“Be civil and don’t kill each other.” If you’ve never said that to your kids when you leave them alone together, you’ve probably thought it.

Which leads us to the scripture read for us earlier, Matthew 5:21 Jesus said, “You have heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.’

Jesus is quoting from Exodus 20:13 and Deuteronomy 5:17. And we would think this one is a no brainer. After all, one of the basic tenets of human society has to be the specialness of human life. And when society loses respect for the sanctity of life, then our society is on a slippery path downwards.

You don’t have to talk to many people to realize that we have a broad spectrum that we call life. Sometimes it’s easier to refer to the very young, as embryos and the very aged as geriatrics, therefore removing both ends of the spectrum from the term “people.”

However the Bible tells us that we have an obligation to protect human life from the point of conception to the point of natural death.

When we take any one portion of the human life at any point on the timeline and deem it to be less valuable than at any other point on the timeline, then we are opening doors that are better left closed.

What I’m saying is that the commitment to life is not a purely Christian concern. It has to be a concern for our society, or we will destroy ourselves.

It’s not a big step from parents destroying their unborn children because they’re inconvenient, to children returning the favour when their parents get old for the same reason.

Let’s go back to that scripture where Matthew 5:21 Jesus said, “You have heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.’

I wonder if that could also mean that whoever condones murder by their silence is in danger of judgement. Remember the words of Edmund Burke “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

And so Christ tells us this is the law for society, You shall not murder.

This summer our series was entitled, A Return to Civility, and we took a deep dive into the 10 commandments.  And the command that Jesus is referencing here is number 6.  As we were working our way through the series, I realized that while society is called to be civil, and that is legislated in the 10 Commandments, that Jesus calls his followers to go beyond mere civility.

And so the Christian is not only to keep that law, he is to fulfil it. Christ explains in Matthew 5:22 But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell.

In other words, listen up people this is one of those profound Guptill thoughts, “It’s not enough to not poison your boss’s coffee, you can’t even think about poisoning your boss’s coffee.”

Jewish law dealt with murder, but it didn’t deal with anger and hatred, which are the seeds that murder springs from.

Christ is telling us he expects society, the unredeemed, to refrain from killing each other from conception to natural death. But he expects those who follow him, the redeemed members of society, not only to refrain from physical homicide but also to refrain from emotional homicide, that is hatred, and verbal homicide, when we speak our hatred aloud.

Now you can’t expect a man not to hate when he has yet to experience the love of God, but once he has tasted that love, hatred needs to become a thing of the past.

1) Love Destroys Hatred The very addition of love to a relationship dispels hatred in the same way that light dispels darkness

Matthew 5:22 But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell.

1) If a Jew cursed a fellow Jewish man, then he had to stand before the council, but it didn’t matter what he said about a woman or a Gentile.

But Christ says if we say to anyone, anyone, man, woman, Jew, gentile, Christian, non-Christian, Wesleyan, Baptist, Pentecostal, Anglican, Catholic, Moslem, Hindu or as my mother calls herself, nothingterian, something as mild as “You idiot”, that we are in danger of hell fire.

You say “Pastor, that isn’t what he meant.” Oh, no? That’s what Jesus said. He told us, “not to kill a man or his reputation.”

Now I’d be quite happy just to stop the name calling among Christians. It’s been said that Christians are like warships cruising off the coast of a world that has shut them out. Instead of landing and infiltrating enemy territory, we are content to fire occasional salvos ashore. But mostly we fire at each other.

Matthew 5:23–24 “So if you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the Temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God.

The Jews could be angry and still come to worship. Christ says we can’t have anything against a brother or sister and worship him. Do you hear that? Do you understand that? Often times when we seem spiritually dry, and our worship times are flat, we look for reasons within the church.

We tell people “Stefan was way off on the music this morning sometimes he’s like that.” or “Denn obviously didn’t put enough time in his message preparation today. You’d think that where he only has to work one day a week that he could do better.”

The question that we have to ask is: “Have we looked within?” Are we where we ought to be with our brothers and sisters in Christ?

Are we preventing revival within ourselves and our church because of what we feel toward others? You say, “But Denn, he started it!” Doesn’t matter! Christ isn’t nearly as interested in who started it as much as who ends it.

Now we are going to skip down 17 verses to where Christ shows us what the reciprocal of these things are. We looked at the “what not to do”, now Christ is going to show us, in practical ways, the “What to do”

If Love destroys Hatred, we also discover that love is self-perpetuating.   2) Love Creates Love

Matthew 5:43–44 “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy.  But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!

This is interesting because there is nowhere in the bible that we are told to hate our enemies.

The first part comes from Leviticus 19:18 “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against a fellow Israelite, but love your neighbour as yourself. I am the Lord.

However, at some point, the oral law decided that if you were to love your neighbour then it only makes sense that you should hate your enemy.

The Love your neighbour part would appear to be a New Testament favourite because Jesus mentions it five times, Paul quotes it twice and James quotes it once. You might assume from that, that it was an important concept. But it wasn’t “Love your neighbour” portion that Jesus was concerned with, instead it was the “Love your enemy” side of it.

What Jesus is talking about here ties in with what he said a little earlier in this passage, when he stated in Matthew 5:38 “You have heard the law that says the punishment must match the injury: ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’

Where his listeners would have heard this would have been in Leviticus 24:20, Deuteronomy 19:21 and Exodus 21:24. This is the oldest law in the world, “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”.

This was referred to in the ancient world as Lex Talionis, but it might have been more aptly referred to as the “law of tit for tat.”

It appears in the earliest code of law, and that was the code of Hammurabi. Hammurabi was a Babylonian King who lived 1800 years before Christ. The main principal is clear; if a person inflicts an injury, then he would receive the same treatment.

There are some who would call this harsh and bloodthirsty, but in reality it was the beginning of mercy. For two reasons: The first is that it limited Judgement. If someone knocked out one of your teeth, then you can’t knock out all of theirs. Secondly, it took judgement away from the individual and gave it to society.

Probably the greatest example of the why and how of this law was capital punishment. If someone killed your child, they would be sentenced to death. That was their punishment. You couldn’t go out and kill their children and their spouse. This type of law was indicative of the society in which Christ lived.

It was very much a retaliatory society. And it still is through much of the Middle East, Iran does it, Syria does it, Lebanon does it, Iraq does it, Libya does it and if you want a real lesson in retaliatory justice, just watch Israel. It would be a step up, if the entire middle east, just practiced a tooth for tooth.

But remember, Christ said that he didn’t come to destroy the law. Also, keep in mind that we are dealing with an imperfect world. We need to accept the reality of a system which punishes the lawless and rewards the lawful.

In a perfect world, there would be no murder, so there wouldn’t need to be laws concerning murder. In a perfect world, there wouldn’t be adultery, so there wouldn’t have to be laws concerning adultery. In a perfect world, there would be no divorce, and nobody would ever break a promise or cheat on their spouse.

But we don’t live in a perfect world, so God laid down regulations. Regulations for everyone, believer, non-believer, Christian pre-Christian, redeemed, unredeemed. We live in a less than perfect world, and although the law is not perfect, it was concerned with checking the evil which threatens to destroy society. And so, Christ accepted the necessity of an imperfect system to deal with an imperfect world.

But he taught that his followers needed to go beyond the law. It wasn’t enough for them not to commit murder, they were to refrain from hating. It wasn’t enough for them not to cheat on their spouse they couldn’t even think about it, and we are going to deal with that next week.

The Mosaic Law punished evil doers; Jesus sought to eradicate evil. Not by eradicating the evil doer but by redeeming them, by changing them.

If you want to stomp out evil by stomping out the evildoer, then the Law of Moses is fine. But if you want to destroy evil and salvage the evildoer, then you need a completely different approach.

The law tells us to react in kind, and that suits our human personality. We are quite willing to kill the killer, hate the hater, and be close-minded to the close-minded.

But Jesus isn’t content with those who call themselves by his name reacting in the same way as the world. Instead of reacting in kind, he commands us to react in contrast.

Indeed, he goes so far as to tell us in Matthew 5:39 But I say, do not resist an evil person! If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also.

Now I can almost ready your minds, “He can’t be serious. Jesus didn’t understand what the situation would be like today. But you know Jesus wasn’t referring to international situations, and Jesus didn’t intend for this to be taken seriously, besides all of that Jesus only meant this as guidelines in relationships between Christians.” I had a Professor in Bible College who said “When you say ‘that isn’t really what it means’ then it must have hurt”

Jesus was talking about today, November 3rd, 2024. He meant for his words to be taken literally, and he was referring to all our interpersonal relationships. To top it all off, Jesus even lays down some examples from the everyday life of his listeners.

Matthew 5:39 But I say, do not resist an evil person! If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also.

Often, we don’t read into this statement what Christ intended for us to see. We see someone who struck another person, and we don’t see more because we are relating this statement to 2024 Canadian culture and that isn’t the time or place that Jesus was when he made this statement.

_________ would you come up here for a minute, to help me demonstrate. I’m right handed as most people are, and if I was going to slap his right check, I would have to do this

We are told in the culture of Christ; the backhanded slap was twice as insulting as being slapped with the palm of the hand.

What Christ was saying was not only “do not retaliate” but “don’t resent either”. Now don’t make the major error of limiting Jesus’ words to a physical slap.

In 2024 Canada you will probably never be physically struck, just doesn’t happen in polite company. But there will be verbal blows, insults, and rumours. They will be real and imagined, petty and large, personal and general.

Don’t forget the words of Christ in Matthew 5:11 “God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers.

Christ didn’t say “If that happens” he said, “when that happens,” and there’s a big difference in those two little words.

Jesus was a lot nicer person than me and he was called a glutton and a drunk. He was accused of being a friend of tax collectors and prostitutes, and he was beaten and spit on. Hey, I haven’t got a chance.

Early Christians were called cannibals and accused of all kinds of gross immoralities.

Time and time again, Christians suffer real and imagined insults. They aren’t nominated for a position. They’re forgotten in a note of thanks, or they are snubbed by someone in the church or, heaven forbid, by the Pastor.

But the true Christian has forgotten what it is like to be insulted because they have learned from the master to accept any insult without reprisal, and without resentment.

The second illustration comes in Matthew 5:40 If you are sued in court and your shirt is taken from you, give your coat, too.

2000 years ago, all except the very poorest of the Jews would have a couple of shirts. The coat, on the other hand, was their outer garment, but it was more than that. It was like a long poncho and the people of the day wore it as a garment during the day and used it as a blanket at night.

Most Jews only had one cloak. The cloak was such an important part of the Jews’ wardrobe that the law protected it. We are told in Exodus 22:26–27 If you take your neighbor’s cloak as security for a loan, you must return it before sunset.  This coat may be the only blanket your neighbor has. How can a person sleep without it? If you do not return it and your neighbor cries out to me for help, then I will hear, for I am merciful.

By Jewish tradition and Jewish law, you might ask a man for his shirt, but never His cloak. And yet Christ is saying, even that which is protected by law, be ready to give up. Even that which you don’t want to give, give.

Unfortunately, the church is full of people who militantly stand on their rights and their privileges, and they won’t be pried loose from them. People like that haven’t even started to see what Christianity is all about.

The Christian doesn’t think of their rights and privileges instead they think of their responsibilities. They have forgotten that they have any rights at all.

The Christian who vehemently stands on their rights, who will fight to his death over their legal rights both inside and outside the church, has a lot to learn about giving up their cloak.

The third illustration comes from Matthew 5:41 If a soldier demands that you carry his gear for a mile, carry it two miles.

Here is a picture taken from an occupied country and it’s tough for us to even imagine what Christ is talking about because we can’t imagine being forced to do anything.

Yet in Palestine 2000 years ago at any time a Jew might feel the flat of a Roman spear on his shoulder and the Soldier on the other end could command them to do anything, even act as their porter and carry their baggage for a mile, but only for a mile.

Do you remember Simon of Cyrene? He was the man forced to carry the cross of Christ. That was the only other time that this word, which we translate as forced, was used in the Bible.

Now you could obey the soldier one of two ways: the first would be with grudging acceptance, like the little boy who was told to sit in the corner, and he sat there with his arms crossed and said “I may be sitting on the outside but I am standing on the inside”

Have you ever had that attitude? I sure have. Or you could cheerfully do your best.

There are always two ways to do something: 1) doing it with the bare minimum or 2) do what you’re asked to do and more, graciously and cheerfully.

But listen up, don’t wait until you are pressed into service by a Roman soldier because it probably won’t happen. But you will have all kinds of opportunity at work, school and church.

The ineffective employee, the resentful volunteer and the ungracious helper have no idea what the Christian life is supposed to be about.

The Christian shouldn’t be concerned with only doing what they like to do instead, they should only be concerned with being able to help, even when the demand is discourteous and unreasonable.

And so Jesus has given us these three guiding principles for going beyond civility: 1) Christians shouldn’t resent or seek retaliation 2) The Christian shouldn’t stand on his rights 3) The Christian shouldn’t be thinking of his right to do as they please, instead they should be seeking to help, or go the second mile if you will.

If we are going to move beyond civility it will only be when we remember the grace, love and forgiveness that Christ extends to us, and be committed to extend that to others.