Saturday 12/27/25

 Part 3: Hate Your Enemy, Matthew 5:43-48; 

• Series Theme in the form of this question: 

Did Jesus actually change the Law of Moses?

• The point is to see whether Jesus was merely repeating Moses…or whether, as the New Covenant lawgiver, he changed and even overturned Torah at certain points: 
• Today examine Torah in relation to “hating your enemy.”

READ: Matthew 5:43-48

Many Christian readers (following the majority opinion of some scholars) claim that the second half of Jesus’ command in Matthew 5:43 (“hate your enemy”) is nowhere explicitly commanded in the Torah. 

According to this view, Jesus is merely correcting a popular Pharisaic misinterpretation of the Law rather than overruling the Law itself. 

But a closer examination shows that Jesus is indeed doing something novel: he is consciously surpassing and superseding the Torah, replacing the old covenant’s limited "love your neighbor" with an absolute enemy-love command—a new law with no true roots in the Old Testament.

1. “Love your neighbor” = “Fellow Israelite" 

• Leviticus 19:15-19 (LSB) – “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
• Leviticus 19:30-37 (LSB) – The command to love the peaceful resident alien.
• Exodus 23:1–5 (LSB) – returning a stray animal of an enemy.
• Proverbs 25:21–22 (LSB) – feeding a hungry enemy.
• These are pragmatic or humanitarian commands, not unqualified expressions of enemy-love.
• Because the Law never commands loving national enemies or persecutors unconditionally.
• Remember Israel was, at times, even commanded to destroy enemies (Deut 7:1-6).
• v.2 NET "annihilate"; CEV “must destroy them without mercy.”

1. Was “Hate Your Enemy” a Reasonable Summary of these laws? 

Jesus saying “hate your enemy," is not in the letter of Torah as such, but was an obvious result of commands to kill the enemy:

• Deuteronomy 7:1-6 (LSB) – Israel commanded to “utterly destroy them" "without mercy";
• Deuteronomy 30:1-10 (LSB) – God promising to put curses on Israel’s enemies.
• If you’re allowed to kill the enemy, could you hate them?
• Psalm 26:5 (LSB) – David, “I hate the assembly of evildoers.”
• Psalm 139:21–22 (LSB) – David says, “Do I not hate those who hate you?”

The NET Bible note on the word "enemy," Matt 5:43:

• “Jesus’ hearers (and Matthew’s readers) would not have been surprised by the statement. It is the antithesis Jesus gives in the following verses that would have shocked them.”
• That's why Jesus uses "hate your enemy" as a legitimate summary of “what was said” (Matt 5:43), not as some Pharisaic corruption or misguided added commentary of the written Law.

1. Jesus’ Antithesis

“But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”Matthew 5:44

• This is a new command, fundamentally changing the Torah.
• Matthew 5:44–45 – God now shows benevolence to both evil and good.
• Matthew 7:28–29 – Jesus speaks with a new unique authority, not rabbinic commentary; he is not interpreting the written Law! 
• Cp. Matthew 19:3–9 – Jesus appeals to Genesis to overrule Moses on divorce.
• Showing Jesus as the New Moses, giving a New Law, not reaffirming the Sinai covenant.

1. The New Law grounded in Genesis, Not Moses

• Jesus reasons from God’s character and Genesis, not the Sinai law.
• Genesis 1:26–27 (LSB) – all humans bear God’s image.
• Genesis 9:6 (LSB) – post-flood reaffirmation of human value.
• Matthew 5:45 – God sends rain on the just and unjust.
• Because all humans reflect God’s image—and God treats all with benevolence;
• Jesus requires enemy-love, the highest expression of the New Law.

1. Old Vs New 

• John 13:34–35 – “I give you a new commandment: love one another.”
• 2 Corinthians 3:7–11 – The Mosaic covenant “engraved on stone” is fading.

1. Summary 

• Jesus was not a disciple of Moses (John 1:17).
• Jesus is not merely giving rabbnic commentary. 
• He was greater than Moses, the new Lawgiver.
• His commandments constitute the Law of Messiah (Gal 6:2; 1 Cor 9:21).
• The New Law grounded in God’s universal benevolence;
• Because humanity is the image of the invisible God. 

Every would-be follower of Jesus is now placed under the unqualified command to “love your enemies”—a genuinely new and decisive paradigm shift from the Old Covenant Torah to the New Covenant law of Messiah.

"I am giving you a new law: love one another. Just as I have loved you, you must also love one another. This is how everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35)