Matthew 5:46—“… do not even the publicans the same?”

For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? (Matt. 5:46).

COMMON GRACE ARGUMENT:

This text is appealed to, to say that there is a work of grace in the hearts of the unregenerate, and that this “love” that the publicans supposedly have for their neighbour is said to be evidence of this grace … For how can the unregenerate love their neighbour apart from grace?

(I)

Goerge M. Ophoff (1891-1962)

[Source: The Standard Bearer, vol. 10, no. 19 (July 1, 1934), pp. 455-456]

The sinner loves them that love him.  But this love is sheer selfishness, yea cruelty.  The love of the wicked is incited and set in motion by the favors which the neighbor does him.  Whether or no the neighbor loved fears God is a matter of no concern to the wicked.  The determining factor here is not men’s attitude toward God but men’s attitude toward self.  The standard is not God, truth, goodness, holiness, but self.  Christ, needless to say, denounced the love of the wicked for the neighbor.  For this love is not worthy of the name. Let the neighbor loved oppose the wicked one, cross his path, step on his toes, set himself up as a competitor and it will appear that the other side of the love of the wicked one is anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of the mouth, falsehood, envy, strife, hatred and murder.  Such is the love of the sinner.

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(II)

More to come! (DV)