try and caste spirit His own teaching, Mt 5 ‘Love
your enemies, and pray for them that persecute you,’ the term ‘ enemies’ is to be understood in the most comprehensive and general sense of all who do not feel and act lovingly towards one. It no longer means ‘foreigners,’ for Jesus has removed all national barriers, making all men_ brethren (cf. Ac 17°). To the primitive Christians the out- standing class of ‘enemies’ were those referred to by Jesus as their persecutors for the cause of Christ, as also in Mt 52, Jesus wishes to-establish the principle of a universal love which would unite all men in a complete human brotherhood.* Every man is to love every other man, and to serve him so far as it lies in his power, with reason- able regard to all his duties. Barriers, castes, classes, distinctions of all kinds are removed, so that love and service are to be all-inclusive. When the scribe propounded to Jesus the question, ‘ Who is my neighbour?’ He replied with the parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk 107°), in which He set forth clearly and impressively that the ‘neighbour’ whom one is to love ‘as himself’ is any one and every one. And this love which Jesus enjoins is not to be of the self-seeking kind which is common in the world. There may be no real love, He says, in the exchanges of attention and courtesy which men are accustomed to make with one another, for it may proceed on a commercial, guid pro quo basis. The Gospel demands a different kind of relation between men which is not self-seeking, does not ask how much will be given in return, is bestowed freely without thought of recompense. And here appears the close logical relation between these verses and vy.**-*?, for vv.4*-48 carry forward to complete expression the thought which underlies the previous words. : ‘er
This kind of love, all-embracing, unremitting, realizing itself in both feeling and conduct, has its origin and perfect manifestation in God,t who cares for all men, however they treat Him. He sets the example of universal love and service, which Jesus reveals in His words and deeds. And men by following this example in theirrelations to one another become the ‘sons’ of God (Mt 5%), because in essential respects they feel and act like Him. The sonship thus spoken of is a moral son- ship, which is attained by choosing to be and do what is right, rather than a genetic sonship, which is inherent because God has made men in His own
* For the Biblical teaching concerning love, see esp. art. LovE in vol. iii.
+ Lk 627. 28.3236 has a different order of the contents from that of Mt 543-48 ; if the Matthwan material were arranged in the same order, the verses would stand : (43). 44 (39-42 '712). 46. 47. 45. 48 ; and Lk 634. 35a jg an addition or expansion for which Matthew has no parallel. It is not easy to determine which order is the more likely to have been original. The striking differences in the wording of the passages, however, indicate beyond a doubt that Luke’s account is secondary, with much verbal modifica- tion : thus in vy.27- 28 expansions appear ; in v.82 yépis is found instead of wiobés as in Mt 546, a manifest dropping of a Jewish for a Gentile or universal term (though Luke has “iobés at 635) ; in the same and following verses, and for the same reason, Luke twice has &eprwao/, once instead of of seAdves, once instead of o éOuzoi; in v.83 Luke has &yaloroijre instead of Matthew’s aoxéonole, a Jewish custom; in v.32 Luke has viol “Trbiorou instead of Matthew’s clearly more original vic) rod zazpas suay col év ovpavois; in the same verse Luke reduces the fine Jewish words about God’s making the sun rise and the rain fall to a commonplace Gentile phrase, ypyords tosiv éx) rods dy oplorous xi moynpots ; in v.86 Luke changes the imperatival future form éceo0e, common in the LXX through the influence of the Hebrew, and occasionally found in the NT (e.g. Mt 543 65 2937-39), to a better Greek form, the imperative yiverbs; he has also the less Jewish and less lofty oizripuoves instead of Matthew’s significant réhe0t; and again he has only 6 rarip buy instead of Matthew's 6 rarip tudv 6 ovpéves. These numerous and important varia- tions in the two accounts of these verses leave no room for doubt that Matthew’s form is much nearer to the historical words spoken by Jesus, and that the Third Gospel contains material which had undergone wide verbal divergence, partly perhaps in Luke’s own hands, but mainly in the earlier Gentile transmission.
f So in the Johannine writings frequently, Jn 316, 1 Jn 48. 10. 19 4 cf. also Ro 55-8,
SERMON ON THE MOUNT
SERMON ON THE MOUNT 31
image (Gn 175).* Jesus therefore commands men to be perfect in love as God is perfect in love,t setting before them an absolute ideal of social proenees ; not that the ideal is at once attainable,
ut that towards its realization every man—and all men together—must strive, and in God’s provi- dence this striving will ultimately achieve success. _ 9. Religious Worship.—Mt 61-1618 (no parallel in Lk).t The connexion of these verses with the historical Sermon cannot well be doubted; they follow in logical consecution upon the material contained in Mt 5%-*8, illustrating the true right- eousness still further and on another side. The ideal life which was characterized in vy.**”, enjoined in vy.?*-?°, and illustrated with regard to character and service in vy.?!-48, is further illustrated in these verses with regard to religious worship. Alms- giving, prayer, and fasting were, in the estimation of the Jews, three of the chief elements of religion, and received a disproportionate attention; while the three performances, really so different in im- portance, were regarded as about equally necessary and useful.§ In v.1, which forms an introduction