"But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust" (Matthew 5:44-45 KJV).
"But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil (Luke 6:35 KJV).
(I)
Rev. Angus Stewart
Of the few texts
which are cited in support of common grace with any plausibility, Matthew
5:44-45 perhaps occurs the most frequently, though usually without any
supporting exegesis. All agree that God does give good things to the reprobate
in this life. But do these verses really teach that the earthly good things
given by God to the reprobate are given by God out of love for the
reprobate?
The common grace
interpretation of Matthew 5:44-45, of course, creates several serious problems,
problems which are largely ignored by the theory’s advocates. How can the one
and undivided God love and hate the same people at the same time? How can the
eternal, unchanging God have a temporal, changeable love for the reprobate?
Remember this alleged "love" of God for the reprobate begins with
their conception (unless it is posited that God eternally loved the reprobate)
and ends with their death (unless it is posited that God loves the reprobate
while He punishes them everlastingly). Various evasions, such as
"paradox," have been made but no proper response has been given. In
the meantime, the churches and individuals who hold this theory that God loves
everybody (and those who follow them) go further away from the truth of
Calvinism (which they profess to hold) and deeper and deeper into Arminianism,
protesting all the while that they are Reformed.
But aside from these
wider issues, we must examine the text itself. Its subject is the Christian’s
treatment of his "enemies," who are also called "them that curse
you," "them that hate you" and "them which despitefully use
you, and persecute you" (v. 44). Christ tells us here that we must do four
things with respect to our enemies: we must "love,"
"bless," "do good" and "pray for" them (v. 44).
Our motivation for loving, blessing, doing good and praying for our enemies is
"that [we] may be the children of [our] Father which is in heaven"
(v. 45). For there is a likeness between our righteous actions and those of our
Father who "maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and
sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." To put it differently, the
text makes a comparison between what believers are called to do (v. 44) and
what God does (v. 45), for in our doing these things (v. 44), we show ourselves
to be His children (v. 45). Thus we need to consider the similarities and
dissimilarities between what we must do towards our enemies and what our Father
does towards the "evil" and "unjust." What exactly is being
compared?
Does Christ do any
of the four things (i.e. "love," "bless," "do
good" and "pray") for His enemies that we are to do to our
enemies? Christ most certainly does "love," "bless,"
"do good" and "pray for" His elect enemies.
His doing these very things for us is our salvation through the blood of His
cross. But does Christ do any, all or some of these things for His reprobate
enemies? And does God do any, all or some of these things for His reprobate
enemies?
First, Christ certainly
does not pray for them, for He says in His "high priestly
prayer:" "I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast
given me; for they are thine" (John 17:9). Second, Christ blesses the
children of Israel (Gen. 48:16) and His disciples (Luke 24:50-51), but there is
no word in Scripture of Christ blessing the reprobate. Third, all agree that
Christ did good to the ungodly. He healed ten lepers though nine did not return
to thank Him (Luke 17:11-19), and He fed 5,000 though many of them did not
believe on Him (John 6). So with respect to the reprobate, Christ did not do
two of the four things that we are commanded to do for our neighbours: He did
not pray for nor bless the reprobate. He did do one of the four things we are
commanded to do: He "did good" to the reprobate. What about the
fourth one? Did He love the reprobate? We say that He did not; those who
believe in common grace say that He did. This verse of itself does not
determine the issue either way. Other texts will have to decide this question.
What then about God?
Does He "love," "bless," "do good to" and
"pray for" His reprobate enemies? First, God does not pray for
the reprobate, for God does not pray!
Second, God blesses
His elect (Eph. 1:3), the righteous (Ps. 5:12), His inheritance (Ps. 28:9) and
those who fear Him (Ps. 115:13). Each of the beatitudes begins "Blessed
are ..." (Matt. 5:3-11), and many Psalms contain the line: "Blessed
is the man ..." (e.g., Ps. 1:1) or "Blessed are they ..." (e.g.,
Ps. 84:4). In each case it is God’s people (the meek, the godly, etc.) who are
blessed. God blesses His elect people "with all spiritual blessings in
heavenly places in Christ" (Eph. 1:3-4), who is the One supremely blessed
of the Father (Ps. 45:2). Our being blessed in Christ is the realization of the
Abrahamic covenant in Christ with His elect (Gen. 12:2-3; Gal. 3:8-9, 14, 16,
29). This is God’s irreversible blessing of salvation (Num. 23:20) which turns
us away from our iniquities (Acts 3:26). What then about the reprobate? As
those who curse Christ and His people, God curses them (Gen. 12:3; Num. 24:9).
Proverbs 3:33 declares, "The curse of the Lord is in the house of the
wicked: but he blesseth the habitation of the just."
Third, all agree
that God does good to the reprobate wicked in this life. Acts 14:17 states that
God "did good" to the pagan nations by giving them "rain from
heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness."
We conclude that with respect to the reprobate, God does not do two of the four
things that we are commanded to do for our neighbours: God does not pray for
nor bless the reprobate. God does one of the four things we are commanded to
do: He "does good" to the reprobate. What about the fourth one? Does
God love the reprobate? We say that he does not; those who believe in common
grace say that He does. This verse of itself does not determine the issue
either way. Other texts will have to decide this question.
How are we to decide
which view is correct? First, one could argue from the analogy between what we are
called to do (v. 44) and what God does (v. 45). But since we
are called to do two things (i.e., pray for and bless our enemies) which God
does not do for His reprobate enemies, it cannot be proved that God loves His
reprobate enemies. Second, we could look more closely at what God is said to do
in verse 45: "he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and
sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." The "evil" and the
"unjust" surely include those who are reprobate. Causing the sun to
rise and the rain to fall (in moderate amounts) on the reprobate is doing good
to them (cf. Acts 14:17), but it does not prove that God "loves"
them. God gives earthly "prosperity" to "the wicked" (Ps.
73:3)—something which requires sunshine and rain—but this is "surely"
His setting them in "slippery places" before He casts "them down
into destruction" (v. 18). Though God gives them good things in His
providence, He "despises" them (v. 20) as "corrupt" sinners
(v. 8). Third, since the passage itself does not prove whether or not God loves
His reprobate enemies, this will have to be settled on the basis of other
biblical texts and doctrines.
Here are eighteen
Scripture texts on God's hatred of the reprobate:
And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out
before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them
(Lev. 20:23).
And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast
your carcases upon the carcases of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you
(Lev. 26:30).
For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord: and
because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before
thee (Deut. 18:12).
For all that do such things, and all that do unrighteously, are an abomination
unto the Lord thy God (Deut. 25:16).
And when the Lord saw it, he abhorred them, because of the provoking of
his sons, and of his daughters (Deut. 32:19).
The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of
iniquity. Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing: the Lord will abhor the
bloody and deceitful man (Ps. 5:5-6).
For the wicked boasteth of his heart’s desire, and blesseth the
covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth (Ps. 10:3).
The Lord trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth
violence his soul hateth (Ps. 11:5).
These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto
him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, An heart
that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A
false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren
(Prov. 6:16-19).
The Lord hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the
day of evil. Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord:
though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished (Prov. 16:4-5).
He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even
they both are abomination to the Lord (Prov. 17:15).
The mouth of strange women is a deep pit: he that is abhorred of the
Lord shall fall therein (Prov. 22:14).
Behold, ye [i.e., idols] are of nothing, and your work of nought: an
abomination is he that chooseth you (Isa. 41:24).
Mine heritage is unto me as a lion in the forest; it crieth out against
me: therefore have I hated it (Jer. 12:8).
All their wickedness is in Gilgal: for there I hated them: for the
wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of mine house (Hos. 9:15).
Three shepherds also I cut off in one month; and my soul lothed them,
and their soul also abhorred me (Zech. 11:8).
I have loved you, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved
us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the Lord: yet I loved Jacob, And I
hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of
the wilderness. Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and
build the desolate places; thus saith the Lord of hosts, They shall build, but
I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of wickedness, and, The
people against whom the Lord hath indignation for ever. And your eyes shall
see, and ye shall say, The Lord will be magnified from the border of Israel
(Mal. 1:2-5).
As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated (Rom. 9:13).
But what of our
calling? We are to love, bless, do good to and pray for our enemies who curse,
hate, despitefully use and persecute us (Matt. 5:44). Loving our enemies is not
fellowshipping with them in their sin (II Cor. 6:14-18) but desiring and
"seeking their good" physically and spiritually. Out of love, we
"do good" to our enemies by helping them in whatever way we can,
including greeting them and being friendly towards them (Matt. 5:47). Out of
love, we "pray" for them, that is, we ask God to save them from their
sins and grant them eternal life through Jesus Christ, if it be His will. Our
calling to "bless" our enemies does not mean that we actually confer
blessedness upon them; only the Triune God can do that. Nor are we to declare
that they are blessed by God, for they are living under His curse (Deut. 27:26;
Gal. 3:10). Blessedness is only found in Jesus Christ (Gal. 3:14). Thus we
bless our enemies by pointing them to Christ, and calling them to repent and
believe. As frail creatures made from the dust, as guilty sinners redeemed by
grace and as rational-moral beings before God’s holy law, this is our sacred
duty towards our ungodly fellow creatures and neighbours. In loving, blessing,
doing good to and praying for our enemies (Matt. 5:44), we show ourselves to be
the children of our heavenly Father who does good to both just and unjust by
giving them the good gifts of rain and sunshine (v. 45).
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(II)
Rev. Martyn McGeown
[An extract from the British Reformed Journal,
Issue No. 63, Autumn/Winter 2016]
[Matthew 5:44-45 and
Luke 6:35 are] the favourite texts of all those who advocate common grace. [To]
quote these texts without exegesis proves nothing. [One]
cannot merely quote them and then write, “That is common grace.” [Defenders of
common grace] must demonstrate that exegetically!
Because these texts
in Matthew and Luke are so crucial to the “common grace” cause, we offer a
thorough exegesis.
Matthew 5 is part of
the Sermon on the Mount in which Jesus Christ teaches principles that govern
our lives as the citizens of the kingdom of heaven. The question in verses
44-45 is how we treat our enemies, who are those who “curse” us (which means to
speak evil of and upon us), who “hate” us (which means to wish evil upon us,
and to be motivated by malice and spite again us), and who “despitefully use” and
“persecute” us (which means to insult, revile and vilify us; and to chase after
us with a view to destroying us). The Pharisees responded, “Thou shalt love thy
neighbour, and hate thine enemy” (v. 43). In fact, many Pharisees defined
“neighbour” so narrowly and “enemy” so broadly that they restricted their love
to fellow Jews or even to fellow Pharisees, while they justified hating
everyone else.
Jesus taught us to
“love” our enemies. That love must be manifested in “blessing” (which means to
speak well of someone and to speak good upon them), “doing good” (which takes
good speech one step further, so that we perform deeds of kindness for our
enemies) and “praying for” our enemies (which means that we seek for them the
blessing of God by beseeching our Father to have mercy on them in turning them
from their sins to Jesus Christ). This love for our enemies is not a calling to
have fellowship with them, which, as long as they remain unconverted, is
impossible. The Christian comes in love, blessing, doing good, praying and
calling the enemy to repentance; but the enemy responds with hatred, cursing,
despiteful use and persecution. Whatever the response of the enemy, the
Christian is called to love him still. William Tyndale, who was martyred in
1536, exemplified this Christian virtue of love, when, in a letter to his
persecutors, he wrote, “Take away my goods, take away my good name, yet as long
as Christ remaineth in me, so long I love thee not a whit the less.”
In verse 45, Jesus
draws a parallel between our calling and the activity of our God and Father,
and it is in this parallel especially that some find proof of “common grace.”
The activity of God in sending rain and sunshine on both the evil and the good
is proof, say many, that God favours, loves, has mercy upon and blesses the
evil and the good alike. In Luke 6:35, Jesus draws a similar parallel: “He
[i.e., God] is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.”
To understand the
parallel, we need to ask a few questions.
First, who are God’s
enemies? In Scripture, God has two kinds of enemies: His reprobate enemies, whom He destroys; and His elect enemies, whom He reconciles to Himself and saves. God’s
reprobate enemies are the devil, the reprobate demons and reprobate human
beings. These are preordained to damnation (Rom. 9:22; I Pet. 2:8; Rev. 17:8).
God has decreed not to save them. God’s attitude toward these
enemies is one of hatred (Rom. 9:13). He curses them and sends them to hell
(Luke 19:27). This hatred, this curse and this eternal punishment do not mean
that God is evil, spiteful, malicious or cruel, for God’s hatred of the wicked
is a righteous, holy hatred of their persons and their sins (Ps. 5:5; 11:5).
The Canons of Dordt explain the decree of reprobation in these
sobering words:
What peculiarly tends to illustrate and recommend to us the eternal and
unmerited grace of election is the express testimony of sacred Scripture that
not all, but only some, are elected, while others are passed by in the eternal
election of God; whom God, out of His sovereign, most just, irreprehensible,
and unchangeable good pleasure, hath decreed to leave in the common misery into
which they have willfully plunged themselves, and not to bestow upon them
saving faith and the grace of conversion; but leaving them in His just judgment
to follow their own ways, at last for the declaration of His justice, to
condemn and punish them forever, not only on account of their unbelief, but
also for all their other sins. And this is the decree of reprobation, which by
no means makes God the author of sin (the very thought of which is blasphemy),
but declares Him to be an awful, irreprehensible, and righteous judge and
avenger thereof (Canons I:15).
But God also has elect enemies. They are “the unthankful”
and “the evil” of Luke 6:35. God’s elect enemies are sinners chosen in Jesus
Christ before the foundation of the world to be saved through the work of Jesus
Christ on the cross. God’s attitude toward these enemies is love: God blesses
them, God has mercy on them, God is kind to them, God delivers them from sin
and death, and God brings them to everlasting life. God changes these enemies
into friends. Believers were these enemies: by nature we were the enemies of
God for we once lived as the enemies of God (Eph. 2:3) as those who once hated
Him, cursed Him, despitefully used Him and persecuted Christ and His saints
(Acts 9:4-5). Paul writes, “For if, when we were enemies, we were
reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we
shall be saved by his life” (Rom. 5:10). “And you, that were sometime
alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he
reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and
unblameable and unreprovable in his sight” (Col. 1:21-22).
Second, what does
God do to His enemies according to Matthew 5 and Luke 6, and does He do these
things to His elect enemies, His reprobate enemies or both?
Matthew 5:45 teaches
that God sends sunshine and rain upon all men indiscriminately: “He maketh his
sun to shine upon the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on
the unjust.” The evil and the good or the just and the unjust include all kinds
of men: the converted and unconverted, the believer and the unbeliever, and the
elect and the reprobate. We see that all around us: God causes the sun to shine
and rain to fall upon the field of both godly and ungodly farmers. Often He
sends so much rain and sunshine on the ungodly that their fields produce a
bumper harvest, they have tables laden with good food, bank accounts stuffed
with money and good health to enjoy these things that come from God’s hand.
But does an
abundance of good things (“rain and sunshine”) mean that God is blessing the
ungodly in those things or that those things are evidence of God’s favour?
That is the issue with “common grace.” [Common] grace is supposed to be a
favourable attitude of God toward the reprobate wicked seen in the good things
that God gives to them. That would mean that God, when He gives rain and
sunshine and lots of other good things to the wicked, is saying to them, “In
these things, I love you; I have favour upon you; I show mercy to you; and I am
gracious to you. (But, at the same time, I have eternally determined not to
save you; Christ did not die for you; and I will cast you into hell).”
What, then, is God
saying to His own people when He sends them so much sunshine that their crops
wither and die so that they starve, or when He sends them so much rain that He
washes away their houses in a flood? “In these things, I hate you; in these
things, I do not have favour on you; in these things, I seek your destruction;
in these things, I express my displeasure against you.” God forbid!
That would mean that
God, in giving good things to the wicked, is blessing them, speaking His favour
upon them and seeking to do them good. But that would be a blessing of God,
which does not accomplish their good, but increases their guilt; a blessing of
God, which comes to an end when they die and go to hell; and a blessing of God,
which changes into a curse.
But God’s mercy,
grace, love and blessing are one. (There are not two kinds of graces, mercies or loves of
God; one for the elect, and the other for the reprobate.) All mercy, grace
and love of God are everlasting (Psalm 136). They are unchangeable (Malachi
3:6). They are attributes of God, they belong to His very Being, they are
rooted in God’s decree of election and they are displayed at the cross. Rain
and sunshine, in and of themselves, are not grace, mercy or
blessing. God is always gracious to and blesses His people in giving to, or
withholding from, them, rain and sunshine (Rom. 8:28; I Cor. 3:21). God is
never gracious, but always curses, the reprobate in giving to, or withholding
from, them, rain and sunshine (Psalm 73:18-20; Psalm 92:7; Prov. 3:33). Let it
be clearly understood: God gives good things to elect and reprobate alike, but
good things are not blessings for the reprobate.
Third, which pattern
are we called to follow? Do we treat our enemies the way God deals with His
elect or His reprobate enemies? If we want a pattern on how to treat our
enemies, we only need to consider how He treated us, who were His enemies, and
who are still sinful, even after He has reconciled us to Himself. This is
especially clear in Luke 6:35, in which Jesus says that God is kind to “the
unthankful” and “the evil.” In Luke 6, Jesus does not speak merely of sunshine
and rain, which of themselves are neither God’s blessing nor curse, but He
speaks of God’s kindness and mercy. The kindness in Luke 6:35 is, and can only be,
a saving kindness. There is no other kindness in God. God’s kindness is
infinitely more than God being “nice” to people. Kindness is God’s gentleness,
His careful handling of His delicate precious people. God is not kind to the
reprobate. He breaks them with a rod of iron and He dashes them in pieces as a
potter’s vessel (Ps. 2:9). God’s kindness is called goodness or graciousness in
other passages and is only ever directed toward the elect (Rom. 11:22; I Pet.
2:3). This kindness is shown to the unthankful and to the evil, to us; we who
believe in Jesus Christ are the unthankful and the evil.
We are to be
merciful because God has been merciful to us. This saving kindness
and mercy shown to us who were, and in many ways still are, unthankful and
evil, comes to us from the cross of Christ, a cross that is for the elect alone
and not for the reprobate. We see kindness and mercy at the cross where God
poured out His wrath upon Jesus Christ, crushing Him under His curse, so that
He could be gentle and compassionate to His elect children.
If God was so good
to you in sending Christ to die for your sins, not when you were good and
thankful, but when you were unthankful and evil, how much more ought you to
love those who are evil and unthankful to you? And if God can still bless you,
who are still unthankful and evil, how much more ought you not continue to
love, bless, do good to and pray for those who are still unthankful and evil to
you? And when we love our enemies, bless those who curse us, do good to those who
hate us, and pray for those who despitefully use us and persecute us we
are reflecting in a very small way the great love, mercy, grace,
kindness and blessing that God has for us.
But that has
nothing, I repeat, nothing, to do with “common grace”!
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(III)
Prof. Herman Hanko
[Source: Common Grace Considered—readable online—pp. 80–85]
An important question that arises from the text
is: Whom does Jesus mean by “the just and unjust” upon whom God sends rain?
Does Jesus mean: good men in this world and bad men in this world? That is, men
who deserve rain and sunshine and men who do not? The answer, very obviously, is:
The text cannot mean that, for there are no just people in the world, for
“there is none righteous, no, not one” (Rom 3:10).
Does it then mean to distinguish between those
who are righteous because the perfect satisfaction for sin earned on the cross
has been imputed to them, and those who are still in their sins and not
righteous in Christ? That is, is the distinction between just and unjust a
distinction between elect and reprobate? It would seem that the latter would
have to be the meaning. But then the text means only, as we have repeatedly
observed, that God manifests that He is a good God by giving good things to
men, something no one denies. The question still remains: What is God’s
attitude and purpose behind these good gifts? And then Psalm 73 and Proverbs
3:33 give us the answer.
But the whole idea that God loves the reprobate
is an imposition on the text of man’s own devising. A positive explanation of
the text would, I think, be helpful.
Before I take our journey through this text, it
is necessary to put the text into its context. In the broader context Scripture
gives us Jesus’ words in His Sermon on the Mount. This sermon is spoken to the
disciples and, more broadly, to all citizens of the kingdom of heaven. The
Sermon on the Mount has frequently and rightly been called, “The Constitution
of the Kingdom of Heaven.” After describing the characteristics of the citizens
of the kingdom in the Beatitudes, the Lord lays down fundamental principles
that govern the lives of these citizens while they are still in this world.
Note this: Jesus is laying down principles of conduct to be observed by those
who are citizens of the kingdom.
In the section of which verses 44, 45 are a
part, beginning with verse 21, Jesus is explaining how He did not come to
destroy the law, but to fulfill it. And in connection with His calling and work
to fulfill the law, He condemns the keeping of the law as it was explained by
the scribes and Pharisees. They saw the law only as an external code of conduct
and paid no attention to the spiritual demands of the law: Love God, and love
thy neighbor. Even to the command, Love thy neighbor, the Pharisees had added
the command, Hate thy enemy (verse 43). This interpretation was indeed what the
Pharisees taught, for in verses 46 and 47 the Lord adds, “For if ye love them
which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same? And if
ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? Do not even the
publicans the same?”
The evil interpretation of the law by the
Pharisees was basically a self-centered conceit: I will be nice only to those
who are nice to me . . . .
In other words, the command of God to love our
neighbors as ourselves had been corrupted and abused by the self-righteous
Pharisees and scribes. They had interpreted “neighbor” as referring to their
brethren, and, even more narrowly, to those who loved them. The Lord warns the
citizens of the kingdom not to do as the Pharisees, for that is not the law of
God.
But the Pharisees forgot that the command to
love our neighbor is rooted in and flows from the command to love God. We
cannot love our neighbor without loving God. And, indeed, our love for our
neighbor is a manifestation of our love for God. Furthermore, the love the
citizens of the kingdom who love God must show to others is a manifestation of
the fact that they are loved by God (I John 4:19). The Pharisees, when they
interpreted the command, “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” and interpreted it to
mean that we are to love those who love us, immediately had to face the
question: Does God love those who love Him? What a foolish question to ask. The
answer obviously is, He does not! Jesus’ answer demonstrates that God loves
those who hate Him, though they be elect.
The term “neighbor” in the law of God is
broader by far than our brethren and those who love us. That it has a broader
connotation is evident from the parable of “The Good Samaritan” (Luke
10:25-37). In this parable Jesus explains that we are neighbors to anyone whom
we meet or walk with on our life’s pathway, who is in need of our help. That
means that our neighbors are not only those who unexpectedly cross our pathway
and need our help, but also those with whom we walk on life’s pathway every moment
of our lives, but who need our help: our wives or husbands, our children, our
fellow saints . . . . Quite frankly, I have a great deal of difficulty
accepting the hypocritically pious prating of the ministers who are
continuously telling us to love our neighbor, but who divorce their own wives
and marry others. Let them first love their neighbor nearest to them, their
wives and their children.
For all that, we are also called to love the
neighbor who is quite obviously an unbeliever. That is, we are called to love
our neighbor without discriminating between those who love us and those who
persecute us. We are not to love those only who love us. God does not love
those who love Him. God does not love those who make themselves worthy of His
love. He loves us, the worst of sinners. If we are children of our Father,
therefore, we love those who do not love us. But those whom God loves are those
wicked and undeserving people who are nevertheless those for whom Christ died.
The point of comparison between God’s love and
our love is: God loves unworthy sinners (though they are the elect whom God
knows) and we are to love unworthy sinners (though we do not know elect from
reprobate.) In doing so we imitate our Father in heaven.
We may very well ask the question: Why does God
want us to love our neighbor and not only our brethren? The very obvious answer
to that question is: We do not know who are our brethren (or will become our
brethren), and who are not. That is why the Pharisees interpreted the command
to love our neighbor as referring to those who love them. If, said the
Pharisees, a person loves us, he must be one of our brethren and we ought to
love him.
This was very perverse and wicked. We do not
even know with absolute certainty who among our brethren are truly people of
God; much less do we know of those outside the circle of our brethren who are
true people of God. Luther was right when he said that there would be many in
heaven who surprised him by their presence, and there would be many he thought to
meet in heaven who were not there. Hypocrites are to be found in the church and
God’s people are to be found outside the circle of “brethren”, though they may
as yet be unconverted. God knows who are His own; we do not know with absolute
certainty. Nor need we know. It is enough for us to live in fellowship with
those who manifest themselves as faithful servants of Christ, with whom we live
in our homes and in the communion of the saints. Going back all the way to
Calvin and our Reformed fathers after him and following them, we must exercise towards
those who profess to be believers “the judgment of charity,” or “the judgment
of love.”
But God is pleased to save His church from the
world of unbelief. He is pleased to save His church by the preaching of the
gospel. The effect of the preaching of the gospel is that God’s people are His
witnesses in the world of sin; and the witness of God’s people is itself the
power of the preaching within them. God uses the witness of Christians to bring
His people outside the church into the fellowship of the saints and under the
preaching. This is God’s reason for the command to love our neighbor.
As Jesus makes clear, our neighbor is anyone
who comes in our pathway: our wives or husbands, our children, our fellow saints,
the man next to us in the shop, the man who knocks on our door to ask for food,
the man who threatens us with harm, the man who persecutes us – these and all
the rest who, if only fleetingly, enter our lives. God brings them there. God
has His purpose in bringing them there. That purpose is to hear our witness of
what God has done for us. We do good to those on our pathway whom God has put
there.
We who are husbands surely seek the salvation
of our wives. We do all we can to help them fulfill their own calling in the
home and in the church. We surely seek the salvation of our children, for we
teach them the ways of God’s covenant and insist that they walk in those ways.
We surely seek the salvation of our fellow saints, for we earnestly desire to go
to heaven with them.
The command to love our neighbor is broader
than showing love to our acquaintances. We are to love those whose pathway
crosses our pathway and who, like the wounded Samaritan, block our path so that
we have to go around them if we are to ignore them. God put him on our pathway
and did so for a good purpose.
Our neighbor is emphatically someone on our
pathway. To love my neighbor who lives in Zaire is very easy. Even if
occasionally I have to write out a check because famine is stalking Africa; to
love these neighbors is the easiest thing in the world. But to love the unkempt
and stinking man who knocks on my door for some food when I am in a rush to
meet an appointment with a parishioner who has just lost a loved one – that is
something more difficult.
We must love the neighbor. Love is not
sentimental and syrupy do-goodism. Paul defines love as being the bond of
perfection (Col. 3:14). Paul means that love binds two people together in a
friendship that is characterized by holiness. So it is within the church. When
that love is to be extended to our neighbor, it means that we earnestly desire
the salvation of our neighbor, that he may, through faith in Christ, be perfect
also; and that, saved by God’s grace, he may be one with whom we live in the
communion of the saints. Love always seeks the salvation even of those that
hate and curse us, despitefully use us and persecute us, for they may very well
be brought to faith in Christ by our love for them.
Love is not, therefore, having fellowship with
them in their sins, going to parties and sporting events with them, visiting
them in their homes for amiable chats in front of the fireplace, or having a
beer with them at the local pub. To seek their salvation is to reprove their
sins, call them to repentance and faith in Christ, and point them to the way of
salvation. When God shows mercy to us, He shows mercy to the unthankful and
evil. We, moved deeply by such a mercy, do likewise.
To love them is therefore to do good to them
and to pray for them, for this is what the Lord enjoins. Our concern for their
salvation must be earnest, heart-felt and rooted in a genuine desire to see
them one with us. But it is always a reflection in our lives of God’s love for
us, undeserving sinners. God does not love those who do good to Him, who
deserve His love. He loves the unthankful and evil But He loves them in Christ,
seeks their salvation by sending His own Son into the world to suffer and die,
and does all that is necessary to bring them to heaven.
As I said, witnessing has the same power as
preaching. Preaching brings to faith in Christ; so does witnessing. Preaching
is directed to far more people than the elect; so is witnessing. Preaching condemns
sin and calls to faith in Christ; so does witnessing. Preaching is a twoedged
sword that hardens as well as saves; so is witnessing. Witnessing is a sort of
echo or reverberation of the preaching – preaching that we have heard and by
which we have a faith that echoes in our witnessing. The two belong together.
God uses promiscuous preaching to save His elect; so also He uses witnessing to
bring His elect to the preaching of the gospel, to the fellowship of the church
and to faith in Christ. We must not be as the Pharisees; we must be children of
our Father in heaven.
Considering these things, we can understand the
words: “That ye may be children of your Father which is in heaven, for he
maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the
just and on the unjust.” The point Jesus is making is that we must do to others
what God has done to us. This is always a theme in Scripture, as Jesus makes
clear in the parable of the two debtors (Matt. 18:21-35). God loves us and has
shown His love for us by giving us Christ and salvation in Him. We are
undeserving sinners who have no claim at all on God’s mercy. We receive what we
do not deserve. If we fail to show this great blessing to our neighbor, we are
thankless and unappreciative, not worthy of the blessings we are given. If we
are aware of the amazing wonder of our salvation and if we have the love of God
shed abroad in our hearts, then we will also be inwardly compelled by the power
of that love to love our neighbor as ourselves. That is Jesus’ point in this
passage.
If you say that Jesus points us to the fact
that God sends His rain and sunshine on men indiscriminately, you are, of
course, correct. The point of the terms “just and unjust” is precisely to
demonstrate that God’s love does not depend on the worthiness of the object.
But, further, God always gives only good gifts […] for He is good in Himself.
The good gifts He gives show beyond question the wickedness of the world, for
they despise God’s good gifts and use them in the service of Satan. In this way
God Himself demonstrates that His judgment on the wicked is a judgment they
deserve. In His good gifts to the reprobate, God sets them on slippery places where
they slide rapidly into everlasting destruction (Psalm 73:18, 19). Behind this
just judgment stands the eternal and unchangeable decree of sovereign
predestination.
But God’s goodness is a manifestation of His
grace to those whom He has chosen in Christ and for whom Christ died. We are
unthankful and evil and deserve nothing. But God knows us as His own and knows
all who are His own. He saves us sovereignly. We do not know who are elect and
who are not. We are called to be witnesses of what God has done for us in the
hope that God will do the same to those to whom we witness. And God will do
what He has eternally planned to do, but in such a way that our witnessing
always accomplishes His purpose whether that means to save or to harden. Or, to
put it a little differently, God who knows His own in this world, gives good
gifts to them for their salvation; but He also gives good gifts so that the
wicked may be without excuse and God’s purpose in reprobation accomplished. We
do not know who are elect and who are reprobate, but our manifestations of love
have the same affect: they save (by God’s grace) the elect and harden and
condemn the wicked.
You say, But God gives rain and sunshine to the
just and unjust. That is, of course, true. But it is a false assumption to
interpret giving rain to just and unjust as tokens of God’s love for the
wicked. He gives rain and sunshine to the unjust reprobate for their
condemnation, and to the just elect for their salvation. So we, the objects of
such undeserved favor, must love our enemies and do good to them that hate us.
That is, we must seek their salvation, not knowing whom God will be pleased to
save through our goodness. God will use that very love for our neighbor to
harden and condemn the wicked, but also to save those whom He has chosen to
everlasting life.
One correspondent asks whether it is an
accurate statement of God’s attitude towards the reprobate to say, “The good
gifts of providence that he gives to them (the wicked, HH) are meant as a
testimony to them that he is a good God, full of kindness and love, and
therefore one worthy to be worshipped and before whom they should repent were
they in their right mind, and that if they were to do so they would experience
his loving fellowship as sweet.” My response to that summary is a hearty
“Amen.”
This is Biblical and what we must believe.
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(IV)
Rev. Herman Hoeksema
[Source: God’s Goodness Always Particular—Chapter 13: "The Triple Cord"]
[According] to the current teaching of the
Bible, we may not consider earthly things per
se—rain and sunshine and riches and prosperity—as proofs of God’s love and
grace with respect to the reprobate ungodly. On the contrary, they are slippery
places on which God causes them to fall into eternal destruction [Psalm 73:18].
The ungodly flourish in order to be destroyed forever [Psalm 92:7. When we
remember this, we are inclined to look at Matthew 5:44 more closely before we
accept [with defenders of common grace] that it teaches that rain and sunshine
are manifestations of God’s gracious disposition to all the ungodly. When we
study the text more closely and in its context, our objection to [the common
grace] interpretation becomes more serious.
In Matthew 5:44 we read, “Love your enemies,
bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them
which despitefully use you and persecute you.” We are exhorted to do these
things to our enemies because we must follow the example of our heavenly Father:
“that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh
his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and
on the unjust” (v. 45). If we take the text in its context, it means that we
must love our enemies because and even as God loves his enemies. We must
really love them, seek their real good, bless them, pray for them, and seek
their salvation, even as God really loves them, seeks their good, and saves
them to the very end. . . .
Besides, we must not forget that sunshine and
rain are not always blessings. Sometimes the sun causes a scorching heat, and
crops dry up and wither. When rain is too abundant, everything rots in the
field. Also then God causes his sun to shine and the rain to fall on the just
and on the unjust alike, and to both he also sends hail and fire, earthquakes
and destruction, and pestilence and death.
At the most we can say that Mathew 5:44–45
refers to God’s providential care in sending rain and causing his sun to shine
on the just and the unjust as examples for the children of God to follow. When
in this dispensation God sends good gifts and means to men, he does not limit
them to the righteous, but he sends them promiscuously to the godly and to the
ungodly, to the just and to the unjust alike. He does not leave himself without
witness. This is revealed in its most general form in rain and sunshine. With the
rain and sunshine comes the calling and obligation to glorify the living God
and to give thanks to him who does all these things. When this is done by the
righteous man, he receives favour and blessing from God. When the ungodly man
fails to give God the glory, he receives no blessing, nor is he the object of
God’s favour, even though he receives rain and sunshine. The wrath of God
abides on him.
The child of God, who must be perfect even as
his Father in heaven is perfect, must follow his example in this. He received
the love of God and experienced and tasted that love of God as a love to his
enemies. Because he also was God’s enemy even as others, he must manifest this
love to his enemies. He must not greet only those who greet him and bless those
who bless him, but he must do good to all, even to his enemies.
He cannot reveal this love of God by loving the
enemies of God and having fellowship with them, but he must do good to them by
telling them the truth, by blessing them and praying for them, and by showing
them the way of life. He must not hate those who hate him, and never must he
avenge himself by doing evil to his enemies, for then he would not manifest the
love of God, but the sinful love of the ungodly. He must be a child of his Father
in heaven and be perfect.
The most general example of this he can see in
God’s causing his sun to rise and the rain to descend on the just and the
unjust in common. And did he not send Christ to die in due time for the
ungodly?
Of a gracious disposition to every man,
particularly to the reprobate ungodly, there is no mention at all in Matthew
5:44–45. . . . The passages [Matt. 5:44-45 and Luke 6:35] certainly exhort us
truly to love our enemies. This does not mean that in a general sense we must
be nice to them in regard to temporal things, but that we must love them to the
end, bless them, and pray for them. If in this we must be children of our
Father in heaven and reflect his love, which, it must be admitted, is always
infinitely greater and more perfect than ours, it follows that he also loves
his enemies to the end, answers our prayers when we pray for them, blesses
them, and saves them. How could [one] possibly apply this to all men,
specifically to the reprobate ungodly?
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(V)
Rev. Henry Danhof
[Source: The Standard Bearer,
quoted in chapter 13 of God’s Goodness AlwaysParticular, by Herman Hoeksema]
Both texts [Matt.
5:44-45; Luke 6:35] have the same tendency and purpose. They would have the
believers be followers of God as dear children. Their love also they must bring
into practice according to the example of God. This thought is expressed in
both passages in almost the same words. We have here a part of the sermon on
the mount, in which Christ teaches his disciples how they must conduct
themselves according to the precepts of his kingdom, written by the Spirit in
their hearts. Christ’s followers must not walk and act as the ungodly, but must
be like their Father who is in heaven. The example he gives they must follow.
Such is the thought. This is admitted by all and is evident from the words of
Jesus, “I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good
to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and
persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven:
for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the
just and on the unjust” (Matt. 5:44-45). “Love ye your enemies, and do good,
and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye
shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to
the evil” (Luke 6:35).
All the other
elements in these passages are subordinate to this main thought, and we may
pass them by for the present to attend to the main questions in these
declarations of Jesus. What does God do according to these words? In what must
we imitate him? In answering these questions we must be careful lest we turn
the order of the two elements around. The synod [of 1924] proceeded from the
thought that God loves all his enemies, also the reprobate, because Christ would have his disciples
love their enemies. In this way synod arrived at the conclusion that God shows
a certain grace, or favour, to the reprobate.
That this method of
reasoning is erroneous is evident. We would have the right to draw such a conclusion
if the texts mentioned a twofold love of God. Such a conclusion would be
permissible if these passages spoke of the love of God for his elect from
eternity, according to which he draws them in time with cords of
loving-kindness; and of another love of God, in distinction from and in
contrast to the love mentioned above, that he shows to his creatures in
general, specifically to the reprobate. But the text speaks of only one love of God.
According to these
passages, Christ notices among men two different kinds of love. Ungodly and
sinners do love, and the disciples of Jesus must also love. Now it is the will
of Christ that there is an essential difference between the love of the ungodly
and the love of his disciples. Sinners love sinners, those who are like them,
with the purpose of receiving from them. Therefore, their love in its deepest
root is only selfishness. It is not real love. According to the standard of
this love, which is no love, the love of the disciples may not manifest itself.
The children of the kingdom
must love as God loves, and God’s
love is more than the love of sinners. They can only love those who love them;
their enemies they are unable to love. But God is able to love his enemies. If
this were not the case, we would all be lost, for by nature we are all enemies
of God. God is able to love those who do not love him. From this viewpoint is
implied the possibility of our salvation. God loved us while we were yet his
enemies. Therefore, we can now also love. Our love harmonizes with God’s love.
Through the love of God we are able to love our enemies. In this we excel the
unregenerate.
That this is the
correct conception of the texts is manifest from the contexts of both Matthew
and Luke. Nowhere do these passages speak of a twofold love of God, the love of God to the elect and another love
to the reprobate. Throughout, the love of Jesus’ disciples is contrasted with
the conception of “those of old time” and with the love of sinners. Their
righteousness must be greater than that of the scribes, and only then are they
blessed when men hate them, separate them, revile them, and reject their names
as evil for the sake of the Son of man. The love of sinners, therefore, must be
manifested as hate with respect to Jesus’ disciples.
Therefore, Jesus
does not hesitate one moment to condemn the love of sinners. This would have
been absurd if it had been his intention to teach that the Father also loves
his reprobate enemies, and that sinners do really love, and that the disciples
must also love sinners who are enemies of God. In that case Jesus’ act would
have directly contradicted his instruction to his disciples and the example of
God.
The thought here is
that his disciples must not love as sinners love, for they do not truly love,
but they must love as the Father loves. They must be perfect, even as their
Father in heaven is perfect.
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(VI)
Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
[Source: The Standard Bearer,
1 June, 1974, vol. 50, Issue 17]
1. You must not simply
appeal to isolated passages in Scripture. You must read the Scriptures in the
light of the current teaching of Scripture. And that current teaching of
Scripture in many, many places is that God does not love and bless all men, but
that He hates and curses some.
2. Notice carefully
that the text does not say that God blesses all. This is a conclusion — and an
incorrect one — from the statement of the text that God "maketh his sun to
rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the
unjust." Incidentally, the presupposition in this conclusion is that
blessing (and cursing) is in things as such. This is a grave mistake. For if
you conclude that good things are as such blessing and bad things are as such
curses, then you must also conclude not only that God blesses the wicked
reprobate, but that He curses His people when He sends them evil things.
3. The point of the
text is this: we must love our enemies, which does not mean simply that we do
them some good, bestow some good things on them, but that we show them the love
of Christ. We bless when they curse; we do good to them when they hate; we pray
for them that despitefully use us and persecute us. The text means, therefore,
that we must seek their genuine good. And that means that we must seek their
repentance, seek their salvation. In that sense we must show them love. And in
the case of those enemies, that love toward a wicked man is, so to speak, a
one-way street; it is not a mutual love. It extends from you toward your enemy,
but not from him toward you.
4. The point is,
further, that we must do this for God's sake. We must manifest to our enemies
the love of God that is in us and that we have tasted. And the character of the
love of God is exactly such that it is a love that is capable of being merciful
and kind to His enemies. Notice that I do not say that it is a love that is
merciful and kind to all His enemies. But the character of the love of God is
such that He loved us while we were yet enemies
5. As a most general
example of this fact that we must love our enemies, the Lord Jesus here points
to God's work in nature, where He causes His sun to rise on the evil and on the
good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
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(VII)
Rev.
Christopher J. Connors
[Source: TheBiblical Offer of the Gospel—available to read online.
Rev. Connors is a minister in the Evangelical Presbyterian
Church of Australia]
In these
passages God's redeemed and regenerated elect are commanded to "do
good" and show mercy and kindness to all men in order that we may be
perfect as is God our Father. The verses direct attention to God's ultimate
perfection, His overflowing goodness. The point is, that God according to His
perfection of goodness always does good, never evil; so must we! The striking
nature of God's goodness is that God is good to all without exception and
regardless of their nature or attitude toward Himself. This is the pattern for
our love. This universal goodness of God showered upon all men is the pattern
for our conduct toward our fellow man. We must love our enemies, bless them
that curse us, do good to them that hate us etc., (Matthew 5:44). Only in this
way do we, as children, reflect the image of our Father in heaven. God loved us
as His elect even while we hated Him. How could we then do any less toward our
fellow man, any one of whom could be God's elect? Thus, the command is,
"Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is
perfect."
We may not
assume, however, that the rule for God's goodness and the rule for man's love
are identical. God as the sovereign Lord of all, necessarily does good to all,
but always in harmony with His own perfection, and freely according to His own
good pleasure. We however, as creatures redeemed into the service of Christ,
are given God's law (the preceptive will) as the rule for our perfection. This
law requires that we love our fellow man. God's revealed will must govern all
our actions toward our fellow man. Obedience to the second table of the law, as
summarized in loving our neighbor as ourselves, is the God-ordained way
believers must fulfill their calling as children of God. This calling is
universal, is to be shown in a disinterested love in fulfillment of God's law
and has God's universal goodness as its pattern.
We remind ourselves,
however, that the fact that God commands US to love all men, does NOT mean, nor
may we legitimately conclude from it, that GOD must love all men. As we have
seen, we may not argue back from man's duty revealed in the precept to God's
purpose and attitude of grace. What we can conclude from these verses, however,
is that God's perfection of goodness according to which He does nothing but
good, even to the unthankful sinner, must be the pattern for all our dealings
with our neighbour, if we are to reflect the perfection of our heavenly
Father."
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(VIII)
More to come! (DV)
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