Telling the Truth

Guest (Male): Today on Telling the Truth, guest speaker Charles Price concludes his message from the Sermon on the Mount and shows you that a Christian view of love and justice is radically different from the world's view. That’s coming up in a moment.

Your generous support helps keep broadcasts like this one going out around the world so you and others can experience life through the biblical teaching and resources of Telling the Truth. So as thanks for your gift today, we'll send you Triumph Over Temptation, an encouraging four-message series created by Stuart and Jill Briscoe to help you stand strong against temptation and grow in your faith in the process.

Call today to request yours: 1-800-889-5388. That’s 1-800-889-5388, or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Now, here’s Charles with his teaching on Christian justice and love.

Charles Price: This is a man of God saying, "Why is it the wicked seem to have a good time and I have a bad time and everything seems to go wrong for me?" because God does not treat you with favoritism. Now, we don't like that, but we need to get used to it. Otherwise, you will shake your fist at God many times in your life.

Jeremiah raised the same thing in Jeremiah chapter 12. He says to God, "I'd like to speak to you about your justice. I've got a problem with your justice here. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do the faithless live at ease? You have planted them, and they have taken root. They grow and bear fruit." He's saying, "God, why in the world are the wicked prospering? I have a problem with your justice, God."

God says—you read the chapter—God says to Jeremiah, "What would you like to do about it, Jeremiah?" and Jeremiah said, "Butcher them! Drag them off like sheep to be butchered!" That's a pretty healthy perspective. Then God says, "No, I'll tell you what the word is, Jeremiah. If you are tired running against men, what will happen when I run you against horses? Jeremiah, if you think it's tough, it will get worse, and you are not exempt."

Job and his friends all asked the same question. In fact, Job's friends said God does favor the righteous and therefore, Job, you must be unrighteous, even though everybody thought you were righteous. There's a secret life under there. There's a reason why things have gone wrong. Jesus says here that you are to love your enemy, those who persecute you, those who abuse you, those who take advantage of us, because you are sons of your Father. He actually is impartial and loves even those that act wrongly.

If law in this passage is the structure of society and we believe in the rule of law, love is the lubrication of society. That is what is to flow out from the Christian heart and the Christian experience and the Christian life. You see, the point of verse 40, where it says if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, give him your cloak as well, means if someone wants to take your tunic in a lawsuit and it's legitimate and he wins that tunic because it's deemed deservedly so, give him more than he's asking for; give him your cloak as well. What is the spirit behind this? It is a spirit of love for this person.

Verse 41: "If someone force you to go one mile, go with him two miles." Interestingly, this actually goes back to the postal system. It began with the Persian Empire and then was taken on by the Greeks and then eventually by the Romans, which is the day in which Jesus lived. If a courier was carrying something a distance, especially if it was a government document or something that needed to go to a different part of the empire, the courier had the right to insist that somebody carry it a mile, and then they'd leave it and find someone else. "You carry it a mile." That's how you got the mail delivery out.

He says if they force you to go one mile, which is their right, go two. Understand the need of the mailman, the courier. What's the spirit behind this? It's love. Do we have rights? You bet we do, and the law upholds those rights. Do we have responsibilities? You bet we do, and love fulfills those responsibilities. That's to be the spirit in which we operate and which we relate.

He says an important thing in verse 46. He says, "If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? If you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Don't even pagans do that?" So Jesus said if you love people who love you, you'd make a good tax collector. There's nothing impressive about that.

Christians loving Christians is not impressive in itself because tax collectors, apparently, love tax collectors. Bear that in mind next time you have a letter from the tax office. Just send them your love. If you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Don't even pagans do that, said Jesus. If you just greet those who greet you, you'd make a very good pagan.

Sometimes, if I may say this, we talk very sentimentally about love. Sometimes it’s a fuzzy feeling for people we like. I've preached in many churches in many cities, and I might go to a city and go to a church one day and, you know, they all love each other in this church. They really have a great relationship; they enjoy being together. The only problem is down the road there's another church, and they do things a bit different, and they don't actually like them at all.

I get invited to go and preach in the second church and, you know, they love each other too. They have a great relationship; they enjoy being together on Sundays, and they meet together during the week and things like that. But on the third corner of the same town there's another church and they're a bit wild, they're a bit crazy, and they don't want anything to do with them.

I go to speak in that church and they all love each other as well. They just hug each other the whole time and run around each other and lift each other off the floor and all kinds of things because they're just loving each other and they're very expressive. But there's another church a bit more staid and they don't like them because they really are very staid and stale and dry.

I get invited to go and speak in that church, and they all love each other as well, but they don't like the first church because they have different doctrines. They all say, "You know, God gives us a wonderful love for each other." And they are kidding each other because you know something, in the same town there might be a rugby club in the middle of the town and they meet every week and they love each other. They have strange ways of showing it, but they love each other. They like to break a few bones and then they go down to the pub afterwards and get a bit of beer inside and sing some wonderful songs and they love the fellowship. It's no different to the church loving each other in the church.

Jesus says here, do you want to know what happens when God really breaks in? The folks in the first church say, "You know, we love each other, that's great, but that church down the road—we don't agree with some things they do, but they are people for whom Christ died. They're brothers and sisters in Christ, and we love them." The second church said, "You know, those folks in the next church—we don't like them; they're wild, but we love them; they're people for whom Christ died."

The third church say of the fourth church the same thing, and the fourth church say back of the first church. Then what's even more remarkable is that they all say, "You know, there's a rugby club in this town, and we love those people. How can we show them God loves them? How can we build them up? How can we minister to them? Do we love prostitutes? Do we? Do we love the people who live pagan lives, totally separate from what God would have them live?" Because this is what Jesus is talking about.

Guest (Male): You’re listening to guest speaker Charles Price on Telling the Truth. He’ll be back shortly, but first, here’s a note from Kelly in Montana. She writes, "I accidentally found Telling the Truth on the radio when I was driving. Thank you for sharing your wisdom and knowledge God has given you with sincerity and humor. May God bless you and keep you."

Thank you, Kelly. That’s the kind of encouragement your support today will bring to more people around the world as you help share the teaching and resources of Telling the Truth so others can experience life in Christ. We’d like to encourage you with a powerful resource to equip you to not only resist temptation but conquer it and grow in your faith as you do.

It’s called Triumph Over Temptation, a four-message series created by Stuart and Jill Briscoe to empower you with biblical truth to help you stand firm in the face of daily temptations. Filled with the Briscoes’ trademark wisdom and understanding of scripture, this series will help you remember that every temptation to do wrong is also a chance to do what’s right.

We’ll send you the Triumph Over Temptation series as our thanks for your gift of support today to help continue the Briscoes’ legacy through the teaching resources of Telling the Truth. So request your copy when you call 1-800-889-5388. That’s 1-800-889-5388, or give online at tellingthetruth.org. Now, here’s more from Charles.

Charles Price: Apparently, it was said of the early church—this is not in the scripture and by the early church I mean the first few years, but in the early centuries of the church—it used to be said of the Christians, "See how these Christians love one another." Well, that's a great thing to have had said because you and I know what Christians are like. It's wonderful, Christians love one another. If you want to think an even better statement would have been if the people had said, "See how these Christians love us."

It doesn't impress the world that we come inside these doors and have a great time together. It only impresses them when we go out of these doors to minister to them. About 20 years ago now, I was invited to the city of Boston in the United States to speak at a pastors' conference held every year for about four days. About 3,000 pastors from all over New England, the six New England states, come together for this.

I had been asked to open each day with a morning Bible exposition. Then they had sessions through the day. Another speaker was a guy from Argentina called Juan Carlos Ortiz. He was pastor of a church in Buenos Aires. He told us that his church was known as the fastest-growing church in Buenos Aires. And he said, "And I was really pleased with that description of our church and I was the pastor."

One Sunday, he prepared a message to preach on the subject of love. "I looked at all the Greek words," he said. "I defined them accurately. But that Sunday morning, during the worship time of the service, as I was sitting waiting to get up to preach, I had a very strong sense I should not preach my message. And when the worship leader said, 'Now brother Juan Carlos will bring us his message,' I came to the pulpit," he said. "And I stood behind the pulpit and I said, 'Brothers and sisters, my text this morning is love one another.'"

He closed his Bible, went back to his seat on the platform, and sat down. There was silence for about two minutes. That's a long time when nobody knows what is happening. The worship leader leaned across and said, "Are we supposed to sing another song?" He just sat there quietly.

Then he got up, came back to the pulpit, and said, "Brothers and sisters, my text this morning is love one another." He went back to his seat. He said his wife, sitting in the balcony, thought he's flipped. You would have, too. After a couple of minutes more, he got up a third time, and he said, "Brothers and sisters, my text is love one another."

He went back to his seat, and somebody sitting over here in one part of the auditorium turned to a person next to them and said, "I don't actually know you. Is there any way I can love you, anything I can do for you?" Somebody else turned to somebody else and said, "Is there something I can do for you?" Somebody in the balcony turned and began to talk to somebody else.

In a few minutes, the whole church was alive with people talking. He said, "We had 28 unemployed people in the church that morning. Every single one went home with a job." He then began to list other things—and I was making notes and I didn't get the numbers down—but he talked about single mothers who were in the church. He said every one of them went home with somebody committed to support them and be a friend to them and be a friend to their children.

If I'd preached my message on love, they would have thanked me at the end. "That was a great message, thank you so much. I loved the definition of those words; that really helped clarify some things for me." But he said, "28 unemployed people would have gone home unemployed." And Juan Carlos Ortiz said this: "And to be frank, most of the people in the church couldn't have cared less."

Next Sunday, he got up and said, "Brothers and sisters, I have the same text as last week: love one another." People turned to each other and said, "What can I do for you this week?" He said, "For three weeks, I had no liberty to preach."

It upset a lot of people. He said 300 people left the church. They said, "We want you to preach. We didn't come here to hear you stand up and say love one another." And he said it was the best thing that had happened when they left because they weren't interested in the life; they weren't interested in living the Christian life.

After three months, he got up and he said, "Brothers and sisters, the Lord has given me a new text this morning," and they broke out in applause. He said, "My text this morning is love your neighbor as yourself." There was a silence. He went back to his seat.

Somebody got up and walked out the door, and somebody else got up and walked out another door. In a few minutes, everybody was going through the doors, out to the bus stops, out to the train station, out to the parking lot. He said the parking lot was empty in about 10 minutes. People went home, went next door and knocked and said, "I'm a Christian, I'm your neighbor. Is there anything I can do for you?"

It was the week before Christmas, the worst time to do it. He said my wife and I and our two daughters had presents we had for each other; they were wrapped. And we found incredible need in our street, and we went back and got our unopened Christmas presents and we gave them away to other people. But he said it was the best Christmas we ever had.

We’d talked and strategized about having an impact in our area and nothing was working. Within a week or so of that, people began to phone the church and say, "Are you the church that helps people? Yes, we would like to help people. Well, my marriage is breaking up. My kid ran away from home. I don't have money to pay my rent."

It changed the whole relationship with the community. Of course, that was a divine moment. I'm not going to do it next Sunday because that has to be a God moment. But I found that so challenging because that is actually what Jesus is saying to these Pharisees and scribes whose righteousness was external—just keep the rules. He says, "No, forget about that. Penetrate through all of that. Your spirit is one of love, whether he's your brother or whether he's not, whether he's your neighbor or whether he's not, whether he's your enemy or whether he's not, whether they persecute you or whether they don't—love."

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. It doesn't mean just be perfect as we would normally use that word—no flaw. There are actually three Greek words that translate into the one English word perfect. And the word that translates here is a word that means perfect in the sense of being put to the purpose for which it was made.

Let me illustrate. If I take my pen and I were to write with this pen and you were to say to me, "How is the pen?" I'd say, "It is perfect. It does what it's supposed to do. It works." Now, it's the cheapest pen you can buy. I get about 20 of these for $1.29. I don't buy expensive pens because I lose them all the time. But it's perfect. It may be chipped and half full of ink as it is, and it's bitten all over the top here. It tells you something about me, doesn't it? But it's perfect for the purpose for which it was made.

When he says, "Be perfect as your heavenly Father's perfect," he's meaning be as God created you to be. You were created in His image, His moral image, and the defining moral quality of God is God is love. All the others flow out of that. If I have a screwdriver and I put a screw in a piece of furniture, you say, "How's the screwdriver?" I say, "It's perfect. It does the job it's supposed to do."

If I use this pulpit to rest my Bible and you say, "How's the pulpit?" I say, "It's perfect. It's the right height, it's the right size, it's just perfect." Now, of course, the screwdriver could be a damaged old, battered thing, but it does the job; it's perfect. This pulpit could be, as it is, cracked along the corner here at the bottom. But it's perfect for the job.

If I took this pen and used it to stir my coffee—you can stir coffee with a pen—you say to me, "How's the coffee stirrer?" I'd say, "It's not very good because the ink's leaking out." It wasn't made for that. It's exactly the same pen. In one context, it's perfect; in another context, it's not. It is not the things you do; it's not perfection. It is being what God created you to be and saying, "God, your God of love, flow out through me."

If I use a screwdriver to pick my teeth and you say, "How's that old toothpick doing?" I'd say, "It's not very good; I just broke a tooth." It's not made for that. If I use this pulpit to rest my cup of coffee, my coffee would end up all over me. It wasn't made for that. It is not perfect for putting your coffee on. That's not what it's made for.

Perfection here is: be the person you were created to be. Who were you created to be? You were created to be in the image of God. What does that mean? It means you are meant to express His character. What is His character? The backbone, the spinal cord of God's moral character is that He is love. Everything else flows from that.

The context of these verses is not only are we to be characterized by love, perfect as God is love, but especially with those people we don't like. Especially with those people who seem demanding of us. That's the context of these illustrations He uses: they demand your tunic, make you go one mile. Especially with those who do us harm—those who persecute you.

The test of our love is not how we get on with our friends and family. The test of our love is how we get on with those we don't like and those who don't like us. Some of us, right through this Matthew chapter 5, need to radically rethink our priorities and rethink our outlook and rethink our perspectives and rethink our relationships because the Sermon on the Mount is about being radically different to the world by being radically true to the character of God.

How we're different to the world is not by being obnoxious and awkward; we're different to the world by being true to God and His character. Is law and justice necessary? Yes, it is. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth—that's the job of the law courts. God is a God of justice; that's just. But don't take it in your own hands. Instead, be characterized by love and generosity, that our attitude in every situation, whether hostile or friendly, is one of love.

That is not something that's natural to us. It has to be supernatural. It is the spirit of God filling our lives and out of our hearts there flows that love, for the fruit of the spirit is love because the fruit of the spirit is the character of God. There may be some of us listening this morning, you say, "Wow, this sounds a bit utopian, a bit ideal but unreal."

Fundamental and assumed to everything Jesus says is that you're in relationship with God. You've come on the basis of your confession of your sin and your need; you've been forgiven through the shed blood of Christ on the cross; and you've been a recipient of the Holy Spirit who has come to live within you.

He now is flowing through you. Although we have the old nature with all its flaws to battle with, the love of God, which is the primary theme of these verses, flows through us in blessing and benefit and building up of other people. In actual fact, when the ungodly have a good time, we need to say, "Thank you, Lord. You're so kind to the people not kind to you. May your kindness win their hearts and bring them back to you." Don't begrudge it.

Guest (Male): Thank you for that teaching, Charles. We hope today’s message has encouraged you. Before we go, remember that when you give today to help keep Telling the Truth broadcasts like this one going out around the world, we’ll send you a copy of Triumph Over Temptation, a four-message series from Stuart and Jill Briscoe that’s sure to help you stand up to daily temptations and grow stronger in your faith as you do.

So call now to give and remember to request Triumph Over Temptation with our thanks. 1-800-889-5388. 1-800-889-5388, or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Thanks for being with us today on Telling the Truth. We hope you'll be back tomorrow as guest speaker Charles Price shares a word about Christians and society.