Matthew 5:43-48 - "43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children 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. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."

The Jewish people had gotten used to living in a certain way.  The Law, given by God on Mt. Sinai, set the expectation.  In fact, Jesus begins (or continues) His teaching by quoting part of the Law here in vs. 43 that His listeners would have been aware of, Leviticus 19:18 with its emphasis on loving your neighbor as you love yourself.  The breakdown on this verse though is difficult because of Jesus' whole statement, "You have heard it said, love your neighbor, and hate your enemies."  This quote is challenging for a couple of reasons.  First, the initial phrase is entirely Scriptural coming from Leviticus 19:18.  The second though, the "hate your enemies" phrase is not Scriptural at all . . . at least in the same way that "love your neighbor is."  Throughout Hebrew Scriptures you are hard pressed to find a verse that orders the Israelites to "hate their enemies."  This is why Jesus starts his mini-teaching here with the words "you have heard that it was said . . . "  What Jesus is referring to is not Jewish religious teaching or law, but Jewish tradition quite removed from the Law as we see here.

Jesus here is challenging not just official Jewish religious teachings, but how people lived their lives on a day to day basis.  Loving your neighbor and hating your enemy is an easy thing. Hating your enemy is lazy.  Hating your enemy is the default, right?  With the introduction or advent of the Kingdom of God all gets set on its proverbial head.  "You've heard it said . . . but I tell you."  What a challenge.  Abandon the old way and adopt my yolk.  Even loving your enemy is easier and less pressure than hating them.  This of course says something about hate that perhaps we don't have time for here (perhaps another post or comments by you all?).  

How do I respond to " . . . but I tell you."  Sometimes it's hard.  Sometimes I'm led to being choked up a bit because I am free to love, despite who I might disagree with.  In these perilous times this is a difficult things; but " . . . but tell you" is revolutionary.  ". . . but I tell you" challenges us and forces us to love where love is absent.  Love fills the void.  Really, can anything else fill the void?  

It is my experience that the greatest witness to the world that Christian can provide is being joyful.  Conversely, it has been my experience that Christians have a very hard time manifesting joy in their own lives.  I confess that I am in this group of Christians.

Why is joy so hard to find or why is joy so hard to manifest?  Is that just a modern/post-modern phenomenon or has this always been a challenge for Christians.  I think is starts with understanding what joy is a product of.  Scripture teaches us that joy is a by-product of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ.  We should be joyful because of our salvation and redemption.  

This does lead us to the question: do we not understand the gravity of our redemption or do we just not see the need for it?  Perhaps I am taking too narrow of a view.  We could expand the source of joy to more arenas.  

The Christian life is more than just salvation.  While in the Western evangelical world has focused a great deal on personal salvation,  aspects like Christian community have been overlooked.  Without robbing the “joy of our salvation” I believe we can also take joy in a faith community, the “communion of saints.”

Here is the rub . . . it has been my experience that people generally don’t value relationships.  Often we view  relationships as transactional; we relate to those who can do something for us and the other considers what we can do for them.  Secondly, relationships are hard; we have to work at them.  Frankly people don’t want to make a deep commitment to another.  I see this particularly in relationships between men.  The stereotype that women are more relational and men are not seems to be somewhat true, either by nature or by nurture (I’m not sure . . . I’m not a sociologist).  

Is salvation and friendship not enough to draw joy out of us?

(There are other areas of our Christian life that perhaps we can draw joy from, these might be included in a discussion for a different day - comment below with your ideas). 

In the western tradition, the idea of God’s mercy is dominating theme.  To be sure, it isn’t the only theme.  Themes such as salvation, justification, incarnation, and even love play themselves out in contemporary theology.  While these themes exist, I can’t help but notice that God’s mercy is highlighted more frequently.  This includes the theme of God’s love.  Many Christian leaders are quick to clench their teeth when the talk of God’s love comes up.  There is a fear among many pastors, church leaders, and theologians that the theme of God’s love will be overemphasized.  This, the logic goes, will lead to “cheap grace” (Bonhoeffer, Luther).  Humanity will forget their own sinfulness and need for forgiveness (read: mercy) because God’s love has overplayed its hand.  To be frank, this  has been the battle between conservative and liberal Christians for over a half-century.  One accuses the other of emphasizing God’s love at the expense of God wrath and humanity’s need for mercy.  The other decries the emphasis on God’s wrath at the expense of God’s love.  For this writer, the voice of those who cry for the of God’s mercy has been louder than those who cry for God’s love.  To be sure, the whole western understanding of justification (as interpreted through Paul) is predicated on our need for God’s mercy

So we have love and mercy seemingly at odds with one another (one might say that the opposite of love is wrath.  While this may be true, I’m not trying to create polar opposites.  Mercy is necessary as a result of God’s wrath - different discussion for a different post).  What is the relationship between God’s love and His mercy?  Is one more important than another or does one take priority over another?

Just  because you are showing someone mercy doesn’t mean you love them.   A king might be merciful to a subject, but that doesn’t mean that they love them.  For example, he might be getting something in return for his mercy - say a bit of information or perhaps accolades from onlookers for being so merciful.  Either way, it doesn’t necessarily follow that mercy is evidence of love

Is there an equation in which mercy and love are partners?  Surely there must.  Perhaps if we ask a different question or approach it from a different angle.  In the above example a king is merciful, but not necessarily loving.  What, though, would be the outcome if king was loving?  I would argue that if the king is loving that mercy would naturally flow out of that love.  Put differently, love always produces mercy, but mercy is not always evidence of love.

The old equation is that God’s mercy shows His love (which may or may not be the case as seen above).  In this new equation, love begets mercy.  In fact, love always includes the aspect of mercy.  Where there is love, there is mercy.

There are spiritual and theological implications for this new equation.  Consider this: when God loves, He only loves He chooses to love.  He certainly doesn’t love us for anything we have done (according to western theology - original sin), “when we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  The problem with mercy is that it is dependent on our “response” to our own sinfulness.  Mercy seems to become conditional (despite what Paul states in Romans 9:15) in contemporary application.   

What I would like to propose is that we begin to think in terms of love being the starting point for God’s activity and not his mercy.  “Cheap grace” does not have to be the assumed outcome for putting God’s love first.  God’s love is compelling; compelling us to be transformed through the work of God’s love in Christ.  By beginning with love you allow God to be truly who He is in His freedom.  Alternatively, if you start with mercy you don’t start with God, but with yourself.