Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5:48 NIVUK
We have just covered some huge topics in both ancient and modern ethics: so huge that I am sure they stirred up a big debate.
Now we come to three that are less controversial, but absolutely no less important.
The first of these is oaths. By this I don’t mean cursing. For any Christian, the use of foul and abusive language is out – full stop (Colossians 3:8). It is completely incompatible with a lifestyle driven by the principle of loving God and your neighbour. It is not of God. It has to go.
No, this is where we take an oath – swearing by something – to buttress our words and make someone trust us.
It had reached completely ridiculous levels in Jesus’ day. People swore by anything and everything, and played liberally with semantics to get out of it. Just look at the verses below:
‘Woe to you, blind guides! You say, “If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gold of the temple is bound by that oath.” You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred? You also say, “If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gift on the altar is bound by that oath.” You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? Therefore, anyone who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. And anyone who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it. And anyone who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the one who sits on it.
Matthew 23:16-22 NIVUK
The reason for it was simple. The Pharisees knew they could not falsely swear in God’s Name – that was forbidden by law (Exodus 20:7). However, they took this as a licence to swear falsely by just about anything else – leaving them perfectly free to trick and swindle and deceive their neighbours without consequence.
Which, of course, is utter nonsense.
Jesus had a much better way:
Just don’t swear at all.
Let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’ and your ‘No’ be ‘No’ and that’s it.
Be known as a person of integrity who follows up on their word.
That is so much simpler and easier.
And this is not at all an ancient principle. This is something that is bang up to date.
How often have we become profoundly irritated when a politician has said one thing and done another? Or when a friend or colleague has promised something we count on, but didn’t come through? Or when our child or parent promised us something and didn’t deliver?
Jesus teaches us not to do that.
As a side note, I don’t believe this disqualifies us from swearing on the Bible in court or making vows when we get married. Instead, it propels us to live such good, honest lives that people believe us when we say things, and our words have credibility.
We then move on from oaths to the principle of reciprocity, based on the oft-misunderstood law below:
Anyone who injures their neighbour is to be injured in the same manner: fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. The one who has inflicted the injury must suffer the same injury.
Leviticus 24:19-20 NIVUK
This has often been interpreted as a charter for revenge. But that is complete nonsense. Those who believe that forget that the verse was codified in Jewish law. Its purpose was not to give free reign to thugs, but to limit the punishment on offenders who had committed physical harm by ensuring it was just and proportionate.
I know our queasy, left-leaning, woke public might not like to hear it, but in ancient times, that would have been truly progressive.
Jesus, however, goes much further – uncomfortably further.
To understand why this is uncomfortable, we need to take into consideration Israel’s situation at the time. They were dominated and subjugated by the pagan Roman army. This occupation was humiliating – the Romans even levied a tax so that the Jews were effectively being charged for the ‘privilege’ of being occupied.
There had been attempts at violent uprising to get rid of the Romans (see Luke 23:19 and John 18:40 – the Jews asked Pilate to release a rebel who had taken part in an uprising in place of Jesus). All had failed.
So what Jesus is teaching here is completely revolutionary.
And its no less revolutionary now, in our day of spectacular fallouts on social media.
He gives us three areas where this teaching applies:
When insulted, do not retaliate. Slapping someone on the right cheek was highly insulting and punishable with a steep fine. Jesus says that we should not rise to it and let the insult pass, even if it is hurtful.
When sued, exceed the legal requirements. Jews could not be legally required to hand over their outer garments (see Exodus 22:26; Deuteronomy 24:13). But Jesus says here that we should seek to exceed the legal requirement in order to resolve the broken relationship. In other words, we should do more than just comply grudgingly with the judgement. This may sound harsh, but we have to understand that God set the authorities in place (Romans 12:1-2); we have no right to resist them unless they are preventing us from worshipping God.
When asked to carry your oppressor’s pack for one mile, offer to carry it for two. This is quite something. It was actually written in the Roman law of occupation that a soldier had the right to compel a native go carry their pack for one mile. Jesus intervenes and says they should exceed this demand. Why? The soldier was only a hired man doing his job – and quite possibly even a slave. Although he was a pagan foreigner, he was not in the country by choice. Jesus here has a higher purpose in mind than just national or political emancipation; He is seeking to win that soldier over to salvation
We have to be careful how we interpret these verses. Jesus is not at all suggesting that injustice is ignored. Any passive reading of the Gospels would show you that He spoke out frequently on issues of social justice.
What He is providing is a way to reach our in love and maintain good relationships with those around you, whoever they may be.
Which, let’s face it, is way better than the increasingly bitter cycle of revenge.
And that leads us to His final part of teaching that we will look at in this post: love your enemies.
The one teaching of Jesus that the Pharisees, Sadducees and teachers of the law could never refute was Jesus’ teaching on the most important law:
‘The most important one,’ answered Jesus, ‘is this: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” The second is this: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no commandment greater than these.’
Mark 12:29-31 NIVUK
When one of them asked Jesus who his neighbour was, he got a lot more than he bargained for (Luke 10:25-37). So much that he couldn’t even admit that the good neighbour in Jesus’ parable was a Samaritan!
Jesus was pointing out the huge flaw in contemporary Jewish thinking. It was their own teachers who had taken the Royal Law and inserted an exception – an exception that was absolutely not God’s intention at all. Jesus pointed out that loving your friends and hating your enemies is something even their most despised members of society were capable of doing, so how would limiting themselves to just that make them any better?
He was stretching their thinking, their philosophy and theology. He was challenging them to live the law as it was meant to live.
And that same command comes to us.
The love that Jesus is commanding us to have for our enemies is not a natural ‘like’. No, this is agape, separate from nice feelings and emotions, and instead rooted in the determined, self-sacrificial service of someone who is utterly unworthy and undeserving.
And if we ever waver in this, we should remind ourselves of this:
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8 NIVUK
We are utterly undeserving recipients of that love. We should therefore be willing to share it with others.
Jesus is again expanding on crucial themes in Jewish law that had long been forgotten: integrity in vows, quelling revenge with service and extinguishing enmity with love.
The question is: are we listening?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, your call on my life is to live for you with no half measures. Help me to apply these challenging teachings to my life so that I can truly live for you, even when it’s hard. Amen.
Questions
1. Do you always keep your word? Why/why not?
2. How do you normally react when insulted? How can you change this?
3. How can you show agape love for your enemies? Is this possible? How would Jesus do it?
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