Saturday, February 17, 2018
Haters
Matthew 5:44
I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.
Jesus regularly goes up against the accepted norms and traditions in the things He said and did. Here in Matthew 5:43-48 He tackles the issue of relationships again in the midst of His sermon on the Mount. Jesus makes some declarations that go against conventional wisdom, this one is, “love your enemies.”
In my mind, the use of the term ‘hater’ has increased considerably in recent times, however, research has shown that the use of the term started back in the 1800 and it was more popular then than it is today. Maybe it is the memes about haters that spread so rapidly these days on social media that make it appear that it’s a very new term and that it is more popular in everyday usage today than before.
We are encouraged to ignore our haters, dis our haters, and then stuff like this one – My Haters are my motivators. Or like – Use your haters as stepping stones to get to the top. If you are reading this blog today, then you are online and therefore you most likely have seen one of these memes so you know what I am talking about.
None of the things that we are encouraged to do with or about our haters involves love, except sometimes in a sarcastic way. Even in church, we are advised in sermons to ignore our haters or to see them as the devil just trying to derail us and the like. Jesus, however, comes at this in a very different way. His meme would have said something like – Keep calm and love your haters.
Jesus again sets a new standard for us in our relationships with others. Contrary to the popular wisdom Jesus calls for a radical approach that involves love. Our haters are to be loved, and not in the sarcastic way of today’s online memes, they are to be loved with a genuine love.
For Jesus, the test of our capacity to truly love is when we love our haters. To love those who love us, and those who support us, and those who are just like us take nothing out of us. Even very bad people have the capacity to love those who love them and those who are like them. The most hardened criminal can love his daughter and she can love him back. There is no real distinction there.
Jesus said it this way, “if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so?” Matthew 5:46,47
The goal of the Christian is to be like Jesus, like our Father in heaven. That was the goal that Jesus set in this part of the teaching on the mountainside. As we know, God is perfect, Jesus said that we are called to this same perfection. “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Matthew 5:48.
The measure of our perfection is not in some difficult to describe mystical experience or practice. It is not in some deep unseen place in our spirits. It is not in how we dress and look. It is in the very practical act of loving those who hate on us.
So many of our conversations are made up of us describing why we won’t be speaking to, or visiting, or otherwise associating with this or that person. The person may have hurt us badly. The wounds may be very deep. Their betrayal may have wrecked our lives, their abandonment left us feeling isolated and unwanted, and their talk about us may have left us in shame and disgrace; but Jesus calls us to love them as the Godly standard.
Again, the struggle is real. All this week persons have replied privately with comments, and questions, about their experiences with haters that are very close to home. Fathers, siblings, and spouses among others. Many of the questions seem to be seeking a way out of forgiveness, and out of reconciliation. Many, on account of the pain evidently, seem to be operating at a very natural human level in their reluctance or struggle to forgive and maybe reconcile.
Jesus said, look at God’s standard for expressing love and His daily demonstration of this. Look at Him and then do like Him with your haters “that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” Matthew 5:45
Think on these things:
- Do you have any haters in your life?
- If you do, what has been your attitude to them and what has influenced that attitude?
- Is there anything in your thinking and attitude that should change on account of the teaching of Jesus on this matter?
- Is there any action that you could take to express love for them?
Prayer focus:
Let us pray today that we would have the courage and strength to reach out to our haters and to learn to love them with the love of Jesus.
In His Grace
Pastor Alex
