matthew 5:44 explanation

This amazing alliance of religion with prostitution can be seen in an almost incredible way in the fact that Solon was the first to allow the introduction of prostitutes into Athens and the building of brothels, and with the profits of the brothels a new temple was built to Aphrodite the goddess of love. It is indeed, I might say, when souls are thus blessed that Satan's temptations are apt to come. [1.] The story is told in his biography. is liable to judgment in the supreme court; and he who says to his brother, "You fool!" It is not only the sorrow which brings an ache to the heart; it is the sorrow which brings the unrestrainable tears to the eyes. And thus, the law condemned me. It is with divine wisdom that Matthew mentions the angel's visit to Joseph; with no less direction from on high does Luke relate Gabriel's visit to Mary (as before to Zacharias); and the reason is plain. Well the Lord doesn't say that you're blessed when you're persecuted for being an oddball but "for righteousness and for his namesake". And neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on the candlestick that it might give light unto all that are in the house ( Matthew 5:14-15 ). "The eyes and the hand are the two brokers of sin." This remains a challenge for our generation, as well. The rule was that if a man had means, but was too miserly to use them, a gift must be given as a gift, but afterwards reclaimed from his estate as a loan. It is the inevitable law of human nature that the more a man says he will not think of something, the more that something will present itself to his thoughts. It might be the feeblest recognition of God and man; it might be but a remnant of Israelites; but, at least, they owned the truth about themselves; and Jesus was with them in owning the ruin fully, and felt it all. "Jesus seems to have prayed for his tormentors actually while the iron spikes were being driven through his hands and feet; indeed the imperfect tense suggests that he kept praying, kept repeating his entreaty, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34). "If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink" ( Proverbs 25:21). No one can teach the man who knows it all already. The Scribes and Pharisees were right in seeking God's will, and profoundly right in dedicating their lives to obeying it; they were wrong in finding that will in their man-made hordes of rules and regulations. Milton has also served as chancellor and president of seminaries and is the author of more than thirty books. Do good to them that hate you; engage their affections to you, and you may be happy instruments These are both taken up here: "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The undeniable certainty that God has been pleased to confine Himself to a small portion of the circumstances of the life of Jesus, and, even so, to repeat the same discourse. It is a commandment of which we should say first and foremost: "This means me.". Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary 5:43-48 The Jewish teachers by neighbour understood only those who were of their own country, nation, and religion, whom they were pleased to look upon as their friends. We shall see by and by why this disappears in the gospel of Luke. The world needs its guiding lights; there are people waiting and longing for a lead to take the stand and to do the thing which they do not dare by themselves. It is the kind of love that speaks kindness when fiery curses are being hurled at us. To take an example, on the one extreme there is the spendthrift; on the other extreme there is the miser; and in between there is the generous man. Commentary below. The Greeks always contrasted they quality which they called praotes ( G4236) , and which the King James Version translates meekness, with the quality which they called hupselokardia, which means lofty-heartedness. Thus, if there was a necessity because the Spirit of God limited Himself to a certain number of generations, there was also divine reason, as there always is in the word of God, for the choice of the names which had to be omitted. So serious a view did the Jewish teachers take of adultery that the guilty parties could be punished by nothing less than death ( Leviticus 20:10); but once again Jesus lays it down that not only the forbidden action, but also the forbidden thought is guilty in the sight of God. The Jews divided oaths into two classes, those which were absolutely binding and those which were not. Behind it there are two pictures. "Rejoice at such a moment," says Jesus, "and be glad." The Christian must cut himself off from his fellows rather than by his presence give approval to such a thing. Christianity did in fact split families as we have seen; and so Christianity was represented as something which divided man and wife, and disrupted the home. Theoretically no nation ever had a higher ideal of marriage than the Jew had. One of the great functions of the Cross is to open the eyes of men and women to the horror of sin. Oh isn't that marvelous? But at once, as the answer to any and every unholy misapprehension that could be formed, heaven is opened, and a twofold testimony is rendered to Jesus. Jesus begins by citing the oldest law in the world--an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. They are the words which describe the love of a parent for a child and a child for a parent. What did he mean by that? And so that is constantly the mission of the church; to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God, that they might receive the forgiveness of their sins and the inheritance among them that are set apart. What does that mean? The question was to make good, along with His eternal glory, a Messianic title that could not be set aside, a title that no Jew on his own ground could impeach. You either be what God intends you to be or you're not going to be, you'll be "trodden under the foot of man".Then he said. bless them that curse you: To bless one who is cursing us means that we return good words for evil. All that a man had to do was to dismiss his wife in the presence of two witnesses. . He said, "Chuck, it is a spiritual battle that we are in". True, it will find its fulness and its consummation in the presence of God; but for all that it is a present reality to be enjoyed here and now. All the world knows of the Christians who were flung to the lions or burned at the stake; but these were kindly deaths. And boy, it used to really gull them to have to carry that load for that Roman soldier for a mile.Jesus said, "Look, if they compel you to go a mile, go two". But it is Jesus' warning that the righteousness of the Christian must exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees. The beatitudes are not simple statements; they are exclamations: "O the blessedness of the poor in spirit!". But suppose his firm received a contract to build a temple to one of the heathen gods, what was that man to do? How faithfully they support the title to which they lay claim I do not now say: (420) but the folly and absurdity of alleging, that they are only advices, will appear from many considerations. What is in the attitude of your heart, that's what God is looking upon. None but God could have imposed a yoke so contrary to self-love; and nothing but the supreme eternal love can enable men to practise a precept so insupportable to corrupt nature. 5:45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. As Julian saw it, Christianity took the vividness out of life. It might be that only a few hairs from the forehead of the beast were burned as a symbolic sacrifice. But I say unto you, love your enemies But the man whose heart is defiled can look at any scene and find something in it to titillate and excite the wrong desire. The greatest of all Jewish days was the Day of Atonement. Note, First, Sunshine and rain are great blessings to the world, and they come from God. Where, in the mind of the Spirit of God, such a continual, conspicuous point of quoting and applying Scripture in all places and seasons to the Lord Jesus? More than that, to be as these are, is to be like God Himself is in the world; to preserve it, as "salt" does (Matthew 5:13); to instruct it, as "light" does (Matthew 5:14-15); to convert it, in short, and so to teach it to glorify God in its turn (Matthew 5:16 . Josiah, the reforming king, had stamped out that worship, and had ordered that the valley should be for ever after an accursed place. As they pushed the barrow up the hill the box, which was the coffin, fell off the barrow and burst open. It is a warning thing to remember that no man can call himself a Christian and lose his temper because of any personal wrong which he has suffered. To one who knew the facts in a human way, nothing would he more natural than to put them down just as they occurred. He was the Messiah, but such He was after God's heart, not man's. A person can be doing all kinds of magnanimous works for God in the church, just busying himself and doing so many marvelous things around the church, but his attitude can be bad. (i) They used it to mean the Ten Commandments. Because of the love of God in Christ and the transforming power of the gospel, many who curse God today will be preaching His Word tomorrow. Context Summary Matthew 5:43-48 continues Jesus' teaching on love and humility, a part of the Sermon on the Mount. 5:1-2 "Seeing the crowds, Jesus went up on the mountain, and when he sat down his disciples came to him. It was not His first acquaintance with Simon, Andrew, and the rest, as we know from the gospel of John. Do you want it as much as a starving man wants food, and as much as a man dying of thirst wants water?" The great Jewish teachers had always had characteristic phrases in their teaching. Hence, besides that order, which is the most elementary, however important in its own place, other presentations of His life were due, according to various spiritual grounds, as divine wisdom saw fit, and as even we are capable of appreciating in our measure. Our Lord is carried outside the reach of the storm into Egypt. What did the law constitute that he finds an uncleanness in her? On the contrary, there is no one of the Gospel writers who departs from that order, when his subject demands it, more freely than he, as I hope to prove to the satisfaction of those open to conviction, before we close. It's just not men who have given themselves over to perverted thinking but it is satanic in its origin. And God's kingdom will come to earth and those who are the children of God will inherit the earth. Now each of these characteristics where surely manifested in the life of Jesus Christ and the world crucified him and he said this will be the response of the word towards that kind of person. That we must speak well of them: Bless them that curse you. ", There were, and still are, the Quakers. As Joseph belonged to the Solomon-branch, he would have barred the right of our Lord to the throne, looking at it as a mere question now of His being the Son of David; and we are entitled so to take it. If we cannot otherwise testify our love to them, yet this way we may without ostentation, and it is such a way as surely we durst not dissemble in. Even Socrates said, "Is there anyone to whom you entrust more serious matters than to your wife, and is there anyone to whom you talk less?" (iv) To suffer persecution is to make things easier for those who are to follow. But the man who gives himself into the complete control of God will gain this meekness which will indeed enable him to inherit the earth. rejected the traditions of the elders, which the Pharisees held: May you truly love those that hate you and do good unto those that despitefully use you and thus truly demonstrate the traits and the qualities of the children of the kingdom, in Jesus' name. He makes no distinctions, and as Christians follow his example, their character will become increasingly like his (Matthew 5:43-48). The inefficient workman, the resentful servant, the ungracious helper have not even begun to have the right idea of the Christian life. Satan was the source of the thought couched in Peter's words. They do not come of course, or by chance, but from God. Oh, did you see what he did? "Not one jot or tittle will in any wise pass until it is all fulfilled.". The last chapter (Matthew 7:1-29) presses on us the motives of heart in our intercourse with men and brethren, as well as with God, who, however good, loves that we should ask Him, and earnestly too, as to each need; the adequate consideration of what is due to others, and the energy that becomes ourselves; for the gate is strait, and narrow the way that leads to life; warnings against the devil and the suggestions of his agents, the false prophets, who betray themselves by their fruits; and, lastly, the all-importance of remembering that it is not a thing of knowledge, or of miraculous power even, but of doing God's will, of a heart obedient to Christ's sayings. But this worship of Roma took a further step. Then there came the Greeks. 5:3 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. For he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. Spiritual Israel is a peaceable kingdom. But it is far more than that. That summary is known as the Mishnah; it contains sixty-three tractates on various subjects of the Law, and in English makes a book of almost eight hundred pages. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. Now, that's because they were interpreting the law in a wrong way, only to govern the outward actions of man and not to deal with the spirit of all. Special privileges were given to those who had children, for children were regarded as a disaster. The man who divides men is doing the devil's work; the man who unites men is doing God's work. Pray that God will help you to love them and forgive them as you remember how God loved and forgave you. The eye sees, the mind desires and the body acts. For no man will ever come to obey this precept, till he shall have given up self-love, or rather denied himself, and till men, all of whom God has declared to be connected with him, shall be held by him in such estimation, that he shall even proceed to love those by whom he is regarded with hatred. Now you may have an ungovernable, unreasonable anger but you may have been able to control it but you go around constantly seething, constantly angry, boiling inside. It contains the root hap which means chance. If we tabulate these things, the matter will become clear: Now, as we have seen, Matthew is essentially the teaching gospel; it is Matthew's characteristic that he collects the teaching of Jesus under certain great headings; and it is surely far more likely that Matthew collected Jesus' teaching into one whole pattern, than that Luke took the pattern and broke it up and scattered the pieces all over his gospel. God causes the sun to shine both on Israel and on the nations, for the Lord is good to all." We know how difficult even the city streets were when there were no lights. The first man to divorce his wife was Spurius Carvilius Ruga in the year 234 B.C., and he did so because she was childless and he desired a child. It is the kind of love that controls the tongue (James 3). Ruth, too, appears Ruth, of all these women most sweet and blameless, no doubt, by the working of the divine grace in her, but still a daughter of Moab, whom the Lord forbade to enter His congregation to the tenth generation for ever. And so check out in that persecution that's coming your way, make sure that it is for the sake of Jesus Christ that the persecution is coming not just because of some weird characteristic.And Jesus said. (ii) There is the noun eros and the accompanying verb eran (compare G2037) . "Must you?" There is no child of God that cannot glean blessing from it, even through a scanty glance; but when we look into it a little more closely, the instruction deepens immensely. If we don't become aware of that, we're not going to be properly equipped for the battle. (b) It is used of a person's utterance when he is really opening his heart and fully pouring out his mind. If we must go beyond scribes and Pharisees, much more beyond publicans. -Matthew 6:43-45. It is necessary that we should understand what Jesus is saying here. Paul orders his people to put off all "anger, wrath, malice, slander" ( Colossians 3:8). Would he have put forward the name of Thamar in such a connection? And so it was. Even behind the Scribal and Oral Law there was one great principle which the scribes and the Pharisees had imperfectly grasped. There are good and compelling reasons for thinking that the Sermon on the Mount is far more than one sermon, that it is, in fact, a kind of epitome of all the sermons that Jesus ever preached. And these men were constantly displaying how righteous they were by the types of robes that they wore, by the types of borders around their garments and all. In Greek, the word is eirene ( G1515) , and in Hebrew it is shalom ( H7965) . Now Jesus is talking about that deceitfulness of being able to say no, though it sounds like yes or saying yes when you really don't mean yes. Here is a great eternal truth. And that is why Paul the apostle wrote, "Christ is the end of the law to those that believe" ( Romans 10:4 ); because he has brought us into a new relationship with God that involves our faith in Jesus Christ as the basis for our righteous standing before God for he fulfilled the law. It very often happens that if a man loves peace in the wrong way, he succeeds in making trouble and not peace. In consequence of this the Valley of Hinnom became the place where the refuse of Jerusalem was cast out and destroyed. The Gospel of Matthew reflects the situation of the Matthean ecclesial community after the destruction of Jerusalem (70 A.D.). Even the Jewish Rabbi was moved and impressed with the sheer benevolence of God to saint and sinner alike. This gave an accomplishment to the general voice of the prophets, who declared Him despised and rejected of men. That is to say, passages which are consecutive in Matthew's gospel appear in widely separated chapters in Luke's gospel. To some extent every man is a split personality. They consisted not in sacrifice, but in mercy; not in legalism but in love; not in prohibitions which demanded that men should not do things, but in the instruction to mould their lives on the positive commandment to love. For instance, Matthew 5:31-32 and Matthew 7:7-11 are quite detached from their context. When we speak of our blessing God, it means to praise Him or give thanks to Him. Normally the lamp stood on the lampstand which would be no more than a roughly shaped branch of wood; but when people went out, for safety's sake, they took the lamp from its stand, and put it under an earthen bushel measure, so that it might burn without risk until they came back. When she left, she left louder than anybody else, when she talked she talked louder than anybody else and she was just purely obnoxious as far as I was concerned. "Passions lodge only in him who sees." We know more than others; we talk more of the things of God than others; we profess, and have promised, more than others; God has done more for us, and therefore justly expects more from us than from others; the glory of God is more concerned in us than in others; but what do we more than others? You see a person who is proud and haughty, he is a man who has not had a true encounter with God. Well who wouldn't like that doctrine? Then the righteousness spoken of branches out into three parts: alms, which is one part of it; prayer, another part; and fasting, a part of it not to be despised. A working man's wage was the equivalent of three pence a day, and, even making every allowance for the difference in the purchasing power of money, no man ever got fat on that wage. It is supremely true on the divine side, for he who shows this mercy has become nothing less than like God. Christs citizens render to no man evil for evil (Romans 12:17), neither do they overcome evil with evil (Romans 12:19-21). As the late Dr. John Stott wrote, In each antithesis (You have heard that it was said but I say to you ) he rejected the easy-going tradition of the scribes, reaffirmed the authority of Old Testament Scripture, and drew out the full and exacting implications of Gods moral law.2So, we can say that the presenting issues we observe in the text have to do with a misunderstanding of loving ones enemies. The Greek word for merciful is eleemon ( G1655) . Bless them that curse you: when wicked men curse you, as Shimei cursed David, do not "render evil for evil, or railing for railing, but contrariwise, blessing"; give good words, use kind language, mild and soft expressions; such as may either win upon them, or put them to shame and silence: "bless, and curse not"; the latter belongs to them, the former to you; "let them curse, but bless thou": curses better fit their mouths, and blessings thine. We cannot expect the reward of Christians, if we rise no higher than the virtue of publicans." Barnes's Matthew 5:44 Bible Commentary. Jerusalem was indeed a light to the Gentiles, but "God lit Israel's lamp." We must have a compassion for them, and a good will toward them. Mt 5:44, 45. And if no man of sense doubts that this should be so in our own case, has not God always had His own perfect mind in the various accounts He has given us of Christ? How can we sincerely ask God to bless someone we hate? Article Images Copyright 2022 Getty Images unless otherwise indicated. They didn't have much of an elaborate background. Wherever there was the least action of the Holy Spirit of God in grace in the hearts of Israel, He joined Himself. 5:27-28 You have heard that it has been said: You must not commit adultery. And Jesus gives here five of the teachings of the scribes and Pharisees concerning the law, as they were interpreting it and as they were teaching it to the people. Churches are tragically full of people like that, officials whose territory has been invaded, office-bearers who have not been accorded their proper place, courts which do business with a manual of practice and procedure on the table all the time, lest anyone's rights should be invaded. In a situation such as that in which the early Christians found themselves there was hardly any job in which a man might not find a conflict between his business interests and his loyalty to Jesus Christ. If we regard a person with agape ( G26) , it means that no matter what that person does to us, no matter how he treats us, no matter if he insults us or injures us or grieves us, we will never allow any bitterness against him to invade our hearts, but will regard him with that unconquerable benevolence and goodwill which will seek nothing but his highest good. Quite often in our approach of God, bringing to the altar our gift, the most direct approach to God is not a straight line but it is by an offended brother. In the King James Version the man who is condemned is the man who is angry with his brother without a cause. Such conduct, in the most literal sense, is a hell-deserving sin. (i) There is the noun storgi with its accompanying verb stergein. Besides, the reason is manifest. All that he wanted was an opportunity for so short a time to rest and to relax, and to lay down the terrible tension of living. Temptation must be cut at the source (Matthew 5:27-30). But then Jesus goes on to illustrate what he meant by that, for he tells them. He has despised the word of the Lord: he has shown the irreverence which merits the destruction of the soul." This word is often used in Greek in a very special way. Jesus said, "And I will say to them in that day, come, ye blessed of the Father, inherit the kingdom that was prepared for you from the foundations of the earth" ( Matthew 25:34 ). The Father's voice pronounces the Son's relationship, and His own complacency; while the Holy Ghost anoints Him as man. 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