Matthew 5:43-48

Love is dangerous. Love can hurt. Love is risky, so it’s better to just not take any chances. To love someone means we let our guard down. To love someone means that the other person can take advantage of us. To love someone means we are vulnerable. Loving someone has the possibility of not being loved back. Loving, loving another person is dangerous. Loving can hurt.

And we don’t like to hurt. We don’t like pain. If at all possible, we do whatever it takes to avoid injury, to deaden the pain. We wear protective clothing when we’re doing a dangerous job. We use the Ove-Glove when we take the cookie sheet out of the oven. We put on the steel-toed boots on the job site. We wear the safety glasses when cutting metal.

And we save our love for only the closest, the safest, the most dependable, trustworthy people around us. We’ll love our families. Maybe. Maybe even some family members are too dangerous, too risky to love. We’ll love a friend, maybe two, a friend who has shown over time that they can be trusted, someone who has shown that they won’t turn on us.

But for the rest of the people around us, we wouldn’t really say that we love them. We may be friends with some of them, we’re acquaintances with others. We work with this person, we live in the same town as that person. But love them? No, that’s going too far. Love is dangerous. Love can hurt.

Jesus was well aware of the risks of love when He gave us the second great command. But He told us to do it anyway. And as dangerous as it is, as risky as it might be, as much is it might hurt, we will love our neighbors, we will love our neighbors as much as we love ourselves. We’ll do it, because Jesus told us to do it. That’s what it means to be a disciple.

We heard last week that to be a disciple of Jesus, to follow Him and act like Him, first, we must love our Lord. We must love Him with all of our hearts, all of our souls, all of our minds, all of our strength. We must love Him, and let our love be our motivation for obeying Him, for living lives of service for Him because we want to, because we love Him.

And in Matthew 22, after Jesus had given us the first and greatest command, He said, in Matthew 22:39:

And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

Love your neighbor, as you love yourself. Love your neighbor. Not be acquainted with your neighbor. Not just work with your co-worker. Not be friends with the person who lives next door. Love. Love.

But right away, our minds will shy away from this command, because we don’t want to get hurt. Loving is dangerous. We can’t take the risk. So when we hear that awful, scary word “love”, we quick do a little translation. Love. Sure, we can be friends with a friendly person. Sure, we can love that other person. That nice person. That person that shares our ideals, our view on the world. We can love that person that does things our way, that doesn’t disagree with us too often. And it helps if the person looks like us, too. I’m not saying they have to be beautiful or anything. But they’re not strange looking. They don’t dress funny. They look like a good neighbor, so then, yeah, sure, we can love our neighbor, as long as our neighbor meets those qualifications. And I can care for someone, if that care is appreciated. I don’t really even need to have the care returned, I just need to know that my care, that my love is received gratefully.

But that’s not the kind of love that Jesus is talking about. We’ve talked about this before, I know, but Jesus had three choices of words when He commanded us to love our neighbor. He could have said, “Filios your neighbor.” That’s the friendship kind of love, the mutual appreciation, the love that is received gratefully.

Jesus could have said, “Eros your neighbor.” That’s the kind of love that might come after a few dates with a pretty girl, a handsome guy. Most of the time, that kind of love doesn’t have to be commanded. That eros kind of love blooms without any encouragement.

But Jesus didn’t use those two words. Instead, Jesus said, “Agape your neighbor.” And if that word agape doesn’t strike a little bit of fear in our hearts, then we’re not understanding that Greek word, agape. Agape is advanced loving. Agape doesn’t care about looks. Agape doesn’t depend on gratitude. Agape is not just knowing someone. Agape is not just being acquainted. Agape is more than just being polite. Agape means loving.

And that means everyone. When Jesus told us to love our neighbor, He wasn’t being selective. He didn’t just mean the nice looking people who talk like us, who agree with our values. He meant everyone. Verse 43 of our text:

You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

Love…your enemies. Of course, that means love our acquaintances, the people we work with, the woman who lives next door, the man down the street. Love your neighbor includes everyone. Love everyone.

It’s the second great command. It’s like the first. If we love God because God first loved us, then we love others, because we love God. We love our neighbors, even our enemies, verse 45:

so that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.

Don’t be confused here. We don’t love other people in order to be saved. We don’t need to obey this command in order to belong to the family of God. We obey this command, we love other people, we love ALL other people, BECAUSE we belong to the family of God.

There’s a family resemblance between the Father in heaven and the children of the Father. There are distinct family characteristics in the children of God. We look like our Father. And in order to look like our Father, we need to love like our Father.

And our Father loves each person. Our Father loves all persons. Our Father doesn’t just love the good looking people. Our Father doesn’t just love the people who agree with Him. Our Father doesn’t just love the people who receive His love gratefully, who appreciate His love. You know how I know? Because our Father loves me. And our Father loves you. And neither you nor I really appreciate His love. Neither you nor I fully agree with Him, or see the world the same way He does. Neither you nor I completely share our Father’s values.

And yet, verse 45:

He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

Which one are we? Are we the evil or are we the good? Are we the righteous, or are we the unrighteous? For believers in Jesus, we are righteous, we just don’t always act like it. For those of us who have given our lives to the Lord, we’re good, we just do evil things.

And even when we do evil and act unrighteous, our Father still loves us. When we sinned, yesterday, and we know what we did, our Father didn’t suddenly snatch away the gifts He had given to us. He didn’t turn our air off for 5 minutes, to teach us a listen. He didn’t cut us off from the warmth of the sun, so that our blood froze in our veins. When we sinned, He still loved us.

And we, as children of the Father, we love our neighbors in the same way. We love our co-workers. We love our classmates. We love even other church members, especially other church members, the way the Father loves us. Verse 46:

If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?

No, the second command requires advanced love. A disciple of Jesus loves all people, with no expectation of being loved back. A disciple of Jesus loves people like our heavenly Father loves people, perfectly. Verse 48:

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

That’s a tall order, isn’t it? To love like our heavenly Father loves? To love perfectly? We almost want to give up. Especially when we think about the people out there that we’re required to love. Especially when we think about how different we are from them. We think about how they act, how they talk, the things they do. I don’t know what repulses you the most. I’ll let you answer that for yourself. Think about an action, a way of life, that you find absolutely disgusting. Think about the person who values that action. Think about how different you are from them.

And that’s the person we are supposed to love. Not tolerate, love. Not co-exist, love. Perfectly, like our Father in heaven. Now, we know that we are not loving perfectly, not yet. But the idea is that we get better at it. A disciple of Jesus will have love people more now than they did a year ago. A disciple of Jesus will have less resentment, will be better able to forgive now than we did a year ago. When Jesus died, He put to death our fear of getting hurt. When Jesus died, He put to death our resentment. And when Jesus rose, He brought to life our forgiveness. He brought to life our compassion. He brought to life a caring attitude. He brought to life our love. As Jesus gives us eternal life, He gives us an eternal amount of love, enough love for other people, enough love for all people.

Loving people means being genuinely concerned for them, and when we love people the way the Father loves people, then we’ll treat people the way the Father treats people. It’s God’s kindness that leads people to repentance, so we’ll treat people kindly, even those who are not yet repentant. God is persistent, He doesn’t give up quickly. So we won’t just throw in the towel when someone rejects our love. Our Father gives clear, visible, obvious proof of His love. He doesn’t just tell us He loves us, He SHOWS us that He loves us. And as children of the Father, then, so do we. We show our love, by helping, by serving. We give evidence of our love, evidence that clearly tells people that they are loved. Evidence that tells the people around us that we love them, not for what we can get back from them, not because they have earned our love, and could lose our love. We love them, because we love them. We love them, because the Father loves them. We love, like the Father loves.

And the Father’s love, our love, keeps us from acting in a certain way. The Father’s love for people, which is our love for people, keeps us from jumping to conclusions about people. Our love keeps us from making judgments if we don’t have all the facts. Our love keeps us from sharing information about a person. Our love keeps us from scowls and glances. Our love keeps us from avoiding people. Our love for people, our love for our neighbor keeps us from acting the way we would normally act, if we weren’t children of Father.

And the Father’s love, our love, drives us to act in a certain way. Our love wants to protect a person from shame, rather than spread the shame around. Our love wants to think the best of a person, not the worst. Our love drives us to help a person. And yet, sometimes, because we love, we have to let the other person make mistakes. Sometimes, because we love, we have to let the person go it on their own for a while. But even then, we stay in contact, we keep showing our love, through our actions, through our words. Sometimes, our love requires us to warns another person, to point out the dangers of their actions. But our love keeps our words gentle and patient. Our love for the person keeps us next to them, walking with them, even as they wander off.

And our love for a person, our love for our neighbor, drives us, almost forces us to talk about our Father, to tell our neighbor about Jesus. If we are obeying the second great command, if we are really loving like our Father in heaven loves, then telling people about what Jesus did on the cross won’t be so scary. In fact, we’ll be scared to NOT tell them, because we love them so much.

Because our Father loves them so much. Loving our neighbor is hard. I think especially now, when life is tough for so many of us, when there’s so much to fear for ourselves. When we wonder about jobs and income, how can we spend time thinking about others?

Our love for our neighbors comes from God’s love for us. The more time we spend with the Father, the more we’ll look like our Father. The better we know His love for us, the better we’ll show love for others. God has so much love for us that we will be able to love our neighbors, no matter what our circumstances. If we have a hard time loving other people, especially the difficult ones, we probably have a hard time knowing God’s love for us. The two go hand in hand. It’s time to let our protection down. It’s time to take the risk. It’s time to love.

Our Father loves us, and we love our Father. Our Father loves our neighbors, and we love our neighbors. We are disciples of Jesus. We love our neighbors, as we love ourselves. Just like our Father.