Growing Towards God Likeness

Matthew 5:38-48

Introduction

            The spate of political scandals which we have seen in Canada recently have revealed that those who have been caught doing wrong have a hard time admitting it. That's probably not much different than most of us. It isn't easy to admit that we were jealous of someone, that we lied or that we desired something that we could not have. Although we have a hard time admitting our wrongdoing, at least we admit that it is wrong to lie, to be jealous and to lust. What's different about the passage we have just read is that sometimes we don't even know if we ought to obey it. Is it not true that we have a hard time giving a street beggar money because we believe they will just use it for alcohol. Isn't that a failure to obey the command "Give to everyone who begs from you?" Most of us would say that we would defend our family if an intruder came into our home. Is that a failure to obey the command "Do not resist an evildoer?" If someone sues us it is not uncommon for us to get a good lawyer and defend ourselves. Is that a failure to obey the command in verse 40? If our country goes to war, many will join the military. Is that a failure to obey the command to "Love your enemies?"

            These are difficult commands and we are not at all certain how or sometimes even whether we should obey them. Geddert, in his book, "Double Take," lists some of the ways in which Bible commentators have approached these words. Some suggest that these commands are not meant for normal living, they were meant as special instructions for the disciples on their preaching mission. Some have suggested that "you can't run society on principles like that, but that they are for special times like the time of Jesus or Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr. Others dismiss them completely by suggesting that they are for an ideal world after Jesus returns. Some suggest that they are in Scripture to show us just how impossible it is to live up to God's standards. The purpose of that is to drive us to God for His grace, which of course He gives.

            So what is this passage saying if, as it seems to many, it is impossible to follow the commands in it? There it is in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount and presents itself as God's Word to us. What do we do with it?

I.     Be Perfect!

            Although all the imperatives are difficult to understand and even more difficult to do, the final line in the chapter is even more difficult. In this verse we are called to be perfect. Is that even possible? Is it really expected? Let's think carefully about this statement.

A.   God Likeness

            Sometimes when we are faced with a large amount of confusing information, we want to know, "What's the bottom line?" If we understand the bottom line, perhaps all the rest of the details will become clear. The bottom line in this passage is not difficult to grasp. In verse 45 we read, "…that you may be children of your Father…" and in verse 48 we read, "…as your heavenly Father is perfect." Whatever these commands mean, we are to obey them in the context of being related to our heavenly Father.

            When God first created human beings, he created them "in the image of God." We were created like God. When sin came into the world something about that image was broken and we were no longer like God. The image of God is still in us, but it is a broken image because of sin. The point of God's work in salvation is to once again restore the image of God in us.

            The language used in these two verses is family language. It speaks about God as our Father and we being His children. If we have become children of God we must be like God. It makes sense that there be a resemblance between us and God. The text says that just as God is perfect, or complete, we also must be like our heavenly Father. There must be a family resemblance.

            This helps us understand something very important. These commands are not for everyone in the world. They are written for everyone who is a follower of Jesus. Because Jesus Christ is living in us we once again resemble God and therefore we are called to be like God.

B.   Becoming Like God

            But we need to note how we are to be like God. What is interesting in this passage is that these two phrases about being like God are not imperatives. There are numerous imperatives in the text. We are commanded to "not resist an evildoer," to "give to everyone" and to "love your enemy." But there is no imperative in either verse 45 or 48.

            Verse 45 can best be translated, "…thus you should become children of your Father." For those familiar with grammar, the verb in this verse is not an imperative, but a subjunctive. A subjunctive has nuances of being an imperative, but is not directly an imperative. It is usually translated "should." A very loose translation which my help us understand is, "It makes sense that there should be a resemblance between you and your Father."

            Verse 48 is even further away from an imperative. It is a future indicative, which means that it is predicting what will be. A loose translation would be, "You will be mature/complete/perfect, as your Father in heaven is…" It emphasizes that we are becoming like our Father. In other words, this is not what we are, but what we are going to be. God is working in us so that we will become like Him and we need to obey Him so that we will become like Him.

            What we learn from this is that likeness to the Father is not something we must be before we are accepted by Him. Rather, it is something that fits with who we are, something we are moving towards, something we are becoming and something we will be.

            So it doesn't say we must be perfect now. Rather, it declares that we are becoming perfect, or mature, or complete. God has come into our lives and is working in us to make us complete and we need to co-operate with Him to allow Him to make us mature.

            I don't know about you, but I find it much easier to understand this passage if I recognize that God has a goal for who I am and that I must learn to grow into that goal rather than that I am expected now and instantly to be perfect. However, that doesn't mean we can let ourselves off the hook or fail to diligently try to understand what it means to be like God.

C.   There Must Be A Difference

            As we think about this, we realize that God is completely different than anyone on earth. Therefore, if we are to be like God, we must also be different than everyone on earth. This idea is presented in verses 46 and 47. There we discover that if we love only those who love us, we are no different than anyone else. Even gang members have a fierce loyalty and love for those who belong to the gang. So if everyone loves their family members and the people who love them, what is it that must distinguish us from them? Is it not that we love our enemies? Similarly if we greet only those whom we know and feel comfortable with, we are no different than anyone else. Today there are a lot of people who care for the poor. "We Day" has prompted students to have a concern for others and to do things for others around the globe. This effort to encourage volunteerism and motivate young people to care about inequities has had a huge impact and is a really good thing. The question is, "If that is what everyone else is doing, what distinguishes us from those who don't know God?" How will we be different? How will we be God-like?

            We get a glimpse of what God is like when we read in verse 45, "He makes the sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." In other words, God is magnanimously gracious to all without discriminating. That is not to take away from the fact that He is still a holy judge who will destroy all evil in the end. But at this present time, God graciously gives rain and sunshine to all people on earth. Therefore, there has to be something different about those who follow Christ. If we only do what everyone else does, how are we different? We must also be characterized by something different, something that rises above what is normal in our world. God is not like a human being. He is filled with a holiness and a compassion that is unexpected, unusual, greater, more gracious, more kind than what is normal. We are supposed to be like that because we belong to God and we are being made into His image.

II.  Living the Details

            This is wonderful theological truth. God has created us in His image and is recreating us into His image so that we are becoming like Him and will be like Him. It is reasonable to expect that there will be some resemblance of the children to their Father. But this is not only a theological theory. This teaching only makes sense in intensely practical terms. In other words, it doesn't mean anything unless we actually do these things in the details of life. So the question is, "What are the details?"

            If we read these difficult commands and ask, "what makes sense" we are asking the wrong question. If, on the other hand, we are asking, "What is God like? How does God operate? and How can I be like Him?" we are asking the right questions. When and only when we have figured out that we are children of the Father and that we must be different can we go back to the specific examples and begin to try to figure out how to live them. So as we look at these details, that is the question we must be asking. There are many ways in which we are to be different than the rest of the world and like God. The things written here are a few of those ways. What I am saying is that we are not to see these as a list of rules to follow, but rather, they are examples of how to fulfill the call to be a Christian, or to be like God. How can we live this?

            There is no doubt that each of these ways are not difficult to understand, but they are difficult to apply. Each of us must make decisions about how we will be like God in our life. Yet it is also important for us to discern together in community what it means. Let me suggest some things. The approach I want to take as we think about these things is to think about how God did these things and then to consider some of the ways in which we might be like God.

A.   Do Not Resist an Evil Doer

            The first command is "Do not resist an evildoer." This is said in the context of what is a normal human expectation. The law Jesus refers to is "eye for eye and tooth for tooth." This law has an interesting history. It came into being to address the natural tendency of human beings to overreact to a wrong done. Lamech is the first example of this in Genesis 4:23 where he brags, "I have killed a man for wounding me." This is the natural human tendency and this law came in to change unlimited revenge to equal justice. Law today continues to function very much according to this law. Justice requires equality and that is what this law declares. It is the normal human understanding.

            The point of this passage, however, is that we, as children of God, are to be different. We are to live by a justice that goes above what is normal for humans. We are to be like God. What is God like? God's actions are demonstrated through Jesus in 1 Peter 2:21 & 23, "For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps…When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly."

            While we must work for justice for others, when an injustice is done to us, we need to find a way to respond in a God-like way. The text also helps us understand why we can choose this way. As I Peter 2 says, we can entrust ourselves "to the one who judges justly." God sees every injustice and we can trust Him to make everything right.

            In Matthew 5:39-41 Jesus gives some specific examples. In the first example it speaks of someone hitting us. Many commentators point out that a strike on the right cheek by a right handed person would not only be a physical strike, but also an insult. Jesus suggests that one way to live in a God-like way is not to strike back, not to demand repayment for injury or insult, but to simply absorb it. In regards to law suits mentioned in verse 40, we are called to yield. Paul agrees with Jesus' way of responding when he says in I Corinthians 6:7, "Why not rather be defrauded?" Why can we do this? Because we know we are cared for by God.

            These are some examples. The application is that when we are wronged, we need to find a way to respond that is different than normal, that is how God has treated us in Christ. I once met with a couple who had been cheated by someone else. As we talked about possible responses, I thought about this passage and wondered whether I should suggest that they just absorb the wrong done. It was hard to do so because it isn't normal, but isn't that what this passage calls us to do?

B.   Give To Everyone

            The next command is "Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you." There are a lot of giving people in the world. Recently a Mosque in Winnipeg gathered a whole truck load of food to donate to a northern reserve. What a good thing to do!

            The question we are asking, however, is "what makes us different than everyone else?" "How are we like God?"

            How did God manifest generosity? The great example of God's generosity is demonstrated in the way in which he gave us Jesus. You know what John 3:16 says, "“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son..." Romans 8:32 says the same thing but uses a slightly different term. There we read, "He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us…"

            How is this different than normal? God's gave what was most precious to Him in a sacrificial act of love. It was intended to evoke a response, but did not guarantee it. Can we give like that? Several times I have been involved in Mennonite Disaster Service projects. I quickly learned that not everyone who is helped deserves help. Yet we helped them. Is that not the kind of generosity which this passage calls us to?

            Whenever people beg or ask to borrow from us we need to consider how we can be like God in our response.

C.   Love Your Enemy

            The command in verse 44 is once again contrasted with the normal human understanding. It is not Old Testament Scripture that says "Love your neighbor and hate your enemy." In Leviticus 19:18 we are told, "…you shall love your neighbor as yourself..." But no where does the Bible teach us, "hate your enemy." Yet that is normal human thinking and is reflected in many human relationships.

            We, however, are called to be different and one of the most profound ways in which we are to be different is that we are to love our enemies. That is what God is like as demonstrated in Romans 5:8 where we read that, "…God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us." God chose to love us when we were His enemies and we are called to be like that.

            When we discover that our brother has become our enemy, what do we need to do to love our brother? When we discover that our fellow church member has become our enemy, how do we process that hatred so that in its place we love our enemy? It is in the church that Christians have failed most miserably in regards to this command. When we find ourselves on the opposite side of an acrimonious fence from our neighbor, what do we need to do to tear down that fence? When our country finds itself at war with another country, how do we as children of God respond to that enmity. Of one thing I am sure. We cannot separate our life as followers of God into categories in which we love our personal enemy, but accept that we can hate or kill our national enemy. In any and every relationship we need to discover, as children of our heavenly Father, how we can love our enemy.           

D.   Pray for Your Enemy

            The very next line gives us the final imperative in this text and says, "pray for those who persecute you."

            Once again we see that this is something that God did. The prime example is Jesus who when he was crucified, prayed in Luke 23:34, , "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing."

            What kind of prayers do we pray for our enemies? How do we pray for the Taliban? How do we pray for Al-Qaeda? Do we pray that God will bring peace? Can we also pray that God will bring them to Himself? Can we pray that God will bless them with good crops? What kind of prayer would make us like God?

            Barclay wrote, "We cannot go on hating another man in the presence of God."

Conclusion

            This text is not easy to understand and so we struggle to obey it. It is not obvious how to obey this in every situation because sometimes it is confusing and we are not sure what is the best wisdom and the best way of obedience.

            One danger with these verses is to become legalistic about them. Some have made them into rules and been very militaristic about believing they should love their enemies. I believe that these are not rules in that sense, rather they are imperatives which help us think carefully about what it means to be like God. The other danger is to decide that these things are just too difficult and because they don't make sense we are justified in avoiding obedience to them. I don't believe we can treat Scripture like that, dismissing what doesn't make sense or trying to avoid it.

            If we ask, "am I resisting an evildoer" or "am I loving my enemy" we are asking the second question. I believe that the best way to obey this text is to ask the first question first. That question is, "What is God like and am I seeking to be like Him?" If we do that, we will learn to be like God and we will learn to live these words of Jesus.