WEEKLY SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON
An international Sunday school lesson commentary
For Sunday July 21, 2019
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JESUS
TEACHES ABOUT TRANSFORMING LOVE
(JESUS
preaches on revenge and loving your enemies)
(Matthew
5:38-48)
“An
eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”
is perhaps one of the most famous lines in all of scripture. It came at a time
when the influence of a “superior human GODly likeness”, in the person of JESUS
CHRIST, our LORD and SAVIOR, had not yet physically descended upon the earth.
JESUS appeared on the scene and taught us, with HIS OWN life, how to resist the
blunt force of evil, while living in this world.
The physically written “Law of GOD”, through
Moses, was given to us primarily to show us what GOD thinks about sin, and, how
HE chooses to deal with it in this world. The human mind, because of the
atmosphere we have made for ourselves to live in, here on earth, and because of
our own human experience, can only seem to comprehend physical things and
examples.
It is
for this reason (spiritual communication) that JESUS had to be born of woman, just
like us, in order to show how to live flawlessly as a 100% human being under
GOD, if we choose to. Until we come into
the saving knowledge of CHRIST, and enter into a personal spiritual
relationship of friendship with GOD the FATHER through HIM, we will never be
able to comprehend and discern those spiritual things that all human beings must
come to understand, before we can deal with the spiritual wiles of satan, who
is our only true enemy in this life.
“Vengeance
is MINE”, says the LORD, and so therefore, we as human beings are not to
concern ourselves with exacting revenge against each other, but rather, JESUS
says, “we are to even love those whom we falsely consider to be our enemies. We
have to begin to understand that our only true enemy in this world is satan, and
that, without help from our LORD JESUS, and the HOLY SPIRIT, we are in a
spiritual battle that we can’t possibly win in our own strength.
However, still, all human beings have been born
in the “spiritual image of GOD”, which means we all share “GOD’s Nature” within
us. Therefore, every human being is of the same extreme “equal value” to GOD,
regardless of how we have lived our lives thus far, and regardless of any
physical or mental deformities or deficiencies we may have. Our “power” (“exousea”-“authority”)
is given to us by GOD when we are born into this world, and therefore, we have
never in our lives been powerless to do the right things by GOD.
We should all love one another, simply
because we are all made in the spiritual image of GOD. We shouldn’t have, or
make, any enemies within the human race in our lifetimes, even though we have
all, as human beings, been damaged and influenced in some way, form, or fashion
by the Luciferic system of satan. We can learn to overcome satan through CHRIST
JESUS’ examples, even as he daily increases his gravitational pull on this
world, especially through his misuse of sex, music, and drugs.
We, as followers of CHRIST, can all become
great overcomers just as JESUS overcame the force of satan on this world, but
we have to rely on the help that GOD gave us through HIM and the HOLY SPIRIT if
we are to succeed. And so in this passage JESUS is saying that, under the New
Covenant of “Grace”, that was ushered in by HIM, “revenge” is replaced by “forgiveness”,
and “hatred”, which actually derives from “fear”, can only be cured by applying
“love” and “discipline”.
As I said earlier, GOD loves us regardless
of who we are, what we do, or what we’ve done. HE gives HIS sunlight, and rain,
to both, those who are continuously living out of HIS Will, and, to those who
desire and make an earnest effort to stay within HIS Will (v.45b). To love only
those who love us, is something that even a worldly, paganistic person can do,
however, to love people simply because we are all made in the spiritual image
of GOD, is something only “a child of GOD” has learned to do (v.46).
To be “made in the spiritual image of GOD”,
and to be “a child of GOD” are two entirely different things. As I said, all human
beings are made in the spiritual image of GOD, however, only those who desire to
live by the examples of JESUS, are considered by GOD to be “HIS adopted children”,
and brothers and sisters of CHRIST, HIS only begotten SON (v.45a).
A Sunday school lesson
by,
Larry D. Alexander
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