The Sermon on the Mount VIII

Subtitle:  Fulfilling the Torah and the Prophets of God VI

Matthew 5:38-42.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on January 28, 2024.

Today, we continue our look at how Jesus expects his followers to approach the law.  Those blessed people who are following him will act and respond to life quite differently than others. 

These examples that Jesus gives are more snapshots of the kinds of things that the followers of Jesus will do.  They will do these strange things because they love Messiah and have followed him into the Kingdom.

They will be a people who are not internally surrendered to vice, but rather, they will be people from whom the difficulties of life seem to bring forth goodness.  How can it be that a sinful world could bring out of the righteous something good?  Yes, it seems impossible, but this is what Jesus is talking about.

Let’s look at the fifth area of the Law that Jesus deals with in our passage.  It is often called the Law of Retribution.  It deals with matters of personal injury, and how courts should rectify certain offenses, or how they are to make the offense right.  The general rule is to equate the harm done to another, unless there are circumstances that mitigate that.

In each of these 6 case studies in the Law, Jesus points us to the internal as more important than the external.  He points us to battle against the vice that seeks to overwhelm us and to choose the virtue, or righteousness of Christ, that we need to embrace.

This area will very naturally lead into the last case study on how we should treat our enemies.  This case study goes back one step and deals with how we become enemies with people in the first place.  There is always some infraction at the heart of it.

Let’s look at our passage.

The Law of Retribution (v. 38-42)

Again, Jesus does not spend a lot of time on what they are being taught by their teachers.  He simply gives a quote from the law, “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.”  We will deal with this more in a second, but I will say up front that this phrase is used three times in the Law of Moses.

Before we go there, I want to remind us of Genesis 4 and the murders that happened there.  Cain kills his brother purposefully and out of spite.  Cain receives a gracious punishment from God. Later in that chapter, Lamech, from the line of Cain, kills a young man just for injuring him.  His speech basically presumes that the grace given to Cain should be even greater to himself.  He had killed a young man for injuring him.  Of course, we don’t know all the details.  Did the young man injure him purposefully?  Did Lamech purposefully kill the young man in rage, or was it a spur of the moment response in which he flew off the handle?

This is an important understanding of the “Old Testament.”  God actually starts with grace, not law.  The law came much later.  Without restraint, whether upon ourselves in a personal fashion or externally from laws of society, humans are capable of great evil in this area of getting justice.  A culture that is fixated on “social justice” does not realize just how much evil they themselves do.  I am not saying that justice is unimportant.  I am actually saying something about each of us when we are consumed with getting justice.  We tend to see every injury to ourselves by another in the worst light, and we tend to see every injury to another in the best light.  Our tendency towards selfishness and sin pits us against one another in a no-win game.  We will never see eye to eye following this path.

People can laugh about a society of one-eyed, toothless people, but this law actually served as a brake, or restraint, on overkill.  Lamech was injured, but he killed the man in return.  This is man in his natural sense of justice.  “If you harm me, then I will kill you.”  God wants justice, but He also knows that we need restraint when we are seeking it.  Yet, even this brake on our desire for justice falls short of what God desires from each of us.  The teachers are focused only on satisfying the requirement of equating punishment and infraction, rather than hearing the spirit of what God is saying.

Jesus gives us his teaching, and it starts with the main point, “Do not  resist an evil person (vs. 39).”  He then goes on to give four examples from the kinds of situations where this is an issue.  In short, the four examples flesh out what he means by not resisting an evil person.

So, what is meant by not resisting an evil person?  We should first recognize that the area of the law Jesus is talking about, i.e., eye for an eye, has to do with a context of personal injury from another.  The three places where this is quoted are Exodus 21, Leviticus 24, and Deuteronomy 19.

In Exodus 21, it pictures two men who are fighting.  Of course, they will probably give each other black eyes, and knock out teeth.  But, the Law is actually speaking about their tussle injuring a pregnant woman, causing her to go into labor and either having the baby prematurely, or it dying.  The point is not so much killing a child of the man who causes a miscarriage.  The point is about upping the gravity of your actions.  If I know that I will be held accountable to the consequences of a fight, I will exercise more caution in fighting.  At the least, we will clear the room of any pregnant women.

Leviticus 24 speaks of a man disfiguring a neighbor.  It doesn’t explain how that would happen, but we could see two men working together, and an axe head flies off of the handle.  Let’s say that it hits the other guy and gashes his face, or breaks his jaw and now it is crooked.  This is where this maxim is quoted.

In Deuteronomy 19, the context is the case of a person lying in court, bearing false testimony.  If such a person is caught, they are to receive the punishment that they were expecting the person that they were lying against to receive.

Notice that none of these situations picture a self-defense situation where someone breaks into your house and is threatening to kill your family.  It doesn’t picture a situation where the Philistines are attacking and mean to subjugate you as their slaves.  Neither is it picturing a situation in which authorities are exercising punishment upon someone who has broken the law, i.e., law enforcement.  It is a personal injury that happens in the course of normal life.  Someone has harmed another.

Now, let’s look at what is meant by “resist.”  To resist here pictures a person taking their stand in hostility in order to go to war against the other person who has injured them.  You are taking your stand against them as an enemy.

The word “evil person” means everything from “the person who caused the bad thing to happen (though on acccident)” all the way to a person who is a bad person themselves and love to do bad things to others.  However, Jesus may actually intend to bring up the worst case scenario, i.e., even when a person intends to do it maliciously.

The point is that it is our natural tendency to rise up to fight when someone has injured us.  Don’t make those who intend you evil your target.  Don’t rise up in the anger, rage, and vengeance that are so natural at that moment.  There is a deeper issue going on here and it has to do with what injury does to us spiritually.

We are called to be imagers of God.  When someone injures us, especially when they are maliciously evil, we are too quit to take them out.  In so doing, we rarely image God well.  James 1:20, “for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.”  If I am not imaging God, then just who am I imaging?  Who was Cain imaging?  1 John 3:11-12a says, “For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother.  This is not talking about Adam, but about the Serpent, the Devil, who was the first murderer.  In trying to get justice, we easily fall into imaging Satan, rather than God.  You become a vessel that is breathing out death and statements of vindictive overkill, rather than a vessel that is filled with life.

Jesus is telling us that, if we want to follow him, we need to go to war against that inner impulse to hate others and to seek vengeance upon them.  We need to stop targeting others, and start targeting the vices that too quickly rise up within us.

Of course, that does go for those who are on both side of the injury.  Jesus wants the other person to go to war against the things in their heart too!  Yet, I have to focus upon me.  We will both stand before God one day and give an account for whether we lived a life of targeting others (producing death), or we lived a life of targeting our own heart (producing life).

If you think this sounds like God doesn’t care about justice, then I have not been clear enough.  Of course, God cares deeply about justice, far more than we do.  He also cares about making it right.  Jesus hung on a cross for you and for them precisely because He cares about it.  Jesus is not playing games with this area of justice.  He is going for true justice, and none of us can survive true justice without the grace of God being provided for us.

The Law of Moses was sent to shut the mouths of those who think they are doing a good job being righteous.  We all fall short of perfect righteousness, and therefore, we are disqualified to “fix it” or get justice.  Our flesh is hostile to a true justice that bring forth true righteousness.  We are all in the same boat, and we are in need of God’s grace and mercy.

Let’s look at the first example that Jesus brings up in verse 39.  This is an insulting slap on the side of the face by another person.  In public or not, most people would be ready to go to war against another person for such a thing.  Jesus pictures his followers turning the other cheek.  Now, we know that his intention is not for us to literally present our other cheek, as if asking for another blow.  We know this because this very situation was done to Jesus during his kangaroo trial, the morning of his execution.

John 18:22-23 shows us Jesus being struck by an officer.  Does Jesus literally turn his face so that the guy can hit him on the other cheek?  What I mean is this.  Is that the thing that Jesus is really hoping to accomplish in us?  There is no mention of Jesus literally turning the other cheek.  In fact, his statement to the officer has a subtle rebuke to it.  “If what I said is wrong, bear witness about the wrong; but if what I said is right, why do you strike me?”  Now, remember exactly who Jesus is.  He is the Word of God through whom all things that were made were made.  He could unmake this man with a single word.  Jesus may not physically turn his cheek, but Jesus doesn’t target this man as an enemy either.  Jesus remains in the vulnerable place, where potentially he could be struck again.  Jesus keeps focused on imaging God and helping the other person to image God better.

This brings up the greater subject of the incarnation.  In Jesus, God takes on a face that we can slap, and hands (feet) that we can nail to a tree.  He takes on a back that we can whip to the point of shredding the flesh.  He becomes a vulnerable human who can be killed.  How great is the love of God that we are called to image to the world?

The point is that the world is full of enemies because of such incidents.  It is no accident that the last case study in the law will talk about loving our enemies.  God does not want us to be enemies to one another.  We are all His creation, and He loves each of us.  We are to do everything we can to neutralize this tendency to be enemies with others.  If I respond in kind to every infraction against me, the enemy of humanity will win, and God’s Kingdom will be thwarted.  Of course, this cannot happen because God always makes sure that He has a remnant in every generation.  However, where will I be?

Jesus is calling us to follow him in this radical response to evil.  We are to fight that inner battle and resist being made into an enemy by those who act like enemies to us.  We are to love that person and stay open to God changing their heart so that they can be our brother.

We do not want to play into the devil’s hand, but instead, we want to do the work of Jesus.  If you think this makes you a weakling, then think again.  Jesus was no weakling.   You had better believe that Jesus is a warrior.  However, he has a different target than we do.  He is calling us to become a warrior in this battle against the sin in our own hearts.  We are to go to war against very different things than what humans normally do.

Love risks injury, and that injury not being “fixed” in this life.  When Jesus was on the cross, he knew that the injuries, which he suffered, were making it possible for these sinners who deserved death to be saved.  It didn’t guarantee it, but if he didn’t love, it would guarantee that they could not be saved. 

Can  you believe that the injuries that God allows in your life, may have a purpose, especially when they are never “rectified” in this life?  Trusting Jesus is never easy.  No weakling can do it.  However, when we choose the path of His love, we become part of a war for the soul of the other person.  Suddenly, you are fighting those spirits and powers of darkness that hold the person captive.  That’s what Jesus wants.  Don’t target the person, target the devil that has trapped them in anger, rage, bitterness, vindictiveness, et. al.

The second example has to do with lawsuits.  “If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also.”

People do not typically sue unless there is something that has happened.  You may not see it the same way as they, but there is an event nonetheless.  Jesus shows a response to lawsuits that is not about getting justice, or making sure everything is equated.  Rather, it is more important for the follower of Christ to be reconciled to the other person.  “You think I have done you wrong?  Here, let me make it right, and even throw something else on top of it, so that you will know that you are more important to me than things!”  Yes, the other person may be making a mountain out of a molehill.  Or, they may be unreasonable in their claim against you.  However, we are called to be more concerned about the relationship than the things we stand to lose.  We should never lose sight that God loves this person, and He wants me to love them too.

Notice that none of this is passive.  It is a person aggressively restraining their inner tendency to anger and vengeance.  This is the bait that Satan uses to fracture us.  He doesn’t just divide and conquer us.  He divides, steps back, and let’s us conquer each other (perhaps with an extra whisper in the ear from time to time).

Paul brings this up in 1 Corinthians 6:6-8.  Notice that Paul does not expect believers to let another believer cheat them.  He challenges them to have other Christians decide such squabbles between to Christians.  Yet, some of them were taking each other to the secular (pagan) courts.  Paul challenges them in verse seven, “Why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather let yourselves be cheated?”  By going to the secular courts, they were testifying to the world that the people of Christ can’t get along and need the world to settle their disputes.  Paul is challenging them to love the reputation of Christ above their own loss.  Contrary to that, they were actually leading each other into becoming bigger cheats and wronging each other.

This all needs to be approached out of love for one another and for God.  How much is Jesus worth to you? 

All of this begs the question.  How can Jesus expect us to do this?  As I said earlier, none of this is easy, and we have to work hard not to see these as superficial laws that we have to keep.  It does beg this question, and the sermon on the mount doesn’t answer that question.  However, Jesus does answer it in the end.  He would die on the cross and show us that the Father intends to use resurrection to “fix” all things, both spiritually and physically.  On top of this, Jesus would now send the Holy Spirit to take up residence within us in order to empower us to battle against sin in our hearts.  No, you can’t do this, but you cooperating with the Holy Spirit can!

The third example has to do with being pressed into service by an official (particularly a Roman soldier).  This would have  been something that the people of Israel had become used to, and that irked them greatly.  “And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two.”

This is a classic environment where our underlying resentment, that God has given us unto the power of another, can cause us to hate them.  Roman law allowed soldiers and officials to press the people under their dominion into service.  Such service had limitations.  In this case, a soldier could require someone to carry his stuff up to a mile.  Now, Jesus is not setting up a new law where we simply carry it 2, and no more.  Just like turning the other cheek does not mean I can knock you out after you have slapped me twice, so I don’t carry the load two miles, but then throw it down and walk away.  It is about being different and responding out of love rather than contempt, anger, and frustration about their authority over us.

Yeah, the law obligated them to help a soldier for a certain distance, but Jesus wants us to be the kind of person that is not resentful, and willing to do more.  Love always goes beyond mere legal obligations.  Could there be a situation where a Christian could resist a soldier pressing them into service?  Sure.  Perhaps you are a surgeon who is on the way to do a surgery that is critical.  You can explain the situation and beg them not to force you out of love for the other person.  It is not the superficial details that Jesus is after, but the heart of why we do what we do.  The emphasis is on me choosing to carry an offensive thing, rather than some one else being hurt. 

Are we required to tell the Nazis where all the Jews are hiding simply because Jesus told us to help the soldiers?  Of course, you aren’t.  It is love for others that is to motivate us, and some situations are far trickier than others. 

How much of your brother’s baggage are you willing to carry?  I know.  This stupid Roman soldier is no brother of yours.  Yet, God loves him, and wants him to become a spiritual brother to you.  Perhaps we can see a metaphor behind this maxim of carrying the baggage two miles instead of one.  There is a song from the seventies that says, “He ain’t heavy.  He’s my brother.”  Can I carry the baggage of others farther than anyone would expect because I’m praying that God will soften his heart and help him to see Jesus?  Yes, we can, but the real question is, will we.

The fourth example is in the area of people borrowing from us, or asking charity from us.  “Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away.”  In Luke 6:35, Jesus even tells us to lend without expecting payment back.  The followers of Jesus, people of the Kingdom of Heaven, are not to be trapped in a world of possessions being more important to us than others.  Yes, it is not right for someone to borrow our stuff and not bring it back.  Kingdom people don’t do that.  But, targeting them as an enemy will not fix the situation and help them become more like Jesus.  It will only make it worse.

The phrase “do not turn away” reflects how we can be hardened towards those who need charity.  In each of these, Jesus is asking us to stay vulnerable in some way so that relationship can continue.  We are to choose a path of love towards the other person.

Let’s be clear.  Jesus does not intend us to never say ‘No.’  Can you imagine parents operating as if they can never say ‘No’ to their kids if they ask for something?  These are not laws.  They are examples to help us to see the kinds of things that those who are following Jesus will do.  We will not be trying to protect our stuff, and money, by hiding from those who might ask us for it.  Instead, we will let love for the person form our actions.  We will let the Holy Spirit inspire us.

Anyone who has worked with people who are financially in a tough spot knows that the answer isn’t always more money.  However, we can also pick up an attitude of despising people who need help.  We can become more interested in protecting our outflows, than the welfare of the person.  Yet, a person’s spiritual welfare is just as important as their physical. 

Love is not an easy path.  It will tear out your heart at times and leave you feeling like you aren’t doing any good.  I once knew a man whose son had just been released from prison.  He wanted to help his son, so he gave him a job working for him in his shop.  Long story short, he caught his son stealing from his till.  What a heart breaking situation.  The answer isn’t to “turn the other cheek,” and pretend it didn’t happen.  Yet, it doesn’t need to be, call the cops and send him back to prison.  Love wrestles with carrying offenses, not because that is the end goal.  No, we carry the offenses in order to win a brother, a son, back to the truth.  Only the Holy Spirit can help us to know what to do in such specific situations.

The goal is not to meticulously follow the letter of what Jesus is saying, but to hear the heart, the Spirit, of what he is saying.  I think that the best way to boil this down is Romans 12:17-21.

“17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it[i] to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Vengeance is God’s job, and it doesn’t matter if I see it happen or not.  It is between God and them.  If I try to step into God’s job, I will not survive it.  It is too big a job for me, and will destroy me.  Verse 21 is a perfect description of what Jesus is getting at.  Don’t let the evil done by another overwhelm your heart with a desire to be evil back.   Instead, overcome their evil action by good.  Peter says a similar thing in 1 Peter 3:9.  “Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.”  In a sense, we are called to love others too much to be their enemy, and we are called to love God too much to dishonor His Image by hating them.

In both cases, Paul and Peter talk about the fact that God will deal with evildoers.  He will take vengeance at the right time.  Why does God wait?  He waits because He is not too quick to send people to the lake of fire.  He leaves room for repentance, just as He did for you.  Aren’t you glad that He did?  Still, if they never repent, they will get their comeuppance.  God will take care of it.  You won’t need to worry or help Him out by  taking justice into your own hands.

In fact, we often are blind to the fact that love is the ultimate weapon to tear down the strongholds of hurt and injury.  If we will focus on winning a brother rather than never being injured by them, then we will see the enemy of our souls thwarted far more often.  No, it isn’t a guarantee, but it if you don’t operate out of love, it is guaranteed that it will spoil your heart and your relationship with Christ.

If you want to target those who hurt you, then target them with the love of Jesus.  Take it as a personal challenge to win them to the Lord.  Love them by laying down your life for them, and leave retribution where it belongs, in the hands of the LORD!

The Law of Retribution Audio

Lessons from the Underground Church 8: Learn to be Silent

This is a 13 week series that will not be posted on our website.  If you would like an audio of the sermon or a written article on the sermon contents then please contact the church at AbundantLifeEverett@frontier.com.  You can also leave a message at 425.438.1500.  Thank you for your interest.

The Most Excellent Way

Romans 12:9-10.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on February 7, 2021.

In Mark 12:29-31, Jesus gave us the two greatest commandments, which are really two sides of the same coin.  We are to love God with all of our being (heart, soul, mind, and strength), and we are to love our neighbor as ourselves.  Later, Jesus modified this second command among his disciples.  “Love one another, as I have loved you.”  That is quite the qualifier.  It is one thing to love one another as we think we should, but to love in the way Jesus did would be to love sacrificially and selflessly.

I say that these two commands are two sides of the same coin because the Apostle John challenges us in his first letter with this.  How can you say you love God, whom you haven’t seen, when you can’t even love your brother, whom you have?  Yes, it is easy to give lip service to loving God because he is not physically on this earth.  It is more difficult to test.  In fact, shouldn’t we see the second command as the litmus test of whether or not we truly love God?  I think so.

Let’s remind ourselves today to strengthen this duty that we have to love one another, the duty to love.

We are to love without hypocrisy

The command to love one anther is simple enough, but throughout Scripture, we are given qualifiers from time to time.  In Romans 12:9, it is qualified with a negative phrase, “without hypocrisy.”  Some translations have chosen to emphasize the positive implication of this phrase.  NIV says, “Love must be sincere.”  ESV says, “Let love be genuine.”  The NLT attempts to put both the negative phrase and its positive implication together.  “Don’t just pretend to love others.  Really love them.”

The reason that we need these qualifiers is because the actions of people do not always match up with their words.  There is an irony in our country today that, while we talk more and more of loving each other and being united, we are seeing more and more anger and hatred.  This is not a new thing.  There have always been those who said they were loving, but in the end they were not.  They weren’t sincere, or genuine.  In short, they were hypocrites.

The word hypocrisy, that we are not supposed to mix in with our loving of one another, was a word that came from acting in plays.  The New Testament writers took the word and used it to refer the moral evil of a person merely acting as if they are doing good.  Such people were wearing the acting mask of love, but behind that external mask, there were unloving motivations.

Acting is a powerful medium for getting a message across when people know that it is an act.  It helps us to think about the same situation as a group.  Of course, it can be manipulated to try and pressure the group to think certain things, which is itself a form of hypocrisy.  It pretends to open up discussion on a situation, but in truth is trying to force all to think the same. 

Let’s just say the obvious.  Christians are not called to make an amazing movie about love, whether on a screen or in our lives.  We are to be doing it, for real.  In other words, we are to live a life of love that is worthy of a movie, not to give a performance that people are willing to watch.  It is the difference between being an actor and being the real thing.  If Hollywood stars are any measure of actors, we know that actors are often empty of the good things that they portray, or at least fall very short of it.

Wearing masks with one another and having a superficial love is not God’s plan, and we need the help of the Holy Spirit to be brave enough to take them off.  Warning- when you try to take of masks, those who are still wearing them will be uncomfortable with it (even you will be uncomfortable with it).

Paul then describes what hypocrisy-free love looks like with two verbal phrases.  The first is “abhor that which is bad.”  While we love one another, we should be abhorring, or detesting, that which is evil.  Paul chooses a strong word here.  Christians are not to treat moral evil lightly.  In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul also writes, “love does not delight in evil, but rejoices in the truth.”

Moral evil is defined throughout Scriptures, and it is all those negative vices and activities that God warns against, of which hypocrisy is just one.  This is not just an instruction for me about the other person and their sin.  Rather, it starts with me.  I must detest and shrink back from the tendency to be insincere, or any other moral evil, in my “love.”  I must fight the internal battle of keeping my heart pure towards God and my fellow man.

Of course, when loving others, we will have to face their imperfections and sinful tendencies (and they ours).  Love never means coddling that which is evil.  Our society likes to pick and choose who it loves and what evil is protected.  This must never be among Christians, those who say that they are following Christ, rather than our culture. 

An example of this has to do with public advice that is often given to people in difficult situations.  A case in point is a letter that was written to Dear Abbey.  A mother’s adult daughter, who had been raised to be a Christian, had embraced homosexuality.  The mom was struggling with what it means to continue to love her daughter when she was embracing something that was morally evil (by Christ’s definition).  Dear Abbey’s advice was a surrender to cultural influence in which she was counselled to embrace her daughter and the homosexual lifestyle she was living.  Ultimately, our hearts can be pulled into evil even out of a misguided love.  Loving someone in this situation is something Christians should do, but not in a way that embraces the harmful choices of the individual.  I know that this is 180 degrees the opposite of today’s “wisdom,” but we are followers of Jesus, not today’s culture (or are we?).

The second verbal phrase is the positive implication of the previous.  We must love while holding fast, or clinging, to that which is good.  Most people tend to one side or the other.  We can focus only on detesting evil, and it becomes an excuse to disregard and ignore people who God loves.  On the other hand, we can focus only on clinging to what is good, and ignore the moral evil that is piling up around us.  Christians are called to the hard road of truly loving others, as Jesus loved us.  It is hypocrisy to say that we love someone, but then not really face sin in our life or theirs.  It is hypocrisy to call this love, or to pretend that love calls us to overlook sin, or at least redefine it.  It is also hypocrisy to write someone off because of their sins and failures, and not try to lift that which is good.

This tension is mentioned by Paul in Galatians 6:1, “Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently.  But watch yourselves, or you may also be tempted.”  Jude mentions this tension in verses 22 and 23 of his letter.  “Be merciful to those who are doubting; but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by flesh.”  Even a person who is so destroyed by sin that they are essentially being thrown into the fire of destruction, we are to attempt to save, yet being careful not to be caught up in their sin.  This is a love that is tough on the person doing it and tough on the person receiving it.  However, it is only truth that can set you free.  Fake love helps no one, period.

We are to love as family

Another qualifier is given for our love in verse 10 of Romans 12.  We must love each other with the love that we would have for family members.  Christians are called the “household of faith,” “the children of God,” and we are destined to be the adult Sons and Daughters of God in eternity.  It is not that we pretend that the other is family.  In Christ, we actually are.  Paul uses two words that refer to this family love.  “Brotherly love” is the obvious one.  However, the “kindly affectioned” phrase is actually a word that speaks of the love between parents and children.

Our biological families are a microcosm of the larger family of God that we join when we become followers of Christ.  Even our local church is simply a microcosm of the larger family of God worldwide, and history-wide.  Like Israel coming out of Egypt, we are a part of a large nation of very different people who all will inherit form the same Father, who loves us all.  It is easy to forget that we are family in Christ, and that our Father wants us to learn to get along and love each other.  This is not a suggestion, or something that we can work on when everything else is done.  It is the litmus test of our love for God.  “Do you love me?  Then, feed my sheep,” aka, love my children.

Lastly, Paul speaks of humbly honoring others.  Sibling rivalry, or just family squabbles, are destined to happen because none of us are perfect yet.  Even those who are spiritual elders are not perfected yet.  It is easy to chafe at other believers, like siblings, and it is easy to have tensions between spiritual elders and young believers.  These things are a natural part of being family.  However, we are to work on them with the kind of attitude that takes the lead in honoring the other.  The NKJV translates, “preferring one another.”  This misses the mark in my opinion.  The word being translated has the concept of going ahead of others in this area of honoring.  The clash is that our tendency is to honor ourselves and “go ahead” by pushing ourselves above others.  If we are to “go ahead of others,” it is not to be in honoring ourselves, but in honoring them.

Honor has to do with value and worth.  We love what has value and worth to us, and yet, in our imperfection, we often value things that we shouldn’t and disvalue, dishonor, what we shouldn’t.  Believers have a value to one another that isn’t always understood by us because we get wrapped up in the thinking of our age.  Instead of seeing one another through God’s yes, and through His purposes, we can only see through the world’s eyes and its purposes, or our own selfish purposes.  The challenge to love in today’s atmosphere is only becoming more difficult.  This cannot be used as an excuse.  There are attempts from the culture to polarize and divide God’s people.  May God help us to resist these blatant attacks on God’s Church, and to remain in fellowship with the Spirit of God and His people.

Excellent Way Audio

Lessons of Christmas- The Goodness of It All

Titus 3:1-8.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on November 29, 2015.

As we enter the Christmas season, I want us to look at some of the lessons that it teaches us.  Of course, we do not want to confuse what the world wants us to learn with what God wants us to learn.  The world wants us to generalize Christmas into a time of feeling and doing good things towards others.  But, God wants us to learn far more than this because the first Christmas did not happen in a vacuum.  It happened after a long history of mankind’s rejection of God and the tragic consequences of our chosen paths, namely sin.

The history of mankind is that of casting off the truth of God and his dealings with us, and then following our own heart.  We are told that spiritual enemies have taken advantage of this to instigate false religions and ways of living among mankind.  Thus the nations of the world were lost and worshipping demonic spirits in the guise of gods.  In this context, God creates a nation from Abraham called Israel.  He gives them His Law as a witness to all the nations.  But 18 centuries later, Israel had become a nation that sidelined the Truth of God’s Law and had embraced the traditions of rabbis and “wise men.”  Instead of a complete rejection like the nations of the world, they kept up a form of obedience, but the powerful principles of God’s Word had been rejected.  Thus all of mankind was in the same condition: bound by the sin of rejecting the Truth of God and guilty before Him.  It was time for judgment and destruction.  It was time for another global judgment.  And yet, that is not what God did.  It is impossible to overemphasize the fact that mankind was totally guilty and deserving judgment before God when He surprised us with a supreme gift of love.  God sent us His own Son, not as a conquering, warrior king to destroy, but rather as a harmless child who would save.  Christmas is a story about the supreme goodness of God.  The message of Christmas is not about the goodness of humanity, but rather, the goodness of God despite the horrible sins of mankind.

The Christian Is Called To Goodness

In Titus 3, the first two verses may look like a list of duties.  However, the list itself flows out of a central principle that followers of Jesus are called to goodness in everything that they do.  The first area Paul points out is our goodness towards authority, specifically governmental.  Christians ought to act in a good manner towards governments and any authorities in their life for that matter.  There are many times when the wickedness within a person causes them to reject the virtues of self-subjection and obedience to authority.  In fact as you read this you may not see them as virtuous, but as problems.  Yet, there are fewer times when righteousness demands that we stand against authority.  In fact, it is important for Christians to note, that even when the apostles themselves disobeyed governmental authorities by continuing to preach Christ, they submitted to the punishments without raging against those who carried them out.  In fact, they demonstrated love even to those who were persecuting them.  Yes, there are many issues in this area.  Yet, this cannot be avoided.  Those who follow Jesus must do so in an attitude of subjection and obedience to governmental authorities, and not one of rage, anger, and rebellion.

Next Paul tells them to be ready for every good work.  This is a general statement that helps us to see that we are to do more than just be good in a passive sense.  We are to actively prepare for and execute those good works that opportunity affords us.  How can we ready ourselves?  Our readiness is that of a disciple who is listening to the Holy Spirit and living out what He teaches us.  We follow the Spirit of Christ rather than the Spirit of this Age.  It is our submission and obedience to the authority of the Lord Jesus that enables us to be ready for the good things we must do, and often to those who “don’t deserve it.”

Lastly Paul tells us to be good towards our fellow man.  Verse 2 demonstrates many different ways that we can do that.  “Speak evil of no one,” uses the word that is translated blasphemy when it is used of God.  Thus we are not to speak what is untrue or unsubstantiated about any one, period.  We are to be peaceable towards others.  That means we don’t start fights and further more we decline to fight with others when they start it.  Such bickering, quarreling, and outbursts are to stop at the decision of the believer to not reciprocate such things.  We are also told to be gentle.  This is not about how we touch one another, but is about our dealings.  We should be fair, equitable, mild, and loving even in times of correction.  Lastly we should be humble before all men.  In fact, especially before those whom we feel we are above.  This life of goodness is not easy to accept.  Our flesh comes up with innumerable excuses and “reasons” why Jesus can’t really mean this. 

It is easy to be good towards those who we think are good, but in verse 3 Paul reminds us that we were not always a person committed to being good.  It is important to identify with the person we see as evil.  Even if we have left that life behind, we used to be like them.  If we condemn them then we are condemning ourselves.  If they are unworthy of goodness then so are we.  Paul ends his list of what our past life was like with a picture of those who are selfish and scrapping with everyone around them, hateful and hating.  It is survival of the fittest and dog eat dog.  This is the world as it was in the days of the first Christmas.  Little hope, little light, and thick darkness all around. 

The Goodness of God Has Appeared in Jesus

In verses 4-8, Paul reminds us that Jesus came to us during this darkness.  His “appearance” is a reference to His incarnation, birth and life.  His light broke in upon the darkness and life sprang up among the dead.  Jesus broke in upon this sad condition of ours and gave us goodness.  This is what we are called to do.  We are to be the goodness of God breaking in upon the darkness of others in this world.

Jesus did not just merely exist, but he was the goodness of God towards people who didn’t deserve goodness.  He came not as a rebel against the government in order to take over, nor as a destroyer.  He was the gentleness and compassion of God as he healed people, set them free from demons, helped them to see the truths that they had lost, and simply helped them to believe in God again.  No matter what we experience in life, we must keep this as the bedrock of our understanding: God loves us all and has poured out benevolent kindness upon us despite our wickedness.

He did so not because He was obligated to do so.  He would have been perfectly justified to judge us as evil and either wall himself off from us, or destroy us.  No individual and no nation had done anything that would deserve the kindness of God to send mankind His Son as a savior.  It was simply mercy.  He gave us what we didn’t deserve.  This salvation was not the outward destruction of our enemies.  Otherwise He would have to destroy us all due to the fact that we are all someone’s enemy.  Rather, the salvation is of a spiritual and mental nature.  It is intended to change our way of dealing with the world around us.  We are to respond and live differently because that is who God is.

Part of this mercy is described as being regenerated by the Holy Spirit.  Though this term can refer to the Resurrection, here it is referring to the spiritual resurrection of our dead spirit.  Before Christ we were spiritually dead to God.  We could not hear and respond to Him.  Instead we only listened to and followed the flesh and the spirit of this age.  When a person puts their faith in Jesus, the Holy Spirit does a real work of making their spirit alive to God.  This is also called “born again.”  The Spirit takes up residence within our heart and mind in order to help us connect with the heart of the Father.

We are also mercifully renewed by the Holy Spirit.  By following the spirit of this age and our own flesh, our mind and heart have become broken and scarred.  We have believed all manner of lies and deceptions.  The renewal of our mind and heart happens through the teaching of Jesus and his apostles.  The Word of God and our obedience to it washes and renews our mind and heart from the crud of this world.  Over time it is easy to give up and become discouraged with this process.  Yet, take heart.  We were told that it would be difficult to follow Jesus and that we would be tempted to quit.  When you run into things that discourage you, this is a sign that you are on the right path.  Some people give up at the very moment they are getting on to the right path.

Verse 8 brings us full circle.  Those who believe in the person and work of Jesus will be careful to maintain a life of good works.  This means we will be vigilant and watch over our life in order to keep doing the good things that God has for us to do.  Some people balk when we talk about good works because it sounds like we are trying to save ourselves with works.  It has been said that, “The theology of Christianity is based on grace, the ethics of Christianity are based on gratitude.”   We do not do good works because they will save us.  Rather we do them out of gratitude for the salvation we already have.  If God so loved us, while we were yet sinners, how much more ought we to act in love towards all men?  Don’t let this world rob you of the goodness of God.  Instead, be one who gives it freely everywhere you go.  No, we do not do good to others because of a foolish notion of humanity’s goodness.  Rather we do so because of the truth of God’s goodness and the ability of people to be redeemed.

Goodness of it all audio