As most of you know, I grew up in Dover, Delaware. My dad was the pastor of the First Southern Baptist Church there for 27 years. Another thing most of you may or may not know, is that in my family there are four children. We’re all adults now and I’m the oldest but here’s a picture of when we were kids. I’m the handsome one on your left standing in the back. Next in line after me is my brother Jon. He’s on your far right. Jon is retired after 22 years in the Air Force and works as the weather forecaster for Air Force One. Jon is the one they turn to for weather guidance whenever the president flies. He’s been very busy this week working almost non-stop making forecasts for all the travel that surrounded President Ford’s funeral. Mom and Dad’s third child is my brother Matt. That’s him right in front of Jon. Matt serves as Minister of Discipleship for Westside Family Church, a mega-church in the Kansas City area. Last but not least is my baby sister, Lisa. Lisa has two huge Golden Retriever dogs named Liberty and Justice. I suppose if she gets a third canine it will be named, “For all.” When she’s not taking care of her dogs, Lisa works as a dedicated and highly respected head guidance counselor for a middle school in New Jersey.
I feel very blessed because all four of us love each other and get along very well. We enjoy those rare times when we are able to be together. And this past Christmas day was one of those times. Jon, Lisa, and our families and dogs were able to spend several hours at home with Mom, something that totally made her day! Matt and his family weren’t able to make the trip this year and we missed them, but at this stage in our busy lives three out of four Adams kids in the same place at the same time isn’t too bad!
Now, like all biological families we bear a physical resemblance to each other. For example, we all have the “Adams” chin in that we have sort of “Kirk Douglas” dimple. Now, when it comes to resembling our parents, I look more like my mom. Elisa and Matt are blends of both of our parents. But Jon is almost a spitting image of my father. If Jon were to walk down the one street that cuts through my dad’s home town of Tomnolen, Mississippi and if he were to meet one of dad’s childhood friends, Jon would be stopped on the street and that person would say, “You look familiar. Yes, now I see the resemblance. Charles Walter Adams has got to be your dad!” This is a case where the son looks almost exactly like the father.
I share all this because today, as we pick up our study of the Sermon on the Mount, we come to a well-known passage of Scripture in which Jesus lists several Godly qualities, attitudes and behaviors that combine to make us recognizable as children of our Heavenly Father. Take your Bibles and read this text with me and listen for these God-like traits. We’re looking at Matthew 5:33-48 and Jesus is delivering His sermon of sermons to that crowd sitting on the mountainside on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.
33 – “Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.’
34 – But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne
35 – or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King.
36 – And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black.
37 – Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.
38 – “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’
39 – But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.
40 – And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.
41 – If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.
42 – Give 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.’
44 – But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
45 – that 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.
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 brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?
48 – Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks Be to God.
Okay, how many specific Godly attitudes and actions did you count? It’s packed full of them isn’t it?! As verse 45 puts it, when we embrace these Godly character traits, then in the same way that my brother is clearly recognizable as the son of Charles Walter Adams, we become clearly recognizable as “sons of our Father in Heaven.” Verse 48 emphasizes this even further and says when we live life according to these Godly principles, we are then, “perfect, as our Heavenly Father is perfect.”
I want to make sure you don’t misunderstand this phrase. The word we translate as “perfect” is “teleios” and it is a word that referred to functional perfection. In other words, in the New Testament era a thing was considered “teleios” when it fully realized the purpose for which it was planned, and designed, and made.
Let me share a personal illustration to help you see what I mean. This Christmas, Daniel bought me a wireless heart rate monitor that I can wear around my chest while I run. When I wear it my heart rate is displayed on the screen of my treadmill as I do my daily jog. Now, the little receiver that attaches to the treadmill had two very tiny Phillips head screws. I tried using my standard Phillips head screwdriver to turn them but it was way too big. Fortunately Daniel has a set of very tiny screwdrivers and in this set I found one that is the exact size of the very tiny screws. I used it and was able to install the device easily and it works great! That little screw driver is “teleios” in that it was “perfect” for turning those tiny screws and it was perfect because that’s the kind of job it was specifically designed to do. It fulfilled its unique purpose-which is to turn very tiny screws!
I hope this helps you to see that as Jesus’ disciples we will be “teleios”-we will be perfect-if we fulfill the purpose for which we were created. Now, think about that a moment. What exactly is our purpose as human beings? In Genesis 1:26 God speaks to the other two members of the Trinity and says mankind was “. made after Our image and after Our likeness.” In other words we were created to be like God-to act like God-to look at people and treat people and respond to people in a Godly way. That is our intended purpose. As Jesus puts it later in this sermon, people are to see our good works, and praise our Father, Who is in Heaven. Of course, none of us succeed in this perfectly all the time. To borrow from my Christmas gift example, many times in life we “screw up” but nevertheless this is to be our goal. We are to always strive to become this kind of person. As 1st Timothy 6:11 says, we are to “pursue Godliness.”
In this portion of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus paints a detailed picture of a godly person by citing three examples of the ways that “teleios” Christians-or mature Christians should live. When we live this way, we become recognizable as God’s children because these attitudes and actions are very counter-cultural, to the point of being directly opposed to our world’s ungodly standards. Living out the teachings of this text sets us apart from the people around us who embrace the selfish, me-first philosophies of our sinful culture. It makes people who know us stop and think, “This person is different, but he reminds me of Someone, let’s see, who is it? Oh yes! This must be a child of God.”
With that in mind, let’s examine Jesus’ list. What are the attitudes and behaviors that our Lord said help us fulfill our purpose by making us more “teleios”, more like God? Or to put it another way, “What does a Godly person look like?”
(1) First, in this sermon Jesus says they are known for their commitment to the truth.
Look back at verses 35-37. Our Lord says, “Do not swear at all, simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one." Jesus is not saying here that it is wrong to make an oath. In fact several times in the Bible we are encouraged to do so. For example, Deuteronomy 10:20 says, “Fear the Lord your God and serve Him. Hold fast to Him and take your oaths in His name.” And, in the New Testament Paul frequently swears by the Lord, crying, “As God is my witness!” (Romans 1:9; 2nd Corinthians 1:23; Philippians 1:8; 1st Thessalonians 2:5, 10)
So, Jesus is not saying we should avoid oaths, or vows. No, His admonition has to do with vows that are added to a statement because the person making them thinks that additional promises will make his statement more trustworthy, and of course they don’t! Jesus’ point is that our word ought to stand on its own. Charles Swindoll writes, “When a monosyllable will do, why waste your breath on polysyllables. Keep it simple. Say ‘yes’ or say ‘no’ because verbosity is no guarantee of veracity.” (From Simple Faith)
Well, “teleios” Christians-mature, Godly believers-are known as people of their word. They don’t need extra oaths. They don’t need to talk like children who say things like, “Cross my heart until I die, stick a needle in my eye, if this isn’t true.” They don’t have to say things like this because as “sons” of the one true God, they are known for the fact that they are committed to truth. They understand that as Proverbs 12:22 says, “The Lord detests lying lips, but He delights in men who are truthful.” And, truth-telling does indeed make us stand out, because these days our culture tells us that lying is not only okay, but necessary to get through life. More and more, truth is a rare thing.
I’m reminded of Daniel Webster’s statement: “There is nothing so powerful as truth-and often nothing so strange.” Webster is right. Truth is stranger than fiction these days. In fact, in the past few years we have completely reclassified lying. No longer is it distasteful or unacceptable. Now it’s an art form known as “spin.” We expect lawyers, lobbyists, journalists, talk-show hosts and anyone else in the public view to “spin” the truth if it serves their purposes. If a politician can successfully “spin” a version of truth so as to either soothe listeners or deceive them, these days he is considered to be an exceptionally good politician; someone worth looking up to, a real leader. Gone are the days when greatness and honesty were a package deal. Remember George Washington and the cherry tree?
Several years back in an issue of The Christian Century, Lloyd Steffen wrote,
“Honesty now looks like a dubious virtue if not an actual vice. It is studied and examined as a stratagem rather than as a hallmark of character.” Why, it has come to the point that we don’t even use the word “lie” anymore. Instead we say things like, “strategic misrepresentation” or “reality augmentation.”
On June 7, 1996 the following headline appeared in The New York Times: “What a tangled web we weave; we all practice to deceive.” The article beneath said that 91% of Americans confess that they regularly don’t tell the truth. And a full 20% admitted that they can’t get through the day without telling conscious, premeditated white lies. The report suggests that, “. as a society, we have moved very far away from the age when a man’s word was his bond to a society in which people are more accepting than ever before of exaggerations, falsifications, fabrications, misstatements, misrepresentations, gloss-overs, quibbles, concoctions, equivocations, shuffles, prevarications, trims and truth colored and varnished.”
This reminds me of the story of, a minister who noticed a group of boys standing around a small stray dog. “What are you doing, boys?” he asked. “Telling lies.” one of them replied. “The one who tells the biggest lie gets to keep this dog.” The minister was shocked and said to them, “When I was your age, I would never have thought of telling a lie.” The boys looked at each other with disappointment on their faces. Finally one shrugged, pointed at the minister, and said, “I guess he wins the dog.”
It sounds as if Isaiah 59:3-4 is describing present day America. Listen to what it says, “No one calls for justice; no one pleads his case with integrity. They rely on empty arguments and speak lies; they conceive trouble and give birth to evil.”
Psalm 12:1-2 also comes to mind where it says, “Help, O Lord! For the godly are no more; the faithful have vanished from among men. Everyone lies to his neighbor; their flattering lips speak with deception.”
In his work, The Christian Century, Lloyd Steffen writes of a time back in the eighteenth century when King Frederick II of Prussia visited a Berlin prison. One inmate after another tried to convince the monarch of his innocence with long verbose oaths. To hear them tell it, they were all being punished unjustly for crimes they never committed, all that is except one man who sat quietly in a corner while all the rest unfolded their lengthy and complicated stories. Seeing him sitting there, oblivious to the commotion, the king asked the man why he was in prison. “Armed robbery, your honor” The king asked, “Were you guilty?” “Yes sir” he answered, without attempting to excuse his wrongdoing. When he said this, King Frederick gave the guard an order, “Release this guilty man. I don’t want him corrupting all these innocent people.”
Well, how are you doing in this area? Do you stand out; are you recognizable, as a child of the one true God because everyone knows your word your bond? Let me probe a bit further. Are you known as someone who always does what he says he will do on the job or rather as the employee who constantly looks for ways to get by? Would your creditors say that you stand out to them as someone who always pays your debts on time? Would your neighbors say you always keep your promise to return things you borrow? Husbands and wives, would it be accurate to say that you have kept your vow to put your spouse first every day of your marriage? Parents would your kids say that you always keep your word to them, always keep your promise to spend time with them or help them with their homework, or would they say you put them on the back burner so you can do things you enjoy? Remember, spiritual brothers and sisters, our elder Brother, Jesus, the Christ, says that one thing that identifies you as a child of God is that you are an honest person, a truthful person. Your yes means yes and your no means no.
(2) A second thing Jesus says is this. Godly people are willing to release their rights to retaliate when wronged by others.
Look at verses 38-42 where Jesus says,
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
In verse 38 Jesus cites the oldest law in the world, “an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth,” also known as Lex Talonis which appeared in the earliest known code of laws, the Code of Hammurabi, a man who ruled over Babylon from 2285 to 2242 BC. This ancient law became part of the ethics of the Old Testament. Exodus 21:23-25 says, “If there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.” This tit-for-tat philosophy may sound savage but its original aim was to limit vengeance. Its purpose was to begin to help ungodly humanity learn to understand the concept of mercy.
In any case the people who heard Jesus’ sermon that day embraced this way of thinking. They had been taught that when attacked or insulted, retribution equaled justice! But Jesus says people who want to be perfect, people who want to be “teleios”, people who want to be like God must respond differently. They must release their rights to hurt those who hurt them. Jesus gives us four specific examples of this principle: walk the second mile, give away your tunic and your cloak, give to those who want to borrow from you, but in the interest of time I can only deal with the first where Jesus says when stricken we must turn the other cheek. And, we must understand, Jesus wasn’t just talking about a mere slap on the cheek here. He was talking about the way we should respond when people intentionally offend us.
You see, in that culture, a slap on the cheek was seen as an insult. And to turn the other cheek, as a way of inviting a second slap, was even more offensive because the back of the hand would have to be used. We refer to this kind of thing in our day and age by saying, “That was backhanded compliment if I’ve ever heard one!” When we say this we are acknowledging it wasn’t a compliment but an insult.
But the fact is we are very good at giving as good as we got when it comes to our response to the attacks and insults of others. A good example of this is Winston Churchill, who had an ongoing feud with Lady Ascot. It’s reported that on one occasion, she found the great statesman obviously inebriated in a hotel elevator. With cutting disgust she snipped, “Sir Winston, you are drunk!” to which he replied, “M’lady, I may be drunk but you are ugly and tomorrow I will be sober but you still will be ugly.”
And, unfortunately, we are all like Sir Winston. We take pride in making one person’s sarcastic jab look mild compared to our back-of-the-hand retorts. We cheer for people with black-eyes who say, “If you think I look beat up, you should see the other guy!”
Jesus says, don’t do this. He says, “If you want to be like Me, don’t respond in kind. Instead go against the flow, stand out by turning the other cheek.” And this is indeed the Christ-like response. Remember, as Isaiah prophesied, Jesus was, “. oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth.” (Is 53:7) Well, part of resembling God involves our willingness to release our rights to retaliate against people who hurt us or take advantage of us. This is the Christ-like way to respond in times like this.
The great Christian author Watchman Nee whose picture is on the wall behind me once said,
“Nothing has done greater damage to our Christian testimony than our trying to be right and demanding right of others. We become preoccupied with what is and what is not right. You ask me, ‘Is it right for someone to strike my cheek?’ I reply, ‘Of course not!’ But the question is, do you only want to be right? As Christians our standard of living can never be ‘right or wrong,’ but the Cross. The principle of the Cross is our principle of conduct, ‘right or wrong’ is the principle of the Gentiles and tax gatherers. My life is to be governed by the principle of the Cross and the perfection of the Father.”
And he’s right. But please note, Jesus suggests two cheeks not dozens of them and two miles not hundreds and your cloak not all your possessions. In other words, He’s not saying Godly people are to make themselves doormats to the abusive people of the world.
I’m reminded of the story of a successful Irish boxer who was converted and became a preacher. He happened to be in a new town setting up his evangelistic tent when a couple of tough thugs noticed what he was doing. Knowing nothing of his background, they made a few insulting remarks. The Irishman merely turned and looked at them. Pressing his luck, one of the bullies took a swing and hit the ex-boxer on one side of his face. He shook it off and said nothing as he stuck out his jaw. The fellow hit him again on the other side. At that point, the preacher swiftly took off his coat, rolled up his sleeves and announced, “The Lord gave me no further instructions.” And he proceeded to fight back!
Referring to this principle of life, Charles Hadden Spureon said “We are to be the anvil when bad men are the hammers.” In other words we are to take the blows of bad men’s words and let them glance off of us. But nowhere in the Bible are we instructed to welcome abuse. Jesus’ point is not that we should let people physically abuse us but rather that we should refrain from trying to get even. You should train yourself such that your knee jerk reaction to the jerks of the world is not to retaliate. As wise King Solomon said, “A prudent man overlooks an insult.” (Proverbs 12:16) Even the former short-tempered Peter learned that we must not, “. repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.” (1 Peter 3:9)
When you learn this aspect of Godliness, you usually discover that the conflict ends as quickly as it began, and many times this Christ-like, unworldly response, has a powerful positive impact on our attackers.
The African American evangelist Tom Skinner, author of the book, Black & Free, was converted to Christ while he was leader of the largest toughest, teenage gang in New York City, the Harlem Lords. His conversion was so real that he left the gang the very next day, turning from a life of fighting and violence to one in which he preaches the gospel of peace. He testifies that there was an immediate victory over crime and cruelty. Soon here was a victory over hate and bigotry also. Several weeks after his conversion he was playing a football game in which as his assignment on one play, he blocked the defensive end while his own half-back scored a touch down. As he got up from the ground to head back to the huddle, the boy whom he had blocked jumped in front of him in a rage and slammed his fist into Skinner’s stomach. As Skinner bent over from the blow he was hacked across the back. When he fell to the ground the boy kicked him shouting, “You dirty black nigger! I’ll teach you a thing or two.” Skinner said that under normal circumstances the old Tom Skinner would have jumped up from the ground and pulverized that white boy. But instead he got up from the ground and found himself looking the boy in the face and saying, “You know, because of Jesus Christ I love you anyway.”
Later Skinner said that he even surprised himself with that response, but his new untypical reaction showed him that what the Bible had promised was true. He was indeed a new creature in Christ, and it was no longer necessary for him to operate on the old level of tit-for-tat, hate for hate. His desire to retaliate was gone. Plus when the game was over and his attacker had some time to think about it, he came to Skinner and said, “Tom, you’ve done more to knock prejudice out of me by telling me that you loved me than you would have it you’d hit me in the jaw. I’m sorry for what I said and did.”
This leads to a final principle of Godliness that Jesus gives us in this portion of His sermon.
(3) He says that people who want to be like our Heavenly Father must learn to love all people-even their enemies.
This is another behavior that makes us stand out such that we are recognizable as children of God. Look at verses 43-47. Jesus says,
“You have heard it said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that 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. 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?”
Now, the people listening to Jesus’ sermon that day had heard it said that they should hate their enemies, but they didn’t hear God saying this. He had told them to love their neighbors, but the Pharisees had added the last part. No, God has always taught His children to love, all people. As Proverbs 25:21 says, “If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.” So it was the Pharisees who taught that love should be limited to those who deserve it and Jesus responded to this common teaching by saying, “No, if you want to be like God, you must act in love toward all people, even those who persecute you.” Now please note, Jesus does not say, “Love the way your enemies live, love the things they do, defend their evil practices.” No, Jesus is talking about loving people, people with eternal souls, spiritually blind men and women who know nothing of Christ’s power and love. You see, agape love, Godly love, looks beyond sinful actions. It sees beyond hateful words such that it is able to see another soul in need of help.
I think of the late Corrie ten Boom and her response to the Nazi guards who had brutalized her sister. She was able to look beyond what they had done and forgive them. She refused to live the rest of her life brimming with resentment and bitterness, because she wanted to be like God and Godly love sees beyond the evil someone does. It is a love that is unconditional. I’m reminded of a poem I came across this week that was written by an 8-year-old. It goes like this:
We have the nicest garbage man,
He empties out our garbage can;
He is just as nice as he can be;
He always stops and talks with me
My mother doesn’t like his smell
But then, she doesn’t know him very well
Godly love is a love that values, cherishes, all people in spite of their “smell.” Regardless of their sins, Godly love, loves the sinner.
Listen to this quote from C. S. Lewis from his classic book Mere Christianity:
“The rule for all of us is perfectly simple. Do not waste your time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbor; just ACT as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him. If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more. If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself disliking him less, the difference between a Christian and a worldly man is not that the worldly man has only affections or ‘likings’ and the Christian has only ‘charity.’ The worldly man treats certain people kindly because he ‘likes’ them; the Christian, trying to treat every one kindly, finds himself liking more and more people as he goes on, including people he could not even have imagined himself liking at the beginning.”
Well, I challenge you to try C. S. Lewis’ philosophy. Try acting loving, even toward people who hate you and see if you don’t begin to dislike them less. And you know, this loving way of acting may have even more surprising results. God may use your Godly actions to change the heart of that person. They may just wonder why you don’t retaliate to the point that they become open to your telling them about your own experience with God’s grace.
Someone once said that God has really given men five gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and you. And this is so true. People come to know Jesus through the Bible and also through Christians who respond in loving, Godly ways to all people-even their enemies.
Watchman Nee tells about a Chinese Christian who owned a rice paddy next to one owned by a communist man. The Christian irrigated his paddy by pumping water out of a canal, using one of those leg-operated pumps that make the user appear to be seated on a bicycle. Every day, after the Christian had pumped enough water to fill his field, the communist would come out, remove some boards that kept the water in the Christian’s field, and let all the water flow down into his own field. That way, he didn’t have to pump. This continued day after day. Finally the Christian prayed, “Lord, if this keeps up, I’m going to lose all my rice, maybe even my field. I’ve got a family to care for. What can I do?” In answer to his request, the Lord put a thought in his mind. So the next morning he arose much earlier, in the predawn hours of darkness, and started pumping water into the field of his communist neighbor. Then he replaced the boards and pumped water into his own rice paddy. In a few weeks both fields of rice were doing well, and the communist was converted to faith in Jesus Christ.
Challenge
Well, let me ask, how godly are you? Or better yet, how godly would other people say you are?
Let us pray.
Father God, Once again we ask that You would take Your written Word, and use it on us as a double-edged sword to penetrate deep within us, judging our thoughts and attitudes, even if it causes us pain and discomfort, show us the ways that we fall short, the ways our thoughts and attitudes are not perfect. Then as we recommit ourselves to Your Lordship, empower us to love and act toward others in ways that make us recognizable as children of God. Help us to live out the gospel such that it draws lost men and women to faith in Your Son.
It is in His name, JESUS, that I pray.
AMEN
As we sing we invite you to respond publicly if you feel so led. Come forward, profess faith in Christ, join our church family, or pray, but come.