Turn Your Enemies into FriendsMatthew 5:38-48

Dr. Joseph Chang1/18/2015

BOLGPC

Matthew 5:38-48• 38"You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye,

and tooth for tooth.' 39But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.

Matthew 5:38-48• 42Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn

away from the one who wants to borrow from you. 43"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

Matthew 5:38-48• 46If you love those who love you, what reward

will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

I. What the teaching is not• A. It is not teaching “no justice”

I. What the teaching is not• B. It is not teaching forced forgiveness

• 34Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. 【 Prov 14:34, ESV 】34 公義使邦國高舉；罪惡是人民的羞辱。【箴 14:34 】

I. What the teaching is not• C. Jesus is teaching individual and voluntary

forgiveness

• the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished (Exod 34:7; Num 14:18; Nah 1:3).

II. Common Grace, Common Love• 45that you may be sons of your Father in

heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 【 Matt 5:45 】

• 17Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. 18He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created. 【 Jam 1:17~18 】

III. Special Grace, Special Love• 1. Underserved• 2. Individualized

• 39 只是我告訴你們，不要與惡人作對。有人打你的右臉，連左臉也轉過來由他打；【太 5:39 】39But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 【 Matt 5:39 】

• 40"And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well." 【 Matt 5:40 】

• 26If you take your neighbor's cloak as a pledge, return it to him by sunset, 27because his cloak is the only covering he has for his body. What else will he sleep in? When he cries out to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate. 【 Exod 22:26~27 】

• 41 有人強逼你走一里路，你就同他走二里；【太 5:41 】41If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 【 Matt 5:41 】

Conclusion 結論

Mehmet Ali Agca, 12/27, 2014

• "The act of forgiveness is the first and fundamental condition so that we aren't divided and placed one against another like enemies," he wrote in what Oder called "an open letter" on the Agca case. "It's important that not even an episode like that of May 13 succeeds in opening an abyss between two men, creating a silence that would result in breaking all forms of communication.”

• "the possibility of pronouncing it before — in the ambulance that brought me from the Vatican to the Gemelli hospital where the first and decisive surgery was performed — I consider the fruit of a particular grace given to me by Jesus."