:8-10, “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. (9) For this, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (10) Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law” (NASB).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Jesus, these words of you strike home with me. I have a big problem loving “enemies” and people who hurt me, others or animals. I want retribution. I want punishment. I acknowledge that “Vengeance is Yours and not mine” (Deut. 32:35, Rom. 12:17-19). Please give me a heart of love for such people as this. God, my self-righteousness is not the standard even though I act like it. Your righteousness is the only standard. Help me to love such people as You do. Help me to pray for them and do good to them. I love You Jesus. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside!--Pastor Kelly