Matthew 5:43-48

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Psalm 145:1-2, 10-13
• Hymn — All Creatures of Our God and King (#115)
• Prayer of Invocation
• Shorter Catechism Q&A (Question 107 — conclusion of the Lord's Prayer)
• Hymn — The Lord's Prayer (#725)
• Pastoral Prayer
• Sermon
• Hymn — Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee (#645)
• Benediction

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Sermon Title: Love for Enemies as the Mark of Heavenly Life

Scripture: Matthew 5:43-48

I. Love for Enemies Confirms Heavenly Generation

A. The nature of love Jesus describes

1. Love entails truth, obedience, and sacrifice — not merely warm feelings
2. Love is most fully seen when directed toward enemies and the unlovely

B. Heavenly birth evidenced by love of enemies

1. John 3:3 — to be born again is to be born from above; heavenly generation produces heavenly love
2. The command's logic: love your enemies so that you will be called sons of God — a cause-and-effect revealing regeneration
3. Loving only those who love you is the mark of worldly, fleshly birth — what tax collectors and Gentiles do (Matthew 5:46-47)

C. Love of enemies expressed in two arenas

1. Public action — committed, active love (Agape) that moves toward the unlovely even when inconvenient
2. Private prayer — bringing enemies before the throne of grace; interceding for those who hate and wrong us (Matthew 5:44)

II. Love for Enemies Sees Common Grace

A. The doctrine of common grace (Matthew 5:45)

1. Special grace — God's saving grace applied to the elect
2. Common grace — God's goodness bestowed on all image-bearers alike: sun and rain fall on the evil and the good

B. Common grace and points of contact with unbelievers

1. God grants unbelievers insight in science, philosophy, and moral intuition as image-bearers
2. Paul quotes the pagan philosopher Epimenides in Acts 17 — "In him we live and move and have our being" — modeling engagement through common grace
3. Early apologists (Justin Martyr) used Plato and Aristotle as launching pads for Christian apologetics
4. Francis Schaeffer: even with a non-Christian, we have a point of contact — every person is made in the image of God, verbalizes, loves, and has moral motions

C. Total depravity rightly understood enables love

1. Fallen man is not as evil as he could possibly be — he still bears sparks of the image of God
2. Satan redirects those sparks downward toward creation rather than the Creator; sin means "missing the mark"
3. Points of contact allow us to say, as Paul did: "You worship an unknown God — let me tell you who he is" (Acts 17:23)

D. Warning against Pharisaism

1. The Pharisees' absence of common grace led to the maxim "hate your enemy"
2. Becoming heresy watchdogs — always looking to pounce — drives people away
3. Love moves disagreements from angry debate into the arena of conversation, reason, and care for the soul

III. Love for Enemies Completes the Saints

A. The call to perfection (Matthew 5:48)

1. "Perfect" (Gk. teleios) means mature and complete — not sinless perfection in this life
2. The fulfillment of the moral law (the Decalogue) is love — love God and love neighbor; love of enemies is the apex of that fulfillment

B. All love flows from God's own love for enemies

1. Romans 5:10 — while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son
2. Both common grace and special grace flow from God's posture of love toward those who are enemies
3. Christ's love is not diminished by the filthiness of its object — his purity makes the filthy clean and lovely

C. The future tense of the command contains a promise

1. "You will be perfect" — a promise embedded in the imperative for all who are regenerate
2. Parallels the Beatitudes: those who hunger for righteousness will be satisfied (Matthew 5:6)
3. God is at work by his Spirit now, conforming believers to the image of his Son — love of enemies is the instrument and evidence of that sanctifying work