Transcript for Why Does Jesus Want Us to Love Our Enemies?

It takes a huge imagination to say, I'm going to choose to love my enemy as a way to participate in the Kingdom of God. This is they are as valuable to God and to the people in my community as I am.

Yep, teaching and announcing the good news of the kingdom of God. God has sent the human ruler and leader that he always promised in the storyline of Hebrew scriptures to do for humanity, what we can't seem to do for ourselves. to create a new humanity that lives by God's will and can partner with Him and ruling the world with wisdom and love.

Yeah. God's rule over the world is happening by Jesus teaching humans how to be wise, generous rulers, over creation.

And through those images, he's saying, you all that I'm talking to you right now, are carrying the legacy through me of the renewed covenant people of God who will be God's royal priests represent God to the nations.

Yeah, these six case studies. They're all case studies in what does the superior way of doing right by God and therefore doing right by other people. What does that look like? Yeah. This is not an exhaustive list. He's not giving a new set of laws. He's giving ethical wisdom. to show how we can discern the will of God through the laws of the Torah. It's all about forming a community of people whose relationships are grounded in a different view of human dignity and value. They're grounded in a different way of cooperating together. How do humans get things done in the world that usually causes a lot of conflict? Yeah. And Jesus is offering wisdom on how to reimagine human relationships and how we get stuff done together.

And specifically showing how murder is the ultimate way to, right, degrade another human life. Yeah. But so also is adultery. And so also is a man divorcing a woman for an illegitimate reason. And so what Jesus does is locate the issue way upstream in how we think about the value and worth of another human being and when we began to degrade other humans in our thoughts and imaginations. that inevitably it will lead to these other things downstream. But it's the same basic crime, so to speak, that we're committing. It's a different manifestation of degrading another person's dignity, whether it's in your thoughts or with your body. Jesus wants to take the beginning seed just as deadly serious as we would the end result of it.

That's why, you know, the famous ones about cut off your hand or terror at your eye, which are hyperbolease. We discussed that. But he means something by being so extreme. Take it really seriously. Take it very seriously. How you think and imagine other people's value and worth because it will have deadly consequences given enough time.

More specifically. to be vigilant about how I try to persuade other people.

Yeah, through just honesty and vulnerability, trusting honest conversation that honors both parties that you can get somewhere that way without having to resort to manipulation. And Jesus especially targets manipulation where you bring God into it. You use God to manipulate other people's perception of you to get stuff done. Yeah, that's what he's targeting. You know, I was thinking, you know, you said cooperation. In a way, if you break that word down, co operate. Yeah. That is what it's about. Yeah. If humans, if we're going to rule the world together, we have to co operate. Yeah. Okay. Hey, I think this thing needs to be done. And I need to convince you of how many do that. I have a choice to make. So underneath that is the score as you have dignity again. Yes. I'm going to honor your dignity, but it's specifically about the means of that co-operation. Yeah, especially if our wills are in conflict with each other. And then it's when two wills or people are not just different, but then are at odds. That's what the second and third ones are about.

Now I'll keep from doing this. But we noted something important at the end of the last conversation was you can use creative nonviolence, but still with a stick it to a matter to. Yeah, kill bill attitude. Yeah, this is something that the Reverend Dr. King made very clear was that would just be another form of violent assertion just through a clever means. This is why Jesus and Martin Luther King Jr. emphasized that it's about the transformation of the heart that created nonviolence when it's generated by love for the person wronging you when you're able to cultivate a place of empathy in your mind and heart to say this person somehow feels the need to assert their dominance to put me in my place to try and shame me And it's about finding some place or way or story to live within where I can come to a place to show them generosity and kindness and love. And when creative non-violence comes out of that, I think then you get a revolutionary force. And that's what Jesus is after here. And so it requires the sixth and kind of the culminating which is about enemy love. Let's get into it. These also are famous words. I'll just let you read him John Matthew 5 verses 43 the 48 and this is my translation with just deviates from contemporary translations that a few points to bring things out.

Or complete? I can go back and forth some days.

That's great advice. Be bird. So notice also this teaching has three main parts and the first part itself has three parts. So you've heard that it was said one, but I say to you too, so that you may be children of your father's guys. Three. Okay, first little thing. And then the second is the two little comparisons. If you love those who love you, if you only greet your brothers. And then the last climactic third point is therefore be complete or whole the way your father is. And that last line there is simultaneously the conclusion to this little teaching, but then also to the entire sick saying, it goes all the way back up and connects to that greater righteousness. It's the other way of stating the greater righteousness. That register. We'll get there by the end. Okay. We'll work our way through. Great. So let's notice by this point with the six teaching, when Jesus quotes something, you've heard that it was said, sometimes it was a straight up quote from the 10 commandments. Yep, first two were first two. Other times, it's a quote from another law in the Torah. And then the one before this with I-4I-222, that was a precise quote, the law of retaliation. But the one about the oaths? Yeah, it was like two or three different places. Yeah, it was a paraphrase of a few different laws. This one is slightly different yet. So you shall love your neighbor. Let's straight up. We know that Jesus loved this line, because he said it was one of the two greatest commandments. Right. Love God. Love God. A good English way to say that.

Greatest commandment. Yeah. It was the second of the greatest commandment. He was that what's the greatest commandment? And then he answers with two as if they're both the anyway. As Leviticus 1918, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Yeah. But the twist is the quote is you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. And there's no law in the Torah that's worded that way or says that.

So it seems like what he's countering is a popular interpretation of this line in Leviticus 1918, which we'll look at. And it's very compelling. That's what he's doing here. Yeah. So he's not precisely quoting the Torah.

Correct. Yeah, the way that it's been popular understood. So how do people get there? Like we said, the first phrase comes from Libertica's 1918. You should love your neighbor as yourself. So we know that the big deal to Jesus equals that line out to where. So this second phrase, you should hate your enemy, raises an interesting ambiguity in the original verse that Jesus is quoting from Libertica's 19. It has to do with the term neighbor. It's another question that Jesus got asked. Who was my neighbor?

So let's actually do something you should always do when you're studying the Bible and you're wondering what something means is turned to the sentences or paragraph where you find it. and read it in context. Okay. So let's do that. The video is 19. We're just read the sentence before the one that Jesus quotes. So live it because chapter 19 versus 17 in 18. This is God speech to the people of Israel at Mount Sinai. That's the context here of live it at kiss. So y'all shall not hate your fellow brother, like, Kinsman is real light. Don't hate your fellow brother in your heart. You may surely reproove your neighbor, but you shall not incur sin because of him. Don't take vengeance or bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am Yalbe. What's we prove mean? Like if somebody wrongs you, go like, tell them that wasn't okay. Okay. Yeah. But don't take vengeance. Got it. Don't get payback because vengeance belongs to y'all in. So in the context, the word neighbor has been preceded by three different words that make it clear we're talking about fellow Israelites. Yep. So in context.

Yeah. Now, if you keep reading in the chapter, There's another statement that does deal with how you relate to not as realites. In verse 33 of a Leviticus 19, we read, when an immigrant lives with you in your land, don't mistreat him. The immigrant living with you is to be treated as one of your own native born people. Love the immigrant as you love yourself because you all were immigrants in Egypt. I'm Yahweh. So, actually, the love, your immigrant, non-israelite neighbors yourself, is right there later in the chapter. That's important, no? There is also multiple laws, here's just one, in excess 23. They actually do try and regulate situations when an israelite is dealing with a hostile neighbor. Somebody, they don't like it and they doesn't like them. So, exodus 23 of a sport. If you come across your enemies, Oxford, donkey, wandering off, classics in area.

Yeah, I mean, it's really, you can just imagine the movie scene here.

Yep, so that's the scenario here. If you come across your enemies, Oxford donkey wandering off, take it back to him. Don't be a jerk, do you enemy? If you see the donkey, if somebody who hates you and fell down under its load, don't just leave it there. Help him. Help your neighbor by helping his donkey. The point is that Jesus is not actually offering a contrary teaching to the Old Testament, which is like just love other Israelites and let rest of people take care of themselves.

That's right. However, You can see why these passages would raise a conversation about, well, when and then what circumstances do you help? And non-israelite are Israelites to get they get priority? Yeah. Who is my name?

Now notice, however, it says the immigrant living in your land. Okay. So this is somebody who's come to live among the people of Israel.

Yeah, but what about, say, like your Greek and Jesus day, which is a thousand years after this. The occupiers. Or up the town from Jesus, which is the culturally Greek and Roman city. Majority, non-is realite. And how do you relate to them with their own? Okay. These are the scenarios. Who's my neighbor? Who's my neighbor? That's right. So the other thing here, though, as I don't want to just brush away complexities in the Hebrew Bible here, there are passages where God's chosen person in a story will treat Israel's enemies. as God's enemies, and stick it to him, David, especially. And so there's a famous line, and it's hard not to imagine that Jesus has this somewhere in his little mental encyclopedia, in Psalm 139, which is actually a really beautiful poem. This is the one you made me, you'd knit me in my mother's womb. There's nowhere I can go where you're not. Yeah. It's beautiful. Beautiful. But at the end of it, it has this line. Don't I hate those who hate you Yahweh? Don't I lose those who rise up against you? I hate them with perfect hatred. They are my enemies. Usually that's part of Psalm 139 is not cool when it's like red and cherry.

I want to read that part though. And with some like super harsh. So here's an example of God's anointed one who hates his enemies because they're God's enemies. Yeah. So My point is the Hebrew Bible is not simple when it comes to these topics. Okay. And you can see why there would be a diversity of views and camps.

Yeah, that's right. And again, so the context on the ground is for an occupation by the Roman Empire. But it's not just that it's that what they represent is idolatrous, pagan empires in Rome's just the most recent in over 500 years.

Yeah, I make many Jews. It was patriotic. It was their religious duty. Yeah to hate the Romans. No, that's not how all Jews felt, but it's how some felt sure. So point is as Jesus is addressing a complex reality and we shouldn't Fall into this trap of thinking, oh, the ancient Jews, they were legalistic and nationalistic. And, no, this is real life. These same tensions are raised in almost every culture still in the world today. Yeah. So, of course, it's going to be something Jesus speaks to, then. How do you relate to people that you don't like? And some Jewish teachers in his day found warrant in the scriptures. which means that they thought it was the will of God that all love the covenant people and people who come to live among us, but if you're not on Abraham's team, it's okay if I don't like you and I let you know about it. And Jesus wants to mess with that. So he just flips the words over. He just says, love your enemies. That's one of the most important things Jesus said in terms of like the history of ethical ideas, certainly the most explosive. You know, for all the times that I'm proud to be a follower of Jesus when it comes to these kinds of things, this is actually really a scandalous, personally challenging. I love your enemy. Yeah. Because it's easier for me to say that other people should love their enemy.

No, that's true. I'm learning more about myself that sometimes a great cost to myself and others, I will make sure that I have no enemies. So as not always a positive settings, what I'm saying.

Yeah, there's a lot of wise, generous kind people who have people that don't like them because of tough decisions that they had to make and learning to be okay with that.

Oh, right.

Yeah. It's good clarification. And before we make this immediately individualized and personal, let's just remember, this is a fraught political social context that Jesus is saying these words in.

Yeah, although the wisdom underneath this, I think will give somebody insight with the difficult co-worker for sure.

So that's one thing. Another thing is we've done actually two word study videos on the word love. So in Hebrew it's Ahav or Ahavah is the noun. And then Greek it's Agape. And so those videos do a better job. Some writing that I could write now. But the main insight is that the use of these words in both Hebrew and Greek refer not primarily to a feeling. What we would call a feeling.

correct, but more to an attitude that results in action towards another. And this is the stuff of parenting, you know, you can choose your attitude. Sometimes, right? What do you mean by attitude? Oh, by attitude, the mindset I will adopt. What I feel is that person just shamed me in public and they belong to a different tribe or a different social group. Yeah. And they don't like people in my social group and they think they know me and they just shamed me. Yeah. So what I feel is offended, hurt, angry. I want to get them back. want to say something back or do something back. So Jesus would advocate a creative response that doesn't do nothing but that tries to change their dynamic to expose the ridiculousness and the brokenness of our context and of our society that makes these kinds of conflicts possible. And the attitude I need to adopt as I try to use creative non-violence is that of love. I choose to seek the well-being of another person because I believe a story that says they are as valuable to God and the people in my community as I am. They matter as much as I do. And I'm going to seek their well-being through creative non-violent response. So I'm kind of merging this one and the previous one together. But so notice with the examples that he goes on where he talks about God provides rain or sunshine or with the examples of greeting people is referring to concrete actions based on your attitude towards another person. Just for me that was such a powerful and helpful distinction over time that my feelings don't have to agree with my attitude. Sometimes it takes my feelings a while to catch up with the attitude that I have towards my enemy.

Oh. Well, you look at his actions. He was a pretty ruthless dude. Yeah. With people that he didn't like. But that has more to do with just the complexity of David as a character. Yeah. Just because he's got anointed doesn't mean everything you ever did was got well.

Yeah. Well, I mean, what's tricky is there's two questions. One is, how did David as a person think about his enemies? There's another question is, how did the biblical authors who frame David's story? How do they understand who David is and who his enemies are in the light of the theology of the narrative that they're writing and developing? And who are the real bad guys? Because the bad guys on the narrative surface are like Philistines.

Yeah. Come on, but. Well, you know, his enemies, for example, were Saul. Yep. And David chose creative non-violence when it came to Saul. Yeah. I had every turn, but not when it came to the mobites. You really rake them over the coast. So Jesus and the apostles and you taught the apostles the real enemy is never another human. The power and principalities that take our minds captive to think that we are each other's enemy.

Yeah, it's an interesting thought experiment. For some reason, I feel hesitant. I have Jesus critique. Imagine what Jesus would say to David. Because that involves me having to time travel to Jesus, but then Jesus having to time travel to. But that is what he's saying to his followers. The implication here is that your enemies actually aren't your enemies. For the kingdom of God to fully come on earth as in heaven, you and your enemy need to learn how to rule the world together.

Oh, I'm going.

Yeah, I think on the narrative level, David's enemies fit within the design pattern, all the way back to Genesis 315 of the seed of the snake. Hmm. humans that align themselves with anti-creation. And therefore, are captive to an agent of the language of the cane, an able story, sin. God says, sin is crouching, and you want to, you can, and he becomes its slave. So then you get two types of people, as you go throughout the rest of the story of the Bible. But then it's complicated because God's people are often the serpent seed, the snakes, they act like snakes. And often, non-isrelites are acting like the righteous seal of the woman. And then sometimes the same person can go back and forth in their own lifetime. Right. And as that portrait develops, by the time you get to David, I think you're supposed to see David's enemies as an icon for the snake, which is why Goliath takes on such like demonic proportions almost. And I think this also makes sense of why Jesus As the son of David viewed his enemies as the powers and principalities, demonic forces, and why he goes like on the assault against them. And it's all the warfare imagery of David and Old Testament. For Jesus gets channeled towards his battle with the powers. So it's not absent from Jesus' mission. It's just channeled to the non-human source. Yeah. Interesting. It is interesting. So I think For one, for you, as a reader of the Old Testament, David's words fit into that picture. So, in light of that, the enemies that David is hating are the principalities and powers. That's how the biblical authors wanted to see that. Whether or not David himself had that in his mind, I have no idea.

Yeah, I guess he, yeah, he didn't. He just said, love your enemies. Maybe resist the powers. Resist the powers? Resist the powers. That's what Peter and Paul say. And maybe the G.S. is the way of saying, resist the powers. Does love your enemy. Hmm. Yeah. Because it's the powers that have captured the human imagination according to the biblical authors that get us to think that somehow our tribal difference, our ethnic, our social class, whatever. Yeah. These are fundamental value differences.

Yep. We can generate peace through violence. And if you're going to make it omelet, you got a crack few eggs. Right? It's that. Yeah. And just as my and that's not that's a proverb of the powers. Yeah. So the way to subvert the powers is love your enemies. In a way, this is Jesus singing in his own key, so to speak, what Paul is saying in Ephesians in a different key, which is God's multi-diverse wisdom, is displayed to the power. That's what he says. Through a community of really different kinds of people. Loving each other, yeah. Seeking each other's well-being through peace and love. So the general foundation for all of these six teachings with the image of God, the sacred dignity, the human life. What are the ways that I need to reframe how I think about people I don't like? If I see from God's perspective, they are. They are worthy of love. These are principles that I've mostly picked up through my wife, but empathy cultivating empathy.

Yeah. So a part of loving your enemies is starting from a generous assumption. Just assume that people around me are carrying pain. Yeah. And how can I be a source of refreshment and healing in their life and not just another drain on their margins? I think Jesus had an awareness of the way cycles of violence work and retaliation, the whole thing of those who live by the sword, die by the sword. It's why he wanted his disciples to not fight for his release from rest. And so it's taking a bigger perspective of if I give in to these cultural hostilities and I'm participating in these systems. that the powers are having a headache with. Yeah. I'm actually contributing to like the core problems that Jesus came to address. And so it takes a huge imagination to say, I'm going to choose to love my enemy as a way to participate in the kingdom of God. And I might cost me dearly, it costs Jesus dearly, but some things are worth it. Yeah. When Jesus just says these simple words, what they seem simple, love your enemies. Jesus is making a good Jewish assumption that you pray three times a day, morning, noon, and night, so you pray for their well-being.

Totally, yeah. Pray for your enemies. That's right. Yeah, that's right. So there's another motivation, Jesus offers here. And it's that if you want to actually be like The God whose kingdom is coming here on earth is in heaven. It's actually a way to imitate God's own generosity. So he gives these two lines here. The sun shines on both me and the person I don't like. The rain that gives life and abundance to the ground. If you have two farmers, we're back to our farmers who don't like each other and one found the other's donkey. And, you know, he looks across and he sees, well, God gave my neighbor an abundant harvest with the rain. And he gave me an abundant harvest with the rain. God loves my neighbor. That's the logic Jesus is using here. That interesting. Yeah. It's classic wisdom reflection mode that you look at the operation of creation and you draw conclusions about God's character.

Yeah. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. The rain and the sunshine demonstrate God, what do you say is indiscriminately generous. Now that stands up all kinds of signals, especially for people who read the Old Testament and you like, but not always. Oh, right. And it seems like Jesus is not trying to say more or say everything at once.

Yeah, totally. And especially speaking as an Israelites, speaking to Israelites, the whole story of Israel is one long demonstration of God's generosity in this agreement at generosity. Yeah, relentless. Relentless generosity. And so he's going to come back to that, but he does these two little other sayings here of listen, if you reserve your love only for your tribe. Yeah. Then you're just average. That's right. The sea minus. Now again, you can get the basic point, but again, think here in light of the salt and light in the city. Yes, you've been called this. It's called Israel to be different.

to be a mirror of God's character to the nations. And if we just foster this inner, tribal loyalty and generosity, we're not fulfilling our calling to be the salt-light and city. And so we bring the home with one of the most dense and just dense, man. So most translations read, therefore, you all be the Greek word to tell us Mm-hmm. Just as your father in this guy, it's just tell Alice. So, this is an interesting word. And again, Jesus most certainly was speaking in a Semitic language, AirMet. And so, that raises an interesting challenge too. But we have a pretty close idea of what that word would have been. In AirMet. So it comes from the Hebrew word, Tamim. It can refer to something physical, being complete or a whole without anything lacking, or that's not cracked or distorted in some way. And then it's used often to describe someone's moral character.

As a metaphor, it almost makes immediate intuitive sense. Your whole

I mean, it feels like pure of heart. Totally. Yes, exactly. This is a synonym, or it's another way of Jesus bringing up that theme of the pure and heart.

Yeah. Singularly devoted to love of God and never.

Yes. Yeah. This is another way of saying the greater righteousness.

Yeah. At least humanity as I have experienced it, my own included. But that's what it's the new humanity. It's another way of saying what Paul and Ephesians will call the new human. Okay. And actually in Ephesians 4, he calls the new humanity. Tell us. Oh, yeah. The ideal. He uses the same exact word. The way Paul uses this word. Tell us. when he's laying into the Corinthians for being Corinthians, for being more Corinthian than they are Christian. So he calls them being children and how you think about it.

Well, at least in the region around Corinth to call someone a Corinthian was a way of saying somebody who sleeps around a lot. Oh, okay. They had a reputation. Totally. Yeah. It also meant a lot of other things. But the point is that he equates living by the culture of current as being like a stunted development and becoming a Jesus style human is becoming tele-oss. So he says in 1 Corinthians 14, in Ephesians 4, Paul calls the new humanity a tele-oss humanity. A whole humanity. Ooh, this is interesting. In Clashon's one, Paul talks about what the goal is in a local church, what we're helping each other strive toward. And he says, we want church leaders to see as their responsibility to bring everyone to become tele-oss in the Messiah, to bring people to the new, complete humanity. You. Which in light of all of this is about a whole new imagination for how I relate to other people, healthy, whole, vulnerable, honest relationships, where I seek the other person's well-being. Even if it costs me, I trust that my own well-being will be provided for if I seek first the kingdom. And it's righteousness.

That's another way of saying this idea.

Yeah.

There have been groups in the Christian tradition that have really latched on to this theme. Jesus teachings and yeah said that Jesus wouldn't say this if it wasn't attainable is the basic logic of these traditions.

I mean, I think, again, Jesus often, this is the kind of teacher that he was. He's trying to communicate in a way that grabs your attention and your imagination. It's the ideal, for sure. It's the ideal. And it's an ideal that Jesus thinks we ought to invest a lot of energy in our own personal growth and development.

Yeah, in our language, in our culture, we also use additional tools about growth. Right? Developing new habits, new mental habits, right? And therapists can be wonderful gifts, wonderful co-workers along this journey. But essentially what we're talking about is development of new kind of character that's more like Jesus, the new humanity, and that it something that we should work towards. Yeah. So that's more on the personal level. For Jesus, he's bringing this back around the greater righteousness This telayos humanity is itself an image of God. Be telayos because you're an image of your father and the skies who is telayos. So Jesus is actually riffing off of another law in the Torah here. We're saying in the Torah, it's all throughout Leviticus. Be holy. God will say to Israel, be you all shall be holy because I am holy. So it's interesting, Jesus is using that phrase, but he's swapping out holiness, which is another way of saying utterly set apart and unique and whole.

Yeah, but he swaps it in with the spread of teleaus. Yeah. Actually, I've got a good quote here from New Testament scholar, RT France. You wrote two commentaries on Matthew, a smaller one that's only 300 pages. that a fat one that's like 800, and I, oh man, so rich. My favorite Matthew come to her. He says, the use of the word teléos instead of holy. Teléos is a wider term than moral flawlessness. Here he's talking about our English translations perfect. Right. Yeah. Perfect really limits an English speaker's imagination for what Jesus means here. Teléos comes from the word teléo, which means to come to completion He says Matthew uses this word, tell us again, later in chapter 19, to denote the higher level of commitment represented by a rich man selling his possessions and giving them to the poor, in contrast with his merely keeping of the commandments. So this is when the guy says, hey, what do I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus says, do the 10 commandments. And the guy says, I have. Yeah.

Yeah. And so we're back to the same issue that we're at with these six teachings here. You can live by the ten commandments and not be a teleaus. So it goes on. Teleaus is a suitable term to sum up the greater righteousness, a righteousness which is demanded not only from the spiritual elites, like the Pharisees, but for everybody who works with the kingdom of God. Jesus is inviting us to look behind the laws of the Torah, to the mind and character of God himself. Where any definable set of rules could in principle be fully kept, the demand of the kingdom of heaven has no such limit. Or rather, its limit is perfection, the wholeness of God himself. And so, tell us the idea of wholeness of coming to fulfillment to be all that you are capable and designed of being. It just has a different feeling to it. Yeah. Like instead of not failing, it's coming to be everything that I am made to be reflecting the being of God himself. God's own self. That's the idea. I mean, it's the image of God. Mm-hmm. It was what we're talking about here. Mm-hmm. a human who faithfully images the character of God. This way of relating to other people requires enormous creativity, intentionality, discovering new things about yourself and other people, the dynamic way of life.

It's about me ruling the world in creative new circumstances. Now, he's gonna go on and explore it from a few different angles, even more. But with these six, he's done some serious constructive work here.

Okay, studies in the greater righteousness and the complete new humanity.

Every single one of these was about how I relate to other people as a way of expressing my conviction that Jesus is the king of the world.

And what he's going to explore is how even our acts of religious devotion can become self-serving.