Worship Service Livestream


February 15, 2026
  • Welcome and Announcements
  • Your Love Oh Lord
  • Prayer of Invocation
  • Refiner's Fire
  • Cornerstone
  • Scripture Reading and Prayer - Matthew 5:38-48
  • Take My Life (Holiness)
  • Pastor's Message - From Retribution to Radical Love
  • I Give You My Heart


Matthew 5:38-48

  • 38 "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.'
    39 But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.
    40 If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also.
    41 Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two.
    42 Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.
    43 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'
    44 But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
    45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
    46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
    47 If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?
    48 Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.


SERMON NOTES - From Retribution to Radical Love

INTRODUCTION
  • The quality of our love for one another as brothers and sisters in Christ has an evangelistic impact on the world, and our testimony can be either positive or negative.
  • "Upon His (God's) authority He gives the world the right to judge whether you and I are born-again Christians on the basis of our observable love toward all Christians...We cannot expect the world to believe that the Father sent the Son, that Jesus' claims are true, and that Christianity is true, unless the world sees some reality of the oneness of true Christians." - Francis Schaeffer
  • Today we are going to look at the last two illustrations of true righteousness which are connected by the demand for authentic love.

FROM RETRIBUTION TO RADICAL RESPONSE
  • "You have heard that it was said, 'AN EYE FOR AN EYE, AND A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH.'" - Matthew 5:38
  • "Eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" is mentioned three place in the Old Testament: Exodus 21:22-25; Leviticus 24:19-20; and Deuteronomy 19:16-20.
  • This law of retribution was meant to establish legal equity and fairness in the context of judicial judgment, not a right of personal vengeance. To understand the intent of the law we could add one modifier to make it clear - only an eye for an eye, and only a tooth for a tooth. This law was explicitly intended to limit retaliation, not escalate it. Why? Because the natural inclination is not to get even but to get more than even.
  • "But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you." - Matthew 5:39-42
  • Jesus uses several applications but the thing they all have in common is that they exceed the Lex talionis, the law of retribution, not in a negative way but in positive way. In other words, it is the law of retribution in reverse and instead of equal justice Jesus teaches us to demonstrate excessive grace - "do not resist an evil person."
  • The specific context is personal relationships so what Jesus is forbidding is that His followers do not seek to retaliate in personal relationships, which is what the Pharisees were teaching.
  • "Whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also."
    • "In Jesus' day a slap to one's face was considered a gross insult by the Jews, and was among the most demeaning and contemptuous acts one person could inflict on another person. Jesus is not describing a physical attack and telling us to roll over and "play dead". He is describing what was well known in the culture to be a calculated insult. A slap to one's face was not intended to cause physical harm but was intended as a terrible indignity, in which one human created in the image of God is treating another human being as even less than a human! A slave would rather receive a rod or whip across the back than a slap from their master's hand!" (https://www.preceptaustin.org/matthew_538-39#5:38)
    • In the ancient Mediterranean world, honor was everything. A slap was a way of saying, "You are beneath me, you have no honor, I socially outrank you." It was a symbolic humiliation, not an attempt to injure.
  • If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also.
    • In Jesus' day it was literally possible to sue someone for the very shirt on their back! When a person had no money or other possessions, the court often would require the fine or judgment be paid by clothing.
    • Notice that there are two articles of clothing mentioned, an inner garment and an outer garment. The outer garment was the most valuable piece of clothing that a person owned because it served not only as a garment but was used as a blanket to keep a person warm at night.
    • If you were sued and lost your shirt chiton and your coat, by Jewish civil law your adversary had to return your coat before the sun set. Taking someone to court and suing them for their shirt was the legal attempt to strip then of the last thing they owned. To take someone's shirt in court was a humiliation tactic way to publicly shame them, assert dominance, and push them into deeper poverty. To willingly give your opponent you coat when you did not have to seems unwarranted, if not shocking.
  • Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two.
    • Roman soldiers had the legal right to force civilians to carry their gear for one mile. This wasn't about needing help; it was about domination. It was burdensome, humiliating, and deeply resented by Jews because it symbolized oppression and loss of freedom.
    • Instead of resisting, resenting, or doing the bare minimum, do more than is demanded! He turned going one mile into going the extra mile. The first mile is forced. The second mile is chosen and in that decision it is the civilian who acting freely, is the one controlling the situation.
  • Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.
    • What Jesus is explaining is not random generosity, but structured, intentional, dignity-restoring actions in each case. In other words, the examples are not merely about generosity, but about courageous, nonviolent integrity. Jesus is teaching His followers how to live with courage, creativity, and honor under oppression.
    • Non-retaliation is not the same thing as passivity. Each of the examples Jesus uses have one thing in common: they are about demonstrating grace. Instead of retaliation, instead of demanding an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, there is the demonstration of love. Each of the illustrations is culturally specific, but they give us general principles for today's living. The principles are not for everyone, but only for those who follow Christ.

FROM RADICAL RESPONSE TO REDEEMING LOVE
  • "You have heard that it was said, ' YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." - Matthew 5:43-48
  • Nowhere in the Scripture did it command hate your enemy. In fact, the opposite was true. For example the book of Proverbs instructs: "If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink; For you will heap burning coals on his head, And the LORD will reward you." (Proverbs 35: 21-22)
  • What the people had heard was a distortion of Scripture because the general teaching of the Old Testament was to help an enemy, protect outsiders, reject hatred and revenge, restrain from violence, and yes, even love others. What Jesus teaches does not overturn the Torah but reveals the heart that was already present in it.
  • If there was any question as to who was an enemy Jesus makes the identification clear. It is the one who is persecuting you.
  • It is one thing to talk about loving enemies in general, but something else when it becomes personal. Jesus make it personal. He commands a revolutionary love that extends even to those who oppose or harm us.

CONCLUSION
  • Look at how this section ends: "therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
  • While God is sinless and perfect, Jesus is not telling us to be sinless, something that is an impossibility. Luke's version says, "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful," (Luke 6:36). Harmonizing both Matthew and Luke's accounts and keeping the immediate context, I think Jesus is saying something like, "Be complete in love the way your Father is complete in love." God's love is not partial, tribal, or selective.
  • So Jesus is calling His disciples to wholehearted, nonselective love. He is telling us to grow into the full, mature, wholehearted love of God-especially toward those who don't deserve it-so that or lives reflects the completeness of our Father's mercy. Impossible? On our own yes, but yielded to His Spirit, no.