Matthew 5:46-48, "For if ye love them which love you, what
reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only,
what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?"
The word salute is taken from the Greek Word, Aspazomai, which means
"To enfold in the arms, [not to just wave your hand or say hello but to embrace them
with love!] i.e., to salute, to welcome: to embrace, to greet." This is an important
word.
So when the Lord Jesus says, "And if ye salute your brethren only,
what do ye more than others?" He is saying you bless those who are cursing you, and
you make their name rise higher instead of lower. It says when you meet them, you salute
them; i.e., you give them the embraces of love; you enfold them in your arms of mercy. You
welcome and greet them. If we don't stop to analyze it, we would take the word salute to
mean greet or say hello to them. Here the word salute means so much more.
Jesus says in our text, "For if ye love them which love you, what
reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only,
what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?" See? We must love our
enemies; we must love those who hate us. Now why is this so important? "That ye may
be the children of your Father which is in heaven...," MAT 5:45.
The Lord Jesus is saying that this is what He is expecting of us. This
is the expression that He wants the world to see: the expression of our Father in your
face. These are the expressions of love that you and I must express to those who speak
evil of us, to those who curse us. Do not even those who make no profession of faith at
all salute their brethren? Certainly, they do. So if you salute only your brethren, what
do you do more than others?
In the conclusion of His teaching of the contrast between the
righteousness that excels and that of the scribes and the Pharisees, Jesus calls upon us
to reflect His Father's expressions of one-sided love. These are very heart-searching
truths. We have to say, "...Who am I, O Lord GOD? and what is my house, that thou
hast brought me hitherto?" 2SA 7:18b.
Then we can see with David how all the mercy he had received from the Lord is such
one-sided love. When we see the precious one-sided love of Christ, we see how far we come
short of giving the expressions of love of our Father which is in heaven. We see how far
we have estranged ourselves from our heavenly Father and how far we need to be brought in
that blessed atonement, in that precious righteousness of Christ that must be imparted and
imputed in our lives. If we are going to enjoy the sunshine of His love, this harshness
and coldness of our hearts must melt away.
