SPIRITUAL FOUNDATION

He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built.

I. Love your enemies (27-36)

Look at verse 27. "But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.” Jesus here gives one of the most difficult commands to love one’s enemies. As we studied earlier, there are three kinds of love. Eros—passionate love between man and woman. Phileo—brotherly love between brothers or man and man. And agape, the love with which God loves men. When Jesus says “love your enemies,” he means agape love—God’s love for men. God’s love is not a feeling; it is the love in action for undeserving human beings. Jesus tells his disciples to love their enemies with the same love—love in action for undeserving persons. Jesus did not say that his disciples will not have enemy in their lives. Rather he prepared them in advance how to deal with their enemies.

Then who are the enemies of the disciples? Look at verses 27b-30. There will be those who would hate, curse, mistreat, insult and the disciples. Natural responses to those who hate us, curse us and mistreat us is to hate them, curse them and mistreat them if possible. Our sense of moral justice dictates us to pay it back and get even with them. In this way, once an enemy, always an enemy. There is a beautiful motto: “Friends are forever.” But it seems that there is another motto: “vengeance or age-old feuds.”

But what should the disciples do to their enemies? Let us read verses 27b-31. “… do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

Why should the apostles and disciples practice such a difficult teaching? Here we need to remember who they are? They are ambassadors of Jesus to this world. Through them the gospel will be preached to all nations. And the gospel is the good news of God’s forgiving love for all sinners. But it will not be enough to deliver the message of the gospel from their mouth. The apostles and disciples of Jesus would have to display the message through their own life. No one will believe their message of God’s for undeserving sinners, unless people see a loving, forgiving and caring heart in them. Their lives will be the ultimate message and Jesus had chosen them to lead his flocks not by words but by example.

The early pioneers of the gospel ministry always face the brunt of hate and rejection. But as they continue to love those who hate and reject them, in the process a few souls could be won for Jesus. This is the reason Jesus commands us to love our enemies. In the early church, Stephen was stoned by the Jews for proclaiming the gospel. But when he was being stoned, he did not look at his enemies. He looked at heaven and saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God and sought forgiveness for his enemies. Eventually this event led to the conversion of Saul into apostle Paul. When people hate and reject us and do all kinds of bad things to us, they do so because their conscience is dead. But when evil is paid back with good, eventually it leads to awakening the dead conscience of a person and leading him to repentance and life.

Still, it is a hard teaching. And we must not expect that we will able to awaken every person’s conscience. So there seems to be a sense of loss if we are to practice Jesus’ teaching and suffer disadvantage. Then what does Jesus mention as our motivation to love our enemies? Look at verses 32-35 ."If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even `sinners' love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even `sinners' do that. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even `sinners' lend to `sinners,' expecting to be repaid in full. 35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.” In these verses Jesus makes a contrast between “sinners” and the children of God. “Sinners” here are public sinners like tax collectors and prostitutes. But they also love in return for others’ love for them lend their money to those who would repay them back. It is good and necessary to love one another. But we must remember that there is no credit or reward for loving a person who loved us or helping a person from whom we expect to be helped. Why? It is because of the nature of agape love. Agape love is an unconditional love. This love is directed from God to sinful human beings. This love is also directed from those whose sins are forgiven to those who have not received the forgiveness of their sins. Can we return agape love to God? It makes no sense. Can we return agape love to our shepherd? It makes no sense. But one thing we can do is, after receiving God’s love we can go out and show our love to one undeserving person although we will not get anything in return from that person. There is no credit or reward from the person we show love. However, Jesus says that for such a love, great is our reward from God Most High. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful (36). The apostles and disciples of Jesus are not to be like ordinary people. We belong to Christ and Christ lives in us. We are glorious children of the Most High God. We show that we are what we claim to be through our actions. We should not betray our claim through our poor actions. We should not dishonor God’s holy name by acting according to worldly standards.

Here we learn that the problem is not in our enemies but in the lack of God’s love in our hearts. When we think of our enemies who do not deserve all these acts of kindness and love, we cannot love them or be kind to them. But when we think of God’s kindness and love toward undeserving sinners and enemies like us, God’s love come into our hearts and overflows until we can love even our enemies. When we love our enemies, Christ is in us and we are in Christ. When we love our enemies, we can put an end to the work of the Devil and create a new history and a utopia where God’s love is evident and makes everybody truly happy and satisfied. When we love our enemies, we may lose things in this world but our reward in the kingdom of God will be great. Jesus our King will say to us: “Well done, my good and faithful servant!” We will receive an excellent credit ‘A’ from God and be called children of the Most High God. If we don’t love our enemies and show them no mercy, God will treat us as he treated the unmerciful servant.

II. Be men of good influence (37-45)

Look at verses 37. "Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not con¬demn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven." Those who judge others are self-righteous. They have microscopic eyes to see others’ tiny faults but they are blind to see their own faults and shortcomings. They are very strict and unforgiving toward others but very forgiving and generous to themselves. We cannot change others by judging them or condemning them as unforgivable sinners. Instead, we must show them a good example to follow and lead them by going ahead of them. We must forgive their faults as our Father forgave us of our sins.

Look at verse 38. "Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measur¬ed to you." In order to be men of good influence, we must learn the life of giving. When we give our time and money sacrificially to love God, others and even our enemies, we can give others good influence. A sacrificial life of giving is not a losing business. God will provide us with overflowing blessings.

Look at verses 39-42. "He also told them this parable: 'Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? A student is not above his teacher, but every¬one who is fully trained will be like his teacher." In order to be men of good influence, one must grow mature through spiritual training. We must not remain blind spiritually. We must open our spiritual eyes to see Jesus and what he has done for each of us. We must receive spiritual training and discipline from Jesus our Teacher and grow to be like him. No one likes training because no training is pleasant at the time, but painful. But later on, it bears fruit of righteousness and peace to those who are trained by it.

Look at verses 43-45. "No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thorn¬bushes, or grapes from briers. The good man brin¬gs good things out of the good stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks." Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. Those who claim to be great are not necessarily great. But those who bear good fruit shows by their fruit that they are men and women of God and they can give good influence to others. As Jesus’ disciples, we want to be great men and women of God. We want to do great things for God. But first we must grow in Jesus through spiritual discipline until we can bear good fruit.

III. Spiritual foundation(46-49)

Look at verses 46-47. "Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord' and do not do what say? I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice.’” Jesus is not merely happy to hear Lord, Lord. Neither the one who calls Lord, Lord acknowledges Jesus as his Lord. Jesus is truly Lord when one hears his words and puts them into practice.

Look at verse 48. “He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built.” Man is like a house builder. Laying foundation on the rock is not easy at all. It may take many years for them just to lay the foundation. But once the foundation is laid, the house becomes rock-solid and it will not be shaken. Therefore, they labor to lay the firm foundation first. Here the rock is Jesus himself. The wise build their lives and ministries on Jesus, the Solid Rock. Their life-house will not be shaken but stand still to the end. Jesus compares laying the foundation to hearing his words and putting them into practice. Hearing Jesus word and putting them into practice is the foundation of life. Foundation is important from the point of view the durability of the construction. How strong we want our relationship with Jesus to be? Certainly not five years, ten years or until retirement. Jesus wants us to have the everlasting relationship that will last even after we leave this world. The church of Jesus Christ is build upon the foundation of Jesus’ teachings of which the apostles are the pillars. The apostles are no more. But they left an everlasting influence on those like us who would follow Jesus even after two thousand years. They are life example shines and inspires us. It was because they built their spiritual foundation of life on Jesus’ teaching. Not only their world, but their lives displayed the gospel message.

That is the kind of foundation Jesus wants us to have. Then neither enemies nor persecution or even the Devil will be powerful enough to overcome us. Rather the gospel of Jesus will guide our life and will make us sources of blessings for generations to come.

The disciples of Jesus must lay the foundation of their own lives and the foundation of God’s ministry. Laying the foundation requires much planning in advance and conscience decision. No one can say I have already completed the foundation of my life or ministry. Laying the spiritual foundation is an ongoing process. However there is a great difference in following Jesus with a clear decision of faith and without it. All what we need is to hold one word of God and believe it and most importantly practice it.

I have been laying the spiritual foundation of my life and ministry based on Gen 12:1-2. “You will be blessing.” Also Jesus’ word “it is finished” became the foundation of God’s forgiveness and eternal life for me. Among many choices of life, I based my decision on this word of God while making crucial decisions of life such as study, job, marriage, family, mission and future life direction. When this one word of God became the foundation of my life, flood and torrents came in the form of persecution, fear of future security, Satan’s temptation but God helped me to remain firm in my faith. When we visited JNU last two Friday evenings, I could meet God prepared sheep and renewed God’s vision for my life to raise up 12 disciples from JNU and to pioneer 320 university campuses of India.

In conclusion, in our life of faith we will face enemies and receive persecutions. But when we have the solid spiritual foundation of life on Jesus and his teachings, instead of collapsing or even being shaken we will positively and actively serve God’s will even in the midst of most difficult times. May God bless each of us to lay our life foundation in the teachings of Jesus and also use us to lay the foundation of God’s kingdom on this land, especially among campus intellectuals by becoming shepherds, Bible teachers and prayer servants who can bless those who reject us and our message.